Chapter 1 #2
“I’m taking you home with me tonight.”
I didn’t want to go home with this guy, did I?
I studied his face, analyzing his features, and wondered what he’d look like in the bright light of day.
Probably not nearly as handsome as he looked while my eyes were clouded with tequila; that was for sure.
Hell, the last time I went to the bathroom, my reflection in the mirror looked nothing like it had before I left the house a few hours ago.
The hairstyle I’d worked so hard to create had started to droop, and my mascara was smudged under my eyes, probably from when I laughed so hard earlier at something Fallon had said.
Where was Fallon anyway? My cousin shouldn’t have taken off like that. Or did I leave her at the table with . . . What was that guy’s name?
Suddenly, the lights got bright - blindingly bright - and a disconnected voice came over the speaker to announce that I didn’t have to go home, but I couldn’t stay here.
“Shit,” I hissed as I blinked to help my eyes adjust so I could find my sister. “Where is she?”
“Who?” Tim - no, Jim - or maybe it was Greg, asked.
“My sister. She’s here somewhere,” I mumbled as I picked my phone up from the table.
I held it in front of my face to unlock the screen and then looked at my messages.
Sure enough, there was one from Fallon telling me goodbye and to be safe and another one from Tansy letting me know she’d gotten a ride home from one of Fallon’s friends who lived in our neighborhood. “Well, shit.”
“What’s wrong, babe?” the man asked as a server approached.
I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn’t imagining it, but sure enough, the woman was wearing pasties and a pair of coordinating hot pants. What the hell kind of bar was this again?
“It’s time to go,” the server said with a forced smile as she collected the empty beer bottles and shot glasses from our table. She was looking directly at me when she asked, “Can I call someone for you?”
“I’ve got her,” the man said as he stood up.
“You’re Fallon’s cousin, right?” the server asked. I couldn’t keep my eyes on her face. They kept trailing down to her pasties, and I wondered if those were her real boobs. They were great boobs. If I walked around all evening with no bra, mine would be at my knees. “Honey, are you okay?”
“Is this a strip club?”
“Yes, it is,” the server said with a concerned look on her face. “I really don’t mind calling Fallon for you.”
“How do you know her?” I asked as the man put his hand under my arm and pulled me up to stand. “Is she your cousin too?”
“Come on, babe. Let’s go home.”
The server looked at him before I pressed, “Do you know Fallon?”
“Sure. He and I have been friends for ages.”
Suddenly, the server wasn’t there anymore. A huge scowling guy had replaced her. He opened the door, and I took a deep breath of fresh air as I attempted to clear my head.
“Wait,” I told the man holding my arm. I held my phone up to open it again as I said, “I need to order a car.”
“No need for that, babe. I’ve got you.”
“But you don’t even know where I live.” I laughed before I asked, “Do you?”
“I’ll take you to my place.”
“Nah. I want to go home.”
“I’ll take you home in the morning,” he asserted as he led me across the parking lot.
“No, I think I should go home now. I have to be up early.”
“Fine. Call for an Uber, and you can sit in my car with me until it gets here,” he said as he put his hand in his pocket. The lights on the car in front of us flashed, and I heard the doors click a second before he opened the passenger door. “Get in.”
I took another deep breath to try to help me think straight before I said, “That’s not safe. No.”
“Get in the fucking car! You’re turning out to be more trouble than you’re probably worth.”
A voice I didn’t recognize said, “She said no, fucker, so that means get your hands off of her.”
“Mind your own business.” As he pushed me into the car, I lost my balance and bumped my head on the frame but didn’t have time to react before he slammed the door.
The sound of the locks clicking into place was so loud in the quiet car that it made me jump and fumble my phone, dropping it to the floorboard.
I reached up to touch my head, sure it had to be bleeding since it hurt so bad, and then hit my forehead on the dashboard as I leaned forward to get my phone. Once I had it in hand, I leaned back and rested my aching head, happy that the world had stopped spinning and it was quiet in here.
It was so comfortable and peaceful that it would probably be easy to fall asleep, I thought as I let my eyes drift closed.
◆◆◆
CROW
“Mind your own business,” the asshole snapped before he shoved the young woman into the car. He turned and glared at me before he gruffly ordered, “Get the fuck away from my car.”
“Where does she live?” I asked.
“What the fuck do you care?” the man said gruffly as he tried to walk past me to get to the driver’s side. “It’s none of your business.”
“What’s her name?” When the man just scoffed, I said, “Fallon isn’t a guy, asshole, and if she were here right now, she’d kick your fucking ass.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Since she’s not, I’ll do it for her,” I said as I grabbed the man’s shirt by the back of his collar and jerked him away from the car. “You’re too drunk to drive anyway.”
The asshole proved that when he tried to spin around to take a swing at me but lost his balance and ended up sprawled on the asphalt at my feet.
“Fuck you!” the man said as he held on to the bumper for leverage so he could stand up.
“Listen, man, I don’t wanna fuck you up, but I can already tell that’s where we’re headed,” I told him as he took a step closer to me. “It would be better for your health if you’d just step aside and let me get her out of the car.”
“Like hell. Do you know how much money I shelled out on shots for that bitch?”
“That changes everything.”
“That’s what I thought!”
“No, dumbass. I meant that now I do wanna fuck you up,” I told him before I threw a right hook.
He crumpled to the ground, unconscious now, and I bent over to rifle through his pockets until I found his key fob.
I hit the button to unlock the door, and instead of putting it back in his pocket, I slipped it into mine.
I opened the passenger door and found the woman I’d seen come in with my friend Fallon sitting in the seat with her head back.
It suddenly registered that I recognized her from somewhere else too.
I’d seen her moving into the house across the street from mine just last week. She’d been with two other women, and my niece Lyric went apeshit when she spotted a little dog running around them in the grass while they watched.
“Hey, hon, wake up.”
“Hellooo, handsome,” the woman said after her eyes fluttered open.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the starstruck look on her face as I extended my hand and said, “Your ride is here.”
“I’m in my ride, aren’t I?” she asked as she looked around.
“No, this was just where you were waiting for it.”
“Are you my driver?”
“Looks like it,” I said as I helped her out. Once she was standing next to me, I shut the door and then nudged her ahead of me. “Let’s get you home.”
“You know where I live?”
“I do.”
“Look at you with all the information,” she said as she stepped around the unconscious man on the ground. “And look at him, lying on the ground like a dumbass.”
I laughed and steered her toward my truck. I waited for her to ask why he was down there, but she didn’t. Once we got to my truck, I helped her into the passenger seat and then leaned in to buckle her seatbelt.
“Safety first!” she crowed before she laughed too loudly. “I’m a safety girl.”
“Fan of Pretty Woman, huh?” I asked.
“You know Pretty Woman?”
“I’ve met a few of them over the years,” I told her before I shut the door. As I was walking around my truck, I waved at Mike, the man in charge of the door tonight, and called out, “I’m taking the drunk girl home. Y’all close up and call me if anyone needs anything.”
“Night, Crow!”
After sliding in behind the wheel, I saw that the drunk beauty had already turned into Sleeping Beauty.
I grimaced when I thought of what could have happened to her if that server hadn’t gotten my attention in time or if I hadn’t made it out into the parking lot before that son of a bitch drove away with her.
“I almost forgot!” I mumbled to myself as I reached into my pocket and tossed his key fob out the window. “That’s less than the asshole deserves,” I muttered.
The drive to my neighborhood didn’t take long since it was well after two in the morning. I pulled up in front of her house, and once I parked at the curb, I woke her up enough so that she could stagger toward the door. I had to take her key from her to get the deadbolt unlocked.
Once the door was open, she grabbed my hand and said, “Come on, big boy, let’s go to bed.”
I shook my head as I followed her into the house and was surprised when she led me straight to her bedroom. She flopped back onto the bed and sighed before she said, “Don’t you hate it when the room spins like that?”
I reached down and lifted her feet off the floor one at a time so I could slip off her shoes, and by the time I was done, she was out like a light.
“Good grief,” I muttered as I turned her so that her body was situated with her head resting on the pillow.
I connected her phone to its charger and set it on the nightstand along with her keys before I walked into the bathroom to look around.
It didn’t take but a second to find what I was looking for and then just a minute to go into the kitchen to grab a glass.
Once I filled it with water, I took the glass and the bottle of painkillers into her bedroom and put them on the nightstand next to her phone.
Hopefully, she’d wake up soon and take a few painkillers to stave off the inevitable hangover she’d have in the morning. I knew from experience how much that sucked and hoped she didn’t have big plans for tomorrow because it was probably going to be a little rough.
There was a notepad on the table by the front door, and on a whim, I scribbled a note for her before I turned the lock on the doorknob and let myself out.
I drove my truck across the street and then glanced back toward the woman’s house as I let myself into my own. I hoped she understood how horribly tonight could have ended, but she’d probably never know.