Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Selkie
I’ve never been so pissed at someone in my thirty-two years of life, and I’ve faced down a shitload of pricks.
I can barely look at Henri and she won’t look at me, the stubborn little spawn of Satan.
I want a cigarette so bad, I’d trade a kidney for one. Right now, I can’t remember why I decided to quit.
“Hey!” Sadie kicks Henri’s seat. “Let me go, you goddamned bitch!”
“Cut it out,” Henri snaps. “Or I’ll tell Brambles to bite your face off!”
Fucking Sadie! No manners. I kicked his ass, which wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.
I had to get Brambles involved to keep the bastard down while I caught my wind.
Brambles is a guard dog, but not really a fighter.
I bring him along to look tough and keep the assholes respectful. He’s kind of my wingman that way.
And then! As if my day wasn’t bad enough, I get a call from Henri’s school, telling me Mrs. Summers wants to see me as soon as possible.
I freak. “Is Henri hurt?”
“No, she’s in trouble again,” the secretary says. The woman dresses like she’s the fuckin’ Princess of Wales. The old one, not the new one.
“I can’t come in right this minute,” I tell her. “I need an hour.”
Sadie’s in the back seat of my car. It’s as hot outside as Bradley Cooper in a speedo and if I bring the Blackbeard biker in as a charbroiled corpse, I’ll be out my bounty and more than likely, in a jail cell.
“I think you should come right away. Henri’s waiting for you in the principal’s office,” the princess replies sweetly.
When I get there, fucking Mrs. Summers treats me like I’m a kid. I hated school, spent more time in detention than I did in classrooms. Like Henri. The kid needs a tune-up, I decide, which won’t do any good. She’s too much like me.
Then that smug, fucking biker walks into the office like he owns the place.
Worse than Sadie, because Sadie doesn’t pretend he’s anything but who he is.
But Nathan Brody! Mr. Self-Righteous chauvinistic asshole!
I’d never met him before today but already knew more than I needed about him because I keep tabs on all the bikers in the area. They’re my bread and butter. Mostly.
Eight though, his rep is that he’s tall, dark, and tight-lipped. Apparently that doesn’t apply to me and Henri. And now my kid’s expelled because of his kid and Mrs. Summers won’t let them return to school until they learn to get along.
“Shit!” I bang my hands on the steering wheel, making Henri jump, Brambles growl and Sadie swear. What the fuck am I going to do? The principal isn’t just punishing my kid, she’s punishing me. How the hell will I get Henri to bond with Brody’s kid without spending time with that blasted biker?
And we didn’t resolve a single thing in the parking lot, other than establishing that Brody was born in the 19th century.
Now one of us is going to have to call the other.
Play chicken. Which kid’s gonna drive their parent crazy first?
Henri’s no picnic and I’m certain Oscar’s a handful too because why the hell would he be such a fucking bully if Brody was able to control him?
My tires squeal as I take a hard right turn towards home.
“Where’re we going?” Henri exclaims as she grabs the dashboard.
“Where do you think,” I reply. “I’m not taking you to the cop shop. Your grandmother would have a fit.”
“She’s gonna have a fit anyway when she finds out I’m expelled!”
“No point in making it a twofer,” I grumble.
“Let me the fuck out,” Sadie snarls. “Then you only have one reason for the bitch to scream at you.”
Brambles barks at him. Henri balls her fists, and I keep my eyes on the road. “Sorry, asshole. Gonna have to be a twofer.”
“You should let Brambles bite him for calling gramma a bitch.”
In Sadie’s defense, if the shoe fits. “Quit swearing.”
“Holy hypocritical,” Henri replies.
Also, if the shoe fits. I race through a stop sign like it’s just a suggestion and gun it down the road.
I’m almost at my mother’s/slash/my temporary home for the last twelve years when Henri says, “She’s gonna see Sadie and that’ll make it a threefer.”
“No she won’t,” I reply as I screech to the curb four houses down from mom’s bloody pink bungalow. “Get out and walk. You can explain to gramma why you’re home so early.”
Henri glares, but heaves open the car door anyway. “I’m gonna blame it on you.”
“Whatever,” I reply. Yes, I sound like my 12-year-old. She’s a bad influence.
“C’mon Brambles,” she says.
“Brambles stays.”
“Not fair,” she moans.
“Yeah. Life sucks. Shut the door.”
She bangs it closed, then steps back with a scowl that would make the Hell’s Jury prez shit his pants.
I give her a bright sunshiny smile and wave like she’s the sweet kid she used to be then peel away from the curb, not waiting for her return wave. I kinda know what it’s gonna be.
When I get to the cop-shop, there’s a couple of badass bikes parked in front of it. Don’t recognize which gang they belong to but hope it’s not Blackbeards or I’ll have a fight on my hands. Can’t take on two of the bastards, can’t threaten to shoot them, so I won’t win the battle.
The cops in Sagebrush talk tough, but they’re soft and for the most part, useless. Chief Jackson could give a shit what’s going on in his town, providing the criminals hide the bodies and help with upkeep on his lah-de-dah house.
But he can’t ignore me bringing in Sadie for jumping bail and he can’t release him for a bucketful of dough because I’ve already logged him into the system.
I circle the car to the passenger side, yank open the door, shove the front seat forward and reach for Sadie, but goddamn Brambles decides he’s gotta get some fresh air and pushes himself through the little space between me and Sadie.
Sadie gets his foot caught in the seat belt as I heave him out, and fuck if I don’t trip over Brambles who for some reason, stops dead.
I flatten Brambles, who yelps like it’s my fault, and Sadie, wearing the binds around his wrists, can’t stop himself from falling too.
On top of me!
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he yells as his chin bounces off the pavement.
What he said for sure. He’s knocked the wind out of me and I have to take a few seconds to recover, which doesn’t matter because the sucker’s heavy and I can’t wiggle my way out from under him.
Brambles on the other hand, crawls out and scrambles to his feet.
It doesn’t help that he thinks Sadie’s attacking me and snarls and snaps his jaws as he jumps on the biker’s back.
“Fuckin’ bitch!” he yells. “That fuckin’ dog bites me, I’ll rip his fuckin’ legs off.”
“You and what army?” I grunt because I always have to have the last word.
Then Brambles yelps and the weight on my back is suddenly gone.
I roll over and sit up to see Sadie being helped to his feet by the Blackbeard’s VP, Mad Max, formerly pretty boy until he got a face full of shot from a Hell’s Jury old lady.
Despite her bad taste in men, I can’t help but admire that kind of initiative.
“Thanks for finding my boy,” he says with a grin that’s still charming. “I’ve been looking for him.”
I climb to my feet, leaning on my car for support. “Give him back to me! He’s mine!”
Mad Max tilts his head. “You should know better, Selkie. Possession’s nine-tenths of the law.”
“Holy original,” I reply with a sneer as he pulls a big, serrated blade from his boot and runs it clean through the bindings on Sadie’s wrists.
“If you say so. Don’t matter though, does it? He’s mine now.”
“NO!” I yell as they swagger away. Brambles paws at me like he wants a treat. I look down at him. “Goddamn dog. If you could’ve just stayed in the car, I would’ve got him over the threshold.”
Once my perp is in the cop shop, he’s their problem and I get my sack of gold.
Brambles doesn’t seem to care as he hops in the passenger seat and waits for me to get going.
I snarl at him as I hit the road again. He huffs back, his tongue lolling from his mouth.
At home/slash/mom’s/slash/soul-sucking hell, I’m barely two steps into the house before mom is all over me. “What the hell, Selkie! Henri said you got her kicked out of school.”
Brambles knocks me into the wall as he runs down the hall with his tail wagging like he’s in a musical. “She got her own self kicked out of school, mom.” Also, yes, I look like shit. Thanks for caring.
“Elle,” Henri says as she passes us carrying a bowl of ice cream. “Remember, mom? Elle doesn’t want Tyler to know she’s old enough to be your mother.”
“And his,” I add.
Mom ignores my little dig. “Or Henri’s grandmother. And I’m not old enough to be your mother.”
“And yet, mother. You are.”
Mom shrugs as she follows Henri into the living room, squishes up next to her on the couch and picks up the remote control. “You being expelled is not a holiday from school, Henri. You’ll have to watch my shows as punishment.”
Fuck my life. I stomp over to mom and grab the remote control, turning off the TV. I feel like I’m raising two children. “Henri, mom’s right, this isn’t a vacation.”
“Elle,” they say at the same time.
“Which means no TV.” I turn to mom. “And until you tell Tyler the truth about who we really are, no TV for you either.”
She looks up at me with raised eyebrows. “My TV. My rules.”
I hate her pulling the ‘queen bee’ card, but I’m tired to my bones and can’t dig deep enough to remind her she’s supposed to be a role model.
I deflate as I slump down on the couch next to her. “Worst day ever,” I say.
Henri peeks around mom. “You had a bad day? How could it possibly be worse than mine?”
I snatch the ice cream bowl from her. “Sadie got away, so I didn’t get paid. So now we have to share ice cream. Plus you got expelled and I have to talk to that asshole biker and figure things out so I can get your butt back in school.” I shove a spoonful of chocolate mint into my mouth.
“Sadie got away?” mom says. She doesn’t actually know who Sadie is or that I had him, but she does recognize the part where I lost my payday.
“Yeah,” I tell her as I heave a sigh.
“You need a new job. With regular hours. Like working at Swallow’s except not Swallows.
Somewhere else. The tips are good and you could actually contribute to the household.
” Swallow’s is mom’s place of employment and regular hours is a bit of an exaggeration given that mom’s shift starts at five and ends in the wee hours of the morning.
“That would be cool,” Henri says as she wrestles the ice cream bowl away from me. “Better than what you do now, mom.”
No wonder the three of us are so fucked up. Our idea of success is making a living having men leering at us. “I’m not going to give up my career. I worked hard for my credentials and I like what I’m doing.”
Mom looks me over. “How can you like what you’re doing? You look like something the dog dragged in.”
Henri snorts. “Brambles did drag her in. Didn’t you see?”
I rub my face. “Could we please, just once have a human conversation.”
Henri swallows the last of the ice cream and looks at me mock-seriously. “I’m listening.”
Mom looks at me totally serious. “Me too.”
“For starters, I did not get Henri kicked out of school. She did it to herself.”
“Not my fault,” Henri protests. “It’s Oscar’s fault.”
“This is about that little bully?” mom says to me. “Why don’t you talk to his dad and straighten him out?”
“I did!” I say. “At the school.”
“She got mad at him,” Henri huffs. “Then he got mad at her, then Mrs. Summers got mad at them both.”
“Mrs. Summers got mad? She’s so nice.” Mom turns to me. “What did you do?”
“The jerk called Henri a little shit and I lost my temper.”
Mom pats Henri on the thigh. “I love you to pieces, porcupine, but let’s face it, you are a little shit sometimes. Just like your mom.”
Henri grins. “Porcupine Senior.”
My hackles go up. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I yank the empty ice cream bowl out of Henri’s hand and give it a lick. I’m hungry enough to eat chewed gum.
“It means,” mom replies, “that you have a tendency to overreact.”
Henri smirks and I glare. “Brody was being a pr…. asshole!,” I say loudly. “He was the one that got Mrs. Summers mad… Mostly.”
Mom gets up as her phone rings. “Tyler,” she coos as she paces away. “I was hoping you’d call.”
He says something that makes her tinkle with laughter. “Just hanging with my sister and niece.”
I exhale a frustrated breath and put my big girl panties on because someone has to be the grown up in this family. “Anyway,” I say to Henri. “It doesn’t matter what happened. What matters is you and Brody’s kid got kicked out of school and can’t come back until you learn to get along.”
“I hate him!” She crosses her arms and thumps against the back of the couch. “I don’t wanna get along with him.”
“Oh, you know how it is with family,” mom says in that fake voice she reserves for men. “Selkie and Henri squabble like they’re sisters.” She winks at me.
I roll my eyes as I say to Henri, “You better figure it out because you’re under house arrest until you’re back in school. No friends, no TV, not even fresh air.”
“That’s not fair!” Henri hollers as she jumps to her feet.
“Well neither is me having to deal with Brody, who’s as much an asshole as his son. So suck it up, princess.”
“I better go, darling,” mom says. “The argument is getting out control.” She pauses, then giggles. “You are such a beast.”
“Gag,” Henri says and I can’t disagree.
Mom ends the call and looks at the two of us. “If you want, I could deal with Mr. Brody. He’s been in the bar. He’s pretty good looking. And well.” She shrugs modestly. “I know how to talk nice to men.”
Henri stares at me in horror. I stare back, same expression. “We’ll deal with it ourselves,” we say together.