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And as I shut the door before making my way to the bathroom, I'm reminded of why I always hated staying sober before.
Sometimes, feeling nothing is better than feeling anything at all.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Christian
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Salem snaps, gray eyes bright with fury.
Taylor, Huck, Logan and I all wince at once, stuffed next to each other on Taylor's couch.
His living room is a little more put together now—framed photos line the walls, most of them taken by the woman currently pacing in front of us like an angry cougar. He brought his bike in, too, along with Huck’s. Both two-strokes are chilling against the far wall below a grainy photo of the two of them at their parents' wedding almost eight years ago. Their faces are all bruised to hell from beating each other up the night before.
I still wonder sometimes how the fuck they fell in love despite everything that happened. Tay and I might wrestle and argue, but I'd never hurt him the way Huck did. Though… I guess they hurt each other. Maybe that's their kink. What the fuck do I know?
Salem snaps her fingers in my face, pulling my attention away from the photo. “Are you listening, asshole?”
“Yeah,” I sigh. “I'm here.”
“Are you? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you've lost your fucking mind!”
Taylor drags a hand through his black-and-blue strands. “Jesus, chill, Sally Mal.”
Her sharp gaze cuts to him. “How the hell are you just… okay with your business partner nearly draining your bank account?”
“I'm not,” he answers, glancing at me. “But what's done is done. He's not the only one who's been lagging on business. I've been lazy too. We have to fix it.”
My chest pinches at the look he just threw me, the fucking disappointment that flashed in his eyes.
“No, I have to fix it because you idiots are hopeless without me,” Salem growls, once again earning a grimace from everyone. Her attention lands on her husband, who’s sitting quietly against the arm of the couch. “Why didn't you tell me it was getting this bad? What happened to all the money we made on tour?”
Logan's ears turn red, and he opens his mouth to respond before shutting it. While he continues to flounder for an answer, Taylor speaks up.
“Last year kinda screwed everyone over big time,” he starts, chewing on his lip. “When you took off after the accident, and no one could find you… shit started going south.”
“South, how?”
Now it’s my turn. “You were gone. Logan was recovering. We had to cancel our performance for the monster truck rally last January because we couldn't fucking focus enough to practice. Some of our sponsorships lapsed.”
“Not to mention Huck and I were going through some shit,” Taylor mumbles, patting his pocket for a cigarette.
Rearing back, I gaze at him incredulously. Salem follows suit. “What kind of shit?” we ask in unison.
He waves us off as he pops a smoke between his lips. “Doesn't matter, it's done now. Point is, we were all distracted last year and TOT suffered for it.”
“You hiding shit from me, motherfucker?” I shove him on the shoulder and pluck the cigarette out of his grasp. Matty's parents would flip if they caught him smoking in here.
“I'm not hiding shit,” he huffs. “It's called being in a relationship, asshole. Ask Salem, she's got like three of them.”
I slump against the couch cushions with a glare toward the ceiling. “Still don't know how I'm the single one.”
Logan coughs, and when I meet his sideways glance, the slight curl to his lip tells me that he's very aware of what Dev and I did a couple of nights ago. Pervy fucker probably got off to it just like I do with him and Owen.
Does he think that just because I let Devon suck me off, we're in a relationship now? Pfft. Unlike him, I don't need to like someone to get off with them.
“Just a warm, wet hole to put your cock in. That's all I am, huh?”
Devon's words run through my head again, just like they've been doing since it happened. I shove them aside, along with the weird tremor in my gut that they bring.
