Chapter 43 #2
“No clue. Piera just called the kids on my phone, and now they’re all screaming and all pumped up making all kinds of plans. What the hell happened?”
I pulled my nape and grimaced. “Uh, T-Tiny? Is, uh, b-bitch there?”
“Yup,” he snickered in the background, sounding as if he already knew exactly what the hell was going on.
“Oh, uh, h-hey.”
His voice was louder, indicating he was closer to the phone. “Hey, Dash,” he sang with a taunting inflection. “Why don’t you tell Letta what’s going on?”
“Wait, do you know what’s going on?” she asked.
“Possibly. We had a little chat back in Georgia. I have my suspicions.”
She gasped. “Shut up!” she cried, followed by a distinct slap. “Uh, so, um. Vinny.” She cleared her throat. “I may not live there anymore, but I’m still your best friend, you know. You can tell me anything.”
I cast a nervous glimpse his way, recoiling further at his expression. He was seriously twisted up and pained over this, sweating bullets and practically hyperventilating. Seeing how hard he was struggling, I cupped the side of his neck and stepped closer, lifting my brows.
“Hey, hey. Take a deep breath. Look at me, okay. It’s Tiny. She loves you, man. She ain’t never gonna stop.”
Repeatedly gulping, his eyes were wide and flickering with panic. “Sis?” he croaked, a palm slapping to his chest. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
“Hey, look at me.”
“Oh, my god,” she whispered with a faint chuckle from the bitch. They whispered amongst themselves for a moment while I tried to soothe Vincent.
“You know what, I’ll just say it, okay? Would that be better?”
His throat jerking, his head bobbed eagerly, tears welling in his eyes.
My chest twisted, my thumb stroking his jawline. “Oh, shit, babe, don’t do that.”
Another gasp from the phone, their snickers suddenly silent.
“Okay, band aid. One, two, three. Vin and I are together. I just moved in with him. We’re gonna raise the acorn together. See?” I whispered after my blurt. “It’s all over, babe. Look at me.”
He was trembling, full blown hyperventilating now. Fisting the front of my shirt, a tear rolled down his cheek, his complexion turning green as if he’d be sick.
“Shh, listen, it’s all over. Nothing left to hide. It’s all over, baby. You’re still standing, I’m still here.”
“I’m still here, Vinny,” Violetta offered with a gentle tone. “And I still love you just as much. That hasn’t changed.”
His focus snatched to the blackened screen and he stopped breathing. “You okay with me being in love with Dash?”
“Love?” she shrieked to which Tyler interjected with, “Hey, it’s fine, dude. We’d already suspected this, anyhow.”
“What?” he bellowed, shoving me off to grab the sides of his head. “What the fuck you mean, you knew?”
“Look, Vinny, it ain’t no big deal. Remember my uncles? I can see the signs—”
“Signs?” He was in hysterics, pacing, choking on breaths. “There ain’t no signs. I hid it, I hid it from everyone. Oh, shit, there can’t be no signs—”
I grabbed his elbow and pulled him back, wrapping an arm around his waist and cupping his cheek. “Look at me, Vin. Look at me!” I barked when he continued to panic.
His frantic, hazel irises landed on mine, another tear slipping out.
“You’re okay. Tiny still loves you. She don’t think no less of you. You’re still her fucking hero, man.”
“You are, Vinny. I swear, this changes nothing.”
His head turned to gradually lower his attention to the phone. His voice hitching, he asked, “It don’t?”
“Of course, not, silly.”
“Hey,” bitch chimed in. “Lemme ask you something. When was the last time you kicked someone’s ass?”
Both of us frowned, confused at the question.
“What?”
“Answer the question. When?”
“I don’t fucking know? Right before we left for Georgia, I reckon.”
“For what?”
“Bitch, what’s the—”
“Shut up a sec, Dash. Trust the process. Why and who?”
So caught off guard by the question, his shakes started to slow, the fear fading to irritation. “You ask too many goddamn questions.”
“So, I’ve been told. Answer.”
He huffed and shrugged. “I dunno. Some dude owed us money and didn’t wanna pay.”
“So, you beat the shit outta him, right?”
“Of course. No one fucks us over.”
“Do I need to guess if he went to the hospital?”
“I think he did when he regained consciousness.”
“Okay. You’ve fucked Dash.”
All three of us choked on an inhale, me and Vincent bristling.
“Dash, I’m pretty sure you’ve fucked Vin by now. After all them questions that day, there’s no doubt you’ve fucked him.”
I coughed and tugged at my ear, dancing foot to foot. Well, this was awkward.
“Because you traded pussy for ass, does that make you any less capable of knocking people out or cracking their kneecaps with pipes?”
By this point, I didn’t even get upset at the jab, knowing Tyler held no hard feelings for what I did to him when he was a kid. I simply stared at Vincent’s profile with a half-smile and shook my head. Yeah, I was definitely starting to really like the bitch.
“You’re both still pretty fucking scary and more than capable of putting people in their places.
The body you lay down next to every night in bed don’t change shit.
Vin, you are still the new leader of the Serpents, and you are still just as ruthless as you was on that mountain,” he finished with a sternness.
Completely composed, the sweat drying, he huffed, his nostrils flaring a bit. His fingers tapping the countertop, he tore his attention from the phone to look at me with a small smile of his own.
“So, now that that’s out of the way, what’s this about them being cousins now?”
I chuckled and curled my arm around his side to his back, petting up and down. “I was trying to tell acorn that Vin was going to be her daddy now, too, and she said it was weird because he was the Eddie’s uncle, and then one thing led to another and boom, they’re cousins.”
“Well, she ain’t wrong. I mean, technically. You guys gotta get married to make it official, though,” he stated.
My insides plummeted and my own panic rose. Gawking at the phone, I shouted, “Now just a goddamn minute! I’m just getting used to the gayness, don’t go putting rings on no one’s fucking fingers just yet. Let me fucking adjust first, bitch.”
Everyone snickered, Vincent pulling me back to his side. “I don’t exactly hear you taking that option off the table, though.”
My focus jerked to his with a sense of astonishment.
“All right guys, let’s change the subject because he’s the one about to crash out now,” Vincent teased.
They chuckled again but all my mind was seeing were matching wedding bands. Who would take whose name? How would that work in the Serpents? Us being lovers was one thing, the leader having a husband? How well would we be respected by other gangs?
“So,” Violetta cooed, changing the subject. “We were thinking. I’m missing you so damn much, it’s driving me crazy. So, me and Tyler have been doing some chatting and…well, when he built this house, he built it for just him. Now that me and the kids are here, it really isn’t working out too well.”
His eyelids started to widen, his profile turning to me to stare at the phone. “What are you saying?”
“We’ve already spoken to a couple contractors about adding onto the house to make it fit us better, but that’s going to take several months.”
“Sis,” he wheezed, letting me go to lean on the island.
She giggled. “My old house is already in escrow, it pretty much sold right away. You know anywhere we can stay for a few months until the house is done?”
“No, shit?” he muttered, falling to his elbows to cover his mouth and nose with his palms.
“It ain’t permanent, cuz I got too many animals up here, but yeah. Once the construction starts, this ain’t no place for kids to be. Besides, I think it might be better for them to accept the changes in their lives if they were around their friends and family,” he added coarsely.
Ouch. In other words, Edwina was doing what we all expected of her, she was giving Tyler hell, Jackyl’s wrath shining through.
Clearing my throat, I rubbed his back and leaned closer, as well. “Actually, y’all can stay at my place. I was gonna call a realtor tomorrow to put it on the market, but I think bitch can handle the mortgage. Them shiny little Grammies put a bit of change in them pockets.”
He snickered. “Stop being jealous, Dash.”
I laughed, as well, amazed at how far the two of us had come. Starting out as we had, I never, in a million years, thought the boy I purposely crippled that muggy night would one day become one of my favorite people.