Chapter Seventeen: Damage Control
Chalk
Talk about having some fight in her. If it wasn’t so close to home, I would have been laughing. I’d never seen Lucy get so fired up. It was both eye-opening and a turn-on. She was like a big mama bear, fighting for her cubs, but Angie couldn’t do that again. I knew she liked to get a little spicy with her lip, but she took it too far.
“What the hell are you doing Angie? What was that shit about?” We were standing off to the side, and as I got closer to her, I smelled the whiskey on her breath.
She hiccupped and put the back of her hand to her mouth. The stuff was seeping through her pores. “What? I’ve been celebrating the article. I might be a little smashed. Just a little bit.” Angie put her fingers together as she squinted. “I didn’t mean to hurt your little girlfriend’s feelings, but she put her hands on me. What the hell is wrong with her? She’s the firecracker and you need to get back over there and handle her not me. I’m— ”
“Angie!” I bit at her to snap her out of her incessant ramblings. “That’s the mother of my child. You won’t ever address her again like that, do you understand?” I was close to pointing my finger in her face, but I stopped short of it and let the fire roll off my tongue instead.
Angie could see I was angry and her expression turned sober. “Okay, calm down. I didn’t mean it like that. Things got out of hand, I apologize.” Angie looked at anything other than me.
I didn’t intend let her get away with it.
“That’s not good enough, Angie. Don’t ever approach Lucy like that again, unless it’s to apologize to her. Understood?” I fired at her.
Angie huffed a little while swaying from one foot to the other. “I got it.” She folded her arms one over the other, tapping her fingers on her forearms while not looking at my face.
“You better be glad that’s all she did to you. Can’t happen again, Angie.” I made it crystal clear as my eyes bored into hers.
“Got it, whatever,” she said flippantly. “Let me get myself together, and I’ll go over and make good.” Angie’s eyes were still a little glazed over.
“No you won’t. Not tonight, it’s too volatile. Next time.” I walked away from her and back to Lucy.
Wrath and fury still covered Lucy’s face and I worried she was going to find a way to go for round two.
Harper stood next to her and she had a drink in her hand.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Harper, do you mind? Can you give me a minute?” I asked.
Harper nodded. “Sure.” She slipped away.
I looked at Lucy. I could see that she’d been crying and her face was red. “I’m sorry about what happened,” I said. I could see she was about to cry again. “Hey, we should go. We should leave. She wants to apologize, she’d been drinking.” I put my hands on her shoulders to try and console her.
“What is her problem? Keep her away from me, Chalk. I don’t want her anywhere near me or Sarah.” The pain in her voice rang clear and she already had her purse hitched on her shoulder. She wouldn’t look at me.
I knew the good track that we were on had somehow just been derailed. Now we were in some weird triangle situation and partly I’d contributed to it.
Reaching for her hand, I waved goodbye to the others and walked out. “She won’t do it again.Trust me. That’s not what I wanted to happen.” We were standing outside in the moonlight. That’s when I knew that I deeply loved this woman in front of me, no matter how long we had to go to bring our lives together.
Two days later…
The cord of tension between Angie and I was pulled tight, but she had valuable information about the Road Warriors and their future plans, so we had to talk. We were downstairs in the Wheelz club after the meeting.
“Hey Chalk, how are things?” A gentle question with her hands in her blazer pockets.
“They’re interesting right now,” I said without wanting to give too much detail about my relationship. “How did you find out the Road Warriors were trying to put in a bid for the casino?” I asked, deflecting the conversation away from personal stuff.
“I’ve been talking with a few dealers that operate out of the Biloxi area that have loose connections to the Road Warriors. One of them wanted to be initiated, but for whatever reason, they wouldn’t let him into the club. He had some key information. If they haven’t started to bid I would say they will soon.” Angie paused for a beat before continuing, “I would be prepared for that. They now have twice the buying power with the two clubs. Plus, the fact that the Road Warriors already have a casino. They know what they’re doing. They might be the first choice over the Rebel Saints.”
“I swear, it’s actually hard as a club to be…good. Easier to fall to the dark side,” I mumbled.
Angie shrugged. “That’s the way of life. Listen, I gotta go, and I wanna say sorry to Lucinda. I feel kinda bad about everything. I hope we can at least be civil. Probably not, but it’s worth a shot.”
I scoffed. “Angie, you’re a firecracker at the best of times. Don’t try to act polite now, but the apology is necessary.”
“Okay fine, fine. I probably took it too far. When I see her next, I will say sorry. Let’s keep it cool. I’m not one to hold grudges or anything. Tell her not to punch me in the face though, when I try,” Angie remarked.