“Nothing changed.Don’t think it’s going to be like this all the time.”
“When are you coming back for Petal?”
“Tomorrow sometime.”With that, she hurried down the path, got in her car, and drove away.
Dred looked around at the mess by his feet and the small baby in his arms, the enormity of what just happened hitting him in the stomach.How the hell do you sterilize a bottle?And where do you buy a car seat?
Lennon ran into the hallway, his face ashen.“I thought I heard a baby scream.”He stopped a few feet shy of them.
Nikan followed Lennon.“So this is Petal?”he asked, stepping around Dred to pick up all the bags and close the door.
“Yeah,” Dred said, a lump in his throat.“This is my daughter.I guess that makes her your niece.”
Elliott joined them.“Holy shit, she’s got pipes like her old man.”
Dred looked down at the scrunched-up little face, all red and wrinkled.
“Can I?”Jordan gestured for the baby.Dred carefully transferred her into Jordan’s arms.
Jordan began to sing.“Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner...”The haunted lyrics to “Under the Bridge” had always left him in pieces.But seeing Jordan sing it to his daughter ripped out his insides and put them through a shredder.
There was no way she would ever feel the kind of loneliness he had.
He’d make sure of that with every fucking breath in his body.
* * *
Pixie closed the internet browser and leaned back in her chair.There had to be an explanation of why Dred looked so cozy with that Brazilian supermodel.He’d warned her that the paparazzi had an incredible knack of capturing the most innocent moment in a way that made it look sordid and cheap.There was no need for her to worry.Right?
He was a rock star and he was bound to meet beautiful women wherever he went.Worse, he was likely used to those women throwing their perky D-cups is his face.
Pixie stood and walked to the condo’s balcony doors.She needed to show Dred she could deal with it while convincing herself that she wasn’t merely being naïve.The sky was an unusual mix of thunderous gray and deep purple.The air hung heavy with anticipation of the storm the forecast had promised.It reflected her mood.
She pulled out her phone and looked at the photos Dred had sent her over the past two days.What kind of mother dropped her child off with someone saying they’d be back the next day, only to remain conveniently out of touch for seventy-two hours?
A photo of Petal asleep on Jordan’s chest.Petal lying on a giant play mat with little animals dangling overhead.A picture of a bottle sterilizer with the messageWhat the fuck am I supposed to do with this?
And the funniest one was Lennon, Nikan, and Elliott, each standing behind a different shopping cart packed to the brim with stuff, and Jordan stood in front of them holding Petal.The accompanying text saidThis is what $3,567.84 buys at Toys R Us ...the rest is being delivered ...Petal 1: Daddy 0
Her favorite was a picture of Dred and Petal.It was taken from the side and Petal was asleep on his shoulder.Dred looked straight at the camera and the look on his face was the closest she had ever seen to contentment.
This man wouldn’t cheat on her, she was certain, but somehow the tacky article had gotten under her skin, and not in a good way.
The buzzer to the condo sounded.Pixie walked to the door and checked herself out in the mirror.She’d dressed deliberately to face him.Her face was wiped clean of makeup.She was wearing a pair of nondescript boyfriend jeans and a washed-out gray hoodie that had a small hole under the arm.And her purple hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, making it impossible for him to grip the small hairs and the base of her neck.Yeah, she was dressed to meet Arnie.
She’d also timed it so that he was to arrive thirty minutes before Lia was due home at the end of her shift.Close enough that if he got any stupid ideas ...well, she couldn’t think about that.
Deliberately ignoring the buzzer, she headed for the elevator.He’d be pissed she didn’t let him up, but then so was she to be giving him a thousand dollars of her hard-earned money.Money she’d been saving; money she didn’t want to part with.
The elevator pinged open and Arnie stood by the buzzer, pressing it furiously.When he saw her, he jerked away from the panel.“I thought I told you,” he hissed under his breath, “that you will never bar me from your apartment again.”
“And I know I told you, it would be a cold day in hell before I let you into my home.This is the last of it,” she lied, focusing on keeping her face neutral and her stance firm.She jammed the envelope into his hand.“I’m not giving you anymore.”
“I think you’re missing the point,Sarah.This isn’t about you giving me everything you have.It’s about you getting me everything I want.You can go to your TV-star boss or your rock-star boyfriend, I don’t give a shit which you choose.But youwillget me more money, orthis”—he pulled something from his back pocket and handed her a folded piece of paper—“will make it into the wrong hands.”
Pixie opened it and gasped in shock.Brewster lay on the floor, a giant red stain covering the lower part of his shirt.Right where she’d stabbed him the night she found out her stepdad planned to sell her virginity to the highest bidder.Tears filled her eyes as she took in the look on her own face.The look of abject shock, the absence of any color in her cheeks, and the way the knife hung loosely by her side made her want to weep for the young girl she clearly was.In all her recollections of that night, she always imagined herself as she was now.A grown-up.It shocked her to see how very young she had been when it all happened.The paper shook in her hands.
With a voice that sounded incrementally stronger than she actually felt, Pixie said, “No.I’m done with the threats.You can’t keep taking money from me because of this.I might have been the one holding the knife, but you might as well have been the one to kill him.You took this photograph.If I am in trouble, you are.So take the money, and get the fuck out of my life.”
