“Who the hell do you think you are?” Ripley shouted. “You had no fucking right to get involved in my business.”
She raised her hand to slap me again, and I caught her forearm. “Can you calm the hell down for a minute? What are you so pissed off about?”
With her free hand, she pointed a finger in my face. “You went after Charlie. You told him to stop selling to me. What gives you the right?”
“He’s just some shady street dealer, Ripley. You shouldn’t be getting product from him anyway. Most of that shit is garbage. You’ll only hurt yourself.” Some part of me believed the words that came out of my mouth. How could I possibly expect her to understand that I wanted to protect her?
“What do you care?” she snapped. “You and me are nothing to each other, Auryn. Remember? It’s not your place to do what you did. Now I have to find another supplier. Do you know how difficult that will be?”
I flinched, not liking the way her words cut so deep. They were true though. I’d said something similar to Rebel not long ago.
“You don’t need a supplier if you stop,” I said, releasing her arm. “Have you ever thought about that?”
Ripley’s blue eyes grew impossibly wide. She took a step back, sputtering like she struggled to make words happen. Finally, she snarled, “You have a lot of audacity to say something like that to me. A drug addict telling someone else they need to quit? You are the definition of hypocrisy, Auryn.”
She took another step backward, prompting me to move toward her. Needing to close the space she put between us, I reached for her arm, and she smacked me away.
“Have you ever thought that maybe I care about what happens to you?” I fired back. “I don’t want to see you hurtyourself. If that makes me the bad guy, then I guess I’ll have to live with that.”
“Youarethe bad guy, Auryn,” Ripley shouted. “You do bad things for a living. I was an idiot to let myself forget that. You went too far by trying to control me and my life. My issues are my business. Not yours. Going after Charlie was too much. We’re done. I don’t need a fake boyfriend after all. At this point I would rather deal with Jamie and his bullshit.”
She whirled around to walk away. Something wound tight inside me snapped, propelling me forward. I grabbed her arm, spinning her around. Ripley raised a hand to slap me again, and I stood there, accepting the blow.
“Does that make you feel better?” I asked, gripping her by both arms now. “Do you want to hurt me? Good. I kind of want to hurt you too.”
I smiled down at her, imagining her on her knees before me. Oh, I definitely wanted to hurt her. Probably not in the same way she wanted to hurt me. The venomous rage in Ripley’s eyes made me feel a twisted combination of intrigue and uncertainty. Part of me loved seeing this fiery spirit she possessed instead of the good girl persona she worked so hard to project. Yet I didn’t love the idea of her hating me. It made my stomach turn uncomfortably.
“Let go of me, Auryn.” She made a vain attempt at pulling free of my hold. “I’m done here. I’m done with you.”
I jerked her against me, forcing her to crane her neck backwards to meet my eyes. “Is that what you think? That’s cute. Really. Because I’m not done with you. Not by a longshot.”
Ripley froze in my grasp, our eyes locked on each other. She seemed conflicted. Trying hard to cling to her rage while wanting to succumb to the pull we both felt between us. Our lips were a mere breath apart. I ached to kiss her, holding back to drag out the moment. Making it more powerful.
“Thanks for reminding me that I was right about getting involved with someone like you,” she said, her words stinging. “Might want to let me go before the neighbors see you getting rough with me and call the cops. You guys don’t like the cops, right?”
Damn, this girl could play rough. Who knew she had it in her?
“I haven’t even begun to get rough with you, baby girl.” I leaned in to bite her bottom lip, dragging it between my teeth. “You want to hate me because I refuse to watch you spiral. That’s fine. At least you’ll be alive.”
Confusion flashed through her eyes. She battled with herself, wanting to kiss me as much as she wanted to hit me. She did neither.
“I have to go to work.” She pulled away, and this time I let her go. Without another word, Ripley beelined for her car.
I expected her to peel away in anger. To gun the engine or something. Her quiet departure as she pulled away from the house was somehow worse.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
RIPLEY
The last thing I wanted to do was go to work in a mood like this. I’d been enraged since I received a message from my mother a few hours earlier demanding more money. Not long after that I heard from Charlie, letting me know he wouldn’t be selling to me anymore. My whole day had gone downhill from there.
Charlie had been reluctant to tell me why until I continued to press him. Finally he confessed that someone had told him not to. It hadn’t been hard to figure out that it had been Auryn.
I’d never had to work so hard to keep from exploding. Finding out that Auryn had made such a controlling move left me feeling violated. Angry beyond all reason. And more than anything, it had left me panicked.
Where would I get more pills now? The doctor cut me off months ago. I’m sure there were more street dealers, although I didn’t know anyone well enough to ask. Unfortunately, Auryn had been right about one thing. Not every source was trustworthy.
My hands shook on the steering wheel during the drive to work. It took everything in me to obey the traffic laws. To keep from hitting the gas harder than necessary or honking the horn at every idiot that did something stupid in traffic.
