Little did they know they weren’t scaring me away when they scarred me for life. They were forging me into one of them instead. Now the time had come to show them I was the curse of their lives, too. And just like they did, I’d make sure they never forgot.
I showered, brushed my teeth, put on clean t-shirt and sweatpants of Dusty’s, and combed my wet hair. Then I decided to go outside.
Owl helped me down the stairs, the nonstop hammering louder with every step. I’d never seen inside the house before. The only part of Rosewood I saw, beside Dusty’s room, was a bushy, unattended garden—where I was tied to a fucking tree—and a dried out pool.
Despite its serious need of maintenance and cleaning, downstairs was a vast open hall that served all purposes. A kitchen on the right. A bar right across from it. A dartboard on the wall and an air hockey table inches away beneath it. A sitting area with a TV and leather couches on the left. It was also a place to get blowjobs and fuck while everybody watched.
The couple doing it on one of the couches and the guy pushing a blonde’s head down his cock didn’t stop when I came down. Everything else did, though. The laughter. The chatter. The drinking. The cooking. The room fell in silence, except for the sex sounds and the stupid hammering.
Suddenly, it was my last day at school all over again. All eyes were on me, and not a single stare was friendly. They were looking at me as if I murdered someone. Only this time, it was true.
I did murder Rush.
From what I saw in their eyes, it didn’t matter Rush killed my best friend and was halfway into raping me. Why I pulled the trigger didn’t mean anything to them. All that mattered was that I killed the Night Skulls’ VP.
I took a deep breath and focused my gaze on Owl. “Are you fixing something outside?”
“It got a little windy early this morning, and the roof gave.” He gestured at the dingy walls. “It’s an old house.”
I noticed the scaffolding through the open front door. “I should take a look at that.”
Loud, mocking laughs filled the air.
On any given day, I’d have felt self-conscious or angry about men thinking I wasn’t good enough to doman’s workeven when I was getting a degree for it. I’d have thought of something smart to say, a snide comment to shove down those mansplaining throats.
Not today.
That big fat nothing swallowing me came in handy, and I just didn’t care. Not thepush your feelings aside because they were not worth itkind of didn’t care. I just didn’t. The bobbing Adam’s apples, ugly teeth, smelly breaths and awful faces looking at me like I was a silly little girl didn’t mean anything at all.
It was liberating.
“Zip it. Prez won’t be pleased to know you’ve been laughing at his old lady,” Owl said, giving everyone around a menacing stare.
A guy with a bandana on his head scratched his balls. “Old lady my ass. Isn’t she the one behind all the shenanigans that’s fucking up this place?”
“A bad luck pussy is what she is,” another guy said, squashing a beer can with one fist. “Every man that tries to touch it winds up taken, beaten or dead.”
Another roar of laughter erupted.
“You wanna tell Prez that to his face?” Owl asked, and the laughter was chopped off. “Yeah. Now you shut up.”
“Can I get you anything, darling?” A woman in the kitchen said. Her hair was raven black. She wore red lipstick and black eyeliner. A red tank top showed her lace bra and half of her inflated boobs. She had a full sleeve and more tattoos on her back and the top of her chest. “A beer?”
Her grin was forced, fake like her boobs. Suck-up? I couldn’t decide right away. Maybe it was a professional habit. I knew a flight attendant once. She had this huge grin on her face the whole time even when she was off duty. I doubted this woman was a flight attendant, though. She probably tended bars or…serviced men. According to Dusty, these were the common professions here. No doubt the men laughed when I offered to take a look at the roof. They’d probably never met a female engineer before.
Well, an engineering student… Damn. I was a few months away from getting my degree. Now look at me.
My eyes wandered around the place. Yeah. I could use a drink. “I’d appreciate a Cosmo.”
She stopped short at the counter, cocking her hip out and putting her hand on it, a bitch stare on her face. Then she rolled her eyes at Owl.
“Don’t just stand there. Go make that shit,” he ordered.
The woman gave me another bitch stare. This time, she raked me from head to toe and made sure I saw her do so. “She’s not making it easy, you know?”
“The Cosmo, Candy.”
She stalked to the cabinets, mumbling a few swears, as he ushered me to the bar.