Chapter 8
Scarlett
Saturday morning, Tommy Tits and Megan Face (our next-door neighbors with the unfortunate tattoos) start frantically moving out of their half of the duplex. I’ve barely seen them since Bohnes kidnapped them and then let them go. Haven’t spoken to them.
They don’t look at me as I stand on the porch with a hot cup of coffee, sipping it while wearing a t-shirt that reads Pie Until I Die.
There’s an image of a skeleton eating a slice of pizza.
Bohnes’ shirt. He waves at the neighbors, standing behind me like something black carved out of the scenery.
Black hoodie. Black mask on his face. Black pants and boots.
“Are they off in a hurry because of you?” I ask quietly, and he chuckles as he tugs his mask down.
“Of course not. What’s a little torture between neighbors?” Bohnes lights up a clove cigarette and I accept it when he hands it out to me. It is a race day, after all.
I haven’t seen Alexis yet. Thank God. If I do see her, I have to deal with her and it’s not gonna be pretty. God-forbid she shows up at the track. Then what? I make her bleed in front of everyone. There’s no way around it. She insulted me on KMZI 66.6.
I curl my lip and then turn around to find Bohnes watching me in that unnerving way of his.
“I can’t help but feel like you’re up to something.” I narrow my eyes on him. “Why keep it a secret? You’re my Nightmare.”
“Because I’m your Nightmare and not your boyfriend or your fiancé or whatever you call those other idiots, I don’t have to tell you everything. Some things I do to protect you.” He reaches up to lay his hand on my face and, because he’s been such a good boy lately, I let him.
“I don’t need protecting, Bohnes. I’m getting tired of repeating myself.” I move past him and into the house.
We need to figure out what car Hype, the hacker girl, is going to use at the race tonight.
It’s not an easy sell, to get a Prescott kid to loan their car.
Ash was supposed to help us with this, but he isn’t talking to me unless it’s a public display meant to make him look guilty.
I have to assume he isn’t going to follow through on that promise.
Emma Jean on his lap. Emma Jean in lingerie. This motherfucker better be playing the long game, and he best be playing to win.
I chose him for a reason, didn’t I?
“Where the hell is your sister?” my mother demands, pausing in the living room to stare at my outfit.
To look at Bohnes. To keep looking at Bohnes.
She wants to ask him to leave, but she’s afraid of him.
That’s how terrible her judgment is. She dates monsters and then looks at Bohnes like he’s the type of man to put hands on me.
My fuckboys don’t do drugs. My fuckboys don’t steal my money. My fuckboys aren’t scumbags.
“She’s been selling information about me to the mayor. She’s probably busy.” I ash the cigarette in the bowl near the front door, but only after removing the pack of cigarettes my mom left there for Alexis. I stuff them in my pocket. I’ll give them to tonight’s grand marshal as a thank you.
I lift my gaze to Geneva’s, but she’s still fixated on Kellin.
“Selling information? What on earth are you on about?” Geneva sighs and picks up her purse, giving me a look.
“The whole neighborhood heard the pair of you going at it on the radio.” She hesitates, slipping her purse strap over one shoulder.
Still peering at Bohnes like he’s about to take her out.
“Are you fighting over the mayor’s son?”
A snort escapes me as I hand the leftover clove cigarette to Bohnes. These are illegal now and difficult to steal or win on the track. Can’t just throw out a half-finished one.
“Fighting over the mayor’s son? Jesus. You think Alexis could score someone as hot as Kelly?
Nah, Ma. We’re arguing because she’s been spying on me.
Anita ever do that to you?” I turn away, putting my hand on the newel post. I don’t expect my mom to have an answer for that.
She’s clueless as to what goes on in Prescott or my life in general. I stopped caring a long time ago.
Only Grandma Patricia’s opinion matters. I was able to explain the broken glass from Alexis’ van away easily enough (cars get broken into all the time around here), but we haven’t talked about the KMZI 66.6 thing. Knowing my grandma the way I do, she’s probably disappointed in both of us.
“Anita and I think we should sell the duplex.” Mom blurts this out before I’ve even got up two stairs. Bohnes is a little hot on my tail, his boots bracketing my bare feet. I stop walking and turn, peering around his huge form to stare at my mother.
“Excuse me?” I ask, pushing Bohnes gently out of the way. He moves for me, giving me space to confront this idiot who gave birth to me. “That’s not your decision to make. This house belongs to Gram.”
My mom turns to me, dressed in her workday best.
“Exactly. Which is why we need your help to convince her. We’re the last ones on the block to sell, Scarlett. This isn’t going to get better for us. It’s going to get worse. Your grandma is so stubborn—”
I hold up my hand and close my eyes, trying not to let my temper get the best of me. When I open them, I see that she’s staring at Bohnes again. Her instincts are so off. It should be me that Geneva is afraid of.
“If Gram doesn’t want to sell, then she doesn’t have to sell. Archer Realty can suck my big fat dick.” I grab the crotch of my shorts in a vulgar display that has my mom throwing her hands up in frustration.
“I’m moving in with”—she lists the name of the boyfriend I met on Thanksgiving, but he’s so insignificant that I don’t even hear it—“and your aunt is moving in with her boyfriend. Gram will qualify for one of the new low-income apartments that they’re building.
” Geneva clutches onto the strap of her purse like it’s a lifeline.
“Your sister will have a place courtesy of the tribe.”
There’s a long, heavy pause there. The house is quiet. Outside, I can hear Megan Face shouting at his wife.
“And me? I see that you conveniently left me off that list.” I turn away from her in disgust and continue up the stairs, pausing beside the picture of me and Alexis with Michael.
Sometimes, people you think you can trust betray you.
Sometimes, they hate you and you don’t know why. That’s how life is.
I yank the picture off the wall and take it into my room.
“You’re welcome to come with me or your grandmother—” I slam the door on my mother’s words before I get too irritated with her. She’s what Lemon would’ve turned into had Lemon lived to tell the tale, but only if she was lucky. There’s no opportunity in Prescott. That’s why I’m leaving.
I start to bite my thumbnail and Bohnes catches my wrist. He stayed with me here last night, and I made sure to change the sheets so we had a fresh pair to ruin together.
I would certainly not call what happened between us on this bed lovemaking.
Seems he felt the need to fuck Widow’s memory out of me.
“My grandma would rather die than sell off this house.” I hate even saying that, but it’s true.
She worked too hard to buy this place, and I know she’s smart enough to know that rent in an Archer Realty owned corporate apartment is going to be much worse than whatever pittance is left on her mortgage. “That puts her in danger, doesn’t it?”
Bohnes puts my wrist to his mouth and gently bites down, making me shiver.
“I will kill to protect your lovely grandmother,” he assures me, and I smile.
He brought her flowers on Thanksgiving. I won’t soon forget that.
I turn to him, taking comfort in his eyes in a way I didn’t allow myself to do before.
“But I can’t be in more than one place at any given time.
We might want to assign Mr. Lawless to her care. ”
I work my jaw a little, listening to the sound of our neighbors’ final echoing shouts as they empty out their half of the duplex. So. They’re not moving because of Bohnes, eh? Then why are they moving?
“What did you do to Megan Face and Tommy Tits?” I wonder aloud, thinking about that bit of tattered Care Bears sleeping bag in my closet.
I left it there, hoping Alexis would find it on her next snooping mission.
The night that Ash stopped by with the box of items from Lemon’s dumpster, Alexis was here.
I remember her staring at him. I remember her saying weird shit.
“I neutered him,” Bohnes says easily. Simply.
Like it’s no big thing. “There was no reason to torture that idiot woman further. She tortures herself enough by staying with Tommy.” He flashes those pretty teeth at me, and I let myself feel the full weight of that, too.
I’ve been hiding from Bohnes for too long.
I’m ready to embrace him in a forever sort of way.
Because if he tries to leave me at any point in the future, we’ll see that there’s more than just one stalker between us.
“Excuse me. I’m sorry. Can you clarify on the neutering thing?” I leave my wrist in his care, pleasured chills swirling through me as he strokes his thumb over my pulse.
“Ah, of course.” Bohnes releases me and then starts going through my room again. I just let him do it. Open drawers. Peep in the closet. Dig through the medicine cabinet. “I cut his balls off. It’s a simple procedure—”
I start howling. Can’t help it. I’m doubled over with laughter. What a fitting punishment for a man who beats his pregnant wife.
“You…” I struggle to catch my breath as Bohnes pauses in front of me with his hands on his hips. “God, you’re a riot, Kellin.”
He squats down in front of me, his black and white striped coat settling around him like a cloak. He’s dressed up today, not all shrouded in shadows. He doesn’t plan to creep. No, he plans to do something showy on the track.