Page 63 of Maid in America

“What’s wrong?” Chastity looked up at his face, his eyes locked on something over her shoulder.

“Excuse me,” he said sternly, pulling his body from hers and stalking angrily back to the bar. The absence of his body left chilled air in his wake.

From the middle of the dance floor, she watched as Barrett tugged the man in a deer onesie to his feet.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” She heard Barrett’s angered voice cutting through all the commotion, and he pointed to Chastity’s drink at the bar.

The deer gave a snide smile and said something back that set Barrett off. Barrett punched the deer so hard that the man in the onesie collapsed to the ground like a rag doll.

Chastity gasped, along with several others around her. Two men leaped off their stools, holding Barrett back from going at the deer for another punch.

Barrett shook the men off of him and bolted away, exiting through the barn door to the parking lot.

Chastity raced out the door, confused and stunned. “Barrett! What the hell just happened in there?”

“That fucking asshole slipped something in your drink!”

He was livid, pacing. He stopped in the middle of the parking lot and ran his hands through his gelled black hair.

“Wait, hewhat? Yousawhim?”

“Yes! That’s why I knocked him the fuck out! Fuckingcreep. IknewI didn’t like the way he was looking at you.”

Chastity was conflicted between the insatiable urge to either violently kiss or shake him.

“You could have just told me. We could have called the cops. You can’t just go around punching people!”

“I know, I know! This isn’t my first rodeo. Keeping my cool around fuck-heads isnotmy strong suit.” He groaned. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you, but I amnotsorry I laid that dude out.”

Whirling red-and-blue strobes flicked across Barrett’s hardened features as a black Jackson patrol car slid quickly into the gravel lot, stones crunching like snow beneath the tires.

Barrett winced. “Aww,goddammit. Notagain!”

24

“You get that costumefrom a Spirit Halloween? Or did you just have all the parts lyin’ around?” John Ridgeway asked.

“Your mom actually gave it to me as a ‘Thank you’ gift last time I banged her brains out.”

“Gross. My mother is eighty-nine..”

Barrett laughed. “I know. She’s ancient. Feel like she knew the Apostles first-hand, but, hey, old ladies need love, too.”

“Well, that makes what I’m about to tell you even more awkward, then.” He sighed. “Barrett, I’m actually your father.”

Barrett burst into laughter, and the officer’s lips curled up into a smile.

“Oh, shut the fuck up, John.” Barrett’s face grew serious. “Can I go home yet?”

“Well. You see, this wasn’t a little bar fight atThe Alibi. You committed battery in front of a room full’a Jackson big-wigs.You’re making it really goddamn hard to keep letting this stuff slide, man.”

“John, I’m sorry. He just…”

“We know.” John jingled the keys in his pocket before opening Barrett’s cell door. “The guy you dropped like a sack of potatoes was the councilman’sson. When your girl told himwhyyou punched him, they agreed to drop the charges, probably to avoid some bad press.”

Barrett felt his head go light when John said the words ‘your girl.’ They felt good to hear. Like there was somehow a person in this world that washis.

“She’s waitin’ in the lobby. Told us about the kid trying to roofie her. But consider thehorseshoesyou had stuck up in your ass officiallyremoved, Barrett. Make sure that’s your last brawl. Next time, Ipromiseyou, you won’t be so lucky.”

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