Page 43 of The Prodigal

“Why are we stopping? Do you have to pee?”

I pull into a parking space at some outlet mall and turn off the car.

“Wow.” She chuckles. “You really are a diva.”

She turns in her seat to face me.

It gets on my nerves.

“Are you too good to pee at a gas station with us common folk?”

Fuck her.

“Stay here,” I bark, rolling down the windows like I’m leaving my annoyingly loud chihuahua in the car. Maybe I’ll get lucky, and someone will steal her and save us both a migraine.

“I’ll be back in a minute.”

Eden waves me off, still fucking laughing. “Do your thing, princess.”

My jaw clenches.Remember why she’s here, Remington: To sweeten your revenge and to…annoy the ever-loving shit out of you.

I get out and slam the car door behind me. I need some space and a cigarette like yesterday. As if Eden’s singing wasn’t bad enough for the last hour, her playing I spy with herself was worse. She wants me to barrel into a tree and crush my father’s heart with a manslaughter charge.

But I won’t.

I’ve already broken my father.

He just doesn’t know it yet.

The mall I stopped at is one of those outlet malls that Vance says has more fleas than brand names. I can’t say for sure if that’s true. I can only say that Vance is a gigantic pussy for even caring where he gets his clothes.

“Can I help you, sir?” I stand in the doorway, contemplating if I really want to do this. I could always just get her drunk and wait for her to pass out. Eventually, she’ll sleep, and I’ll have blessed silence.

“Sir?”

Fuck it. I brush past the sales associate and straight to the counter where another employee waits at the register. “I want one of those in yellow,” I tell her, pointing at the item hanging behind her on the wall.

“Do you want the set or just the one?”

This is fucking crazy. “The set.”

She nods and grabs a hook from behind the counter and takes it down. “Will that be all?”

“No.”

It takes me ten minutes to check out and five minutes to hang up on Duke thirteen times before he stopped calling me and texted. All of it has put me in a terrible mood—especially when I approach the car and find some asshole at my window, talking to Eve.

“You have two seconds to step away from my car.”

The guy who looks to be a little older than me puts his hands in the air. “Hey, man. I was just asking for—”

He stops when he sees what I’m carrying and grins.

“Don’t let the color fool you,” I explain. “It will still crack your skull.”

“101!”

Eden jumps out of the car and pushes the guy out of the way with the door. “Is that for me?”

---