Page 29 of Renegade

That wasn’t right.He hadn’t been home when Grey and my father showed up…had he?

“Uh, I was up and sober early Saturday morning and you were nowhere to be found. Care to explain that?” A bead of sweat formed near my hairline.

David grabbed a chair from the small table in the corner and sat down. “Mike, I’m really starting to worry about your drinking. I told you when we went out Friday night that I had a job Saturday morning. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to go in the first place. You really don’t remember me being here at all this weekend?”

My shoulders dropped. He hadn’t overheard anything. I didn’t exactly believe that Grey and Co. would just let David walk away if they thought he knew something. “No, I’m good. I just forgot and you know I’m a sound sleeper, so if you were in and out, I don’t remember hearing you. That’s it.”

His eyes narrowed. “That’s it?”

I nodded and tightened my grip on the sink as the floor was starting to shift in and out of focus again. “Yep, all good here. You want me to grab you an ice pack?”

“Why would I need an ice pack?”

I forced myself to keep a straight face. “Because your new girl? Most definitely a virgin. And I’d bet my next paycheck that your balls are so damn blue that they’re bordering on indigo.”

He smirked. “Nice—how long did it take you to come up with that?”

I belched and tequila rose in my throat. I swallowed and held my breath for a few seconds to keep from hurling again.

That was close.

“David, seriously, I saw the way she looked at the girls earlier. You’ve got yourself a virgin, mark my words. Have you tested her gag reflex yet? That might be a good place to start; you know, get her good and warmed up.”

He laughed, but not really in a humorous way, before shaking his head. “I don’t care how drunk you are, Mike. You are two seconds away from getting your ass kicked.”

I held my hand up as my body began to slump forward. I was starting to think that Tits and BJ had poisoned me.What other explanation was there?

“You know, it’s probably a good thing that she’s with you. Your dick’s so small that losing her virginity will be practically painless.”

David jumped up out of his chair, knocking it over, before taking two steps over to me. He shoved me back into the cabinets, causing the drawer knob to become painfully close to my ass. “Don’t you fucking talk like that about her. You hear me? She’s off limits to you.”

I laughed even as his face turned a lovely shade of red. “Calm your nuts. All I’m saying is that you can ease her into it…make it easier for guys like me later. Ya know?”

His fist was the last thing I saw as it came flying at my face.

Lauren

May 2010

“Honey, I think you missed the turn,” Dr. Mulloy looked up from her phone and pointed behind us.

I pasted a smile on my face—that’s all I’d done this trip. Smile and nod. My cheeks were starting to hurt.

The last sixteen months of my life had gone about as well as could be expected. Monica had taken off in my car, leaving me stranded at a truck stop. I knew I couldn’t call Isaac or Josué—they’d given me strict instructions to take her directly to the shelter…do not pass go…do not collect $200. What could I say?“Hey guys, remember when you told me to absolutely not let Monica get close to me? Well, somewhere out of nowhere, I took her to a restaurant and she stole my car. Hilarious, right?”

I did call the police, for all the good it did me. Once the officer found out that the carjacker was my mother, he treated me like a suspect. He said they’d report it as stolen, but sixteen months later, the closest I’d gotten to my car was through the toll tag violations that came in the mail.Because, who had the time to worry about toll tags when driving a stolen vehicle?

I wasn’t going to pay the violations until I was informed that they could place a warrant out for my arrest, since the car was registered in my name.My arrest.The woman stole my car, yet I’d be the one going off to jail. It had all been so infuriating—the justice department was just as helpless as I was at stopping Monica. My only saving grace was the fact that I kept my car keys on a separate ring from my apartment and office keys; otherwise things would’ve been much worse.

I tapped the screen on Isaac’s car, hoping it would lead me to some form of GPS. I’d managed to keep the whole stolen car thing a secret for approximately one week. After that, Josué began asking questions and, on a particularly low night, the whole sordid story came out. In my defense, I had half a bottle of wine in me when he’d made the mistake of asking how things were going. I’d proudly told him that I was getting really good at riding the bus to and from work.

It hadn’t gone over well.

There was a lot of cursing. In both English and Spanish. Then, Isaac had gotten on the line to tell me that he’d have a car sent up within a couple of days. I was supposed to consider it a replacement, but in my mind, it was still Isaac’s car.

I normally only drove it to and from work; occasionally, I’d use it to go to the grocery store. But, this time I’d had to make an exception. Elizabeth was getting married. In Galveston.

I’d never been invited to a co-worker’s wedding. In all honesty, I’d never been invited to anyone’s wedding, minus Josué and Isaac’s, and that didn’t count as we were family.

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