Page 21 of Under the Influence

“Have I stepped into an alternative reality?” I ask, wondering what they know and why they’re speaking in riddles. “Why do I not understand anything you’re saying?”

Lola reaches over and taps my throat. “Did the woman suck your brain out through your dick?”

As memories of Edith flash through my mind, I pull up my phone and use the camera to get a look at my hickey. I’m fairly sure I left a love bite on Edith, too.

“Oh,” is all I can muster as I worry about my secret already getting out.

Lola smirks at my reaction. “Yeah, is the sexual encounter coming back to you now?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Did you hit up the trailer park?” Erin asks and laughs at me visiting a prostitute. “No shame in needing an outlet.”

“It’s just a fling,” I say, trying to sound casual yet coming off angry. “Let’s focus on Lola’s hickeys.”

“We all know who attacked her throat,” Erin says as Lola cooks bacon. “I’m curious about your situation.”

“It was a quickie,” I mumble, hoping they’ll get bored and stop bothering me. “No reason to give details.”

“Where did you meet the gutter slut?” Lola asks, super focused on my hickey now. “Was it a gutter?”

I frown at Lola, hoping she’ll back off. Except Erin eggs her on. I get how I’m not a guy who walks around with hickeys, so giving me a good razzing is in order. Lola and Erin have no way to know how Edith makes me feel. After all, I’m the asshole keeping this all secret.

As Erin and Lola wait for an answer, Clover shuffles into the kitchen, looking half-asleep. Soon, she’ll join in with their fun.

I have a choice. I can go with the truth, keep my answers overly vague, or give them a juicy lie.

“She’s a stripper,” I blurt out. “I was riding around and stopped at a place to get a drink.”

“You didn’t eat from the buffet, did you?” Clover asks, zeroing in on the biggest threat to my health.

“No, baby,” I answer and chuckle at how scared she sounds. “Anyway, one of the dancers and I hooked up. It’s not love. We aren’t a couple. I didn’t realize she marked me. Let’s drop it, okay?”

“Because of your shame?” Lola teases, and Erin laughs. “You do seem to feel mighty guilty.”

“Strippers aren’t hookups anyone should brag about,” I mumble while remembering Edith in my arms.

Losing interest in the topic, Lola focuses on breakfast. “There’s no harm in having fun.”

Erin nods and lifts her phone as if to read. “What’s the point of looking like you do, Duke, if you can’t woo young women?”

Clover doesn’t understand what’s happening and she’s too sleepy to care now that the buffet issue has been addressed.

I’m relieved by how they back off after my stripper reveal. I don’t keep many secrets, and I suspect they’d be supportive if they knew. My fears don’t come from my family’s reaction but from how Edith’s people will view things.

But maybe I’m wrong, and Lola won’t approve, either. She’s gotten angsty since my panic attack landed me in the ER weeks ago. Now she’s become clingy with Val. As I get ready to leave the house, she even begs me to be nice to him. That behavior isn’t like Lola. She gets how men need to prove themselves.

Besides, Val doesn’t need my protection. He might bounce around like a puppy and barf drama like his sister, but he’s an impressively large and surprisingly intimidating man. All day, I get texts about how he nearly came to blows with a local dumbass named Mark who was hassling Lola and him at a Basin Rock sub shop.

No doubt, Mark saw the softly pretty Val and got his panties in a bunch. The dumbass nursed a crush on Lola during high school and then for a year afterward. He was always showing up whenever she went out. Eventually, I had the meatheads explain to Mark how his interest in Lola was a sign he had suicidal tendencies.

Based on the texts from people around town, Val put that weenie back in his place. So, no, Val doesn’t need protection from me or anyone else.

Yesterday, Val made me rethink my views on him. Buying the butterfly pendant necklace and an engagement ring for Lola felt like the moves of a man in love rather than a guy making a play for club leadership.

In fact, I sense Val’s the one pushing this alliance while Court hasn’t made his long-term feelings clear. I’m not sure what that means for the Blood-Red Suns.

And that’s another reason to keep my relationship with Edith a secret. Pissing off Rawkfist’s VP would be a surefire way to end our new alliance. If I was in Donovan’s shoes, I wouldn’t be thrilled about my former rival dating my twenty-six-year-old daughter.

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