“Had a lot of those, have you?”
“A couple,” she says, and I can feel her smiling against my arm, “but you’re the best one.”
“The hottest, too?”
She sucks in a breath and pretends to think about it. “I’m not sure about that, but you might slide into that treasured spot when I see you holding a box of chicken nuggets.”
I slow at a red light, realizing that she must be exceptionally drunk because there is no way she’d still be touching me if she weren’t. I glance down at her, and for a moment, I think she’s asleep, but then she gives a little hiccup.
Not asleep, just wasted.
It hits me how much I like her. She’s a good girl, and someone I’m damn happy to have met. She’s the kind of person you have to take a step back and appreciate once you get to know her. Independent. Strong. The kind of person who you could bury under ten pounds of shit and she’d still claw her way back out of it, flashing you the middle finger as she does.
She hides it behind a hard shell, but this woman is pure sweetness underneath all those complicated layers, and I fear I might be getting addicted to the sugar rush.
I slide my hand up to brush my fingers against hers. “Did you have fun tonight, Red?”
“So much fun,” she says with a nod, her cheek squished to my bicep. “But I think I will kill anyone who is mean to Penny again.”
I glance back at the road. Yeah, me too. I have an idea about that whole interaction between Sweets and the she-devils. I am not about to voice it to Penny or Declan, but I am scared of what will happen if Morgan has the information I think she does. I’m scared for her life if she uses it. They’ll never find her body if Penny gets to her afterward, and Lowesy will be right beside her, hiding the evidence.
Morgan is a dangerous person. I’ve had my sneaking suspicions about her for a while, despite not bothering to get to know her well. I don’t trust her. I think Danford got stuck with her young and couldn’t find the will to leave. I don’t trust her with him, either.
That girl is a snake.
“You feeling okay?”
She nuzzles deeper into my arm and nods. “I’m tired, Carter. Really tired.”
I glance down at her and my gut tenses. That sounded like it was about more than just tonight. Like in general, she is exhausted, and my god—I don’t blame her. All she does is work, and when she’s not working, she’s stressed about it. When she’s not working, she wants to be.
I slide my hand upward to cup her cheek, letting her keep her head on my shoulder.
“Get some sleep, Red. I’ll wake you up when we have the nuggets.”
“I fuckinglovenuggets,” she whispers.
She passes out. Hard. I order the nuggets and slide them into a safe spot, and she’s still out cold. Not willing to wake her, I drive to her house and only shake her when we’ve pulled up and parked.
She lets me help her into the house, and my instincts are begging me not to leave her. I hate this place on a good day, but leaving her here drunk and passed out? I can’t do that. So, I don’t. I won’t. She’s tired enough that she might not fight me on it.
She plops onto the couch, smiling widely when I drop the nuggets in front of her. She looks at them like they’re made of pure gold. I make a note of that. She dives in and douses them in ketchup, making these sinful little moans I definitely do not need to hear when she’s innocently eating a pieceof chicken.
“I’m going to get you some water.”
She nods, swallowing a bite. “There are cold bottles in the fridge.”
I walk into her kitchen, not surprised to see it as bare and lifeless as the rest of her place. Snatching a water for her, I tread back into the living room, cracking it open and handing it over. She takes it with a weak smile and appeases me by taking a sip.
I drop onto the loveseat. “Can I ask you something?”
Her eyes snap to mine. Seems to have trouble swallowing the bite in her mouth. “Sure.”
I gesture to the living room. “Your place is a lot more bland than I expected from you.”
She slowly lowers the water to her lap. “Is that a question?”
“Just curious why. You’re all personality, Red. Big and bold and angry at the world. Why is this place so dull?”
