Page 49 of Hexed
“Listen, I want you to keep an ear out, and if she says anything else about New Jersey, you let me know, understand?”
He nods. “I can do that.”
I cock a brow and lean in. “And stop listening to so much gossip, or you’ll end up in the kitchen cooking Sunday dinners with your mother instead of on the streets for me.”
“It’s not my fault everyone likes to tell me their business.” He waves me off and then looks around. “Iamsurprised Kingston lets a bitch run this place for him, though.”
“Stai zitto,” I snap, the wordbitchgrazing across my skin like a razor and putting me back in my bad mood.
Scotty’s eyes widen, and his back hits the booth in surprise. “Jesus, what crawled up your ass?”
“Buh, buh, buh.” I open and close my hand like it’s a mouth. “You’re like a bird, always chirping aboutnothing. I didn’t bring you here to talk my fucking ear off.”
Scotty mimics zipping his lips closed, then throws his hands in the air like I’ve got him at gunpoint. “Just trying to make conversation. You know, you’re a real grump lately.”
“You’re telling me you like being here?”
He sits back in the booth. “It ain’t so bad. Little hot, but that just means the girls wear fewer clothes.”
I chuckle when he waggles his eyebrows. Scotty may annoy me, but I remember ten years ago when I was nineteen and ready to take on the world. “Yeah, well, if you want to have any hope of ever getting a girl to go from fewer clothes tonoclothes? You gotta stop calling them bitches. They don’t really like that, you know?”
Suddenly, I see Fisher, his ridiculous blue-tipped hair sticking straight up and shiny like it’s got a glass coat locking the mohawk in place.
“You see that guy over there?” I jerk my chin toward Fisher.
“Yeah,” Scotty replies.
“I want to talk to him.”
Scotty salutes me dramatically and slips from the booth, buttoning up the front of his suit jacket and maneuvering through the room until he’s standing next to Fisher.
I’m not sure what it is about this guy, but he makes my skin crawl, and seeing himhere? I don’t like it.
Are he and Venesa really together?
My chest burns at the thought.
Fisher straightens off the wall when Scotty approaches, crossing his arms and frowning. Scotty leans in and says something, and then they both look my way.
Is he going to make things difficult? I’ll be forced to make an example out of him for the disrespect, and the thought of it makes me hum with anticipation. It’s been a long time since my knuckles have felt the sting of flesh hitting flesh.
I wish the motherfucker would.
That hum fizzles quickly into disappointment when Fisher makes his way over without a fight before stopping in front of my booth.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” he says in singsong when he reaches me, slipping his hands in the back pockets of his ripped jeans. “You here for the entertainment?”
I take a slow sip of my drink. “Where’s Venesa?”
Fisher tilts his head, like he’s assessing me. “If she didn’t tell you, then maybe she doesn’t want you to know.”
I give him a blank look. “I didn’t ask whatshewants. This is about whatIwant, and what I want is to know where Venesa is and why she’s wasting my time making me look like a fool sitting out here for nothing.”
Fisher grins. “Shehasalways been good at knowing exactly what someone is.”
I smile thinly. “Scotty.” I look toward my little cousin while he leans up against the edge of the booth. “We’re being rude, don’t you think?”
He crosses his arms. “Starting to think so, E.”
