“Okay, well… good attitude,” I forced out encouragingly. “Now, I gotta go.”
“Right. Sorry. I don’t even know why I called. It’s uncool. I was just—”
My phone kept notifying me of another call so I interrupted her. “Tory, I have to go.”
“Right. Well… uh… later.”
“’Bye. Good luck,” I replied, took the phone from my ear, dragged down the screen without really looking at it, and put it back to my ear. “Hello?”
“Hey, Riss.”
Aaron.
Why me?
Why?
“Aaron, I—”
“I want you to know I heard you. What you said during our last phone conversation. I know you want me to think on things. I promise I’m doing that. But I’d like you to think on things too. And while you’re thinking, you should know, I’ve finished it with Tory. Until I can get him into daycare at work, Mom’s been looking after Travis while I’m at work. Tory officially moved out tonight.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him she shared that with me already but I needed him off the phone. I’d texted my I’m late alibi to the girls and time was running out for me to get done what I had to get done and get to them so they could be my alibi.
“Thanks for the information, Aaron, but I’m in the middle of something.”
“With Joker?” he asked, derision sliding into his tone.
“No, he’s with his brothers tonight. I’m heading to the girls and I’m driving and you know how I don’t like to talk on the phone while I’m driving,” I lied.
“Yes, I do,” he stated immediately. “And you’re right not to do so. It’s unsafe.”
I rolled my eyes.
He always talked on the phone in his car and not just in his Bluetooth ear thingie.
“So I’ll let you go,” he finished.
“Great. Thanks. That’d be nice.”
“We’ll talk more later.”
I hoped not.
“Goodbye, Aaron.”
“’Bye, honey.”
Ulk.
I hung up, tossed the phone on the seat next to me, grabbed my keys, and before anything else could happen or I could talk myself out of doing what I was going to do, I opened the door, threw my leg out, and hauled myself out of my car.
Quickly, I dashed across the street and up the drive.
Thankfully, Joker’s dad parked his truck outside. I didn’t know why, he had a garage, but he did.
Which was good for me.
So I did what I needed to do.
I went to the passenger’s side (the driver’s side could be seen from the house and the curtains were open), got my key firm in position in my hand, then I dragged the tip hard against the steel from the back gate along the bed across the passenger door and up the entire fender, the paint curling away as I did.
I stopped, took my key away and stared at the mark.
There.
Done.
Did I feel better?
It was immature and a little crazy, but I absolutely did.
I grinned to myself, turned to dash back to my car, and stopped dead.
“Right on,” Tabby muttered, staring at the mark.
“What now?” Tyra asked, looking at me.
“Girl, broad daylight, you crazy?” Elvira asked, also looking at me.
“Love the booties,” Lanie noted, looking at my boots.
“Wh-what are you guys doing here?” I asked, staring at them standing three feet from me in Joker’s dad’s driveway.
“Followed your ass,” Elvira said, “Girls’ night out when you’re all cozied up with your biker, playin’ house, haven’t pulled that tube top out for weeks?” She shook her head. “We ain’t stupid. That tube top is insurance just in case you get hauled in, Joker has to bail you out, he sees you in that top, he doesn’t spank your ass for bein’ stupid except in a way you like it.”
I hadn’t really thought it out that fully.
Though I wished I had. Joker hadn’t taken naughty to that level, but I found the thought intriguing.
“So… what now?” Tyra asked.
“Did you bring a bag of poo?” Lanie asked.
“Of… what?” I asked.
“Poo,” Lanie said, “To light it on fire and knock on his door.”
“Poo?” Tabby queried derisively then looked to me. “I got a lighter and we can light something on fire, but we’ll call the fire department before we do it.”
“And, say, do that shit when it’s not evening, it’s night, so we don’t still have sunlight and every eye in the ’hood isn’t on us,” Elvira put in.
“I’m not lighting Joker’s father’s house on fire,” I whispered, aghast.
“We’ll call the fire department before so there won’t be much damage,” Tabby reiterated.
“You are so your father’s daughter,” Tyra mumbled, but she sounded almost proud.
“That’s arson, that would be a felony,” I told them.
“This is vandalism,” Elvira shared, tossing a hand out to the truck.
“I know, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a felony,” I replied.
“There is felony vandalism,” Elvira returned.
Oh no.
Was there?
Was keying a car felony vandalism?
Maybe it was. It was a nice truck. Newish. Clean. He obviously took care of it, which meant he cared about it.
To get that fixed, it would probably cost a lot of money.
“Uh-oh,” Elvira muttered as I considered the alarming possibility that I hadn’t committed a misdemeanor, I’d actually committed a felony.
“Let’s go,” Lanie whispered.
“What the fuck!” a man yelled.
I jumped, whirled around and tipped my head back to stare at Joker’s very angry-looking father.
Uh-oh.
“We’re gone, let’s go,” Tyra said urgently.
That sounded like a good idea.
I started to do that when Joker’s dad asked, “You key my truck?” I kept trying to go but didn’t get very far when he grabbed my upper arm tight and thundered, “Bitch! You key my truck?”
His hand hurt.
And he was touching me.
Therefore, without thought, I wrenched my arm free, reared back with my other one, keys still in position, and I swung at him with all I was worth, putting my full body into it.
“Ow!” I yelped as the impact cracked through my hand and sliced through my palm, where I held the keys.
“Jesus, fuck!” he yelled, not having anticipated my actions, so the likely puny blow I landed took him by surprise, which took him back two paces, his upper body jerking to the side, his hands coming up to his face.
“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Tabby yelled, grabbing my hand and pulling me.
I watched in horror, keys dangling from where I was pressing them at the junction between thumb and forefinger as I shook the sting out of my hand, while he righted himself.
I saw the mark.
I’d torn through the flesh of his cheek with my key and he was bleeding.
Profusely.
And he looked mad.
Seriously.
I turned on my stiletto heeled booties and ran.
“Follow the leader!” Tyra yelled.
“Got it!” Tabby yelled back. “I’m with Curly.”
Curly?
We made it to the red wreck and she pulled my keys out of my hand.
“I drive,” she declared.
I was shaking top to toe so I was okay with that.
I dashed to the passenger side just as Joker’s dad made it to the car.
Luckily, Tabby was already in.
Blood pouring down his cheek, he tore open her door, and I squealed as he went for her but she went for the ignition.
I barely had my bottom to the seat before she roared out, her door open, my door open and everything.
He staggered back.
She raced to the
tail of Tyra’s Mustang in front of us, her car door slamming with the movement of the vehicle.
Unfortunately, I had to reach out and grab mine.
I did, taking my life in my hands to slam it shut.
Then I buckled up.
Only then did I realize I was hyperventilating.
“That was rad,” she muttered.
She was crazy.
I looked at her to see she was grinning like the crazy I thought she was at the windshield.
“Keyed his truck, keyed his face. Abuser fuckwad, bested by a girl with curly hair. Totally… fucking… rad,” Tabby decreed.
Her words hit me.
They soaked in.
And I began grinning.
She was right.
It was.
It absolutely was.
Totally… fucking… rad.
* * *
Following Lanie, Tyra, and Elvira into a very posh establishment that I’d never been to, Elvira instantly bellied up to the bar, hand up, fingers snapping, and a bartender came right to her.
“Five cosmos, one bag of ice, immediately, but not in that order.”
“I’m driving, Elvira,” I told her and her head snapped around to face me.
“We’ll get you home.”
I took one look at her and shut up.
The bartender put a towel filled with ice on the bar.
“Hand,” Elvira ordered.
I got close and gave her my hand.
She grabbed it by the wrist, placed it on the bar and set the bag on it, holding it there.
That felt good.
“Now, girl, what the fuck?” she asked.
“Um…” I answered.
“What’d I say about backup?” she pushed.
“Well, uh… just to say, if you guys hadn’t showed, I’m pretty sure I would have gotten away with the keying.”
“Right, let’s talk about that,” she stated, then repeated, “What the fuck?”
“What the eff what?” I asked.
Her brows shot up. “Keying his car? What’s that gonna do?”
I straightened my shoulders and answered, “Make me feel better.”
“I hear you,” she replied instantly. “What I mean is, what’s it gonna do for your man?”
“Nothing,” I stated. “I wasn’t gonna tell him. My job with him is to be at his side and let him deal with it in his own time. What I did tonight was for me.”
“Totally rad,” I heard Tabby mutter.
Elvira stared at me.
“He has a nice truck,” I told Elvira. “His house is run down. His body is run down. He scowls at old ladies in the grocery store, so clearly he’s in a perpetually bad mood, not to mention he’s rude. But his truck is nice, newish, and clean. He likes it. Now it’s messed up. He’s messed up a lot of things far more important and got away with it. He should have something of his that’s messed up. Now he does.”
“Yeah, like his face,” Tyra mumbled.
I looked at her, now that the rush of it was over, feeling kind of sick about that. “That wasn’t the plan.”
She grinned at me. “It was a good addition.”
I bit my lip.
“You done with that shit?” Elvira asked and I turned back to her.
“I think so.”
“You’re done with it,” she declared. “But if you get another wild hair up your ass and decide to roll with it, you,” she leaned into me, “call your girls.”
“All right,” I whispered.
“Shit,” she muttered, looking to the side. “Where’s my cosmo?”
“Here,” the bartender said, setting up five martini glasses and starting to fill them from a cocktail shaker. “Just so you know, these are on the guy down there.” He jerked his head down the bar but his eyes came to me. “He wanted you in particular to know he hopes your hand is okay.”
I looked down the bar at a man in a suit, no tie, dark blond hair, very nice looking, eyes on me, smiling.
“She’s Chaos!” Tabby shouted. “Don’t you see the tube top?”
The guy blinked.
I started shaking, but not from fear, from something else entirely.
Then I started giggling.
Lanie started giggling with me.
Tyra burst out with it.
Elvira muttered, “Biker bitches. Someone kill me.”
That was when Tabby burst out with it.
And I did too.
* * *
I sat on the couch in my living room, boots on, jacket off, one light lit at my side, waiting.
And fretting.
It was nearly three o’clock in the morning and the mellow of the cosmos (I’d had two, which was one too many, but they were tasty) and girl time had worn off.
Several hours ago, Elvira had driven me home in my car with Tyra trailing. She’d joined them and they’d taken off on waves and smiles.
Girl time was good.
Cosmos were yummy (I’d never had one).
But now it was hitting me what I’d done.
I’d vandalized Joker’s dad’s car and I didn’t get away with it.
He caught me. He saw me. He saw all the girls. He could pick me out of a lineup. He could probably pick all of us out of a lineup.
Then I’d hit him, causing him damage.
He’d call the police.
Then they’d find me.
They’d find us.
And we’d be in trouble, and Joker would find out I’d done something stupid. He’d have no choice but to deal with his father as his father pressed charges against me. It could all blow sky high as I’d have to explain my actions were due to my biker boyfriend enduring abuse.
And with all that, Joker might never forgive me.
And I didn’t like to think of what Hop and Shy would do.
Or—I swallowed at the thought—Tack.
Eek!
I jumped a foot when I heard the back door open.
Joker was home.
Time to face the music.
I turned my head to the side and saw him round the corner, shrugging off his cut.
He threw it over the back of a dining chair, turned, caught sight of me, and stopped.
“Baby…” he whispered, his face taking on an expression I never wanted to see again. “Is it Travis?”
Slowly, I stood, saying, “No, sweetie. Travis is fine.”
“Then what—?”
“I did something stupid,” I blurted. “And the police could be here any minute. Or they could arrest me at LeLane’s tomorrow once they’ve tracked me down. Or they could—”
“What the fuck?” he cut me off to ask.
“You’re gonna be mad,” I told him.
“Then I’ll be mad, but tell me what the fuck is happening,” he shot back.
“I saw your dad in the grocery store,” I said hurriedly, and I didn’t think it was good that his entire torso swung back almost like he was evading a blow. “I saw your reaction,” I pushed onward. “It upset me. I found out his address. Then I went to his house and keyed his truck.”
No torso swing on that.
Joker blinked.
“Unfortunately,” I went on, “I had to ask Elvira for her help. I was using girls’ night out as an alibi, and since we’d never had one of those and I asked for one out of the blue, they knew something was up. They followed me. And after I keyed his truck, they joined me at his house. As we were discussing whether or not to set his house on fire… that was Tabby’s idea, incidentally, not mine,” I added swiftly so he wouldn’t think I was totally unhinged, “your dad came out.”
“Fuck,” he hissed.
I closed my eyes tight, opened them quickly, and kept speaking.
“He saw his truck and he got a little angry. To get away, I was…” I didn’t think it would be good to tell Joker his dad put his hand on me so I skimmed past that part, “well, forced to get physical. I forgot I had my keys in my hand when I punched him. He fell back and when we were running awa
y, I saw that I’d broken skin and he was bleeding.”
Joker stared at me.
“So, he has me on vandalism and assault,” I boiled it down. “And he was pretty mad, so I’ve been waiting up to tell you and/or face the police when they got to our door.”
Joker kept staring at me.
I kept talking.
“You have my permission to use my savings as bail money. And if Aaron successfully uses this lunacy to get full custody of my son, all I request is that you hide the sharp knives and razorblades.”
“Come here.”
“I…” I shook my head. “What?”
“Get your ass over here.”
His expression and tone weren’t giving me anything.
I debated the merits of going to him.
I debated the merits of not going to him.
I did this in seconds then went to him.
He turned as I did, so when I stopped two feet away, he was facing me full on.
“First, my dad’s a dick,” he stated.
“I, well, I know that, Carson,” I whispered.
“He’s just a dick, but he also thinks he has a big one. No way in fuck he’d report it to the police that a woman marked him. He wouldn’t take that hit to the cred he thinks he’s got at all, but especially gettin’ that mark from a curly-haired ex-cheerleader.”
“Really?” I asked, hope blooming.
He nodded. “Really. It’s not gonna happen. Even if you didn’t mark him, just got a punch in, he wouldn’t share that with anyone.”
Well, that was good.
“Good,” I whispered.
“Second,” he began and the minute amount I’d relaxed raced away. “He saw you. He saw me. At the grocery store while you were dumpin’ beans in the cart, he looked right at me… and you. He knew in a glance who you were to me, what we have, what I’ve got. He looked away, Carissa. I coulda made an approach and rubbed it in, but why the fuck would I waste my time with that shit? It isn’t worth it. Bein’ in a grocery store with a beautiful girl who likes bein’ with me who’s babbling about chili hit him harder than I could ever do it even if I wanted to put in that effort. I took off to get outta his space. He doesn’t deserve that, but I had my pretty girl with me babblin’ about chili. We were settin’ up for a good night ’cause that’s what we always have. I introduce him into it, it means she might not have a good night. So I got us the fuck outta there.”
“Oh,” I said softly, thinking perhaps I should have discussed things with him before I went out and committed felonies.