by Bijou Hunter
Besides, he wouldn’t believe me. I’ve quickly realized Colt’s confidence is like armor. Nothing hurts him because he knows he’s right even if the evidence proves otherwise.
So I decide to think like him for now and imagine myself as a rare key capable of owning this remarkable man’s heart.
THE CHAPTER WHERE THE UNWANTED GETS DAZZLED AND DEATH THREATS
THE HEIR
Stella leaves me in a state of horny that no mere cold shower can fix. I’m talking three wank-fests just to think straight after I arrive home. Collapsed on my bed afterward, I consider what I might have said to MJ when I saw her on my way in the house. While the details are fuzzy, I’m relatively fucking sure I called her Audrey.
Now I can catch my breath and consider the events of this very long day. I was painfully unprepared for the level of hotness that Stella brings to the table. Her wild blonde hair? Hot. Her sunburned nose? Hot. The gap between her front teeth? Oh, yeah, super-hot. In fact, Stella is so hot her flaws are as sexy as her best features. She’s smoking when she smiles and blistering when she frowns. I don’t think she has an angle that’s less than steamy.
Ugh, great, round four of the wank-a-thon commences as I imagine what might have happened if I’d been greedier and stripped that hottie down at the Lot House. We’d both be walking funny at this point rather than just me once I emerge from my bedroom to find MJ, Thisbe, and Quaid at the kitchen table.
“Why don’t you just move in already?” I grumble at the sight of them.
My sister replies with, “I don’t understand.” Then MJ gives Quaid a “Get it? I’m fucking with this idiot!” look while I search the fridge for food.
“Where’s Mom and Pop?”
“At Aunt Tawny’s house eating pigeon.”
“Why?”
“They’re getting in touch with their hillbilly roots, I guess. I said they didn’t need to bring any home since the dogs were already fed.”
“Pigeon is trash food,” Quaid announces as he hands a mini carrot to Thisbe. “Squirrel, though, now that’s good cooking.”
His wife and daughter smile in unison. No matter what Quaid says or does, his fan club thinks he shits rainbows. One day, Stella and I will produce a child who thinks I’m fucking awesome. Until then, I have Thisbe.
“Aren’t you going to say hello?” I ask the kid as she chases her carrot with a glass of apple juice.
“Colt 45!” she screams once her mouth is empty.
“That’s the stuff.”
MJ rolls her eyes. “Are you in love now? If so, will I need to learn her name?”
“You still call Dash by the wrong name, so why worry about Stella’s?”
“Who’s Dash?”
“Don’t start.”
“I like Cash better. His gray eyes remind me of that Johnny Cash song, ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down.’ Too bad his parents didn’t pick a better name.”
I know MJ is daring me to make a comment about Thisbe’s name, but I’m not falling into her trap. The kid is standing right THERE, and she’s no nonsense about her name. I heard her repeat it twenty fucking times to one stubborn old man who refused to accept that it was a name. Finally, Quaid had to step in and tell them to let it go. To this day, Joe Downey from the hardware store calls her “Hisbee.” Of course, he calls Quaid “Quizby” and MJ remains “Rambo” from back when she went by the name Rando.
“I’m going to name my kids something really common like John, Bob, and Tom,” I announce.
MJ stands up and pats my arm. “I’m sorry.”
“Those are good names.”
“You’re just lazy.”
“There’s nothing lazy about picking normal names.”
“It means you don’t care enough to think about what your child will be called for the rest of his life. Yeah, lazy,” she says while pouring a refill on the apple juice.
“Tom is better than Frisbee over here.”
“Thisbe!” my niece screeches on cue. “Thi—”
Realizing she’s about to sound it out for me, I hand her a carrot. “Save it, Mini-MJ. I know how to say it.”
Thisbe smiles at her father who gives her a wink. They’re awful parents who spoil her rotten. It’s probably why she’s so happy all the time. I want happy kids, so coddling them will be a must.
“Stella’s going to make a great mother,” I mumble, wondering what our kids will look like.
“How are her hips?” my sister asks.
I imagine my hands resting on them, and my dick awakens. “Don’t make me think of dirty stuff. I’m a man in love here.”
“I don’t get it.”
“He needs to be fixed,” Quaid says and laughs at my expression. “Figuratively.”
“Sure, sure.”
“Do you really love her?” MJ asks, halfway between serious and taunting.
My feelings for Stella remind me of when I’d sink into the hot tub after a hard day. She soothes parts of me that I didn’t know were sore. Is that love?
“I think maybe I do.” My sister and her man share a curious frown and then stare at me. “How long did it take for you to know?”
“I knew instantly,” MJ says, and Quaid immediately shakes his head.
“I had to earn her love.”
“No, I handed it out like candy on Halloween.”
“She threatened to kill me when we first met.”
MJ laughs at the memory. “You were so sweaty.”
“No,” I warn them. “Stay away from talk that ends up with me babysitting.”
“But she loves you,” MJ murmurs and nudges Thisbe who for some reason decides to show me a mouthful of carrots.
“I do feel the love.”
“Love,” Thisbe says and hugs her father before deciding his lap is preferable to a chair. I used to do the same with my parents. I remember how the last time I tried that move that Pop claimed eighteen was too old for lap time, but I proved him wrong.
“I need to find a place for Stella to live.”
“She can live here,” MJ says because she is still weird about leaving the property, so moving everyone into the house fixes her boredom.
“Her friend and her friend’s kid too.”
“We have the room. Tell them to pack up.”
“Even if Mom and Pop were cool with guests, there’s the problem with the club and Rod.”
“Oh, you know I don’t care about that,” MJ says as she sticks her head in the fridge. “I made goulash the other night. Do you want some?”
“Sure. All the wanking left me hungry.”
“Wanking,” Thisbe tells Quaid since kids can always pick the awkward word in a sentence.
“You’re a prince,” he says to me. “Can’t wait until you have kids so I can talk about my bowel movements and fart explosions.”
“Bowel,” Thisbe mumbles.
“Really?” her father asks, tickling her sides. “Bowel and not fart? Whose daughter are you?”
Thisbe wiggles around and tries to tickle him. It’s a smart move, but he’s never ticklish. One person is, and she realizes just in time.
“No,” MJ gasps and makes a run for it.
While they chase her around the living room, I take the bowl of food she left on the counter. MJ would easily win if she were willing to knock down her kid to make a beeline for the door. I’m glad she doesn’t because Thisbe is known to wail like a horny alley cat when someone pisses her off and I’m not in the mood for that level of noise.
As my food warms, I text Stella. She thanks me again for dinner. She also says she misses me. Yeah, that one goes straight to the heart, and I struggle not to ditch the goulash and drive over to pick up my woman.
But she has work tomorrow, and I need to figure out where she can live. We should both stay focused rather than allowing short-term fun to interfere with our long-term plans.
It’s essential for me to get Rae and Kori safely settled so I can steal Stella for myself.
THE UNWANTED
; I wake up in the best mood because I know I’ll see Colt later. We texted last night about movies we liked. We share a few favorite ones, but he also tells me about a couple I’ve never heard of. Colt finishes the nightly messages with plans to go to the movies later in the week.
Waking around six, I watch Rae quietly get ready for work. After Kori stumbles out of bed, we eat leftover ribs and mashed potatoes like “fancy rich people.”
Before the heat becomes unbearable, I take Kori swimming. I listen to her talk about how much she likes the food Colt brought for her. That’s Kori-code for she likes him.
By the time Rae returns from her shift, we’re back in the room.
“Where’s the car?” Rae asks as she strips out of her sweaty clothes.
“Colt’s friend came and worked on it while we were swimming. He couldn’t fix it here. He towed the car to his place and said he’d bring it back tonight.”
“And that’ll cost how much?”
I shrug, assuming Colt would handle the cost. If he expected me to pay, he’d have waited until we had more cash.
“We saved leftovers for you, Mom,” Kori says and shows Rae the container. “We didn’t eat it all.”
“Want to help me finish it?”
Kori almost squeals with glee at the idea of more BBQ pork. Colt has given her a taste for the expensive things in life.
I’m warming up the food for Kori and Rae when a knock at the door ruins our happy mood. People never bother us for good news. Of course, it might be about the car, so I swallow my fear and walk to the door.
I see no one through the peephole. Next, I peek through the curtains, but I can’t tell who’s out there. With only twenty minutes left before I need to walk to the bus stop, I don’t have time to play this hide-and-seek game.
Opening the door, I find Rod standing in the walkway outside. Seeing his face awakens the rage in me again. In the last few days, I've attached all my hate and disappointment in life onto this man. Now he’s giving me a dirty look.
The only thing keeping me from slamming the door shut is the sight of his swollen left eye and busted lower lip. Someone beat his face into hamburger.
“What do you want?” I ask, fighting a smile.
No one besides Rae has even taken my side. Colt, though, believed me, and he got his pop to believe too.
“I got your fucking money,” he growls, forcing me back into the room.
“Fine. Give it to me.”
Rod glares through his open eye. I hold out my hand, and he slaps the money onto my palm. Before I can pull away, he grips my wrist.
“You think you’re special, but this shit is temporary.”
“Get out.”
Even beat up, Rod moves so fast I can’t avoid his hand around my throat. He shoves me against the wall, leaving a dent in the plaster. Startled and in pain, I still worry the motel will charge us to fix the damage.
“You’re a piece of ass in a long line of them,” he growls an inch from my face. “I’m a protected man. You’re a lousy lay. In a few days or weeks, I’ll still be protected, and you’ll be worth no more than a used condom.”
“Fuck off,” I mutter, pushing at his chest and finding only a wall of muscle.
“No one will fucking care when I crack open your skull. Not Colton or his father. You can disappear and not a fucking soul will bat an eye. I can make that happen. I’ll dump your bitch friend and her ugly kid in the same dumpster because you’re all trash. Who would even give a shit? You keep that in mind when you think of acting like you won, bitch. I took a beating so Colton could tap your ass. Nothing more to it.”
Struggling to breathe under the tightening pressure of his hand, I feel him lifting me upward until I’m forced onto my tiptoes.
“This shit,” he says, gesturing toward his bruised face with his free hand, “ain’t nothing. Know why?” Rod lets go of my throat and steps back. “I got value, and you don’t. That means when I give you this money, you better find your manners and thank me, cunt. Now, what do you say?”
Rod dares me to challenge him. If he had made me suck him off that day, I wouldn’t hate him. I’d assume I asked for trouble somehow. Rae’s different, though, and he stole something from her that she’ll never get back.
I hate this man for what he did, and I hate him for scaring Kori and Rae now. He’s become the symbol of every person who ever did us wrong, and I want him to burn. My rage demands he suffers. Crazed with anger, I want to beat him to death with my bare hands.
Before I can commit suicide, Rae rushes between us and throws her arms around me. Her hug holds me back, calms my rage, and returns my sanity.
I hear her thank him. She doesn’t sound afraid. Rae never loses her cool. People think she can’t feel because she seems like a robot. She’s just good at hiding. She’s brilliant really, having created walls of protection surrounded by a moat of indifference.
Deep inside where I don’t like to look, I’m a raw nerve. Rod triggers a part of me that would burn the world to the ground, even if it destroyed the people I loved. I can’t free that rage, and Rae helps return me to a world worth saving.
“At least one of you bitches knows her place,” Rod says and walks out.
Kori runs to the door, slams it shut, and locks the bolt. Rae refuses to let me free until she knows I won’t do something stupid.
“I’m okay. I just hate him,” I say, caressing my friend’s hair. “He makes me lose it.”
“He’s one person in a world full of them. Don’t make him matter.”
“You should tell Colt,” Kori says while peering out the curtains. “Have him beat up that jerk.”
When I don’t respond, Rae asks, “Do you think he’d want to know?”
“Of course, he would, but that doesn’t mean I should tell him. He’s stuck between his club and me. If I push him too hard, he might have to choose, and it’s not like he’s going to choose me. The club is his family’s business. I’m just a girl he’s dating. No, I shouldn’t say anything and put pressure on him.”
Rae lets go of me. “You know best.”
“What good is being big, if he’s scared?” Kori asks, wearing an angry frown.
“Colt isn’t scared. He cares about his family like you care about yours.”
“And we’re not his family,” Rae says while closing the drapes so Kori will stop looking outside and letting the sun warm the room.
I take the money Rod returned and count it out. “We need a better place to hide our cash,” I say, handing it to Rae.
Kori grabs her doll and opens up the back where the batteries used to go when it still worked. Nodding, Rae stuffs the cash inside the toy and closes it back up.
“Good thinking,” she tells Kori who loses her frown.
Even frazzled, I mumble, “I better go.”
“What if he’s still out there?” Kori cries.
“I can’t lose this job,” I say and pat her head. “Colt said he’ll find us a better place to live. We’re going to need rent money.”
“Like an apartment?” Kori asks with her gaze stuck on the leftovers her mom takes from the microwave.
“Maybe. We won’t have a pool so we should enjoy it while we can.”
Kori gives me a hug before I leave. Rae considers doing the same, but I know she doesn’t like hugging. She uses up all her affection on Kori and has little left over for anyone else.
I smile at them before leaving for the bus stop. A part of me fears seeing Rod or even what he might have planned. Then I remember his words. I have value for now. So while he might one day ruin me, I’m in the clear for the time being.
None of that really matters, though. Even with a bump on my head and a sore throat, I’m only concerned with seeing Colt again.
THE HEIR
Conroe is a small town an hour from Ellsberg where my aunts set up shop years ago. The local Reapers chapter is run by my cousin Bubba who does the bidding of his mom, Bailey. A few years ago, my aunts lured Lily away with the pro
mise of jobs and a big house. She visits Ellsberg a few times a month, but I can’t wait that long to hit her up for a favor.
Arriving in Conroe around lunchtime, I hope to get a meal out of the visit along with a place to live for Stella.
“I’m here!” I announce when Lily answers the door wearing her daughter in one of those baby carriers. “Miss me?”
“I saw you a week ago.”
“So, yes, then,” I say, gesturing for Lily to move so I can get out of the heat. “How is my baby niece?”
“What’s her name again?”
“I know her name.”
“Say it,” Lily insists, leaning against the doorjamb so I can’t get past her.
“Jenny.”
“No.”
“Jeanie?”
“No.”
“I’m close, though, right?” I say, giving her a wink.
“You can’t come inside until you get her name right.”
Rolling my eyes, I pull out my phone, call Mom, listen to her say my niece’s name four times, and then finally try it on my own. “Eugenie.”
“Why is that so hard?”
“It’s just such a great name that I can’t remember it.”
Lily narrows her eyes at me, but she’s a wuss and can’t stay mad. Stepping back, she motions for me to enter. I walk inside her fancy, horror movie house with its arches and those creepy stained-glass windows. The floors creak under my boots, and I feel underdressed for her spacious home.
“Where’s your man and other kid?”
“They’re swimming out back.”
“Poor people really dig pools,” I say, following her to the screened porch overlooking her backyard.
“What did you want?” Lily asks.
“I recently got to thinking about how beautiful and kind you are. Smart too. Super great mom. Just an all-around wonderful person.”
Lily shoots me a hateful look, but I’m not intimidated. Sure, she’s killed more people than I have, but I’ve beaten up ten times as many as her, so it evens out.