“Your receipt.” The cashier smiled stiffly, glancing between all of us. “Y’all have a nice day.” As soon as she handed me the bag, she scurried away behind a rack of clothes.
“We better get going. Nice seeing y’all.” Suzie moved to walk but they blocked her.
“Hold on, sugar tits. I'm still talking.”
My hand was still in hers, unsure of who held tighter. I was at war with my old self and the current one. I wanted to drop her hand and bash their skulls together while pointing out they were a waste of atoms.
She dropped my hand altogether to reach for Rooster. She rubbed her hands up his arms and stood on toes to whisper in his ear. As she spoke, his hands trailed down her back. I glared at it, hatred growing to a white-hot ball in my stomach. He roughly squeezed her ass and grinned at me with yellowing teeth.
“Bye.” She stepped back and tugged me away.
“Bye, Short Fuse. Have fun.” When we were almost out of earshot he added, “Don't forget where you come from and who your family is.”
Her pale face smiled as she twisted to shoot one more flirtatious wave over her shoulder.
Chapter 13
Suzie
Well, I had to give it to Ford; we managed to get all the way to the car before he spoke. He’d been crackling with rage since we left. I’d made the smartest choice in that moment. Those boys never needed an excuse to start something. You had to talk carefully, or they would make you pay for it. If not now, then later.
Not that long ago I would have gotten off on the jealous anger burning in Ford’s eyes but this time it wasn’t fun. He started the car and took a deep breath. The steering wheel creaked under his grip. We sat in the parking lot. Outside it poured rain and I watched the drops collect and fall down the window as his anger became an entity sitting between us.
I was about to explain all that, how dangerous Rooster and Cueball could be when they were offended, when he spoke first. My stubborn nature made me hold my tongue.
“You just let them touch you like that?” he asked without being able to look at me.
“Excuse me?”
“The way they touch you. Talk to you. It’s despicable. Why do you let them?”
I saw now why he was angry. It wasn’t some sort of jealousy or concern for my well-being; it was that I wasn’t fitting into the image he was trying to make for me. It was one thing to know what I really was, it was different to understand it and see in person. He didn’t like the reality that was Short Fuse.
“Let them?” I tapped my nails in a pattern on my knee, containing my own anger threatening to take over. I knew he always kept his emotions locked tight in his chest. I could do the same. I wouldn’t be the angry banshee people made me out to be.
“Guys like that? They’re bullies. You have to stand up to them. You have to tell them no. They’ll back down.”
“Oh really?” I couldn’t help the loud scoff I made. “Please explain my options to me. Tell me how I should have handled it. Stupid ol’ me forgot and I need you to remind me.”
“Tell them no. That it’s your body. They have no right. You don’t have to stand for it.”
I huffed a sad laugh. He had no clue what the real world was like, and yet he accused me of being small-minded. I felt drained at the idea of explaining what a whole life of dealing with men like that had taught me. We didn’t have the days it would take.
“It’s easier to just go with it. They don’t mean anything.”
“Suzie, you don’t know—”
“No!” I screamed out in the silent car. Fine. I was overly emotional and crazy but I couldn’t take it for a second longer. The word rang in the air and my ears as I collected my thoughts. He shut his mouth tight. I went on. “No. You don’t know. You have no clue what it’s like to be me. You think I should just tell them ‘no’? Okay, so let’s say I insult them and humiliate them in public in front of you, some rich guy—”
“I’m not—” He started to speak but I kept talking over him.
“That’s how they’d see it. They'd grow it like a seed in their chest. They'd see me and it'd burst out of them through their fist. You won’t be there though. So what’ll happen? They’ll teach me a lesson. They’ll remind me of my place.”
“But you said you were Occum’s favorite.” His voice had grown scary deep and quiet.
“Yeah, maybe. But this isn’t about me. Those guys are Wraiths. I don’t go with that MC anymore. I’m part of a rival club, the Black Demons. Every word has to be calculated. At the G-Spot, I’m protected. Anywhere else, I’m fair game.”
At that, his fury seemed to grow.
