Page 87 of Clinch'd

Work is long and I’m bitchy by the time my shifts end, but of course the drama is never done because when I emerge, Lorri is standing on the sidewalk with a nasty expression on her face.

With a silent sigh, I throw my bag in my car and turn to her, preparing myself for the deluge.

“Well?” I ask when she only looks at me.

“I never thought you’d do it.”

“Do what?” I ask warily.

“Sleep with him. Have you no shame?” she asks, waving her arms in the air.

“Cooper? Lorri—“

“No, not him,” she says, slashing her hand through the air. “Beast.”

Blankly I stare at her before I say slowly, “You’re angry with me because of Beast?”

“Of course, I am! How could you?”

“Okay,” I say, taking a deep breath. “Disregarding the fact that you’re sleeping with the jerk who I fucked in Vegas, you’re mad at me for fucking Beast?”

“Whatever, Cooper was a one-night stand,” she mutters, crossing her arms. “I love Beast.”

“Then why are you with Cooper?” I ask, rubbing my aching brow.

“Simple. Jealousy,” she says with a shrug.

Helplessly, I turn away with a laugh because I’m doing the exact same thing, but with Beast except Cooper doesn’t care, although I suspect neither does Beast.

What a cluster.

“So, you’re with Cooper to get back at Beast?” I ask softly, closing my eyes with horror.

Beast wouldn’t be diabolical enough to use me to get my own sister to back off...would he?

“Yeah,” she says, “and you ruined it.”

“I didn’t ruin anything,” I grumble, “if you want Beast, fucking another dude under his nose isn’t going to get him to propose.”

“Whatever, you don’t know jack. Why don’t you leave the seducing to me. You haven’t been laid in years and you can’t attract fucking bees with shit.”

Blankly I stare at her before saying softly, “Well, I managed to attract Beast, didn’t I?”

I have no time to react before I’m stumbling back and touching my cheek.

I feel no pity when I see her lower lip trembling and all the rage that’s been brewing beneath my skin bubbles to the surface at her audacity.

Unfortunately, I also have nothing to temper my anger as I fly at her and grab her hair.

She cries out but I ignore it as I wrench her head around and sneer, “You think you can hit me? You know what I was doing while you were in your pretty little home with your perfect fucking replacement parents?”

Her eyes are wide as I raise her head, leaning into her face. “No? I was living on the streets, little sister. I was stealing to eat. I fought off dicks who wanted one thing. I’m not going to take shit from you.”

When tears tremble on her lashes, I shake my head because the image is superimposed by my mom’s face every time her dick boyfriend took out his never-ending rage on her.

My skin burns and I drop her hair before stepping back.

She staggers away and raising a trembling hand to my lips, I watch through a tunnel when she sniffles and says, “I hate you.”

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