by C L Green
“You might not think that in the morning,” I return in my own muted voice.
Or perhaps I should say today?
Why did I let her do this to me? I thought I already vowed my drinking career was over earlier this week?
“Do you think if we start crying, someone will come help?” She asks hopefully.
“Maybe,” I murmur back. “You’re gunna have to ditch Jambo though. The last three men who tried to approach you didn’t appreciate Jambo’s angry parrot, kung-fu with bitey beak maneuvers. He’s better than a guard dog.”
And he is. He hasn’t left her side since she lay down on the bar with me. He’s been strutting up and down the bar announcing a stream of unintelligible Swahili rubbish while also throwing in some good renditions of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ (in English).
He’s a bilingual parrot with attitude. I like him.
“That’s easy,” she mumbles and falls silent for a while.
I am still trying to figure out what she means when she finally breaks the silence to say, “Jambo, cage.”
To my amazement I watch him take off from the bar near her head and disappear. I silently wish I had the energy to lift my head and see where he went. Luckily I don’t need to. This is because I hear Jake’s voice calling out from somewhere behind me, “Zane, the fuckin’ thing just climbed in its cage and shut the door behind itself. Let’s roll.”
Huh?
Moments later I feel strong hands gripping my hips as I am lifted and turned. Watching Zane flash past my peripheral vision, I suspect he is doing the same to Emma.
Jake is muttering. “You have to be shitting me. We’ve just spent the last ten fuckin’ minutes trying to work out to catch the little green bastard so we could put you both to bed.”
Rolling my head back, I tip my eyes up to his for one brief moment before I find myself slung over his shoulder in the same fireman’s hold I watched Dingo use for Eva earlier. “Ouch,” I grumble halfheartedly at the twinges in my back as I flop like a rag doll.
“Should have thought of that earlier when you started on that second bottle sweetheart.”
“Mm hmm,” I murmur as I accept my fate and let my hands hang loosely down his back.
As we move towards the door, I watch my hands as they dangle closer and closer to his mighty fine ass. As I muse about the fineness of his ass, I find myself unable to resist so I give it a quick tap and whisper, “Yeehah!”
“Woman,” Jake growls from beneath me.
“You have a great ass,” I inform him as I find myself bouncing along on our way to the bedroom.
“Do you need to piss or can I just throw you on your bed?” Jake rumbles as we start negotiating the maze of rooms on the way.
“Piss please. Can you do it for me?” I grunt as I take another swat at his rump.
“Fuck me,” he mutters as he heads for the toilet.
Arriving at our destination, I look up to see Emma’s boots heading towards me hanging over the front of Zane’s chest. Seemingly she’s being carried to the toilet as well.
Good times.
“Ems, Jake’s got a fine ass.” I call out to my friend.
“So’s Zane,” I hear a muffled reply as I am tipped back upright and planted on my feet in front of the toilet bowl.
“Piss,” Jake growls as he tries to steady me before backing out of the small room.
Swaying on my feet, I fumble with my pants as the door bangs shut in front of me. I then go about my business, while loudly groaning, “Aaahhh”, for all to hear.
Relief.
Fumbling my pants back up, I flush and open the door to find Jake leaning against the wall shaking his head. Zane is still standing behind him with Emma flung over his shoulder.
“Clear!” I yell as I stumble forward and crash straight into Jake’s hard chest. Without a word he grabs me and flings me back over his shoulder. “Ouch!” I grumble again as we squeeze past Zane and back towards the bedroom. As my face swings past Emma’s hanging behind Zane’s back, I throw my hand out in a high five. With a slap, our palms connect before she vanishes in the direction from which we came.
Returning my attention to Jake’s firm ass wiggling in front of me, I receive a rude shock when I find myself upended, stood on my feet and pushed gently backwards to sit on my bed.
Holy shit, how’d we get here so fast?
Jake’s ass is quite a distraction.
“We going to bed?” I look up and ask in a tone that I hope makes it clear I’m happy for him to come to bed with me. If he wants. Which going by the Mr. Protective attitude he displays around me, I’m assuming he does? Or have I got it all wrong?
God I hope not.
Right now I’m fifty shades of turned on from watching his delicious ass bouncing in front of my nose. I have decided that I would love to get me some of that.
And I’m supposedly mostly healed…
I watch as he considers my words for a few beats. Shaking his head, he looks annoyed.
“Sleep it off,” he announces in a deep no-nonsense tone before he turns and strides back out of the room.
Well that didn’t go so well.
Is he mad because I’m drunk or is he mad because I asked for it and he wants nothing to do with me? Whichever it is, it’s still an ouch.
Duly noted, I won’t be going there again.
Ever.
Chapter Seven
Ladies Come First
Jake…
“They’re both out like fuckin’ lights,” Zane mutters as he approaches the bar in the communal room.
“Good,” I mumble as I check my Glock one last time before settling it on the bar in front of me. Shucking my jacket off, I slide my gun holder over my shoulders, sheathe the gun and put my jacket back on. “You sure you still want in brother?” I need to be sure he’s doing this for his own reasons. I’ve got my own and after tonight, there will be no turning back.
“We already agreed brother. I’m in. The friend’s here, she’s distracted. Time to roll.”
“She’s not your problem brother. It was me who brought her here. You don’t need this on your conscience. I’ll go on my own. The fewer people involved the better. It’ll be harder to track. Less chance of blowback.”
I push off from the bar and head towards the door to the garage. As I am about to pass Zane his hand comes out to rest on my shoulder, bringing me to a stop. “I told you. I’m fuckin’ in. I been watchin’ the way you are with her. I know what’s going on. I can see you’re keeping it cool. Giving her time to heal. I can also see what’s going on behind your eyes every time you look at her brother. There’s a fuck load more emotion there than just lust. I feel it too brother.”
I study the ground in front of me as he continues. “I’ve never seen a woman take the knocks she did and manage to not only survive, but pick her ass back up off the floor and just start again. She’s resilient. She’s accepted her lot and she’s running with it. She’s not complaining. She’s not hiding in her head. She’s planning to live and if you play your cards right, she might even move that plan to include living here. This said - we both know she won’t do that if she doesn’t feel safe.”
Fuck me, he’s in.
Swinging towards my brother, I catch his eyes with mine before saying, “Means a lot brother.”
I watch as he nods, before a grin slowly creeps to his mouth. “It makes my decision to help a fuck of a lot easier after meeting the friend.”
I grin back. “Emma’s crazy,” I tell him something he already knows.
“Crazy hot,” he agrees as he throws an arm over my shoulder and we move off towards the garage together. “Hardest thing I’ve done all year was leave her lying drunk on that bed tonight, brother.”
“I hear you,” I mutter as we hit the door.
*****
Twenty four hours later…
“Fuck. I’m gunna go blind if this doesn’t end soon,” I murmur to Zane as he cringes his face back at me. We are both crouched down low in
what I now know is Arianna’s front yard in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. We’ve been waiting for nearly two hours for Tony fucking Giotti to finish pumping the filthy meth whore he brought home with him earlier that night.
“How the fuck he can even got it up has me astounded. Moving on from Arianna to that filthy skank is fuckin’ insane. I’m gunna be havin’ nightmares for years from watchin’ this. Fuck, doesn’t he even realize the reason he has to keep spitting on his dick is she’s fakin’? Is he seriously that dumb?”
Zane cringes again and I watch as he raises a hand to rub his eyes as he says, “My fuckin’ eyes and ears are bleeding. Fuckin’ shoot me will you?”
Hearing another loud groan, I watch as a shiver of disgust rolls over Zane. I bob up to see Giotti has finally dumped his second load and he’s now lying flat on his back on the living room couch while the skank starts dressing.
“Thank fuck for that,” I mutter and Zane throws me a hopeful look. Holding a finger up, signaling for him to wait, I watch as the skank shuffles around the room. Giotti mumbles something unintelligible and then starts snoring.
Hearing his snore, skank heads back over and stands staring at him for a few beats. Seemingly satisfied that he’s asleep, she smirks and leans down to the floor. Rifling through his clothes, she locates his wallet, flicks it open, empties its contents into her hand and flings the empty wallet on the floor again. I then watch as she wanders the room, opening and closing drawers at random. Finally finding a small bag of meth in a coffee table drawer, she holds it up to a light, smiles cattily and shoves it in her back pocket. She then picks up her bag and leaves via the front door.
I silently thank the Lord above the skank is finally gone and signal to Zane that we should move. Moving along the side of the house, we slide up to the back door. Using a gloved hand, I pull my lock picking kit from my jacket pocket while Zane stays alert, scanning the yard behind us for movement.
There is none. It’s dead quiet. The most noise at three in the morning in this street had been Giotti and his skank. As the lock clicks, I gently push the door open and put my kit back together to shove it in my jacket pocket again. Reaching into another pocket I pull out my gun suppressor with one hand while drawing my Glock with the other. Screwing them together quietly, I nod to Zane who settles next to the back door. He will wait and keep lookout.
Sliding through the door, I move quickly through the house towards the front living room. I can hear Giotti’s soft snores coming from the couch as I approach. Walking straight past him, I head to the front curtains and quietly draw them. Something the dumb fuck should have done himself before he started pounding the skank. I cringe mentally again at the thought.
Wandering around his living room, I locate his television and surround sound system. Grabbing the remote, I turn and walk back to stand directly in front of Giotti. He’s naked, sprawled on his back, his soft, greasy dick hanging limply against one thigh.
Fuck, I’m seriously gunna have to scratch my fuckin’ eyeballs out after tonight.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Lifting my gun and suppressor, I aim straight between the dumb fucks eyes. Holding my stance for a moment and listening to his soft snores, memories of Arianna’s screams echo my through my head.
He deserves this.
Lifting the other hand and pointing it towards the sound system, I press the on button. The sound of music instantly starts blaring out of the speakers. The heavy beating pulse of Hinder’s, Ladies Come First,starts booms from the speakers.
Giotti startles and I smirk at the irony of the song. As his eyes pop open I watch as he blinks and then stares at my gun barrel pointed straight in his face. “Who the fuck are you?” He growls, a pissed off look on his face. “Who sent you?”
“Arianna,” I announce as I watch understanding dawning on his face.
“That cunt,” he yells as he starts to sit up. The words have barely left his lips as I squeeze the trigger and let two rounds rip straight through his forehead. Twitching violently, he falls straight back down onto the couch.
Satisfied he’s dead, I bend down to pick up the two shells. Rolling them slowly in my hand, I listen to the sound they make clinking together before I slide them into my pocket. Turning to the stereo, I point the remote and turn the stereo down to a low background noise and then slide the remote into my pocket as well.
Without a second look, I walk past a very dead Giotti and through the house to the back door. Closing it behind me, I nod to Zane and we leave.
*****
Flicking the last of the bullets from the magazine into my left hand, I toss them in my pocket.
With a massive welding glove on his hand, Zane reaches out to me, palm up.
I drop the Glock, the magazine, the two casings and the remote control into his hand.
Nodding to the beefy guy to his right, I watch as the guy pulls some levers and the top of the furnace lifts. Extreme heat hits us in the face, taking our breath away.
Without hesitation, Zane tosses the contents of his hand into the furnace and I watch as the lid closes. “Sixteen hundred degrees is fuckin’ hot,” he grunts as he slides the glove back off his hand and hangs it on a hook near the furnace. The beefy guy nods as we both give him a chin lift and head back towards the door of the furnace room in the huge steel recycling plant in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne.
It's four in the morning, I haven’t slept for nearly two days. I’m exhausted and it's still a four-hour ride home.
Four hours to think. Four hours to rehearse how I’m going to tell Arianna what I have done.
Chapter Eight
IT Specialist
Arianna…
I haul my ass off the bed with a groan. My mouth is tacky and dry. My head is thick and thumping. My stomach is contracting and the contents are curdling.
Jesus, whose bright idea was this?
I look down at my clothes and realize I am still fully dressed.
What the?
My bladder thuds dully in my abdomen alerting me to the reason I woke up in the first place.
Walking down the hallway towards the toilet I pass Emma’s room and find her door wide open. She looks like she is in slightly better shape than me. This is because I can see her clothes are on the floor and she’s at least under the covers. Not sprawled fully clothed and drunk assed across the bed, she looks to be sleeping peacefully. I guess Zane is better at putting girls to bed than Jake is.
Damn.
I cringe as I remember last night and relive the realization that I misread the situation with Jake so badly. How dumb am I thinking he might possibly have an interest in me? The broken girl he picked up off the side of the road. The girl who now has ugly scarring all over her back. The girl without a life, without a family.
It would appear he was just being protective because I was a woman who needed some help.
I am such a dumbass.
Oh well, I’ve had worse things done to me over the past few weeks than receiving a knockback. Although, being my first ever knockback explains why it stings the most. I’ve never had an opportunity to be knocked back before. This is because I’ve been attached to Tony for as long as I can remember. As long as I can remember being since childhood. This is also because as stupid as I was, I thought I was in love with Tony. Which also meant I never looked at another man twice or created any opportunities for a knockback.
More fool me.
Time to add Jake’s knockback to my new slate of experiences and treat him with the proper respect he deserves as my savior and landlord. In other words, quit panting over him, let him get back to his life and learn to get on with my own life.
Poor guy. He does me a favor and then I start throwing myself at him.
Classy.
Finishing my toilet mission I decide it’s time to get Emma up too. We’ve got a lot to do. The first priority being to get me a new bank account, a credit card, a mobile phone and maybe even a car.
<
br /> Heading to the bathroom, I dig a packet of Panadol out of the cabinet and then head to the communal room to grab two bottles of water before heading back to Emma’s room. She’s still sleeping soundly, her dark hair splayed out and shining silkily on her pillow.
Damn it, wake up bitch, you caused this pain…
Sliding onto the bed next to her, I break the seal on the first bottle of water and pop three pills from the Panadol packet. Tossing them back, I gulp a few mouthfuls of water.
“Yes, please,” Emma mumbles from beside me.
Shifting my weight so I am lying slightly on my side to face her, I find her stormy gray eyes watching mine. I can see the pain burning behind them.
At least she didn’t come out of last night unscathed.
Popping three more pills from the packet, I wait for her to drag herself to a sitting position before handing them over with the second bottle of water.
“You started it,” I tease her with a small grin on my face.
“You allowed it,” she returns taking the pills from my hand and throwing them back. I watch as she unscrews her bottle and gulps a few big mouthfuls of water to wash them down.
“We need a sound system,” I inform her.
“We need a sound system,” she agrees softly. “That dodgy mini hi-fi system they’ve got near the pool table sucks.”
“I’ll add that to my list. You need to get up and take me shopping.”
Taking another swig of her bottle she looks thoughtful. I watch as she uses one hand to gather her hair into a pony tail at the back of her neck. “A sound system big enough to keep us happy won’t fit in my car. My car is too small. It’s only got two doors.”