“So that’s what we do now. We take teenage girls, marry them, and knock them up.”
“I didn’t… I was careful, brat.”
He is not mollified by that in the slightest. “So she’s here for the long haul, then? A woman, in our home, wandering around…”
“Having a vagina, yes. I know, very inconvenient.”
“We can’t survive this way, Angelo. We have made it this far because we will do anything, be anything. We can’t do that with her. She’s…”
“Yes. I know, a woman.”
“She’s naive. She’s spoiled. She comes from a world where she gets whatever she wants whenever she wants. She’s been here for two days and she’s best friends with Mark. She’s already had you, Angelo. She didn’t even have to work for it. She just had to come here, flash her lashes at you and you…” He’s gritting his teeth and balling his hands up. “Mark’s right. This is fucked up. You’ve gone too far this time.”
“Oh, Mark thinks I’ve gone too far?”
“We all do. Even you do.”
“Bobby, has it occurred to you that I might have some idea what I’m doing, that I’m not throwing our lives away with a sudden taste for teenage pussy?”
“Nice way to talk about your wife.”
“She is my wife. And that makes her part of our household, whether you like it or not.”
“That demotes me to fuck boy,” Bobby snarls. “That’s what it does. You’re turning straight. Next you’ll be mowing the lawns and having barbecues with the other dads at school sports days.”
Even he can’t keep a straight face while describing that potential future.
“See, boy? See how ridiculous that sounds?”
“Yeah. It would be the first FBI raid on a potato sack race,” he smirks. “You know, she’s going to want to get knocked up, that’s what all women want.”
“Your knowledge of the fairer sex is, as always, impeccable,” I reply dryly as he displays his ignorance proudly.
“Yeah? You think she doesn’t want a cute little baby to love and hold and call her own?” Bobby must catch a flicker of uncertainty in my gaze. “You didn’t think about that, did you?”
He almost sounds like Mark now, making points that might actually have some rationale behind them. I hadn’t given much thought to what Tilly might want. It didn’t strike me as relevant.
“What Tilly wants, especially if it is something that ridiculous, is not important.”
“Uh huh. Women get what they want, Angelo. They're not like men.”
“She's a girl. She doesn’t have superpowers.”
“She already has you twisted around her little finger. You don’t punish her. You don’t lecture her. She does what she wants, when she wants. Mark and I went through hell to be with you. She’s picking out leggings online.”
“Has it occurred to you that she might be more obedient than you were?”
“She’s not.”
“Yes. She is.”
He looks at me, risking his skin to speak this way. “No, Angelo. She’s not. She doesn’t know who you really are. She doesn't know what any of us really are. And she doesn’t understand what the stakes are.”
* * *
Tilly
I am standing in the hall, listening to them talking about me. It’s interesting. I can hear the pain in Bobby’s voice, and the arrogance in Angelo’s.
I know I am in danger here. I know that Angelo is not the sort of man that comes with a happily ever after. But the sex was good, and Bobby is obviously jealous and possessive. He loves Angelo. He loves Angelo maybe more than I’ve ever seen anybody love anybody else. I find myself feeling a little jealous in turn. I’m not loved the way Angelo or Bobby is loved. And I don't love the way they do either.
I don’t know if I ever will.
I turn away, not wanting to hear any more. It’s making me feel lonelier than ever, right when I was feeling connected and smug.
I am intruding here. Bobby is right. I don’t belong. This is a house of men bound by god knows what. Whatever binds them isn’t Angelo. I used to think that it was Angelo, but it’s not Angelo. It’s something that includes Angelo, some force bigger and more important than any of them.
And now I’m caught up in it too. There’s no way out. I’m as trapped as they are. I know there are outside forces. England didn’t cease to exist when Angelo put me on a private plane.
I have to keep my wits about me. I may have to get myself out of this.
Chapter 14
Three weeks later…
I’m no closer to getting out. I think I might even be settling in, and that’s probably worse. Every day, I get a little closer to Mark, and a bit more intimate with Angelo. He makes love to me intermittently. I think we might be on an unofficial schedule of some kind. I do know that every time Angelo has been with me, Bobby has a big smile on his face the next day. The two, or maybe three of us must be draining Angelo completely.