“Get it together, Crystal,” I scolded myself and exhaled, starting my pattern again.
So, what if he had a club?
He lied.
They’d sent me back to rock bottom. I’d been forced to scramble and beg Flynn, of all people.
I shivered, hooked onto the street I wanted and slowed as I neared my mother’s driveway. A large figure stood in C.C. Henshaw’s yard, gawking as I navigated the turn.
“Fucking weirdo,” I mumbled, as I glanced at the time on the dashboard.
It was three in the morning. Who the hell stood on the lawn, watching the neighborhood in the middle of the night? I snorted at the hypocrisy. I was going to knock on a door at such an hour, what the hell was wrong with me?
I knew they’d be up. It was the first Friday of the month. They’d live large while they could, and panic when it ran out by Tuesday. It was their way; it always had been.
The seventies southern rock that filtered through the cheap trailer door confirmed my suspicions. I knocked on the narrow piece of fiberglass, hoping it would be louder enough. The talking inside halted, but the music never turned down, and no one came to investigate.
I huffed and pounded on the solid part of the door. The music lowered and whispering broke out. I rolled my eyes and feigned patience.
“If I were the police, I’d have kicked the door in when the radio went off,” I called.
The many locks scraped and clicked on the other side of the door, and Joplin scrambled out, tackling me with a squeal.
“I knew you’d come back! I told them,” she whispered, while squeezing me so tightly I couldn’t say anything.
Not that I would have, with the way Larry was glaring at me from behind her.
“Don’t leave me again,” Joplin whispered, and everything in me froze solid.
Everything, except my face.
“Get in the house!” Larry barked, as he grabbed for Joplin’s shoulder.
“Don’t touch her!” I snapped, still reeling from what she hadn’t actually said.
I jerked her back and she stumbled down the rickety steps with a scream, catching her shoe on the last one. Joplin sprawled in her sleeping shorts on the pavement below with a nauseating thud.
My jaw dropped, and I turned to see if she was okay.
“Now look what you did, you little bitch. Why did you come back here anyway?” Larry flew down the steps, making me whip back around to face him.
I thought he meant to shove me, instead, he pinned me to the rail and snagged my hair. I swung for his face, but I was so off kilter, it was a lopsided swat at best.
I never had a chance to find out how solid it would have landed. Larry’s head snapped back, and he was ripped off the steps so violently he took me with him.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” The sound of Anthony’s rage filled voice, left me stunned and sprawled on the pavement beside Joplin.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Up in Flames
Anthony
I couldn’t sleep. I knew Oak said it would only be a matter of time, but I just didn’t have the faith that he did. I was kicking my own ass for not going over to her mom’s trailer sooner, when I got his text.
Get over here. She’s there now.
It took all of a snort and three seconds to text back,fuck you.
