Chapter 29 #2
She doesn't seem at all disgusted by the chunk of breakfast the fucker still has lodged in his teeth, and it makes me wonder what kind of life the poor girl has had up until this point that would make her standards so fucking low.
The guy is young, possibly in his early twenties.
I can see how he might've been traditionally attractive before he started using drugs, but the sunken cheeks and handful of sores on his face and arms should turn off any woman with a hint of self-preservation.
"What's your name, beautiful?"
"Melody," she says, a slight uptick of her chin.
"You look like a Roxie, to me," Billy says, and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
The guy is fucking scouting right before my damn eyes.
"I'll take a Coke, cheeseburger with extra pickles, and fries," Zeus snaps, pulling her attention from flirting with a man who could easily get her killed.
She jots down his order on her pad before looking at me. "And you?"
"I'll take the chicken sandwich. It's fried, right? None of that grilled shit?"
"It's fried," she confirms. "Fries? Drink?"
"Fries and a beer," I tell her.
She jots it down. This place doesn't have a liquor license, making it illegal to sell beer, but that won't stop me from getting one. I doubt we'll have to pay anyway, so that skates the line of illegal activity, and it could be argued that they're doing nothing wrong.
"And you?" she asks, looking at Scott. She grins again at Billy when he huffs at being made to wait until last.
It's just enough to make his eyes narrow, and it puts her in his crosshairs in a way that won't be good for her later.
"Cheeseburger, fries, and a beer," he says without looking at the menu.
Billy pauses, getting every ounce of her attention when she looks in his direction, before he orders. "Are you on the menu?"
His eyes do that fucking creepy thing where they dip slowly down her body, pausing on all the things that make her a woman before meeting her eyes again.
"Could be," she says, licking her lips in a flirtatious way.
It's like watching a fucking train wreck in slow motion.
"I get off at seven."
"Good to know," he says. "I'll have the hamburger steak, extra gravy, with mashed potatoes, green beans, and a beer."
"Perfect," she says, jotting down his order.
She grins over her shoulder at him when he smacks her on the ass as she begins to walk away.
"That one is going to be fun," he says with a wide grin, watching her until she disappears into the kitchen to drop off the order.
"Looks like an excellent addition to the party," Scott agrees.
"Thinking of taking her home with you?" I ask, toying with a napkin on the table.
I feel his eyes on me, an air of reservation swirling around me before he answers, but I don't look up at him. I need the conversation to feel nonchalant, like it's a question just for the sake of talking, and not because I'm trying to gather information.
"The new guys don't get first dibs," he snaps with a warning, taking the discussion in a completely different direction.
I look up at him now, shrugging. "Not trying to take her away from you, man. Just don't know exactly how all that works."
"We were vetted pretty fucking hard," Zeus adds. "Not knowing all the fucking rules really puts us at a disadvantage."
"Don't want to step on fucking toes," I say. "Don't want to piss the wrong people off."
Billy seems to settle a little, morphing into an annoyed man rather than a dog fighting over a fucking bone.
"Doesn't matter what the rules are when there are people who can break them any time they want," Billy snaps.
"Shit," I say. "Sorry. Didn't mean to strike a nerve."
Billy shakes his head as if trying to get shit out of his head, an attempt to self-regulate, but the guy is stoned and probably more than a little volatile right now.
I don't know if pressing him further will render the information I need or if it will only piss him off even more.
"Don't mind him," Scott says. "He's still pissed about the other night."
"What happened the other night?" I ask before thinking of a better way to word it.
Scott doesn't skip a beat. "That fucking bell."
"He runs the entire property with that bell. If I had only been five minutes quicker," Billy growls.
"So if you're entertaining already when the bell goes off, you don't have to stop?" I ask, leaning forward as if I have plans, and his answer determines my own actions.
"Right," Scott answers before looking at his friend. "If you were five minutes quicker, the bell just would've gone off five minutes earlier."
"So Bobby doesn't want us to get laid?" Zeus asks, joining the conversation for the first time since ordering his food.
There's just enough annoyance in his voice to make it believable that it isn't utter disdain in these men having sex with women who aren't as willing as they may seem to be.
"It's all a fucking mind game," Billy says. "I think the man gets a hard-on for controlling everyone else's cocks."
"Doesn't fucking stop him, though," Scott adds.
"Not at all," Billy mutters, his fist closing around the handle of the butter knife in front of him like he has immediate plans to use it on someone.
"Bobby gets first dibs," Scott reminds him as if the man may have forgotten. "On any woman who sets foot on the property."
"And how often does he decline?"
Both Scott's and Bobby's eyes land on me, but I don't cower under their scrutiny.
"Not very often," Scott replies. "Especially if he knows someone likes a girl a lot."
"Fucking power play," Billy growls. "Wish that was something I fucking knew before showing up with Ruby."
Regina Banks.
He's the motherfucker who set his eyes on her and made introductions to others in the group. The way he slouches a little more, saying her name, I can guess that he must've actually liked her and thought bringing her in was the best thing in the world.
It also tells me that Billy hasn't been in the group very long, if he didn't know she would be claimed by someone else.
She went missing a couple of months back, and if he'd been part of The League for any length of time before, then he would've already learned by watching it happen to others what her destiny was.
"There's an easy fucking fix to that," Zeus says. "Don't bring your bitches to the property."
He shrugs his shoulders as if going against that rule of the group is something he'd do if he didn't want to share.
Scott and Billy stare at him. I don't know if this info is something they'll go run and tell Bobby, compromising us, or if it's something they never considered before.
I shift in my seat, waiting for one of them to speak so I can see which way this is going. If shit goes south, I guess it's better that we're outside of the compound.
"That," Scott says, pointing at Zeus. "Is a fucking death sentence."
"Can't go against him like that," Billy adds with a shake of his head.
I look at my partner, knowing the relief has to show on my face.
"Rachel," I say to him, hoping he'll play along.
Zeus shakes his head. "Sounds like a really fucking bad idea."
"You got a girl?" Scott asks, frowning when I nod my lie.
"I'd suggest letting her fucking go," Billy says, the threat of Bobby's wrath greater than his own anger at what he perceives as the loss of Regina as he releases the knife, letting it thud to the table.
"If you love her, it's better to break her heart than subject her to the shit that goes on back home. "
I can't ask what he means. I can't give a voice to the questions about how the women are treated and what they face living on the compound.
As someone who is supposed to have lived this life since birth, I should already know all these things.
Billy's lack of education in talking about what happened to the girl he brought there gives me the outlet to talk about expectations and rules.
"You're probably right," I mutter.
"What's her last name?" Scott asks, and the curiosity in his voice makes my skin crawl.
I have my own suspicions that if I gave him a full name, he'd try his best to find that girl and bring her back to Bobby as an offering of not only my betrayal, but a way to get in better with the man.
I shrug, a stupid smile on my face. "Never asked."
"But you love her?" Scott asks, accusation in his voice.
"Love that pussy," I tell him with a wider grin.
Both guys laugh at my response.
"What's so funny?" Melody asks as she places our drinks in front of us.
"We're talking about tight pussy," Billy answers without missing a beat, watching her to gauge her reaction to his crassness. "You got one of those?"
She bites her lower lip, looking at him as if she just found her knight in shining armor.
"Haven't had any complaints."
"Worth dying over?" Billy challenges.
She swallows, his tone a little wicked, but not in a seductive way.
She stands a little straighter as if she has been facing men like him her whole life, and her body has been the only currency she has had.
It's a fucking sad interaction to watch.
"Only one way to find out," she whispers, the hint of flirtation in her voice.
Billy smiles widely, nodding his head, eyes once again roaming the length of her like she's a horse at a livestock auction. "Then you may be the death of me yet."