Page 54
“Yeah?” Rider replies, leaning on the table, hands clasped.
“When was the last time you saw your brother?”
Rider frowns, eyes on the table, “My brother? Which one?”
“Whichever one goes by Grind.”
“What the fuck?”
Ah, shit.
Willa
I half expect Mad Dog to follow me, so I’m surprised when I come out of the bathroom stall to find that I’m alone. Am I disappointed? Not in Mad Dog. He seems to keep surprising me at every turn. Which means that my defenses are way the hell down and where he’s involved that’s where I want them. Because I want him. In my life, in my home, in my bed. I have no idea who the hell I thought I was fooling when I proposed friendship with the man. I should have known that my brain was never going to be a match for my vagina or my heart and Mad Dog’s charm.
My reflection smiles back at me and I’m almost taken aback by the woman in the mirror. There’s still a hardness about her, around the eyes, but there's something else there too. Something softer, gentler, happier. When the fuck did I start looking happy?
“Jesus, Willa, are you doing a number two or something?” Blanche’s voice calls through the door and I can't help but laugh as I turn on the faucet and wash my hands.
“Coming!” I yell over my shoulder.
Tearing at the paper towels I dry my hands, toss the damp paper in the bin, smooth my hair, and check myself in the mirror before I fling the bathroom door open.
“There she is!” Lovely cheers as Nat claps.
“Wow, that’s one hell of a welcome,” I reply.
“We’re just so happy you gave us an excuse to leave that room. I get it’s for a good cause but jeez, they’re all out there just stroking egos,” Lovely says, her brows pinched.
“Besides, we have more interesting things to be doing,” Blanche adds.
“Oh, yeah? Like what?” I ask before I realize that asking is probably a very bad idea.
“Oh, we’re off on a side quest,” Nat grins, wagging her brows.
I know I should go back into the other room and sit my ass down. I know we all should go back to the other room and finish what we set out to do. The problem is, I know as well as they do that we aren’t going to do that.
“OK,” I hold my hands up, “What’s the side quest?”
Blanche grins maniacally as Lovely claps and Nat hustles down the hall in her heels, before spinning to look back at us.
“Hurry up! I left Pops spying on him and we have no idea what Pops is gonna get up to.”
We all look at each other before we jog down the hall as fast as we can in our spikey heels. Nat leads the way to some side room, the door slightly ajar, the only light in the room is what’s reflecting in from the hall.
“Pops?”
“Shhhh!”
“Did he just shush me?” I whisper to Lovely.
She gives me a little smile and a nod before pointing deeper into the room. There is Mercer, on the phone, pacing from one side to the other.
“You need to move the shit out, tonight…..I don’t give a fuck if you and your little friends are ready or not, move it!....Remember how the fuck you got out, Diesel. One call from me and you’ll be right fucking back in that cell selling your ass for fucking pot noodles…….get rid of it!”
“Well, that’s disturbing and hilarious in equal measure,” I mutter to myself. Then try to hold in the maniacal laughter that wants to break out at the thought of Diesel selling his ass.
Mercer looks at his phone, before pocketing it, the call apparently over. He turns to move and I plaster myself against the wall in the shadows next to my Ol Lady friends in the hopes he won’t see us.
