Chapter 6
Six
Wolf
Rogue and I got out of his car and waited in the frat’s drive for Jade and Cassie to pull up.
A soft breeze rustled the trees and lifted the flowery scent of Jade’s body spray from my shirt.
There was a sense of security in that smell, mixed with crippling loss, but still, I breathed it in. Like a fucking pussy.
Rogue chucked an empty water bottle into the bed of my truck. “Why the hell did she sell that shit to Tommy?”
“Because she wanted you to find out.” And because Cassie was grade-A, batshit crazy.
Jade’s Jeep sputtered onto our street, followed by Cassie’s Honda. Brakes screeched when Jade came to a stop. They had to be worn down to the pad—which wasn’t safe. Not my problem, I told myself. Cassie parked behind her, got out, stormed straight to Jade’s door, and opened it.
I was sure they were both dreading the pending shitshow about as much as I was.
Having those two in the house would be nothing short of a nightmare.
That, I was certain of. But what else were Rogue and I supposed to do?
Just let them get off scot-free? No way in hell.
And since we couldn’t resolve the entire ordeal with a good old-fashioned ass whooping, we weren’t left with much choice.
At least that was what I’d told myself… “You realize this next month is going to be hell.”
“It won’t be that bad.”
I snorted. “You and Cassie haven’t made it more than twenty-four hours without death threats. You think you’ll survive a month?”
“That’s just foreplay. I’ll fuck her into submission.”
Maybe he could, but that was one thing I wouldn’t be doing with Jade. The image of her naked, pinned beneath me in the bed of my truck, flashed through my mind like a neon sign. Screw memories for being able to make me hard.
The two girls whispered between themselves, every once in a while, glancing in our direction.
Rogue leaned against the dented tailgate. “What are they doing?”
“Probably planning our deaths.”
Jade may have been nice, but she was still Dayton. She was no stranger to revenge, usually by way of fire. Add Cassie to the equation, and I had a sick sense that we had just kicked a hornet’s nest.
“You’re such a pessimist.” Rogue motioned for the girls to come over, which they took their sweet-ass time doing. “See. They listen.” Like they were dogs.
“If you think this is going to be a walk in the park, you’ve got something else coming.”
“They’re girls, Wolf. Simple creatures.”
About as simple as nuclear physics. “Maybe all those socialites and girls with daddy’s money are simple. Those girls?” I thumbed behind me as we walked up the sagging porch steps. “Complicated as fuck.”
Dog shot out the second Rogue opened the door, hightailing it to his favorite bush and taking a piss before he sprinted up to the girls and let out one high-pitched bark.
Cassie, used to his banshee impressions, ignored him. Jade, of course, kneeled on a patch of weeds to pet him. She’d always had a soft spot for animals. Well, animals below knee height. Anything bigger and she was running from it.
Rogue stopped in the entranceway. “Holy mother of shit!”
The second I crossed the threshold, I gagged from the smell.
A toxic mixture of beer, tuna, and God only knew what else seeped up from the piles of garbage strewn across the living room.
After Rogue had found that video footage, he’d called Petey and Bellamy, instructing them to make the place a mess, but this was overkill.
“What the hell did they do?” My attention went to the gnats buzzing around a tower of grease-stained pizza boxes on the coffee table. “Drag half the dump in here?”
“Looks like it.” Grinning, he kicked a can of cat food across the floor. “Cassie’s going to lose her shit.”
Dog sprinted back inside, going straight for a Roller Burger bag and tearing into it.
“Drop it!” I shouted, tripping over garbage on my way through the living room.
I’d just managed to wrestle a half-eaten, molded cheeseburger from him when the front door banged shut. “What the hell happened in here?” Cassie asked. “Did you piss off your garbage guys or something?”
Jade lingered in the entrance, her gaze drifting around the literal dump. I shouldn’t have cared what she thought of the mess, but nonetheless, an embarrassed heat crept over my cheeks.
“I think you need fumigators,” Jade mumbled, pulling her shirt over her nose. “Not a blackmailed maid.”
“Maids are exactly what we need.” Rogue stumbled through the disaster area. “Cleaning supplies are under the kitchen sink, ladies.”
Cassie shot a death glare at Rogue’s back. “You asshole. You expect us to clean this up?”
“No shit.”
Cassie reached for an empty can. I knew exactly where that was going—the back of his head.
“Okay…” Jade latched onto Cassie, then steered her toward the kitchen, mumbling something about a shit sandwich.
My attention dropped to Jade’s ass right before she disappeared around the corner. Having her in my space was about as unsettling as me digging up a corpse and propping it on the couch. Only this corpse was hot as fuck and hated me. God, this was going to be a long month.
Three hours later, the girls were still cleaning downstairs.
Thank fuck the smell of hot garbage had gone.
Electronic gunfire rang out from the TV speakers, followed by a zombie roar, but my focus wasn’t on the game Bellamy and I were playing.
It was on Jade, bent over, on all fours, rubber gloves in place, while she scrubbed gum off the scratched hardwood.
“What the hell, Wolf? You’re supposed to be guarding the bridge!
” Creepy-ass screeches came from the TV, followed by Bellamy shouting obscenities.
“Seriously! Ten zombies are on me. Come revive me!” His palm smacked the back of my head, pulling my attention away from Jade’s incredible ass.
“Put your dick away, and pay attention to the game.”
My gaze strayed to the decaying avatars surrounding Bellamy’s. “You take this shit too seriously.”
“Man, if I die, I can’t play for thirty more minutes.”
I moved my player back to the snow-covered bridge, pecking off zombies when they approached. But every once in a while, my attention drifted back to Jade’s ass.
And every time it did, my dick hardened a little more.
Bellamy shouted at me to focus, but I couldn’t.
And that was bad news for me because that distraction was going to be here day in, day out.
Bent over and scrubbing floors. Sleeping.
Showering. I didn’t have to try to imagine what she’d look like naked and dripping wet—I knew.
That image had been branded into my memory and haunted my dreams for years.
My stomach knotted. I had enough shit going on.
I definitely didn’t need the constant reminder of what I used to have prancing around.
And honestly, my dick couldn’t take it. I’d told Rogue that making them live here was a dumb idea, but it wasn’t until right then that I realized it wasn’t just stupid. It was going to be torture.
“I think I’m done.” A pleased look crossed Jade’s face as she looked around the now spotless room. Three hours of cleaning up literal shit, and she had a smile on her face? There was no way she was happy to clean up that mess. And if this was supposed to be punishment…
I nodded toward the corner where Dog’s makeshift bed was. The makeshift bed she’d just made, his gutted rat toy pride of place. “Missed a spot. Think it’s probably puke.”
Bellamy snorted before a round of gunfire sounded through the speakers.
“Really, Wolf?”
The immature fuckhead inside of me delighted in the annoyance in Jade’s voice. Shrugging, I aimed my avatar’s shotgun and blew off a zombie’s leg. “Doesn’t look clean to me.”
I glanced back in time to catch her glare at me, then she aimed her spray bottle in the direction of the bed and gave it a hard squirt.
“There.”
Dog ran over, sniffed the spot she’d just sprayed, and sneezed.
“Now that I’ve cleaned up after you like children with no basic life skills, what would you like next?” she asked, her tone arsenic-laced and sugary sweet. She tossed her gloves onto the coffee table. “Maybe I can teach you the alphabet? Or read you a bedtime story?”
Smartass. I met her patronizing gaze, then reached for my backpack at the end of the sofa. “Not really one for bedtime stories.” I chucked the bag onto the coffee table. “But my algebra homework is in the red notebook.”
“Nice to know you’ve become the stereotype.
” She took the notebook out of the bag and headed to the dining room.
“The football player who doesn’t study and banks their entire future on getting drafted.
” That comment bled through me like a slow poison, tugging at every ounce of failure I already felt.
Yeah, I couldn’t take this…I paused the game.
“Man,” Bellamy groaned. “I was just about to slit his jugular!”
“Give me a minute.” I headed into the kitchen, where Rogue was harassing Cassie while she cleaned.
A pile of dishes was stacked on the draining board. Cassie wiped water from the countertop before tossing the paper towel at Rogue’s chest with a wet splat.
“Oh, you’re done?” Rogue asked, making Cassie’s eye twitch. Probably because he wasn’t rising to her antics. “Good. Now you can go to the store and pick up the list I sent you.”
Her nostrils flared. A psychotic glaze filled her eyes as she begrudgingly took her phone from her pocket. “Toilet paper, pizzas, and Magnum condoms.” She rolled her eyes. “Bless your delusions.”
“Just go get the stuff.” He fished a wad of cash from his pocket, then tossed it at Cassie like a cheap hooker. “I want a receipt and exact change.”