When the threat of dizzying nausea finally passed, Melissa took inventory.
The happy little dress had a tear in it about a foot long from where it had caught on one of the rusted penny nails that stuck out from the splintered hole in the floor. Deep scrapes and long scratches bloodied her thigh. The colorful daisies were quickly becoming all the same dull rust color.
Not so damn happy anymore.
Melissa winced as she got on her hands and knees. Then she peered through the opening in the floor. Apart from the rafter that stopped her fall, she could see straight through to the wet basement. Tears of frustration filled her eyes when she saw that her brand new, twenty-five dollar sandal had been torn from her foot and now lay in a pile of dirty, muddy water. The stench blasting up from the dank cellar hit Melissa in the face with the force of a baseball bat.
Perfect.
She carefully hoisted herself up and kicked off her other shoe. Then she half stomped, half limped over to the drawer that held the first aid kit. She glanced out the window and threw a glare over to Crow's house.
He was still gone.
Must be nice for him to be able to come and go at will like a goddamn alley cat.
Melissa let out a heavy sigh and rifled through the various bandages and creams. But thinking about Crow made Melissa begin to sting in other places. Nothing in the first aid kit was going to help with that.
As she poured some peroxide wash over the deep long scrapes, Melissa thought again about the last time she had seen him. One minute Crow had been standing in her bedroom sharing a bit of his history and giving her the tiniest glimpse of what made him… him… and the next minute he was gone. He had walked out right in the middle of whatever it was that had been happening between them. A conversation? A discussion? An argument that never quite started or stopped and just sort of ended in the middle? Was there even a name for that?
Melissa didn't know for sure, but she knew that she was sick of thinking about it.
So tired of it …Crow and Tommy and even Jesse.
Damn. Them. All.
She leaned against the kitchen counter and lifted the hem of her skirt higher.
Ouch.
She continued to do her best to clean out the long scrapes and scratches. She gnashed her teeth with every sweep of antiseptic and gauze. One really deep gash on her thigh didn’t seem to want to stop bleeding.
Thank goodness she had had a tetanus booster not too long ago, she thought as she eyed the long rusted nail jutting out from the rotting splintered floor board.
Her hair fell in wild disarray around her face and she had to keep pushing it back out of her eyes every time she leaned over.
Annoying.
Melissa rummaged through her kitchen junk drawer searching for an errant hair band, but keeping with the luck of the day, she found none.
There was nothing.
Not a clip. Not a tie.
Nothing.
She thought about trudging back up the stairs to the bathroom, but the stinging in her leg and the dizziness in her head stopped her. She took another angry swipe at the heavy hair and lifted it off her neck. Then her eyes lit on the head of broccoli that was sitting on the cutting board waiting patiently to be chopped and frozen.
Bingo.
Melissa took great satisfaction in hacking the vegetable's head from its stems with a sharp flat knife and freeing the band that held it together. She ignored the little pieces of green that hung desperately to the elastic and twisted the band into the mass of long, damp corkscrew curls that sprang around her head like Medusa's serpents.
There. That was better.
Next Melissa hobbled over to the cabinet and pulled out the bottle of whiskey that she kept for occasions just like this. She poured herself a healthy shot and slugged it back hard. She almost heaved when it landed with a splash in her empty stomach. A shudder permeated through every fiber of her body. As she wiped the booze-induced tears from the corner of her eyes, she caught her reflection in the glass of the cupboard.
Her hair stuck up out of her head like a spouting fountain. Her mascara had run and created long streaks of black down her cheeks. Her bottom lip was red and swollen where she had bitten into it and her front tooth was slightly stained with blood. Melissa's eyes volleyed back to the ridiculous amount of hair springing up from the elastic and she was reminded of Daisy-Head Mayzie that confused Dr. Seuss character who had a flower growing straight up from the middle of her head.
Yeah, she looked like Daisy-Head Mayzie all right.
On Crack.
Melissa poured herself a double and steeled herself to look at her leg again.
She decided it needed some ice.
The whiskey.
Not the leg.
Well, maybe the leg too.
Reeling from the booze and adrenalin, Melissa stood before the bag of ice that sat on the top of the counter. She looked around her and felt a giggle born of hysteria erupt from somewhere deep inside. The cubes in the bag were all clumped together like a mini glacier. She grabbed an ancient ice pick from the kitchen drawer and began to hack.
Furiously.
And there Melissa stood for the next few minutes… laughing and hacking and drinking the whiskey until a resounding knock on the side of the open door shook her out of her reverie.
“Hello? Helllooooo? Are you in there?” An obnoxiously high-pitched voice with an affected Italian accent called out to her from the screen door.
Melissa recognized the tone before she recognized the voice. Then she caught a glimpse of a bejeweled manicured hand and expensively highlighted hair.
A heavy perfume wafted in.
Melissa looked once again into the glass at her crazed Dr. Seuss-like character reflection.
“Helloooo? Is anybody home? Uh… Melinda? ” The obnoxious voice grew exponentially louder. Louder because the woman was now standing just inside the door of Melissa’s kitchen.
Of course, it had to be her. Crow’s ex-wife.
Just perfect.
Turning up again after all this time. Just like a bad penny.
“My name is Melissa,” Melissa responded with a shake of her head.
“Isn’t that what I said?” Jaci waved a dismissive hand in Melissa’s general direction. Then she arched a perfect brow. “What the hell happened to you?”
“I just fell through the floor. The rotted floor of the house I rent from you and your ex.” Melissa heard her own voice through a haze of hysteria-induced calmness. Then she turned around and motioned with the ice pick to the gaping hole in the middle of the kitchen.
Jaci gasped and stared at Melissa with concern etched all over her face. Seeing that, Melissa had a fleeting thought that maybe she had misjudged Jaci after all. But before that thought had finished, Jaci said, “You aren’t going to sue us, are you?”
Melissa had had enough. Her mouth formed a grim line as she took a step towards Jaci and her hand tightened around the sharp skewer.
***
“What. The. Fuck?”
Crow still had road dust all over him when he walked through the kitchen door of the cottage. Even though the shiny silver Porsche sitting in the driveway should have given him some advanced warning, he still could not quite believe what he was seeing.
Jaci? Jaci?
Could. Not. Fucking. Be.
Jesus. He took a step back, scrubbed a hand over his face and blinked hard.
Yup. Still there.
Jaci looked like she had just stepped out of the pages of some weird stripper comic book. Her long legs were bare, leaving her ass just covered with a strip of leopard printed fabric that he guessed was supposed to pass for a skirt. The low V-neck of her black lace shirt exposed deep cleavage and she balanced herself on six inches of come fuck me pumps. Her plumped lips were covered in dark red gloss and large hoops dangled from her ears.
But that was not all.
Crow peered closely and then did another double take.
Jaci had gotten a boob job. And not
just a boob job.
She must have cleaned out the doctor’s office of implants that day.
Jesus.
Crow had to shake his head to get a grip on what he was seeing. When he did, his eyes fell on Melissa.
Just. As. Bad.
But in a weirdly different way.
Whereas Jaci looked like a central casting ‘ho, Melissa looked more like a Disney character gone wrong.
The neon, bright yellow, daisy covered sundress she wore was torn and bloody. Her hair seemed to be growing from the middle of her head.
And she was armed.
Crow felt like he had just walked into some weird horror-sitcom. He half expected Freddy Krueger to pounce out from behind the shadows and yell,“Lucyyyyyyy, you’ve got some ‘splaining to do!”
For the first goddamn time in his life, Crow was honestly so freaked out that he couldn't think of a single thing to say or do.
Suddenly the screen door bounced open again. Jules looked incredulously at the three motionless mutes and sprang into action. He went first to Melissa, placing a large protective hand over her smaller one until she surrendered the weapon. With a quick movement, Jules threw the ice pick into the kitchen sink where it landed with a clatter.
At the sound, Crow was finally jarred from his shocked state. He looked carefully at Melissa and realized that her leg was covered in scratches and scrapes. Crow looked past her to the gaping hole in the floor.
Holy Fuck! Had she fallen through?
“Babe, are you okay?” Crow managed to croak out, but his eyes had volleyed back to the deep chasm in the floor.
“I’m fine.”
Both women responded at precisely the same moment. Crow looked up in time to see two pairs of eyes pivot away from him and towards each other.
And it just got worse from there.
Chapter 33
“Babe?!”
A deadly silence filled the room. The implication of the word swirled around the two women’s heads. It finally landed in the space between no longer and not yet.
Woman looked at woman, registering surprise, shock, and righteous indignation.
Jaci was first to break the silence. She did that by drumming her perfectly manicured fingers on the counter top. Once she was sure that all eyes were on her, in typical Jaci fashion, she went in for the kill. She gave Melissa a long deliberate sweep with insulting eyes. Then Jaci turned to Crow and snickered.
“Really? The tenant? Jesus. Honey, just how lonely have you been?”
Crow shook his head at her slightly in warning, but his eyes were glued to Melissa.
“Bitch,” Jules growled.
“Fuck off, Jules.” Jaci’s elegant mouth twisted.
Jules leaned forward “What did you just say?”
“You. Heard. Me. I said, Fuck off, you giant goddamn idiot.”
Jules stepped in closer. His big body loomed over her.
“Really, that’s what you said? Because what I heard was ‘blah, blah, blah… I’m a dirty used up whore.’”
Jaci hissed at him like a rattler getting ready to strike.
“You gonna let him talk to me like that?” Jaci turned to look at Crow who was moving towards the empty space where a moment before Melissa had stood.
When Jaci stepped toward Crow, Jules moved in front of her blocking the way. But then he turned to look at Crow.
“Clean this mess up first, Brother. Because if I have to spend one more minute with this nasty snatch from hell, I’m gonna slice out her dirty flapping tongue and shove it up her worn-out asshole. Should have done that the first time around,” Jules roared that last part.
When Jaci lifted her clawed hand to scratch Jules's face, Crow grabbed it, twisted it around her back and pulled her out of the house kicking and screaming.
Crow didn’t look back as he dragged Jaci across the lawn. But if he had he would have seen Jules grab the whiskey on the counter and down it.
***
“Let. Go. Of. Me!” Jaci pulled away from him.
“You ready to rein in the crazy?” Crow tightened his grip in warning.
Apparently she wasn’t. Because it took another long few more minutes of ranting. Then Jaci stopped as suddenly as she’d started.
“You fucking done?” Crow sighed.
“Yeah. I’m done,” she said abruptly.
Crow pushed Jaci away from him. He had no intentions of catching her if she fell.
Jaci gave him a baleful look then took a minute to compose herself. She adjusted her clothing, patted her hair and licked her lips. Then she took a deep breath and a moment to peruse her surroundings. Looking up at the newly renovated house, she said in a voice that was heavy with meaning, "I like what I'm seeing on the outside. You gonna let me in?”
Crow leaned back against the tree. He regarded her for a long minute. “Not a fucking chance.”
Jaci hesitated and looked at Crow. Then she suddenly sighed and plopped herself down on the front steps of the house.
When Crow pulled out a pack of cigarettes, she nodded to the smokes. "Can I have one of those?"
Crow arched his eyes in surprise. “Thought you quit?”
She shrugged her shoulders.
Crow pulled out another smoke and tossed it to her. Then he walked over and bent down to light it. Crow sat down heavily beside her, run a hand over his scruffy chin and exhaled slowly.
“Been a long time, Jaci. What are you doing here?”
“Ah…you know me. I always turn up eventually.” Jaci smiled and took a long drag off the cigarette.
“Yeah. True.” He paused before adding. “Some things just never change.”
“What things?”
“You being allergic to giving a straight answer comes to mind.” Crow arched an eyebrow.
Jaci gave him a small smile.
“Buy me a drink?”
Crow gave her a long look. Then he went into the house, grabbed a couple of beers, came back out and tossed one to her. She caught it easily and twisted off the cap.
“So you gonna tell me?” Crow’s voice was weary.
“The truth?” Jaci looked sideways at him.
“No point in lying. We ain’t married anymore.”
“I made a mistake.” Jaci shrugged.
Crow looked at the hundred-grand-plus Porsche sitting like a silver bullet in the driveway.
“Nah. Looks to me like you hit it just right.” Crow took a hit off the beer.
“There you go getting all judgmental again. I never made any secret of what I wanted out of life, Crow,” Jaci said.
“Or what you were willing to do to get it,” Crow replied.
Jaci was staring at the Porsche. “Maybe, but I paid the price for that.” Then she added. “Right life with the wrong guy.”
Crow snickered. “Wrong guys. With an s. Or aren’t we counting the last… what…ten or so?”
“That’s not fair.” She slumped.
Crow shook his head and stood up away from her then. “Jesus, Jaci, what the fuck are you doing here? Really. Why after all this time?”
She looked at him with a measure of surprise. “What do you mean why?”
Crow stared hard at her and repeated. “Why?”
She shook her head as if trying to make sense of the question.
“Because it’s what we do. I always come back and you always take me back. It’s what we do.”
“Not anymore.”
“What do you mean not anymore?” Her eyes narrowed.
He paused. “People change, Jaci.”
“I didn’t,” she answered with a defensive tone.
“My fucking point.” Crow looked at her.
Jaci’s mouth formed a hard line and Crow could see her hand tremble as she lifted the bottle to her lips. “Melinda? Is that it? You fucking Melanie?”
Crow shook his head and sighed.
“Really? You got amnesia now? Cut the shit, J. You know her name. You sure as shit didn’t have any trouble remembering it when yo
u cashed the steep rent checks she sent you every month,” he snorted.
Jaci pouted and her artfully done fingernails began peeling away at the cold sweating label.
“You are seriously going to throw me over for some backwoods little widow? With a kid?” she said in disbelief.
Crow shook his head in warning. “Don’t do it Jaci. Don’t fucking go there. This ain’t about her. It’s about you and me.”
“You’ll get no arguments from me there. That’s exactly what this is about. It’s about you and me. That’s my point, Crow. You and me. Always has been about us. Always will be about us. It’s about history. We come from the same place. The same fucked-up place. You’re the only one who really gets it. Who gets me. We got years in of seeing that through together. You were never so quick to throw that away before.” Jaci’s voice had taken on a hushed pleading sound.
“Yeah. You’re right. It’s always been about that. And thinking about that now. Thinking about you and all that goddamn time I spent trying to help you deal with that shit of yours, all the ways I tried to love you through that…” His voice trailed off.
Jaci put down her beer and went to him. She touched his arm. “Crow.”
Crow moved away from her. “I’m not done.”
Jaci removed her hand as if it had been slapped.
Crow continued. “Thinking about all that wasted time makes me want to kick my own ass for being so damn stupid. Jesus, Jaci. You spent our whole damn marriage wallowing in self-pity and comparing price tags. ”
Jaci made another move towards Crow then, but the clench to his jaw and the hard lines of his mouth stopped her.
Her eyes narrowed.
“You’re right. You’re right. I was stupid and selfish and all those things you say. But please spare me the self-righteous bullshit. I never hid that from you. You knew exactly what you were getting when you married me and you liked it. You liked it, because my being so fucked up made you feel better about yourself. You got off on trying to make me a better person and I was. You being there for me always helped me that, at least for a while. Then when I was done acting like a damn fool, I’d beg to come back and you’d give me a goddamn hard time about my bullshit before you fucked some sense into me. It’s who we are. And we always end up together. No matter what, you always take me back.”
Taming Crow (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) Page 20