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“Nah, no paperwork. We’ll keep everything off books. Let’s get you dressed for your new job,” he offered as he threw an arm around her shoulder and moved to take her to the back.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I yelled. They both stopped and looked my way, but neither said anything. “You can’t come whore yourself while pregnant with my kid!” The only job in the club for women was as a club girl, and I’ll be damned if allowed Kim to stoop to that. Sure as fuck knew Mack wouldn’t stand for it if he had just heard them.
“I realize you think I’m some sort of whore, since you don’t want to take responsibility for what happened between us. Of the two of us, I’ve been with only one person in the past year. Can you say the same?” I didn’t answer, because everyone knew that wasn’t true, since I had a girl and had cheated on her with Kim.
“I’m not here to be a club girl,” she tossed the words so snidely that I damn near felt their impact. Kim looked around at the few women scattered about. “Not that there’s anything wrong with a woman offering herself up for a goodtime if that’s what she chooses.”
“Hell yeah, sister!” One of the girls shouted.
“You tell him, Kimmy!” Minx called out.
“But I’m here to work at the bar because $8.50 an hour to stock shelves at the Piggly Wiggly wasn’t gonna cut it when I have a baby on the way with a little boy for a dad who won’t be much help.”
“All right, Kim. You got your shot in, and I’ll allow that one because he insinuated you were a whore, but that’s it. Let’s go get you ready.” Ratchet sent her on the way to his office before turning back to me. “You give her a hard fucking time and you’re gone, boy. You aren’t a member yet, keep that in mind.”
Fuck!
I’d just sworn to June that Kim and I wouldn’t see much of each other. Not that it mattered after she basically demanded I leave the club, but still. That fucking ground my gears too, because it was exactly what every fucker in the club, including my best friend, had been telling me for the past year.
They all said June would put her foot down eventually and demand that I make a choice. Her or the club. I hadn’t believed them. If I had, maybe Kim and I could have had a chance at something after that party. Now, there were too many hurt feelings in the way.
I didn’t want to stick around and see Kim doing whatever Ratchet would have her doing, so I hauled ass outside to go relieve Mack from gate duty. When I got there, I was surprised to find out he had no clue why she was there.
“Why the fuck is my sister at the clubhouse.”
“Apparently, Ratchet hired her to work there.”
“What the fuck?” Mack nearly ran from the gate before I tackled him.
“Wait, before you fly off and accuse your sister of working as a whore the way I just did, you need to hear the rest.”
“You did what?”
“Shut up, you were about to go save her from the same damn fate. Ratchet hired her, and I don’t know what for, but it’s not to be a club girl. She said she needed the money and something about the bar. We haven’t talked about shit yet, but you know I have money. I wouldn’t refuse to help her out.” When my father and brother went in, their cut from the club was saved in an account.
It would have gone to my mother if she hadn’t overdosed. Since she and my father were both dead, the money that was waiting on him went to me. It wasn’t a fortune, but I had a solid six figures to my name besides my pay from the garage. I’d been saving it to buy a house for me and June once my prospecting period was over with, but that plan had been shot to shit.
“Yeah, I know that, but Kim doesn’t. That’s your business and a conversation for the two of you to have like grown fucking adults. Now, do me a favor and take the gate for a while, so I can go see what my sister is up to.”
“That’s why I came out here.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t to run away again?”
I shook my head. “Can’t run away from this man. She’s carrying my kid. I just couldn’t be in there with her either. June and I blew up on the phone and then not a minute after I hung up, Kim was standing there. It’s just all so fucking much at once.”
When Mack didn’t say anything, I knew he was happy to hear it might be over with June and was trying to spare me having that shit shoved in my face. I appreciated it. No matter what anyone else thought, I had spent three years with that girl, and it meant something, even if we had been nearing our natural end anyway.
One thing I had been able to think about in the hours since June took off, was that nothing between us was going to work out as long as her parents were in the picture pulling strings. June telling Anna that I was expecting a baby was one thing, but she would try to hide it from her parents.
I thought about what it would be like if a year from now we were walking in town with my kid and June tried to tell them some bullshit about me babysitting or something. How would I feel? My kid wouldn’t know the difference -yet. Eventually the truth would come out, though. I never wanted my kid to feel like they were anyone’s secret.
As much as I’d loved June, I couldn’t do that to my child. Kim would kill me if I was ever stupid enough to try, and Mack would be there to back her up. Judging from the way Ratchet had her back, he would be in line, too. That was a good thing for my kid’s future. They would have plenty of people who loved them and wanted nothing more than to protect them – even if it was from their own dad.
Chapter 13
Kim
September 8th
