Pittsy snapped up his hands. “Hey, I’m not one to discriminate.”
He stuck out his tongue and flicked it up and down in the most disturbing way. Filthy to the core, that one.
Chen slapped me on the shoulder. “You in, Lotus?”
“Dunno, Jen. I’ve got a lot on my mind right now.”Too much.
“And this will help. Lose yourself between the legs of a stranger or two for a night. Come up for air the next morning and walk out of Vegas with no regrets and one helluva hangover.”
I narrowed my eyes and rubbed at my chin. The alcohol had at least numbed my extremities and was slowly working its magic on my internal organs.
“Vegas, huh?”
It had been a few years since we’d last hit the strip, and damn, the dent in my bank account had well been worth it. Shortly after getting back to Fort Campbell, I’d met Sadie…
I cleared my throat and pushed her from my mind. The lingering affection was rapidly being replaced with resentment, and the walls in my chest were slamming into place to prevent me from losing my shit in front of my team. I hid behind those walls and drowned my newly-single status with another beer.
Doughboy eyed me with a dark smirk from across the table. “You know you’re gonna say yes, Lote. Besides, I’ve heard the stories about the last Vegas trip, and I want in onthataction.”
I scoffed. The team had partied many a time together. Things often got wild, but never like they did in Vegas last time. We lost Forrest somewhere along the way, and when he finally made his way back to the hotel the following day, he had acquired two newly-pierced nipples and a Ziplock bag of ecstasy tabs. Pittsy had contracted Chlamydia. Most of Jenny’s credit card charges were from strip bars, and as for me? It took a week of intensive scrubbing to remove the phone number written in permanent marker off my balls.
So lit, and so fucking worth it.
“Oh, fuck it. Let’s do it!” I declared, raising my bottle to the center of the table.
“Lock it in, boys,” Pittsy crowed. “Watch out, Vegas. The brothers are coming back to town.”
CHAPTERTHREE
Penny
Heading downstairs with a spring in my step and my long hair swaying across my lower back, I intended to say good morning to Mom and Dad before checking my bank account.
Having turned twenty-one overnight and still living with my parents, receiving my inheritance was at the forefront of my mind. The money meant I could start living my adult life in my own place, andfinallymove out from under their controlling thumbs. Or more so my father’s.
Arriving at the landing in the corner of the living room, I came to a stop when I caught my parents’ hushed argument in the kitchen. I held my breath and tiptoed closer, immediately recognizing thatIwas the subject of their disagreement.
“Absolutely not.Youtell her, since you decided to change the rules. I’m not going to take the fall out,” Mom hissed.
Atsksounded before Dad’s irritated reply. “You always make me the bad guy.”
“So transfer it, then!”
“No!” Dad snapped.
“Then this is all on you!”
My arrival cut Dad’s retort short and instantly brightened his expression. “There she is! Happy birthday, Bunny.”
“Thanks, Dad. What were you arguing about?”This time.
He wrapped me in a hug. “Oh, the usual.”
“Happy birthday, Penelope,” Mom crooned as I stepped out of Dad’s embrace and into hers. “I can’t believe my little girl is twenty-one today.”
“You’re not going to cry, are you, Mom?”
“No. No, I’m not.” She sniffed hard and smiled at me with pure love in her blue eyes—the same color as mine.