I wait, watching the little fucker lick his lips nervously. I know where this is going, but I want to hear him say it.
“She’s pregnant,” he tells me, looking more miserable than he has up to now. “Of course I almost had a fucking heart attack. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to piss her off because she had all this ammunition. She could wipe out my whole fucking life if she told. I tried to feel her out, tried to play it supportive and ask what she wanted to do, hoping to God she’d say she wanted an abortion and I could give her some money to take care of it.”
“She didn’t,” I surmise.
He shakes his head miserably. “She won’t. We got into a fight about it. I tried to be nice at first, but when she kept refusing and saying she wanted to have the baby, I just… I got so fucking scared, and I told her she couldn’t keep it because it would ruin both our lives. She swore she wouldn’t tell Bri, but that wasn’t good enough. What if she changed her mind? I told her I’d give her the money and take her to the appointment myself, but she just got pissed at me for trying to force her into something she didn’t want to do. I never saw her so stern in all the time I knew her. Wouldn’t you know the time she comes up against me and holds her fucking ground is over the worst mistake of my life? So, I didn’t handle it well,” he tells me, like this isn’t even all of it.
“There’s more?” I demand, cocking an eyebrow.
“I felt this helpless rage that she wouldn’t let me off the hook. She was always so goddamn accommodating—what happened to that?”
“Sounds like she’s a mama bear,” I offer. “You think of the pregnancy as a mistake. She already thinks of it as her baby.”
He rolls his eyes. “It’s fucking annoying. Anyway, we both get all fired up and before I know it…”
“Let me guess, you fucked her again,” I deadpan.
He nods. “But this time, it’s different. This time I’m not enchanted like I normally am, just thinking about the pleasure she’s giving me. This time she’s being a pain in my ass and she could really ruin my life. I didn’t make a conscious decision to do it, but I wrapped my hands around her throat and started choking her while I fucked her. She didn’t like it, even at first when she thought maybe I was just being kinky. She started panicking and tried to pull my hands off her throat and yelled at me to stop, but I didn’t. I kept fucking her even though she didn’t want me to anymore, and she was so fucking afraid. Then I started thinking, What the fuck am I doing? This is illegal, she’s going to have my ass arrested.”
Aw, shit. Giving up my relaxed position, I lean forward and stare at him across the table. “Are you telling me you killed this girl?”
A little paler, he shakes his head. “No. No, I… I swear to God, I almost did, but I couldn’t go through with it. Her big eyes were looking up at me so fearful, so betrayed. After I came, I just sort of let her go and ran. The whole fucking way home all I could think about was the cops showing up at my door and Bri answering, so fucking confused.” He hangs his head in shame. “What would she tell the boys? I fucked up so bad, Brant.”
He sure did.
Fuck.
I expected a cheating story, figured I might have to pay his side dish a visit and persuade her to fuck off, but I wasn’t counting on any of this. A fucking teenage girl, knocked up, and on top of that, sounds like he sort of raped her and tried to kill her. It’s nothing short of a miracle this girl didn’t run screaming to the police station.
“You said she’s 17?”
“She was when it all started. She’s 18 now,” he tells me.
“Alyssa what?”
“Alyssa Walton.”
“She live with her parents?”
He nods. “Her mom. She starts college in the fall, so she was going to live at home the first year to get herself used to everything.”
“Was,” I echo, running my thumb across the rim of my whiskey glass. Looking up at him, I ask, “What is it you’d like me to do for you, Theo?”
At first, he just stares at me, wanting me to fill in the blank for him, wanting me to say what I already know he’s asking so he doesn’t have to ask me to murder the nice little girl who made the dumb mistake of getting mixed up with him.
“She’s not cooperating,” he says a little desperately, trying to justify his ugly request. “Now she hates me, and it’s only a matter of time before she decides to stop covering my ass. She’ll go to Bri, if not to the cops, and what then? She’ll ruin Bri’s life, Brant.”