Greetings from Sugartown (17 page)

She laughs, despite her tears. “I love you too. Can you forgive me for being a paranoid, insecure bitch these last few weeks?”

“Well, that depends; can you be waiting naked in my bed tonight when I get home?”

“I think I can manage that,” she replies, finally giving me a smile that chases away the hurt.

“Good, because I am too fucking big to sleep on that couch again,” I say, and claim her mouth with mine. Her kisses are chaste, and neither one of us try to push it further. In the past I’d never really known how to deal with emotion—I buried myself in women so I wouldn’t have to feel, I’d fucked out my feelings, but there comes a point when that isn’t enough. I pull back, leaning down to see her eyes better. “Don’t give up on us, baby girl. We’re not done yet.”

She shakes her head. “No, we’re not.”

She hasn’t mentioned the ring, and though it’s killing me, I don’t either. Maybe she’s just not ready, and that’s okay, because I’ll be here waiting when she is.

“Hey, you ready to go?” Kick asks, walking through the kitchen and interrupting our quiet conversation. A bolt of hunger and excitement rips through me for what we’re about to do.

“Yeah, bring on the arse-kicking.” I tuck Ana’s hair back behind her ear and straighten.

“Go knock him dead, babe,” she says, and for a half second there I forget she’s talking about playing pool with Kick. She brings my face down and plants a loud smacking kiss on my lips. I step back and help her from the bench, squeezing her tightly before setting her on her feet.

“Love you,” I say, releasing her and following Kick to the door. “Don’t wait up.”

Kick and I spend the better part of the night downing beers while we play pool. Scott doesn’t show for some time and then after nine he walks in, hand in hand with Nicole. It makes me sick to think I ever touched her, much less that Ana would believe I want to do it again.

I mean yeah, her body’s hot, but I learned my lesson that night, and I sure as hell wouldn’t touch a bitch who’d opened her legs for a known rapist. I don’t condone violence against women at all, but the second I see Nicole with that slimy bastard, I kinda wanna slap some sense into her dense, over-peroxided head.

“Check it out.” Kick points with his pool cue toward the happy couple. “That pretty piece of body mod you did obviously doesn’t stop the fucker getting laid.”

“No. It doesn’t,” I say through gritted teeth. “How’d you know it was me?”

“Come on, Brother, I know you better than that.” He slams home the black and lifts his beer in salute. “I woulda done the same thing.”

“No, you would have killed the bastard.”

“So would you. At least … the old you would have. You’ve changed, man.” He shakes his head, but he doesn’t look as if he’s unhappy about it—just the opposite. “The Ethan I know would have strung that bastard up by his intestines and cut off his junk while he watched.”

“I don’t know how much I’ve really changed. Every time I see that cunt I wanna fucking kill him.” I rack the pool cue because my hands are shaking. They’re itching to crush something, to squeeze the life out of someone, and here and now is not the time nor place for that. “I need a fucking drink stronger than a Tooheys.”

“No, we need to leave.”

“But he just got here.”

“Exactly. You’ve been out of the game too long, Brother.”

“Were either of us really ever in the game?”

“We’re still in it. Life’s one big fucking shit-fight for men like us, Moose.”

“Yeah. No fucking kidding.”

I grab my leather jacket from the nearby barstool, and follow Kick to the door. I feel Scott’s gaze bore into my back, and I can’t resist turning to meet it before I slip outside. He stares at me and I glare back, my eyes promising him a world of hurt in his not too distance future.

Once I’m outside, Kick pulls me into the alley where we parked our bikes, and we wait.

I
T’S CLOSE
to midnight when they finally come stumbling out of the bar. Or Nicole’s stumbling, at least. Scott seems oddly sober. She says something about being too tanked to drive, and lobs the keys at Scott. They fall to the ground beside his feet, and he sucks in an exasperated breath while she giggles and leans over the car. Her skirt’s riding up, far enough to see her underwear, and her face is sweaty, red lipstick smeared all over her mouth. I don’t think anyone is under any delusions about Nicole’s promiscuity—I mean, I’d relied on how easy she was once before. But the fact that she’s a sure thing for a rapist turns even my stomach.

He pens her in against the side of the car, separating her thighs with a well-placed knee. He manhandles her tits for a minute, while his mouth attacks her face. I swear it’s like watching a Pit Bull maul a small child.

I turn and give Kick a look in the darkness, one I’m not sure he can even see. I’m getting antsy, and the last thing I wanna see is this fucker get his rocks off with a girl who’s too stupid to understand that she’s nothing more than a piece of easy meat.

As if he’s echoing my thoughts, Scott murmurs, “Let’s get you home.”

“My parents are there, but I’m sure I could think of someplace else to go, if you tell me what you’re going to do to me once we get there.”

“Whatever the hell I want.” His back is to me so I don’t see the smile grace his face, but I can hear it in his cocky reply, and it makes my entire body shake with rage. I close my eyes. All I see is red. I don’t give a shit about Nicole—she’s a worthless slut who’ll open her snatch for anybody—but knowing this cocksucker’s had his dick in my woman and he’s still fucking alive to get it wet again turns my blood to acid in my veins.

I don’t even feel myself moving forward, but before I can really grasp what the hell is happening, Kick slams me back against the brick wall. Covering my mouth with his meaty hand, he whispers, “Not yet, brother. There’s too many eyes around us.”

“What was that?” Nicole’s panicked voice penetrates the darkness.

“Probably just a rat,” he replies impatiently. “Come on, let’s go.”

The second he starts the car I’m on my bike, kicking her over. We wait as long as we can without completely missing our window to tail them at a safe distance. Neither one of us switch our headlight on.

Five minutes out of town, Nicole’s car pulls off the road and down a dirt laneway, hedged on either side by cane fields. A part of me wonders if it’s near where he raped Ana. I guess it’s not important—all that matters is that he pays for what he’s done.

Kick and I lose the bikes on the side of the road. They’re not exactly out of sight, but I seriously doubt they’ll draw attention because everyone in town is tucked safely in their beds.

Kick stops walking, and shoves something hard against my chest. My hand automatically reaches up to grab it. My next reaction is to drop the thing as if it just bit me, but even I’m not stupid enough to toss a loaded Glock. “What the fuck man?”

“What? Kid just got out of prison, you don’t know what he’s carrying.”

“You just hand me a piece without even a heads up.”

“Figured you’d handled enough in the club to not freak out on me.”

“I remember how to handle a gun, you shit-stick, the question is, why the hell are you trusting me with one around this fucker?”

“Never can be too careful, Brother.”

I ensure the safety is switched on, and tuck the piece in the back of my pants. We approach the car, covering both sides, only as I round my side of the vehicle and Kick rounds the other, I notice he hasn’t tucked his gun away. Instead, he keeps it trained on the driver’s side while he pounds on the window with his opposite fist.

“Put it away, man.” I glare across the hood of the car at my oldest friend.

“You want him outta your town and away from your girl?” he asks, meeting my gaze squarely. He pounds on the roof this time. Scott jumps, and snaps his head toward the window. Nicole removes her mouth from around his pin dick. Readjusting her clothes, she shrinks down in her seat. I shake my head in disgust.

Kick grins at me, then he turns his attention back to the idiots inside. His face loses all trace of humour. “Get out of the fucking car!”

They both scramble out of the vehicle. Nicole keeps close to the ground, she’s wailing like a fucking banshee, a shrill cry that feels like it’s splitting my skull open. “Please don’t hurt me.”

“Sugar …” Kick leans down to pat her hair. It’s gentle enough that she slowly raises her head to meet his gaze. “… you’re gonna have to shut up.”

Scott’s facing me. His head is slightly bowed, but the cocky fucker’s still looking at me as if he wants to try something.

“Don’t try playing the hero now, cunt-rag. That ship sailed a long fucking time ago, and you were never destined to be on it.”

“Let Nicole go.”

“Oh, we’ll let her go,” Kick says. “In a little bit.”

“What do you want? Money? Is that it?”

I rear back and smack him in the face with my elbow. He cries out like a little bitch. Adrenalin sings through my veins.
I kinda missed that
. “Broke the AVO again today, Scotty boy. You just don’t know how to stop breaking all the fucking rules, do you?”

“Rules were made to be broken.” He gives me a snide smile, and spits on the ground. A glob of blood and saliva narrowly misses my boot.

“No. Noses were meant to be broken,” I counter, and slam my palm into his face, revelling in the crunch of cartilage giving way to bone.

“You fuck!” Scott doubles over in pain, coughing from the blood sliding down the back of his throat.

“Always the fucking nose.” Kick laughs. “Seriously, what’s wrong with busting an eye socket, or a cheekbone every now and then?”

I shrug at Kick, and turn my attention back to the arsehole in front of me.

“Listen to me, you little fucker, I’m getting tired of seeing your carved up face in my town. I think it’s time you left, before there’s nothing left of you to leave.”

“You can’t make me do shit.”

I laugh and pull the pistol from my back, turning it on him and pressing the end of the cool metal barrel against his temple, flicking off the safety. “That’s where you’re wrong, see? You being here is making my woman uncomfortable, and when she’s uncomfortable, you can bet your bloody arse I’m fucking uncomfortable, and just itching to take some fucker out. That’s not ideal when you’ve got a trigger-happy finger like mine.”

“He does; I’ve seen it. Several times, actually.” Kick chuckles. “Dude’s got killer aim.”

“So you have two choices: either you grab however much of Daddy’s money you need and you get the hell out of town, or you leave in a body bag.”

Nicole starts chanting, “Oh God, oh God, oh God.”

“God left the building a long time ago, sweetheart,” Kick says.

“You won’t get away with this,” Scott says. “You’ll go to jail, both of you. And then there’ll be no one left to protect that hot little slut of yours. Did she tell you how wet she was for me? How I slid in like a hot knife through butter? I can’t wait to get my hands on that pussy again. Next time, I’m gonna tape that shit and put it up all over RedTube.”

I cock the gun and pull the trigger. The chamber clicks over but nothing happens. I squeeze the trigger again and again, but the sound of the empty magazine cycling through mocks me. Finally I scream and pelt the pistol away, turning on Kick.

“What the fuck was that shit? You give me an unloaded gun?”

He throws up his hands to ward off my punches. “Hey, hey, hey, calm down.”

Scott must clamber to his feet behind me because Kick’s gun goes off. Nicole screams. I spin around and find Ana’s rapist standing on quaking legs, his hands raised in surrender.
A warning shot, then
. Regret and rage war within me.

“On your knees, motherfucker.” Kick stalks towards Scott. Yanking his head back by greasy blonde curls, Kick shoves the barrel of his gun under the cocksucker’s chin and forces him to the ground. He moves away, coming to stand in front of me. He grasps my face in his hands, the side of the gun grazing one cheek while he playfully slaps the other with his palm. “I had to know for sure, man. I had to see it for myself.”

“Know what?” I spit. “See what?”

“That you really wanted this fucker to pay for what he did.” Kick turns, lifts his pistol, and shoots Scott point-blank in the head. Blood splatters across Nicole’s face. It mists the leg of my jeans, but Kick remains clean.