I brushed past, both men wearing equally terrifying expressions on their handsome faces.
"Ash, wait!" West called but I kept walking until I got to my porch.
"What?"
"Don't listen to him, princess. He's a fucking dick. He's just pissed about what happened with Remington last year and he's taking it out on you." West grabbed my hand in a sweet gesture, trying to make sure I wasn't about to lose it.
"It's fine." The words didn't bother me. It was more the blatant lack of manners. I didn’t do anything to deserve that.
"It's not fine.” West kept a tight grip on me. He made small circles on the back of my hand using his thumb. "He had no right to say that to you, and I'm going to tell him so."
"Don't. You don't need any more tension with him. I don't even care, okay? I just want to go see Rem," I sighed. I needed to make sure he was okay after last night. The gnawing feeling in my gut wasn't going away. I needed to talk to Remington now that he wasn't so out of it. I needed answers.
"Give me five minutes to get dressed and I'll drive you," West said before retreating to his house.
A bright red Mustang parked in my driveway caught my eye. I hadn't noticed it when I walked over from West's house. That was certainly out of place. Mom must’ve come home after I went to West’s last night. Probably another one of her boyfriends.Gross. She told me she was seeing a new guy–a guy with money–so she was going to do whatever she could to lock him down. Her words.
I didn’t have my purse with me–which I kinda needed, so I opened the front door and was hit with the sound of moans coming from Mom's bedroom. Moans, groans, and some yelling.
"Mom?" I called from the living room. Unsure of what to do, I pulled the travel-sized can of mace I kept on my keychain and prepared to use it. I didn't know if what was happening was consensual or not. "Mom!"
A loud thud came from her room, followed by swearing. A deep voice grumbled and Mom screeched as she shoved open the door. "Jesus Christ, Ashtyn. What the fuck do you want?"
She adjusted her robe to cover herself and tried to smooth out her short brown hair. Her makeup was smeared and she had faint bruises on her neck and red marks on her cheek.
"I thought you were getting killed in there." I pointed to her bedroom as a man stumbled out.
Zipping up his black slacks, he smoothed back his long, silvery black hair and smirked at me. He wasn't wearing a shirt and his gut stuck out over the pants. The hair on his chest matched that on his head. Greasy. Ugly. Disgusting.
"Sorry sweetness, your mama likes it rough," Hannigan said as he grabbed Mom and planted a sloppy kiss on her mouth.
"Pete!" Mom giggled.
She giggled. I hadn’t seen any emotion on that woman other than anger and resentment since the day Dad left. And even before that, she was only happy when she popped the cork on a new wine bottle or got a prescription refilled.
"Hanniganis your new boyfriend?"
"It'sPeteHannigan. Nice to finally meet you Ashtyn. Your mama's told me so much about you.” He stuck his hand out to shake mine, but I stood completely still, not wanting to be anywhere near the sweaty man.
"Ashtyn, don't you dare be rude to Pete. Don't you fuck this up for me," Mom hissed, her true self shining through the façade she put on for my boss.
"We've met before. A few times. At Aces. Where I work. The place he owns. You know, the place where they hire minors and operate a secret sex club in the back." I turned to stare him down. "You were getting a blowjob from Chloe in one of the back rooms. Didn't look like she was enjoying it too much. That was just last weekend, by the way."
Pete's smile faltered slightly but was replaced with an evil smirk as Mom chimed in. "What is the matter with you? I'm sorry babe, she can be a bit of a smart mouth sometimes. Gets it from her loser father."
Am I in the Twilight Zone? Instead of being pissed at her boyfriend for getting a blowjob from someone else, she's mad at me for calling him out on it. Classic Mom.
"Hey, it's okay, baby. Now that you mention it, you do look familiar. You'll have to forgive me. I can't remember all my employees' names. I own a lot of businesses," Pete said as Mom stroked his arm affectionately.
"Pete owns clubs all over the state. Isn't that wonderful? He's a smart businessman. You could learn a thing or two from him," Mom said.
"Excuse me?"
She ripped her gaze from Pete to look at me. "You work so hard and we barely scrape by. I can't work much with my bad back. Pete knows a lot of ways a girl can make money. Much more than we make now."
"We?"
"Your mama's right. A pretty young thing like you would make money hand over fist working in the back rooms at Aces. Or the pole at Ethereal over in Castle Grove. I own that too."