“I don’t wear what you tell me to wear.” I lean back in my chair, my eyes unable to stay off the ultimate prize, who sat there like a demure china doll next to her parents. I wore my fatigues. I knew Trix hated them, and I also knew my babygirl loved me in my camo, and she’s the goddess I serve.
“Chloe, go get us two more Bud’s.” Edgar Whitehouse is too lazy to go get his own beer from the bar, so he sends his youngest daughter to do his dirty work.
“Sit.” I growl at Chloe inches her chair back to stand.
“No, it’s okay. Let me go.” She smiles and I see the wheels turning in the beautiful head of hers. She’s so scared of her family knowing about us. The pleading look in her eyes breaks my heart.
What a fucking evil piece of shit her father is. I want to jump across the eight top and smash the ten teeth he has left down his throat. But I know that would be too much for my little girl, so I roll my eyes and swallow deep, counting the seconds until I get us the fuck out of here.
My gut told me to steal her away from them the day I got home. But, she wasn’t ready and my plan wasn’t quite pulled together but it is now.
“Why aren’t you listening to me?” Trixie looked like a ten-cent whore, and her breath smelled like a trashcan filled with ten kinds of cheap liquor and a hundred ashtrays. She made my stomach turn.
My voice caught in my throat. “Trix,” I took a deep breath before continuing. “I told you I would come here, but lay the fuck off.”
Even the thought of pretending to be her friend sets my teeth on edge, but I’ll do anything to stay close to Chloe. Just a little while longer and this whole charade is over.
It was one of Trixie’s skanky friend’s getting married, and she was in the bridal party. I was thankful because it meant she was sitting at the head table and not with the family. She’s staring at me.
“What?” It was all I could do not to push her face away from me and flatten her on the ground. In her condition, it was only a matter of time before she ended up on the floor, but I didn’t want to be the one to put her there, at least not in front of my angel.
“Why are you such a grump?” Trixie pouted, maintaining a distorted fantasy that somehow I might think looking at her bratty face was cute.
“I’m not a grump, but you are drunk, and if you don’t know by now how I hate...” I let my voice trail off.
What the fuck did I care? She knew how I felt about drinking, and she chose to throw back as many shots as the bartender would serve at once along with the other Orange Crush contingent standing next to the bride.
She wasn’t going to listen anyway. Her attention span made a flea look focused. I looked over at my girl walking back from the bar, her hands gripping two brown bottles with red and white labels. She set them down in front of the toothless wonder and his lovely bride who applied her eyeliner as thick as her lipstick. Besides her raccoon eyes and smeared red lips, there wasn’t a bottle of peroxide left at Walmart from the looks of her hair.
“Mom!” Trixie screamed across the table.
I took a deep breath, all I wanted to do was grab my baby’s hand and get her the hell out of here. She looked so lost and out of place with this circus sideshow. How the fuck she came from the same place as the rest of these freaks is beyond me.
I was only here for Chloe; she had begged me not to be to brutal with Trix. We hadn’t been together since the day I met Chloe. I wasn’t even sure why her sister wanted to be friends with me. I hadn’t touched her in years, not since those first months in high school when we got together. Before I met her family. And Chloe. In fact, my dick would turtle up if Trix even made an eyelash bat my way.
Truth is, I know why Trix wants to maintain our friendship. She’s thinks I’m about to provide her winning lottery ticket.
As long as my baby was still in that house with these freaks, I would try to keep her life from getting even worse by playing along. Being gone overseas, I needed to know she was at least under a roof, such as it was. I couldn’t back out on my contract, so we had to make a deal with each other. We stuck to it, but time’s up. I’m done with hiding and pretending. It’s time for me and my babygirl to be together for real.
“Yes, princess?” Elvira’s twin leaned her elbows on the table, taking a deep draw from the long necked, brown bottle, and then wiped the back of her hand over her chin when she couldn’t even manage to keep the beer from dribbling out of her lips.
“Don’t you think Ryder looks older? I think he got older while he was sitting in that desert for so long. Did you get older?” They both laughed.
“Yep. Older and wiser,” I spat back as my gut clenched.
Trixie leaned over, her hand on my leg and her triple D silicone popping out the top of the cheap cream-sickle dress. It felt like acid was burning through my pants where she rested her hand, and I couldn’t breathe for another second with her so close to me.
I jerked my leg sideways and kicked my chair back so hard it almost fell over.
“Where are you going?”
“To get some water.”
“There’s water right here silly. Come on, let’s dance!” She looked up, leaned on the table and tried to stand up. The tendrils of her intricate up-do falling in highlighted streaks across her face. What a train wreck.
“No. I’ll be back.” I looked over at Chloe, sitting there with her eyes low, her teeth biting on her lower lip. Jesus, if she knew what she was doing to me, sitting there looking like that.
I threw my head back and cracked my neck, trying to release some of the tension from watching the freak show. My cock screamed for my babygirl.