Total pages in book: 212
Estimated words: 207966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1040(@200wpm)___ 832(@250wpm)___ 693(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 207966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1040(@200wpm)___ 832(@250wpm)___ 693(@300wpm)
“Lot of good things happening for you. New job starting the day after tomorrow. Talks with the band about your songs. Soak in the good stuff. Yeah?”
She nodded. “You’re right.”
“I’ll call that restaurant tomorrow and see what day we can get in to see the apartment above it. Yeah?”
“Okay,” she agreed.
***
I was heading up the stairs to go to bed. Gigi had crashed hours earlier, but I’d gone down to have a beer with the boys.
As I walked down the hall, I heard voices. I was about to pass a set of bathrooms when I saw Skip had my girl cornered outside the women’s door. Her back was against the wall. He was way too close. And she was crying.
I was about to make my presence known in a way that would undoubtedly involve my fists when she cried, “I told you I just want you to leave me alone. Unless you want me to talk to Jesse about all of this, you need to respect my wishes.”
“Can’t forget, babe,” Skip said. “I just can’t. What might it be like if you’d kept it, if I’d left her for you. It’d be three years old by now, right? I did the math. Three years old this month.”
“Next month,” she corrected.
“Wish you would’ve told me before you got rid of it.”
“You’re drunk. Stop this. Out of my way,” she pleaded, tears streaming, and I felt his words and her expression like a boot to my gut.
“But she and me are done, so now it can be us. We can finally –”
“You expected me to bring a kid into the world out of rape?” she hissed. “You expect me to still give you a shot when I’ve got Jesse? You don’t hold a candle to him. Even if I didn’t have Jesse, it wouldn’t happen after everything you’ve done to me, after the way you treat your wife? You’re delusional.”
“It wasn’t rape,” he insisted. “Told you that a hundred times. You came onto me.”
“It sure wasn’t consensual,” she replied. “You wanted us to forget about this shit and move on but you’re the one that keeps dredging up the past. I want you to please, please just leave me alone. Please.”
“You heard her,” I stated coldly stepping into view.
He spun to face me.
“Rape?” I asked, eyes on my girl. I asked because I knew we had an audience and wanted everyone to hear all the facts.
She looked ready to fall apart. She stared at me with fear.
“The night I told you about.”
“Tell me again,” I said.
She frowned. Then she spoke fast. “The night I think he slipped me something,” she said, realizing it was more than me. We had an audience. Scott, Nolan, and Ella were all in the hallway.
“Never fucking happened,” Skip snapped. “She was all over me that night. Just like every other time she wanted my dick.”
“No?” I asked. “Just a coincidence that you’ve got a guy that set us up with all that GHB?”
“Absolute coincidence,” he insisted.
“You and me, Skippy? In the fuckin’ ring,” I told him.
He leaned back and laughed. “Yeah?”
“Yes,” I hissed. “Tomorrow night. I’d do it now if you weren’t fallin’ down drunk.”
“Bring it on,” he snapped. “I didn’t do anything to Gia that she didn’t want, didn’t fuckin’ beg for.”
I lunged, about to say fuck the ring, ready to end it right now, end him if nobody stopped me when suddenly Brady was between us, wearing just his boxers. Now there were more people in the hall, including Marlena who was standing behind me, looking at my girl with tears in her eyes.
“Save it for the ring, brothers. To your corners for now,” Brady stated.
“Gonna wipe the floor with you,” Skip sneered.
“Can’t wait, fucker,” I spat, then tagged Gigi’s hand and pulled her down the hall to my room.
“Lookin’ forward to puttin’ you in your place, Jesse James,” he mouthed off as I walked away.
When we were in my room, behind the door, our eyes met.
“He got you pregnant that night.”
She wore shame all over her face.
“Why didn’t you tell me, G?”
She thrust her hands through her hair. “I’ve been trying to forget. Told you that night was hard for me to talk about. Not just because I woke up knowing he’d done what he did, also realizing weeks later that he’d done it without protection. He obviously lied about that, too, or I would’ve gotten the morning after pill. Tried hard to just forget. I never wanted him to know, but Kailey ran into him and was pissed for me. She opened her big mouth and told him off. Told him she had to hold my hand while I went for a termination because he did that to me.”
“Fucking asshole. Can’t wait to fuckin’ lay into him.”
“He tracked me down and threatened me, told me to keep my mouth shut about it, that his wife better never find out. I stayed away from the club a long time after that but again, like I told you before, I ran into Delia and she kinda brought me back into the fold. I think Skip shot his mouth off around Spencer and changed his tune about me or he and I might’ve become something. Don’t know for sure, but then people thinking I was Edge’s side piece kept attention off me. Skip warned me then not to say anything to Edge about the past, told me not to be a troublemaker or I’d be not only cast out from the club, but he also made it seem like he’d personally do something to get back at me. So when I came here and was put under your protection he kept wanting to talk to me alone. And I got the feeling he wanted to threaten me again not to tell you about that night. I think he planned to threaten me the way he did with Edge. I just tried to avoid him and kept telling him I wanted to move on. Then tonight, he’s acting like now that Sara kicked him out, it’s our chance to finally be together. So ridiculous. Preposterous. He’s got a screw loose.”