Page 172 of Misrule
Swiping at her tears, Meggie stiffened and glared at Krag. “Donotrefer to my children that way.”
He stepped closer to her. “Or what?”
“Or I’ll tell Christopher.” She met his gaze, unsure how effective she was being when her eyes were so watery. “Back off, Krag. You implied you had to be on my detail because Christopher either expected it of you or you couldn’t decline him because he’s your president. If you’re going to treat me this way, youshould’veturned him down. Your attitude will get you killed anyway.”
“Krag, brother, back off.” Pete grabbed Krag’s arm to pull him back. “She’s right. We need to sit down and talk to Outlaw and tell him this job not for us. We never had a problem with Meggie before. We shouldn’t take out our frustrations toward Prez on her.”
“Me and Krag been here since Outlaw was a boy,” Webster complained. “He should’ve knowed we not cut out for bitch detail.”
“He put you on bitch detail because he trusted you,” Meggie snapped. “Becausehe’s known you for so long.”
“So this a position of honor?” Talbot asked with a lift of his brow.
Meggie nodded.
“The fuck it is,” Talbot countered, squashing Meggie’s hope that they’d realize how much trust Christopher placed in them. “You fucking saying he was honoring us by trusting us to guard you? That’s a crock of shit. In our fucking view, hedishonored us.”
Hearing the disgust in their voices, Meggie went on alert, but decided not to say too much. They might hurt her. The fact that they’d die, too, didn’t seem to matter to them.
Their dislike of her was almost more emotional duress than she could handle.
She rubbed her temples. She loved babies and children. But something didn’t feel quite right inside of her body. Somehow, the unwell feeling seemed more than her usual intense morning sickness.
She’d suffered placental abruption during her second pregnancy and lost Patrick because of it. Then, she’d had so many other successful pregnancies. That she’d known about within just a few weeks of conceiving.
Yet…Meggie shook herself.
The feeling was just a holdover from her kidnapping. So much could change so fast.
“You know one thing I hate about your generation, Meggie?” Krag asked.
“Nope,” she responded, her patience too thin to surfer the attitudes of resentful men. “Andyouknow what, Krag, I really don’t care.”
“I’m telling you anyway.”
“I figured you would,” she retorted, glaring at him.
Pete’s laughter surprised her. “See? Told you assholes that’s why Outlaw crazy about this bitch. She got just the right amount of sweetness and sass. Just when you think you cowering her, she come back with a punch.”
Lighting a cigarette, Webster grunted, then blew the smoke toward her. He stood at her side, so it wasn’t a direct hit, but it still made her cough.
Krag patted her cheek, harder than necessary, then smiled. “Mad mugging me, Meggie?”
“If that’s what you see, then that’s what I’m doing. And if you put your hands on me again, not only am ItellingChristopher, but I’mcallinghim right now.” She shoved her hand in the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out her cell phone, waving it in front of him. “I’m giving you one last warning—back off.”
Krag tweaked her nose and she knocked his hand away.
“As I was saying, girl, I don’t like your generation because you’re a bunch of self-entitled pussies, where women don’t know their fucking place. We don’t have nothing in common with you and you don’t have nothing in common with us.” Krag looked her up and down. “Got a kid older than you. Never watched over her the way Outlaw want me to watch over you. She a tough bitch. You not.” He backed away and glowered between her and Pete. “No matter what this motherfucker say.”
“Yeah, Meggie, you got to give us fucking credit,” Talbot started. “The first one or two times Outlaw gave you to us to watch we didn’t mind that much. The motherfucker keep doing it, though. And all you fucking do is talk and talk. You don’t know how to shut the fuck up.”
“I was trying to make friends with you.Realfriends, not just acquaintances who I chatter with now and then. Even less than that now, since I don’t serve meals anymore. If we’re going to spend so much time together, then we should have conversation.”
“That’s what you not getting, girl!” Krag shouted. “We conversate with a bitch if we want to fuck her or if she related to us. We can’t fuck you and you not related to us, so your jabbering work the fuck on our nerves.”
“Duly noted.”
The next time Krag, Webster, Talbot, and Pete were assigned to her, she’d find a way to ditch them and run her errands alone. She was more than certain they’d agree topretendto go with her, since they hated the job so much.
