* * *
When I get up,it’s still completely dark outside. I get dressed, let Mojo out and feed him. Penny, wrapped in her blanket like a burrito, doesn’t even stir on the couch. Her lips are slightly parted, and her face is relaxed, making her look a few years younger.
She looks more like the girl I used to know now—like the Penny, who treated me as if I was nothing more than an annoyance.
Knocking on the doorframe, I take a step into her room.
“I didn’t say you could come in,” Penny scoffs at me.
“The door was open,” I quip, and she rolls her eyes at me.
“What do you want, Ryder?”she asks with a perpetual condescending tone lacing her voice.
“Do you have an extra pencil or sharpener I can use?
She pushes her glasses up her nose before lifting her chin. “No, I don’t.”
“There are some right there.” I point at her desk, where I see an entire cup with sharpened pencils peeking out.
“I didn’t say that I don’t have any. You asked if I have some you can use… and I don’t. I don’t want you using my stuff. It’s enough that I have to share this house with you. Besides, does anyone even check homework at the school you’re going to?”
Ignoring her snarky comment, I walk to her desk and snatch one of the pencils.
“Hey!” She tries to stop me from leaving the room, but I just keep walking. “I’ll make you regret ever coming here! I hate you!” she sneers and pushes at my back. I guess she decided since she can’t stop me, she might as well help me move faster.
“Thanks, little owl.” Shaking my head, I head back to my room. She bothers me, but I’ll gladly put up with her tantrums as long as I can stay here. This is the first foster home I’ve actually liked. The first one I’ve felt safe. I’ll do anything to be a part of this family, even if it means getting yelled at by Penny.
Little did I know she would succeed in getting rid of me.
The memory feels like a different life, but it still brings back the familiar feelings of hate and frustration, though the emotions are dulled down now.
I originally took her for revenge, I wanted to see her suffer. Although I still want to make her pay in more than one way, I actually like having her here. The thought bothers me, but I can’t help feeling this way. Having pussy available twenty-four-seven is amazing. Being able to do what I want to her and knowing I’m the only one she’s ever had inside of her is the icing on the cake. She is much more tolerable now than she was five years ago. Maybe I’ll send her ex a fruit basket.
This is not a bad deal for me. My house looks nice, dinner was superb, and the sex is, well, the best I’ve ever had… and I’ve had a lot. In the back of my mind, I’m already thinking about some lie I can come up with to keep her here longer.
I drive the truck to the club where Shawn and Tucker are already waiting for me. It’s a two-hour drive to the meeting point, and I’m less than pleased about having to spend four hours in this soccer mom van. Maddox is right, though; this is the most inconspicuous vehicle we could find. Guns are already packed in the back, and as soon as I get there, we pile into the car and hit the road. I want to get this over with and get home. To be honest, I really didn’t want to come today, but I can’t let these two knuckleheads go alone and fuck this up.
“Maddox was pretty pissed at you the other night, what did you do?” Tucker asks.
“I let that chick go who owed us money,” I answer, hoping that his questions end here. Of course, they don’t.
“That was a fine piece of ass, I wouldn’t have minded letting her work that cash off. Why did you let her go so fast? You could have at least given her around one time.” My molars grind together at his words.
“First, I do what the fuck I want. Second, she is working her debt off… with me.”
“So, wait, you didn’t let her go?”
“I did, but then picked her up from the side of the road when I left. I took her home, fucked her again, and decided that she is a decent enough lay to keep around. I’m forgiving her two hundred for every day she plays my little sex slave until she pays off the five grand.”
“How do you know she won’t just disappear before she pays up?”
“I’m keeping her at my place. She has nowhere else to go. Plus, Mojo is watching her.”
They both burst out laughing.
“You have an in-house hooker?” Shawn asks, and again, I don’t like hearing him calling her that.
Swallowing that feeling down, I answer, covering my annoyance with a playful tone, “Pretty much. I’m not going to lie, it is pretty fucking amazing. Sex, however, and whenever you want.”
“Fuck, I need to get one of those,” Tucker exclaims, and when I look over to him, I can see the gleam in his eyes. He is thinking about all the things he could get away with having a girl at his disposal like that. The thought of having complete control over another person has him grinning darkly. Only one thing is running through my head as I watch him.
You can’t have Penny. She is mine.