Page 15 of Ride Long
“You really spent all that time alone with him?” Kelly asked, flicking her blondetresses.
“Gossip in this place is out of control,” I muttered, my gaze still on the door Chaser had disappearedthrough.
“There’s a lot about you,” Emily declared. “Care for a game of truth ordare?”
“We’re not in grade school, Em,” Raquel said with apout.
“Is it true you ran away?” Shondra asked, curling her lipmaliciously.
“I escaped,” I said in an even tone, my face giving nothingaway.
“Why?”
“I was going to besold.”
“Sold forwhat?”
“Sexualslavery.”
Shondra backed away slightly, shocked and trying to hide it. Whether they believed me was another storyentirely.
“I can see why you went with Chaser,” Kelly said. “That guy is all man. Did he fuckyou?”
“I think you meandid she fuck him?” Shondra rolled hereyes.
“I went with him because it was that or wind up dead in a gutter someplace,” I shot back. “I’m a Marini, and nobody puts me in a corner.” Kind of like Baby from thatmovie.
“What do youmean?”
“Someone’s out to get Fortitude,” I said, the half-truth rolling off my tongue so smoothly it surprised even me. “If I don’t do something, then a lot of people will get fucked up. I don’t have a lot of love for Marini, that gossip is true, and we have a lot of shit to work out, but I’m not into sitting back while innocent people get killed. Especially when I can do something about it.” The women looked between one another, trying to decide what to do. “I’ve been away a long time, and I know I have a lot of work to do to earn your trust, but this is my home. This is where I grew up. I’m not going to let anything destroyit.”
They didn’t look entirely convinced, but I knew it would take time. I had to play theirgame.
“I trust the men,” Emily declared. “They know how to protect what’stheirs.”
“I’m sure they do,” I replied. “But so doI.”
“Did you really kill someone?” Sam asked, her voice barely a decibel above a whisper. “At breakfast, yousaid…”
All eyes were onme.
“There were two of them,” I began slowly. “Chaser got one, but the other… I shot him in thehead.”
“He owes you,” Kelly said, giving me yet another clue who her obsessive crushwas.
“Kel, if he owed you, you’d use it to make him fuck you,” Raquel said, rolling hereyes.
“Duh,” the blondedrawled.
“What aboutStewie?”
“What about him?” She battered hereyelashes.
“We don’t owe each other anything,” I said, curling my lip. “As far as I’m concerned, we’reeven.”
“How can you not be attracted to him?” Kelly asked, looking completely scandalized. “Are you alesbian?”
“Sometimes I think that would be easier.” I laughed, shaking myhead.
