Page 55 of Pen Me

“Is there no one else with them?”

“She took the kid and ran.” He peeked my way and offered a flip of a sympathetic smile. “I hadn’t said nothing yet, to my brother or anyone. I only got the letter a day or two ago. She told me where they were and asked that I give her a month or whatever it said, and– and then I was supposed to tell my brother where they were.”

I sighed, feeling bad for Henny’s daughter. I’d never met her, but that was irrelevant. It was a tough situation for any daughter to be in.

“How old is she?”

“Fourteen. Maybe. I think she’s in junior high.”

“Ouch.” I winced.

“Yeah. Too young for such burdens, but old enough to know what's going on around her,” he agreed. “Rumi’s a good girl, you’ll love her.”

“Rumi,” I repeated the name, having never heard anything like it before.

“Yeah. It’s her nickname, a combo of the first and middle. Her name is Rumor Remington Wilde.”

“Wilde, huh? I thought your name was Zade. You and Henny have different dads?”

He laughed so hard he snorted. “Shit, we all got different dads, I thought I told you, my momma thought she was a fuckin’ groupie back in the day. We all got her last name, though.Rumi has her mother’s last name, because Henny never married Octavia. They were young. He married the next baby momma, and that was a fuckin’ joke. They got divorced within like– I don’t know two years or something? Althea wasn’t shit, but I got two good nephews out of her, so I can’t hate too hard.”

The road we’d been on was beautiful. Trees lined either side and the woods around us extended into thick hills. He slowed and turned onto a path I’d have never spotted. It was a dirt trail that took us through the trees and up to a little cabin with a pond.

“So–” I drawled, when he shut the engine off, and the door of the cabin hesitantly opened. “The jumpsuit?”

“Coffee accident.” He mumbled, before throwing the door open and whipping that thing off in one haul.

“Uh–” Was all I could get out before he was standing there in white prison boxers and a matching tee.

“What the fuck are you doing?” an irate feminine voice sounded off from the porch, drawing my attention back to it.

She wasn’t moving like she was on her death bed. She was hauling ass! Her dark hair was pinned on her head in a lazy bun and tattoos covered both of her slender arms, I noticed when she drew close.

“What the fuck is the meaning of this, Menace?” She looked from me, in the passenger seat, to Menace’s half-naked ass and back again. “Who the fuck is that? Why are you—?”

She waved at his current state, but Menace didn’t seem to notice her upset. He casually shrugged and mumbled, “Spilled coffee on my pants. You know, the orange ones.”

She froze and shook her head. “Huh-uh. Huh-uh. No fuckin’ way, Menace!”

“Only other option I got is my brother.” He reached, like he had something to grab back in the car. “I can call him if you’d rather I stay there. He’ll come get me…”

She exhaled like he’d sucked the life out of her and looked toward the pond, shaking her head. “Unbelievable.”

“Great, we’ll take the guest room.” He shut the door, a little harder than necessary, and I flinched at the sound.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The First Claiming

Menace

Octavia rolled her lips like she wanted to spit, she didn’t, though. She just whipped around and stormed into the cabin, leaving the big door open behind her.

I cocked my head, inviting Sammy to get out of the car. When we reached the cabin, the first thing I smelled was real food.

“God, that smells amazing.” I moaned.

“Your niece wanted bacon this morning.” Octavia answered, without turning her attention from the dishes she’d thrown herself into.

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