Page 64 of That Girl is Trouble

I swallow. My intent after I got out of the shower was to not think about Kat. If I think about her, I’ll think about what she looked like a half hour ago. When she was wet, naked, and at my feet. I’ll think about her mouth around my dick. What her throat felt like while I was fucking it. The noises she made when she came all over my showerhead.

Yeah. I don’t want to be thinking about Kat.

“Can we circle back to what’s going on it here? Last time I checked, you were my lawyer, not my secretary. I don’t need you rummaging through my shit.”

“It’s just, she’s been so distant,” she says, completely ignoring me. “Since, you know, everything with Jesse. It’s been seven months. I know she can’t just… get over it, but she doesn’t talk about it. I kind of expected… I don’t know. Not this.” She pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. “She didn’t do the prom thing. She refused to go to her grad. She barely has any friends. I’m afraid she’s just… not living. We’re not good at talking, me and her, and I was hoping you could try. Because I don’t know what the hell was going through her head last night. The whole offering herself up as a prize in some barbaric fighting ring bullshit she pulled. I can’t even begin to understand her reasoning. But if I talk to her about it, I’m just going to yell. And then she’ll yell. And then we’ll do more… not talking. So, can you? Talk to her?”

I shake my head. “Triss. I’ve barely spoken to Kat in months. You’re her guardian. If she’s doing shit you don’t want her to do, then tell her not to do it.”

Triss snorts. “Kat hasn’t listened to me a day in her life. And I get it, I guess. She practically raised herself in that house after I left. But she’s… a grown-up now, I guess. You know? Out of school. Starting at Nipissing U in the fall. How am I supposed to tell her what to do?”

“You can’t tell her what to do, so you want me to do it instead? I’m not exactly a fucking role model.”

“I’m not asking you to be. Just talk to her. She listens to you. At least she used to. She won’t talk to me, and I need to know if she’s okay. That when she packs up her shit next month and leaves for school, she’s not gonna end up… I don’t know. Not okay.”

I don’t respond. How the fuck can I, after what I just did with her little sister? If Triss knew, Graves wouldn’t even have the chance to kill me, because she’d get to me first.

“You seriously going to make me beg?” Triss bites, glaring at me with that icy stare of hers that always seems to get Graves’s dick hard. Doesn’t have that effect on me, but I’ll admit, sometimes that attitude of hers is impressive. Despite how much bigger I am, how dangerous. Despite the loaded gun at my back, Triss isn’t scared of me. Never has been. Even that first day when she barrelled into the clubhouse demanding I find her sister. It’s the thing that irritates me most about her. But it’s also the reason I hired her to be my lawyer. I wanted someone who’d push for what needed to be pushed for, regardless of having the threat of who I am hanging over her head.

Triss crosses her arms and deepens her scowl, willing me to do as she asks. I mimic her, letting this staring contest we’re having stretch out longer than I should. But like I’m expecting, Triss doesn’t back down. Even from me. Especially from me.

I let out a sigh of defeat. Fucking woman. “Look, I’ll watch out for her a little, all right? I’m not promising a heart-to-heart, but I’ll keep her out of trouble. Yeah?”

Triss smiles, victory sparking in her eyes. “Yeah, okay. Thank you. Now get out. You’ll only be in the way.”

Before I can snap at her, she’s literally shoving me out of my own damn office and slamming the door in my face.

“Don’t fucking touch any more of my food,” I yell.

The only response I get is a sarcastic murmur followed by the sounds of more moving and rustling from the other side of the door.

A weird sort of tension builds in my body and I close my eyes and breathe, trying to quell the guilt swirling in my stomach. Which is a fucked up feeling. I don’t get guilty. I don’t apologize for living the way I want to live. Certainly, I don’t ever feel bad for getting my dick sucked.

But now I’ve made a fucking promise I’m not sure I can keep.

I’ll keep her out of trouble.

How the hell can I do that when I’m the one who’s getting her into trouble in the first place?

19

16 months ago

July

I text Kat just after midnight.

Me: Your sister is looking for you.

Kat: K.

Me: Where are you?

Kat: What’s it to you?

Me: Kat.

Kat: Axe.

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