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CHAPTER ONE
Jinx
I moan in pleasure before swallowing.
“Almost made my dick twitch that time, Jinx.”
I look over at Rex and grin. “Never underestimate pussy power. Your mom would be so happy knowing I finally turned you straight.”
Grabbing a napkin, I wipe my hands, shaking my head at the ridiculous notion. Rex’s mom was a bigoted bitch who washed her hands of her son when she caught him deep-throating his then-boyfriend’s meat stick. Kind of ironic, if you ask me, considering she was once a club girl who got the name Chrome from having the ability to suck the chrome right off a tailpipe.
I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“Chrome was just jealous that Rex had more skill than she did.” Nico’s rough voice echoes through the earpiece in my and Rex’s ears.
“And you would know this how?” Rex laughs as he finishes his Dr. Pepper, his eyes on the window in front of us, where the drapes haven’t been closed properly.
“Educated guess. Someone would have claimed her if she were as good as the rumors said she was. Trust me, the second you wrapped your lips around my cock, I knew I was locking you down. Patch be damned.”
Looking out the window, I grin. Memories that once only brought pain have softened at the edges with time. Though there are days when history feels like a thousand paper cuts waiting for me to bleed out, there is comfort there, too, in the memories that only the three of us have.
“Try to remember, guys, that you both might be gay, but I’m not. And thinking about you two getting it on is making my panties wet.”
When neither of them says anything to that, I turn to look at Rex and his stupid, smug face.
“Be nice. I’m wearing leather shorts. Chaffing and chasing down assholes is not a good combo.”
Nico laughs in my ear. Asshole.
Turning back, I catch a glint of movement in the window and nudge Rex.
“She’s making a call.”
Nineteen-year-old Tina Lipinski places her cell phone against her ear before she wanders over to the window and gazes out. Knowing she can’t see us from where we’re parked, I take in her gaunt face and sunken eyes and fight down the anger building inside me.
I’d run into Tina several times over the years, getting a front-row seat to her downward spiral into drugs and prostitution. I’d tried to help her more times than I could count, but she had no desire to get better. It pisses me off because I can see the potential in this girl. I just have no idea how to make it so she can see it herself.
“Think it’s Ronnie she’s calling?” Rex asks.
“She needs her hit, and she knows better than to go to another dealer.”
Ronnie “Digger” Smith is a part-time dealer, part-time pimp, and full-time pain in my ass. At thirty-five, he’s ten years my senior yet has the maturity of a five-year-old. He’s one of those people with a chip on their shoulder who thinks the world owes them something, and nothing is ever their fault. I hate to break it to him, but the world owes him dick. We’ve all been shit on one way or another, some of us worse than others. But using your trauma as a security blanket to hide beneath while you turn other people into victims negates any sympathy I might have once given him.
“I don’t get what the fuck she sees in the man,” Rex says as Tina closes the drapes and disappears from our view.
“That’s because you’re not seeing the world through the same glasses that she is.”
I make sure my hair is still tightly braided and pinned to my head, making it harder for someone to grab it. In my line of work, it would be easier to cut it short, but my hair is the only thing I have left that reminds me of my mother.
“Well, they say love is blind for a reason, I guess,” he grumbles as I adjust my vest, making sure the straps are tight before I double-check that my weapons and restraints are all still in place.
“It’s not love, Rex. That’s what I meant about looking through different glasses. Hers aren’t rose-colored. They are something darker. You have Nico and me, so though you know what it’s like to lose people, you still have strings that bind you. There is nothing Nico and I won’t do for you, and I know it’s true in reverse. We might not have been born with the same blood in our veins, but we’ve spilled enough to keep each other safe. Tina has never had that. I’ve read her file—I’ve seen the police reports and the statements made by social workers. Tina isn’t seeking love because she has no idea what love is. She wouldn’t even know how to recognize it because not one person she’s ever encountered has offered it to her. They’ve taken what they wanted, giving her nothing in return.
“Ronnie might be a toxic asshole, but he puts himself in between her and the other monsters nipping at her heels. He won’t let anyone else touch her as long as she’s his. That makes every slap he gives her and every punch he throws her way worth it because she knows there are worse things out there than a black eye or two.”
Rex is quiet for a minute before he reaches over and squeezes my thigh.
He knows what I’m talking about. Both of us grew up in an MC full of misogynist assholes. Not all of them, mind you. My father and papa would have shot themselves in the head before laying a hand on my mother or grandmother. But plenty of brothers liked to punish their wives for whatever misdeeds they felt tarnished their standing within the club. These however, were the same men who would cheat on their old ladies from the start. They never seemed to figure out that you reap what you sow. There is truth in the saying, Happy wife, happy life.
