10. Cairo
TEN
cairo
You’d have to be blind as fuck to not notice Bay Astor. Heedless of cracking me in the balls and clocking me in the side of the head, I’ve allowed this little dark angel—and I’m using that term loosely—to get away with shit others wouldn’t.
And I’m getting really fucking tired of running into this chick.
It’s like she’s a walking plague, and when I’m around, I’m always getting my ass kicked.
And the gun that currently resides in the waistband of my jeans is begging to warn her to stay the fuck in her lane and to stop running into mine.
“ You .”
One word and Bay couldn’t say it with more disgust. I’m fully aware that she’s not my biggest fan. However, she started it and my dumb ass kept following Torin around like a lost puppy dog when it came to this girl like I had nothing else in the world better to do.
Reeve flicks an index finger between the both of us and glimpses over at me. “You two know each other?”
Unfortunately.
“We shared a few intimate moments.” I tighten my heavy stare on her. “She likes to headbutt. And throw right hooks. Also into knife play.”
“Fuck me,” Reeve mutters at my side. “I think I’m in love.”
I ignore him, because my boy is only into flavors of the day . He couldn’t last a week with the same chick, let alone fall in love with anybody.
“How do your balls feel?” Bay shoots back with a smug smirk. And this shit might work with Torin with the whole baiting bullshit, but I’m immune.
“They feel great,” I vouch flatly. “I made sure to find some whore to lick them better.”
That’s a fucking lie.
However, throwing shit in her face seems to work. Her temper matches Torin’s and it’s not hard to rile his ass up when the time calls for it or I need him to focus on something.
Bay skews her face at me—unimpressed. “Wow. How you manage to entice anyone at all with that vocabulary is amazing.”
“It wasn’t hard in South Shore. You’d know all about that right, Little Terror?”
Her eyes bulge at the nickname, because it’s not the first time someone has called her that and it wasn’t just anybody either.
“Why did you do that? You’re gonna get us both in trouble.”
The little girl I’m locked into this jail cell with glimpses over her shoulder at me, and she’s stupid. She’s only going to get that cop to come back over here and yell at us again.
She slits her eyes, tiny pieces of dark hair falling into her weirdly-colored blues. They’re bright, and I’ve never seen anyone that’s had that color before.
“Mind your own business,” she snaps, narrowing her gaze at me and steering it back to the fat cop again.
“I will when you stop it.” She ignores me again, pulling off her other pink shoe and examining the distance from the fat cop currently on the phone to how far she needs to throw it and not miss this time. “Stop!”
I leap from the hard bench and grab onto her scrawny bicep, whipping her around to quit it.
“Get off me,” she shouts, right before I tear her shoe from her grip. “Hey!”
“I’m not gettin’ in any more trouble over some dumb girl.” She shoves me backward, but she’s small and weak, getting me to only go half a step. “Knock it off, Little Terror.”
“Give me my stuff, goody-too-shoes.” She attempts to reach for it, but I only hold it over her head. “Give. It. Back!”
“No,” I deadpan, pivoting back to the bench. I can feel her glare at my back, but I don’t care. I’m not listening to Sheriff Muncy again about her shutting up, and I can hear her little feet padding after me like a brat that won’t give up.
“I want my shoe.”
“You should be wanting to go home,” I counter, sitting back down and flicking my narrowed attention at her. Man, she’s dumb.“What’s a girl like you doing here anyway?”
I’ve never seen her before. And I hope I never do again.
The girl lifts her chin at my simple question like she’s better than me or something. She’s a brat. I have two sisters and they don’t act like this. “I ran away.”
I scoff. “Why? Did your parents not buy you the latest doll or something?”
“No.”
Whatever. Who cares anyway?
“I hate my mom.”
My brows knit because Moms don’t hate their children and maybe she should run away for not being grateful to have a real one. “I can see why.” Her tiny jaw drops, plush lips pouting a bit, but I don’t feel remorseful for what I just said.“Do you always act crazy when you don’t get your own way?”
“I’m not crazy.” Then her impatient arm quickly swipes out to seize her shoe, but I’m faster than her. She immediately huffs in frustration, making a piece of her hair fly away from her face. “You can’t keep it from me forever.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
I point to the opposite side of the dirty cell we’re both in. “Go sit down. You’re buggin’ me.”
“Give me my shoe.”
God, she’s annoying.
“No.”
I watch her jaw clench, probably because no one ever orders her around. “I’m gonna punch you.”
“Do it,” I provoke. I’m already bored with her attitude problem, and she has nothing else to throw so I’m good. “You probably hit like a girl, anyway.”
I guess I shouldn’t have said that.
Because within the next second, she’s smacking me in the face in one swift swoop, causing my chin to burn and prickle from the hit.
I don’t bother to touch it. My older sisters hit me harder than that, and I lean back against the gray cement wall. Pulling one of my legs up to bend and prop at the edge of the hard bench, I say, “I was right...you do hit like a girl.”
“And what do you do, pick on girls all the time?”
“No.”
“Then give me ? —”
“What’s your name, brat?” She doesn’t answer me right away, which is surprising, because she hasn’t shut up since getting shoved in here. “You obviously need a friend who keeps you out of trouble.”
“I don’t want you as a friend.” She says it as though it’s the most awful thing she’s ever been offered in her whole life.
However, I’m not deterred by obnoxious behavior.
“Well…” I look over at Sheriff Muncy, who’s been sitting at his desk for what seems like forever, and convey, “As my dad says, we don’t get to pick what we want in life. It just happens.”
“Your dad must’ve never sat in the same room as you.”
“My dad likes me,” I snide back, flicking my focus back to her. “Where’s yours?”
“Working.”
“He won’t be soon when the cops call him up.” She tears her eyes from me, and they’re so pretty. I like them. I just wish I liked her. But she looks sad, especially after I mentioned her father, and now I feel slightly bad. “Does she hurt you?”
“No.”
“Then why do you have scratch marks on your neck?”
She blushes a deep shade of red along her cheeks and straightens her spine. I have a feeling she handles a lot of hard stuff at home on her own. “You ask a lot of questions.”
“Just need to know more about my new best friend.”
She snaps her neck back as though she’s about to hit me again. “We’re not best friends.”
I match her expression. She needs someone to keep her in line.“We are what I say we are.”
“Wanna bet?”
“Yeah.”
The girl holds my stare with a glower. “We’re never gonna be friends. In fact, we’re always going to be enemies.”
“You.” The word that she’s already said before seems to barely leave her throat this time, almost inaudible as she stares right back at me with those striking blues that never faded.
And she was right.
We did remain enemies. Just one she didn’t realize she still had until now.
“Me.”
Her nostrils flare and she’s even more glorious now when she’s pissed. “You motherfuck?—”
“Watch your mouth, Little Terror.” The corner of my lips hoists because getting under her skin… shit’s easy. “You lost big time when you tried to fuck with me and only me.”
Maybe it’s Torin who’s been getting me fucked up lately. Because when it’s just her and I, she’s already lost.
“You took my fucking shoe .”
I roll my eyes like I did a million times that night. “Let’s focus on the task at hand here and how you being a little bitch isn’t relevant anymore.”
She’s silent, and it’s actually unsettling for a few moments before she mutters, “What do you want?”
“What are you doing here?”
She lifts her shoulder dismissively. “Sellin’ pills to privileged college students.”
“With Levi Wallace.”
Bay quirks a brow at me. “And?”
“ The Levi Wallace?” Reeve repeats, crossing his arms along his chest. “Is this the chick who’s gotten away from you guys twice?”
My blood immediately boils because, yes.
Yes, she fucking is.
Meanwhile, Bay steers her attention over to said asshole who just had to bring it up. “I like you. What was your name again?”
“Mine,” Reeve replies seriously without another thought. “That’s all you need to know.”
“Yours?” She quirks a brow. “Who?”
“You.”
She slowly rocks her head back and forth. “I think you got me confused, sweetheart. I’m already spoken for.”
“Not from where I found you.”
I could literally punch Reeve in the arm right now to get him to stop. This isn’t time to fucking flirt, but to get this chick back out to the party before Wallace loses his damn shit and tears the place down.
I have a few vendors here who I’m looking to get some guns from, and if they start getting edgy, they’re going to dip.
On the other hand, Bay can owe me a favor later for the trouble I just went through to get her out of her little dilemma from earlier.
“Listen, surfer boy.” Bay shifts off the countertop but doesn’t jump down yet. “I need a favor. Think you can manage that for me?”
“What’s the return favor?”
With her fingers curled around the edge of the table, she leans forward and says, “Anything.”
“For a girl I’ve known for less than five minutes…” Reeve takes a long screenshot of her body for his spank bank tonight. “I don’t think it’s gonna be something you’re gonna want to do.”
“I dunno,” I offer up, lining up next to Reeve as my menacing stare only hardens. “You’re looking at Matteo De Leon’s ex-girlfriend. She might just do anything.”
“Just not you, right?” she clips back, quick to the deliver and that annoying fact is directed at the wrong dickhead.
I’m not walking around with my dick hard for this girl. It’s limp as shit and, if I had it my way, I’d never see her again in this lifetime or the next.
“You’re not my type,” I reply flatly. “I like women. Not girls who run around like white trash and assume that everyone wants to fuck her.”
Reeve moves his hands subtly in front of him, signing, “ Did I just hit on a fuck buddy ?”
Thanks to the sign language Reeve and I learned as kids due to Torin’s hearing issue, we use it on the regular when we have something quick to figure out or say. In this circumstance, it works perfectly.
“ Fuck no . Does she sound like someone I’d fuck with? ”
“Alright, well, you wanna fill me in on who this chick is?” Reeve asks me out loud. “Because I’m clearly in the dark here.”
“She’s a fuckin’ runner,” I reply. “Lives in South Shore, runs with Levi Wallace, and races cars in?—”
“Are you the Bay Astor who lifted my man’s Beamer a few weeks back?” Reeve’s face brightens, and I’m not sure if he’s impressed or irritated.
She cocks my head innocently to the side. “Lifted it as in how?”
Reeve takes a step closer. Normally, his looks get him everywhere. His charm is unparalleled. He can smile and make a woman melt at the pure sight. I personally don’t get it, because he’s a clown twenty-four-seven.
However, I think he’s met his match with this one. Bay is no ordinary girl, and the last thing she’s going to be impressed by is Reeve’s dick.
“Lifted it, as in you beat his ass in a black Chevy Nova from South Shore…and you’re from South Shore…”
“Sounds illegal.”
“Sounds hot,” Reeve retorts, leaning forward and placing both of his palms on either side of her body. He keeps a safe distance, and I should warn him, but I think he needs to personally experience Bay for himself with the way she’s always swinging or popping men in the ball sack. “I normally don’t do this, but…I wanna see you again. You pullin’ some Lightning McQueen bullshit is…yeah, I think you’re gonna keep me warm this winter.”
Typical.
My boy isn’t listening to a thing I said, because he’s too busy thinking with his dick.
“South Shore,” I sneer, as if it’s vital I remind him.
It’s really the only thing I need to say. This chick runs with our rival, and I’m not looking to add Levi Wallace to my shit list this week. I have enough to worry and deal with. Wallace is a fucking pain in the ass.
And he’s here.
At this party.
With her.
Putting us in the middle of that, on top of jumping his dudes the other night in South Shore along the piers, that equals bad news and blood.
“And?” Reeve retorts over the noise of the kitchen. “Does that come with an STD or an all-exclusive trip to watch her work in action? Because I’d like the latter. I’d actually like everything, McQueen.”
“Did you miss the part about Levi Wallace?” she asks. “Your boys seem scared about it.”
“I didn’t miss it,” Reeve confirms flatly. “I just don’t give a fuck.”
“Afraid I’m a little too exclusive, but I must admit…” She gives good ol’ Reeve a long glance over to make him feel special. And he is, maybe in the he sniffs too much glue kinda way. “You could definitely tempt a girl.”
“Baby, if you’re scared for my well-being with Wallace, it’s not an obstacle for me. Because I can promise you”—his hazels fall to her lips—“that I can hold your attention.”
“I need a group of assholes to buy these pills.” Bay pulls out a gallon-size Ziploc bag from the back pocket of her jeans. “And I need to do it fast.”
Geezus fucking Christ.
I jerk my head and step back from her. “Get lost. We’re not part of your little escapades tonight and we’re not your bitches. You got enough from us by saving your ass.”
Bay’s blues meet mine. “I had him. And I didn’t need you.”
“Sure, you did.” She slides off the hard surface. Her cheek still a bright pink from where that asshole hit her. Bay didn’t need me. But I wasn’t about to watch a woman get smacked again. “What are you going to do, Little T? Hit me again?”
“I don’t hit bitches.”
This is where doing good deeds get me nowhere.
“You run your mouth more than I remember,” I reply. “That shit is going to get you in trouble around the wrong people.”
“Things have changed. So either move out of my way so I can go do what I came here to do, or send me off with one more good threat before I go.”
“I don’t think I need to do any more of that,” I claim. “I find you in The Landings one more time, my actions will speak for me.”
“And you have that much power? How many dicks did you have to suck to nab that job?”
“Probably as many as you did to get Wallace’s protection.”
Bay smirks at me, allowing silence to ping-pong between us before stating, “It was nice to see you again, Cairo . I hope we never get to do it again.”
It’s the first time she’s said my name. And I hope she does her homework to learn who the fuck I am.
I’m the future king of Wharf Bay. The next generation of power that I can use at will toward anyone I want without consequence.
Bay isn’t anyone but Wallace’s fuck buddy and nothing more.
I can’t say how unimpressed I am with that.
“I need your shirt.”
One of my brows flies to the ceiling. “Excuse me?”
“Your shirt ,” she repeats with more sternness to her tone. “I need to hide this cut.”
“You need to hide your entire existence from my sight,” I mutter as Reeve chuckles and pulls a bit at Bay’s bicep before unbuttoning his dress shirt and showing off his hard ab muscles and tattoos.
“Here you go, baby. Sleep with it on tonight. I’ll come back for it later.”
She smirks at him and takes it without question. “Thank you.”
“Baby, anything for you.”
With one more award-winning smile, she rounds my body and takes off, still holding Reeve’s concentration as he stares off after her when she disappears out of the kitchen.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I chide through narrowed brows. “Did you not catch anything I was saying?”
“Which part?” Reeve asks. “The Wallace part, or the fact that I don’t care?”
“ Care , brother,” I leer. “We’re not about to get into any more shit with South Shore, because I don’t have the energy for it. Torin is already causing enough for us.”
“Wallace started it. He stole our guns.”
“Ramsey’s guns that shouldn’t have been in South Shore in the first place. She’s off-limits. To everyone.”
Reeve hits me with an unamused stare. “Anything else?”
“I dunno. Can you manage it?”
He pushes out his lips and flat out says, “Probably not.”