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“I don’t fuckin’ know!” he yelled. “I don’t know what it is about you that makes me fuckin’ crazy. I’ve got no goddamn idea why I went racin’ up to Tacoma when I thought you’d been arguin’ with your parents. Arguin’ Vera. That’s it, and I was all fired up to save the fuckin’ day.”
“I didn’t ask you to,” I replied, bewildered. What was he talking about?
“We were just fuckin’ around,” he said, his jaw tight with anger. “You flip out on me and call me disgusting, and I still couldn’t stop thinkin’ about you.”
“I wasn’t just fucking around,” I shot back, the familiar burn of humiliation heating my chest. “I thought you loved me.” I laughed even as the first tears fell from my eyes. “Isn’t that stupid? God, I was such an idiot.”
Charlie’s head jerked back like I’d slapped him. The room grew silent as we stared at each other. I hated the tears that ran down my cheeks but I refused to wipe them away. At least now he knew, right? Now he knew the damage he’d done.
“Maybe I do,” he said finally, swallowing hard.
“What?” I whispered, thinking I’d heard him wrong.
“Maybe I do love you.”
The words made me so angry that my hands began to shake.
“Shut up,” I spat.
“Vera—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I said, even louder. “Don’t you dare say that to me.”
“I rode six fuckin’ hours to check on you,” he said, nearly as angry as I was. “I went to fuckin’ jail for you.”
“They let you out,” I snapped.
“Are you shittin’ me?” he asked incredulously.
“You cheated on me.”
“I didn’t fuckin’ cheat on you,” he argued, leaning forward at the waist. “I didn’t even know we were together!”
“So you just thought I had sex with anyone?” I shot back, my eyes widening in disbelief.
“No. Christ.” He ran his hands through his hair and made a sound of frustration. “I don’t know what I fuckin’ thought.”
“You let me believe she was your sister,” I said.
“I have no goddamn idea what made you think that,” he argued. “But it sure as shit wasn’t anything I said.”
“And who does that, anyway?” I kept going. “What girlfriend just sits in the other room while her boyfriend has sex with someone else?”
“Me and Jess—”
“Don’t say her name to me,” I spat.
“Our relationship wasn’t what you were thinkin’,” he said. “We’re friends, alright? We hooked up when we felt like it. No strings attached.”
“You said she was your girlfriend,” I pointed out.
“Well, shit, she was the closest thing I’d ever had to that.”
“That’s great,” I said, suddenly tired of the conversation. I swiped at my cheeks, then grimaced as my fingers grazed a bruise.
“Vera, she doesn’t have shit on you,” he replied, sounding as tired as I was.
“Then why was I the one having an abortion in a dirty office that smelled like cats?” I said softly, meeting his eyes. The apology I found in them wasn’t enough.
“Yo,” A voice called as someone started pounding on the door. “Just got the call from Barry—you two need to split.”
“Shit,” Charlie said, immediately on the move. “We’ll finish this conversation at the house. We don’t have as much time as I thought.”
“Why don’t you just drop me off somewhere,” I said as he handed me my socks and shoes. “You’ve done enough, Charlie.”
He froze, crouched down on the floor where he’d been pulling my shoe from under the bed. His head slowly came up until he was staring into my eyes.
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I send you back there,” he said, his voice so soft that I could barely hear him. “It’s not up for discussion.”
Less than five minutes later I was on the back of his bike as we rolled out the gates of the compound.
Chapter 17
Lily
Present Day
“Good for her,” I murmured as Amy sat back in her seat and took a drink of water. “No one deserves to be treated like that.”
“She always called Slider on his shit,” Brenna said, smiling softly. “He might eventually convince her to his way of thinking, but it usually took a while.”
“That’s because she was usually right,” my aunt Callie said with a chuckle.
“Aren’t we all?” Hawk asked, making the women laugh.
The crowd had thinned out considerably, the guys preferring to work or shoot pool, but I stayed right where I was. It was a good distraction from worrying about my sister.
Cecilia was a pain in the ass. She always had been. Between all of us kids she’d given my parents the most trouble, which was saying something when you took a look at my older brother. Things had only gotten worse as we’d gotten older, and even though I missed her, I was still a little relieved when she stayed in California.
Things were just more peaceful when Cecilia stayed away. The drama and fighting and catty remarks when she came to visit were too much. I loved her, but I loved her better from afar.
