Chapter Twenty-Six
The Uninvited
Sammy
When we reached Mt. Vernon, he turned off the interstate. The clock on the car stereo said six thirty-five. He seemed tense, as we drove along a rather large strip mall and some fast-food places. Somewhere around the second or third light, he hooked a left onto a residential street and settled back a little.
“All good?” I asked, checking the passenger side mirror.
“Hm? Yeah. We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“No clothes then?”
He glanced down and sighed, “Guess not.”
“Am I allowed to know where we’re headed?” I wasn’t sure if the question would anger him or not, and kind of held my breath after I found enough bravery to ask it.
His head whipped toward me, and he frowned, “What the–? I told you… you’re not my hostage. You’re my ol’ lady, Sammy.”
I raised my brows and stared at our conjoined hands.
“That how that works?” I shook my head.
“How what works?”
“The ol’ lady thing. You fuckers just snatch some chick on the run–”
His laughter interrupted my shit talking and I reluctantly smiled.
“What the fuck?” I sighed, with another shake of my head.
“It’ll be fine. And yes, you’re allowed to know where we are going. My niece is out here with her mother. Henny’s ex.”
“Oh,” I subtly frowned without meaning to, as I wondered how that would go over. “Are you–close with your brother’s baby momma?”
He groaned and squeezed my hand, before admitting, “I’m keeping her secret, I figure she can keep one of mine in return.”
“Does her secret bring charges to anyone who knows her whereabouts, too?”
He brought my hand up and teased my knuckles against his lips before placing another soft, lingering kiss, “No. She has cancer. I guess she stayed quiet about it and her time is drawing near, but so is the summer. My brother is supposed to have his daughter for the summer, but she wants what time she has left. Guess we’re in the same boat for different reasons, in that regard.”
“Would your brother really deny her the chance to spend her last summer with their daughter?” I didn’t even know why I cared.
Menace shrugged, and lowered our hands to his lap, forcing me to scoot closer to the middle console.
“I don’t know. Maybe? Who can say what the end looks like… Is that a situation that leaves the kid as her caretaker? Is it going to be more traumatizing for Rumi to be there and see her mother slowly slip away, or would it be better for her to be brought in when things are not so ugly for occasional visits? I’m no fuckin’ expert, love. Shit, I ain’t even got no kids. So, I can’t say how a father would think in that regard.”
I blanketed the back of his hand with mine, trapping it between my paws without consciously realizing I was doing so.
“Is there no one else with them?”
“She took the kid and ran.” He peeked my way and offered a flip of a sympathetic smile. “I hadn’t said nothing yet, to my brother or anyone. I only got the letter a day or two ago. She told me where they were and asked that I give her a month or whatever it said, and– and then I was supposed to tell my brother where they were.”
I sighed, feeling bad for Henny’s daughter. I’d never met her, but that was irrelevant. It was a tough situation for any daughter to be in.
“How old is she?”
“Fourteen. Maybe. I think she’s in junior high.”
“Ouch.” I winced.
“Yeah. Too young for such burdens, but old enough to know what's going on around her,” he agreed. “Rumi’s a good girl, you’ll love her.”
“Rumi,” I repeated the name, having never heard anything like it before.
“Yeah. It’s her nickname, a combo of the first and middle. Her name is Rumor Remington Wilde.”
“Wilde, huh? I thought your name was Zade. You and Henny have different dads?”
He laughed so hard he snorted. “Shit, we all got different dads, I thought I told you, my momma thought she was a fuckin’ groupie back in the day. We all got her last name, though. Rumi has her mother’s last name, because Henny never married Octavia. They were young. He married the next baby momma, and that was a fuckin’ joke. They got divorced within like– I don’t know two years or something? Althea wasn’t shit, but I got two good nephews out of her, so I can’t hate too hard.”
The road we’d been on was beautiful. Trees lined either side and the woods around us extended into thick hills. He slowed and turned onto a path I’d have never spotted. It was a dirt trail that took us through the trees and up to a little cabin with a pond.
“So–” I drawled, when he shut the engine off, and the door of the cabin hesitantly opened. “The jumpsuit?”
“Coffee accident.” He mumbled, before throwing the door open and whipping that thing off in one haul.
“Uh–” Was all I could get out before he was standing there in white prison boxers and a matching tee.
“What the fuck are you doing?” an irate feminine voice sounded off from the porch, drawing my attention back to it.
She wasn’t moving like she was on her death bed. She was hauling ass! Her dark hair was pinned on her head in a lazy bun and tattoos covered both of her slender arms, I noticed when she drew close.
“What the fuck is the meaning of this, Menace?” She looked from me, in the passenger seat, to Menace’s half-naked ass and back again. “Who the fuck is that? Why are you—?”
She waved at his current state, but Menace didn’t seem to notice her upset. He casually shrugged and mumbled, “Spilled coffee on my pants. You know, the orange ones.”
She froze and shook her head. “Huh-uh. Huh-uh. No fuckin’ way, Menace!”
“Only other option I got is my brother.” He reached, like he had something to grab back in the car. “I can call him if you’d rather I stay there. He’ll come get me…”
She exhaled like he’d sucked the life out of her and looked toward the pond, shaking her head. “Unbelievable.”
“Great, we’ll take the guest room.” He shut the door, a little harder than necessary, and I flinched at the sound.