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“Another thing.” Billy says just as I reach the doors. I need a drink, a cigarette, and a fucking cheeseburger after this conversation. But I knew it was coming. I knew that whatever Billy wanted from me had been nothing more than what he’s implying. He wants information on what Wicked wrote to Papa. Something I will never share with anyone. “I need you to rough someone up for me.”
I spin around, folding my arms in front of me. “Why don’t you do that? Hmm?”
Billy is around the same age as Papa, and I often think of why this greasy bastard is still alive but Papa isn’t. “Because she’s a woman.”
I narrow my eyes. “You do know that I’m a feminist, right? You—” I jolt my finger into him. “Have more of a chance getting me to rough up a man than a woman.” I lean down to his eye level, flicking his glasses with my index finger. “What’s the matter, hmmm? Someone turn you down?”
“Lala, stop being a smartass,” Camitro murmurs, and I snap, straightening my back.
“No. Because when any of you fucks want something from me, it’s shit like this. Because you can’t handle it yourself. Camitro, give me time to handle my uncle and cousin, and Billy? Maybe if you stuck to your fucking wedding vows, you wouldn’t have an issue.”
“She! She is going to talk, Lala!” Billy shoots up from his chair, and as soon as he says the words, I stop my movements.
Turning around again, I close in on him. “You dumb fuck. This is why you don’t stray from your fucking commandments!” My voice has bite at the end, but I spin his chair around until he’s facing me. “Maybe I should just whack you off, hmm? Rip the root out of the ground that’s causing the problem.”
“I’m sorry. I know, I know, but she found texts on my phone and evidence, Lala! She is going—” My fingers wrap around his throat and I squeeze slightly. Just enough to feel his throat crunch beneath my hand.
Leaning down, I bring my lips to his ear. “You’re going to be buried right beside your mistress.” I shove him back and leave the room, wiping my hands down on my suit pants.
“You a’ight?” Val asks from behind, handing me my packet of cigarettes. Eyes all shift to us as we make our way back through the casino, no doubt with Billy looking disgruntled not far behind us.
“No.” I snatch the packet off him and continue until we’re back at the lobby and outside, waiting for my car.
“You want me to take you somewhere?”
I blow out a cloud of smoke, watching as it thickens against the cool air. “Not tonight.” Tonight I need a fucking drink, a cheeseburger, and my best friend to calm me down before Wolf wakes in the morning. Nothing to do with dick.
I walk into the house, dropping my keys into the stone bowl near the front door and removing my jacket. Slipping off my shoes, I carry the brown paper bag into the sitting room, where Betty is relaxing, reading a book.
“You know, if half of these characters actually just sat down and spoke to one another, there would be no mystery to crime.”
I drop the bag onto the coffee table as she squeezes her book between the couch and grabs a bottle of tequila from the bar cart near the bookshelf. It’s cold outside since we’re moving intoChristmas, but the house is always warm because of the multiple fires and heat systems. I need it. I’d cry if not.
Betty places two glasses on the coffee table beside an ice bucket and a bottle of tequila. “Wanna talk about it?”
I dig into the bag, taking out the fries and popping one into my mouth. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. It was just a weird day.” She pours us both a drink and hands me mine before digging into her food.
“Well, you know that I’m here if you ever want to. Which! By the way… I need to tell you something.”
“Mmmhmm…” I smirk up at her, my cheeks burning. “I figured as much.”
“I’m leaving him.” She sucks down her drink before pouring another. Betty goes through this once a month. Her husband is a piece of shit, sure, and I will always be here for her when she does decide to leave him, but from last I checked—and that was when I threatened his balls—he wasn’t going to cheat again. Why anyone would cheat on Betty is beyond me. She is beautiful, charismatic, and has a way of making people feel better than how they were before her.
“Okay. Well, you can take the rooms here.”
She smiles, biting into her burger. “I love you. I don’t want to involve the parents yet.”
“I love you.” I chew on my cheeseburger. “There’s a new bar open in town. Shall we check it out this weekend?”
Betty’s eyes widen, her smile stretching on her face. “Like you have to ask! What’s it called?”
“L’artisaniant.”
We both finish up our burgers and I tidy up the room before slugging my ass upstairs. Cracking open the door to Wolf’s room, I smile when my heart warms in my chest at his little body wrapped in blankets. Closing the door, I quickly head down tomy bedroom, scrub through a shower, and toss my clothes into the dirty hamper, before slipping into some PJ’s. Putting my phone on charge, I head back out of my room and back into Wolf’s, turning his projector light down that has dinosaurs and cars patterning the ceiling. Pulling back the covers, I slide in behind him and pull his little body into my chest.
“I love you.”
There were two kinds of people in the world. I learned this very early on in my life and I think the more that I really thought about it, the more obvious it became. There were people like my papa, and people like Mama. Somehow, I got stuck between two of them.
