Too stunned and, admittedly busy trying not to vomit, Jodi sat there, staring down at herself in horror, wondering what just happened when her night suddenly got a hell of a lot worse.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m going to say this as nicely as I possibly can,” Tinkerbelle said as he caught a whiff of a vile odor that was vaguely familiar. “If you even think about calling me Tinkerbelle or saying anything even remotely annoying right now, I will kill you!”
“I see,” Danny murmured absently as he took in the scene and in less than thirty seconds, he realized that his cousin had seriously fucked up.
Bradfords didn’t normally throw away food. It just wasn’t in their DNA to waste food even if it was past its expiration date and growing penicillin. They simply scraped the fungus off, covered it in ketchup and savored it. They didn’t believe in wasting food, none of them did, but since Trevor had fallen in love with Zoe…
Well, they’d made an exception to that rule since none of them had the balls to tell Zoe that her cooking terrified them, especially the bastard that married her. Most nights, Trevor was able to force himself to eat what his wife cooked, but other nights like last night, the man couldn’t force himself to do the impossible. When those nights came, Trevor took the coward’s way out and found a way to get rid of the leftovers without Zoe finding out.
Since he couldn’t throw the food away at his house and take the chance of his wife finding out, Trevor usually brought it to one of his apartment houses and dumped it in one of their cousin’s trashcans, which was probably why Trevor stopped by tonight. The only problem was that Trevor had royally fucked up tonight and placed the trash bags filled with toxic waste in Tinkerbelle’s barrels.
The weird, oddly discolored slime covered her from head to toe, the ground that she was struggling to get off, and her trash barrels. He’d seen a lot of things in the Marines, but this was easily the grossest fucking thing that he’d ever come across. It was also probably one of the most embarrassing moments for little Tinkerbelle, he realized with a reluctant sigh as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone.
“What are you doing?” Tinkerbelle asked as she suddenly stopped trying to find a way to get out of the slimy mess so that she could watch his every move.
“My duty,” Danny explained with a heavy sigh as he opened the camera app and did what was expected of him.
“You son of a bitch!” Tinkerbelle snapped as she lunged for him, slipped, and landed right smack dab in a large puddle of goo.
“Say it with a smile,” Danny said, chuckling when she looked up. Well, tried to, at least, but with all that goo weighing her hair down in front of her face, it was kind of difficult.
“Put the camera away, Danny!” Jodi demanded, struggling to get to her feet only to once again slip in the goo, landing smack dab in the middle of it and forcing him to jump back to avoid the goop that was sent flying into the air with the movement.
“It’s not a camera,” he felt obligated to point out as he angled the phone to the side so that he could catch the goo-smeared glare that she was sending him. “It’s a-son of a bitch!” Danny shouted as a big handful of chalk white slime sailed through the air and nailed him in the shoulder.
“Put the phone away,” Tinkerbelle said, swiping up another handful of that slime that he was going to kill his cousin for.
Any other man would have accepted defeat, put the camera away, and made a quick retreat, but he was a Bradford as well as a Marine, which meant that he was going to aggravate the shit out of her for the sheer pleasure of it. Chuckling, he ducked out of the way as the goop sailed through the air and snapped a dozen more pictures. The only thing that he cared about right now was pissing Tinkerbelle off.
“Damn it!” Jodi snapped as she once again slipped in the goo, this time landing on her pretty little ass, causing the glob of goo in her hand to slide down her arm, adding an extra layer of slime to her skin and clothes that was going to be a bitch to clean off. When she let out a defeated groan, he couldn’t help but feel bad for her.
With a sigh, because he knew that he was going to miss out on some really good photo opportunities, he put his phone in his back pocket. “Do you want some help?”
“Not from you,” Jodi bit out as she tried to wipe her hands off on her pants, but by this point, it was hopeless. She was covered from head to toe in the nasty goop.
“Oh, and why’s that?” Danny asked, glancing at the garden hose and wondering if he should hose down this mess before the smell seeped inside the apartment house.
“Because I really just don’t like you,” Jodi admitted as she slowly got on her knees to give standing another try.
“Now, you know that you really don’t mean that,” he said, knowing damn well that she did.
“I really do,” she promised him as she finally managed to get to her feet.
“Are you planning on tracking that shit into the building?” Danny asked, gesturing to the white slime that was slowly traveling down her body, applying another, more even, coat over her body.
“I’ll wash it off,” she said defensively.
“How?”
Her frown said it all. She had no idea how she was going to get that shit off, and to be honest, he really wasn’t sure that water was going to do the job. At least cold water wouldn’t be able to get it off, Danny mused with a frown of his own when he felt a slight burning sensation on his shoulder right where the goop-
Oh, shit.
Chapter 5
“Stop moving!”
