Page 81 of Hunter
“You’re a dumbass, kid. If you knew when to keep your mouth shut, you’d probably be alright,” Tommy, a neighborhood old timer, offers as he pushes his metal folding chair closer to Gabe. “You’re gonna learn the hard fucking way if you’re not careful,” Tommy warns as he points to Ed, “And we’re gonna let her teach you.”
“I thought she said you were fucking smart. Did you NOT FUCKING LISTEN TO ANYTHING THAT I JUST FUCKING SAID?” I scream out. I’m getting fucking pissed now. Like really fucking pissed.
“I HEARD YOU MOTHERFUCKER,” he shouts back at me, like he’s big and fucking bad, as he stands up, and it forces the old guys to stand too. Tommy’s knees must be screaming.
“You also shouldn’t call females, bitches, they don’t like that shit,” Alvi chirps at him from my right side, “You should watch your fucking mouth.”
“I don’t take fucking orders from you,” he snarls, and he sounds just as fucking sassy as my Ed does. Alvi’s guys aren’t fucking taking his disrespect and tightening their hold on his ass.
“You do in this house, kid. That’s fucking Alvino Rossi, you’re talking to. Show some fucking respect,” Tommy tells him and smacks him upside his head. Gabe flinches but doesn’t retaliate. He fucking knows better than to go up against an old guy like Tommy. My dude doesn’t even carry a weapon; he once told me all a gun did was cause his pants to fall down. Evidently, his hands do all the work.
Gabe snarls at me, and I can fucking tell he’s about to bite. He looks like he’s getting more rabid by the fucking minute. “I CANCALL MY FUCKINGPRIMA,A FUCKING CUNT IF I WANT TO. THAT BITCH PUT ME IN FUCKING JAIL.”Shots. Fired.
“THE FUCK YOU CAN!” I explode, and Alvi holds me back, and Tommy does his best to keep us separated for the second fucking time. “YOU DON’T FUCKING SAY SHIT TO HER! I’M NOT GONNA TELL YOU AGAIN. YOU TALK TO ME AND ME ONLY!!” I’m fucking done and ready to rip this fucking asshole apart. I know Alv probably thinks this is fucking baby bullshit, but I’m gonna fucking lose my goddamn mind. I want to wreck his shit. He fucking deserves it.
“Actually, you’ll talk to me when it comes to Val.” An annoying and screechy voice cuts through the current commotion, and a blast of cold air follows Payton inside as we all freeze. “Scratch that, you’ll just listen and do exactly as I say. Let’s go with that plan. But first, I’m gonna need my boyfriend to be let go.”
“Fucking get off of me so I can go greet my woman,” Gabe demands and tries to shake off two of the Rossi guys. They only tighten their grip on his arm. “Tell your men to step off,jefe (boss).”
“You gonna behave or do you need to go sit in the fucking corner like the other guy?” Said clown in the fucking corner, lifts his head up, and is too much of a pussy to even protest. “You start shit again, like you just did, and I’m gonna fucking show you how the big boys handle their business.” Alv gives a nod to Tommy and his guys to let him go at the same time that he releases me.
“Babycakes, did I hear you say the c-word? You know how much I hate that.”Babycakes? For real? I’m fucking dead.
“Sorry, mi reina (my queen).”He sounds like a soft little bitch, and I hear Ed mutter something in Spanish under her breath that Gabe must catch. He’s looking at her like she’s fucking road-kill, and I don’t fucking like it.
“Actually, you can call Valentine a cunt all you want; she really does do the word justice. I totally see it.” I hear Payton-who-only-wears-pink, say to him, and I grind my fucking teeth together, hearing this bitch say that shit about Ed. I broaden my stance and try to protect her from this fucking asshole mean girl.
“What the fuck do you want,princesa (princess)?” Ed claps back as she steps around me, and I pull her crazy-ass back to safety. Payton looks fucking unhinged hearing Ed call her a pretty, pretty princess. I assume to her, it’s just as fucking bad as her calling my girl a fucking cunt. Gabe must know it; he’s keeping his arm around his nut-job’s shoulders to keep her tucked into his side.
“Wait, how’d you beat me here? There was so much traffic after the game tonight,” she asks me with a head tilt without blinking. Ed’s right, you can totally fucking see how sick she is.
Her big-ass eyes can’t focus for shit, and her pupils bounce around like ping-pong balls as she waits for me to answer. She looks more and more uncomfortable with each passing silent second, and I’ll fucking make this bitch wait forever if it has her feeling uneasy.
“Anyway,” her high-pitched voice hits new heights, and I look over at the front windows to make sure her screech didn’t send cracks through the glass. “What was I saying? Oh, wait, I remember!”
“You get lost, hun?” Tommy asks, and it distracts Payton from Ed as she turns her body to look at him. “The sorority parties are down the road a bit. Keep going straight. You’re gonna fit right in, with all that pink and that snooty fucking attitude. They shouldn’t even have you rush; you should be an automatic in, don’t let those females tell you differently.”
“Excuse me?” Her voice is nails on a fucking chalkboard, and it makes my eyes twitch. “Are you speaking to me? Because I didn’t say that you could.”
“At least she didn’t fucking say, ‘pardon.’ That’s all she used to say freshman year. Fucking pardon your ass to the fucking Hamptons, you fucking annoying-ass bitch,” Ed whispers, and I fucking grin at my sassy girl.I fucking love you, baby.
“Little lady, I’ve been sitting in this same spot for longer than you’ve been alive. I was around before you were a sperm shooter in your Daddy’s ballsack, so stop with all the bullshit. We don’t have time for it; we’ve already got some drama happening tonight. You fucking kids are like watching a soap opera.”
“You're Vivian’s granddaughter?” Alvi asks Payton, and we all watch her go rigid. “I’ve known her since I was a kid. She showed me your picture the last time we had tea, that's why I let you in here. I knew who you were.”Alv is having fucking tea time with this girl’s grandmother? What the fuck?
“No shit! If you talk to Viv, you tell her that Thomas is patiently awaiting her return,” Tommy says with a literal, I-fuck-around-with-your-hot-grandmother grin on his face before he starts laughing. Sounds like my dude, Tommy, is having more than just tea when he goes to visit Payton’s grandma. She gives him a look of pure fucking disdain, and he shakes his head, “She gives me that same look! You two are twins!”
“I heard you were coming down from New York to go to school here. So, besides starting shit, what are you doing in my shop, sweetheart?” Something’s happening. This bitch is rocking in place and humming to herself.
“Hey, baby, just focus on me, alright?” Gabe pleads with his girl, bringing her attention from fucking Tommy to him. She looks like she’s starting to spin out.
“What am I doing here? Oh, I’m here for payback!” I swear, all her answers make her sound like she’s lost her fucking mind. “Did you not hear me when I said that these two are going to listen and do exactly as I say?”See? Fucking insanity.
“I told you that it was gonna cost you,” the guy in the corner shouts.Cost me what? I’ll fucking pay every penny that I have if it means that these three fucking assholes walk outta here and never come back.
“Why don’t you let me handle this one. I got you, Ma,” Gabe tells her. She’s getting more and more demented by the fucking minute and breaks her gaze on Tommy, to shoot Ed with the laser beams that are coming out of her eyes.
“No, my love, I got it. It was my idea, remember?” She declares before patting his cheek and giving him a smile, before we get her undivided attention.
