by Grace Risata
Tyler grabbed the wild woman by the waist and quickly pulled her back.
“The real question here, Roman, is why did you bring Andi to our little hangout spot? It’s not a place where outsiders are welcome. What the fuck are you doing?”
In response, the man standing next to me balled up his fists in rage and puffed out his chest as though preparing for battle. Not too keen on the odds of four against two, I was infinitely grateful when my phone rang allowing me to step off to the side and take care of this new distraction.
“What?” I barked into the mouthpiece, hoping it was a full squad of riot police informing me they were about to bust in and carry me off to safety.
“Andi! I just got your text and did a Google search! The Bottomless Pit is a known hangout for street toughs and gypsies! What the heck are you doing there? Do you need me to come and get you?”
Ah, leave it to Hailey to offer her assistance. So loyal and foolhardy.
“While it’s extremely embarrassing to rely on your little sister for rescue, I might need you to call in some reinforcements. Is that an option?”
“NO!” she insisted vehemently. “Not even as a last resort. I will not rely on a man to solve my problems…especially not the one you have in mind!”
Fuck.
“Okay, then. I’ll try to wing it. No worries.”
“Don’t bite off more than you can chew, Andromeda! I know it’s on your bucket list to get into a melee, but I’m not bailing you out of jail!”
Hailey loved to use my full name to imply she meant business.
“I promise to behave myself and not engage the enemy. Seriously, don’t worry. I won’t use my training unless absolutely necessary. Call me back in ten…no…make that twenty minutes for an update.”
It always paid to have a backup plan.
Sliding my phone into a pocket and taking a deep breath, I was surprised to see Roman, Duke, and Tyler huddled together in deep discussion while the ladies simply stood a few feet away staring at me.
“Hi!” I offered cheerfully. “My name is Andi. It’s too bad you’re just arriving now…you missed the wing eating contest. It was totally gross!”
Let’s start off friendly and see where it progresses.
“I’m Trina and this is Alyssa,” Tyler’s sort-of-fiancé explained. “Are you like…Roman’s girlfriend or something?”
“Or something,” I replied, certainly not knowing where I fit in with the whole group. Honestly, part of me expected a gorgeous gypsy woman to push her way through the crowd of people, walk up to my date, and start making out with him. Since everyone else seemed to have ‘secret girlfriends,’ I was starting to believe that Roman must have one too.
“I’m not surprised at all that he’d bring an outsider to a place like this,” Alyssa remarked with a roll of her eyes. “I mean, really, the guy refuses to hook up with any gypsy girls, so I guess he must have a thing for gorgers.”
“Why doesn’t he hook up with gypsy girls?” I asked, just tossing the million dollar question out there and seeing if they might magically have an answer.
“Fuck if I know,” Trina mumbled, throwing her hands in the air. “He’s an asshole in my opinion. Walks around with his head held high like he’s better than everyone else. That attitude isn’t going to get him very far in this town, especially if he’s spending all his time with the likes of you instead of one of us.”
Us and them, huh? We’re all people aren’t we? Shouldn’t we try to get along to make the world a better place?
As if needing to further get her point across, Trina leaned over, cleared her throat and spat on the ground right in front of my shoe.
There went world peace.
Frowning, I quickly calculated the probability of me being able to take down both Trina and Alyssa…and decided the odds were not in my favor. Judging by what I’d see on my reality show, the girls would fight dirty and throw punches, not do any wimpy shit like face slapping or hair tugging. Before I could form a suitable response, Roman stepped up and defended my honor.
“You two pieces of shit better back the fuck off and get away from her,” he demanded, eyes narrowed, face as cold and detached as I’d ever seen it.
I held my breath and waited for Tyler to start swinging, assuming the man wouldn’t appreciate Roman speaking to his almost-fiancé in such a manner.
That never happened.
Instead, Roman grabbed my hand and led me out of the bar without uttering another word. We made our way through the crowd of people, up the stairs, and right past the portly bouncer that probably still hadn’t collected his fifty dollar debt from Tyler.
All in all, our exit was rather anti-climatic.
I guess it’s for the best, since the situation pretty much exploded the second we hit the parking lot.
Chapter Sixteen
Roman
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse with Andi, we were confronted with a gruesome scene in the parking lot. I honestly should have known this was coming. There’s no way a man can waltz into a gypsy bar, try to cheat them out of money, and make a clean getaway. Not gonna happen.
Sure enough, Red, Solo, and about three other guys were beating the crap out of the idiot that got caught shoving chicken wings under his shirt instead of eating them.
By the looks of things, Thor had roughly four more minutes until he was knocked unconscious.
“Go for the head, you amateurs! Who taught you how to fight?” Solo shouted from off to the side, somehow satisfied with a supervisory role. “Kick him in the face!”
Okay, then. Let’s change that estimate to one more minute until the guy ended up in a coma.
I made the mistake of glancing over at Andi to see how she was faring with this latest development.
Not well. Not well at all. As can be expected, she covered her mouth to stifle either a scream or a surge of vomit that threatened to come out at any moment. I can’t blame her, really. This level of violence isn’t often seen in person. Television has a habit of glamorizing everything, but once you see brutality in real life, it’s an entirely different animal.
Based on her reaction, I had only one course of action. Get involved and risk the same fate as Thor. Given the choice of losing her forever or taking a beating, I chose the only option I could live with.
“Hey! Knock it off, you fucking idiots!” I yelled with as much authority as I could muster. “Don’t you know who he is?”
Since I hadn’t done anything to give these guys a reason not to trust me, they paused and stared while waiting for me to explain why I interrupted their fun.
“One of the bartenders recognized him. He’s a fucking television producer that’s been nosing around our community. Rumor has it there’s a stupid reality show about gypsies and their lives…and he’s looking to film us. The guy wants to find the wildest people to put on television, and you dumb fucks are about to blow our shot and murder him. So quit trying to kill the asshole, dump him on the steps of the nearest hospital, and call it a night!”
“Are you sure, Roman?” Red asked with skepticism.
“I think he might be telling the truth,” Solo admitted, reluctantly opening his mouth to offer a confession. “I might have watched a show one time about a gypsy wedding. I mean nothing else was on, I was drunk, and the chick getting married had nice tits…so I just ogled her for awhile before I changed the channel. It’s not like I have to sit home every Thursday night and watch the new episodes.”
Wow. I certainly hadn’t expected that response. Although, if anyone had to stand up and agree with me, I knew it would be him. I’m honestly surprised the man let things go as far as they did.
Once I saw the guys pick up Thor and stick him in someone’s backseat, as opposed to resuming their beat-down, I finally felt safe to grab Andi and get the hell out of there.
As we drove back to her house, I waited for the inevitable meltdown. Unfortunately, she chose to stare o
ut the window and remained completely silent. Somehow that seemed worse than if she would have just started screaming and unloaded on me. I’m sure there were a million questions Andi was dying to ask…I just didn’t know how to get her talking again.
“Well,” I began hesitantly, “that was quite an interesting turn of events, huh?”
“Yeah,” she sighed, unwilling to contribute anything beyond that one word. This is the woman that loved to strike up a conversation about anything and everything. Her lack of speech was seriously starting to freak me out. Part of me wished I never would have brought her to the pit, but the other part is glad that I did. I always keep myself closed off from everyone else, but I didn’t want to do that with Andi. She’s the only one that brings out the best in me. No more lies…at least not with her.
“I’m at a loss right now, Andi,” I admitted sadly. “There’s nothing I can do to fix the situation. You’ve seen more tonight than you should have, and for that I’m sorry. All I hope is that you won’t judge me based on the actions of others.”
She remained quiet, unmoving, firmly planted on her side of the front seat.
“Talk to me,” I urged. “Yell at me, curse at me, ask me anything you want and I’ll answer you. Please…just say something. I’m not a mind reader. I can’t make this better unless you talk to me.”
“Fine,” she replied suddenly, turning to look at me, face displaying no emotion at all. “I have two questions.”
Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere.
“Why did Tyler dump Cara? I should probably ask why he started seeing her in the first place if he had a fiancé, but that’s not what I need to know right now.”
I had to admire her loyalty. Andi was clearly trying to look out for her friend and get some much needed information on her behalf.
“I had no idea he was planning on breaking up with your friend so soon, Andi. That’s the absolute truth. Tyler has been seeing Tricia off and on for years. She’s nineteen and he’s twenty-six, so they had to keep things on the down low when she was underage. The state frowns upon sixteen year old girls dating twenty-three year old men. When their relationship started getting too much outside attention, Tyler left her alone for a while and started playing the field. The problem is…he never stopped. My cousin has a wandering eye and doesn’t really want to be tied down. If Cara crossed his path and he liked what he saw, then I’m sure he made a play for her. Tricia knows he has a habit of coming back to her, so she lets him do whatever he wants.”
Is it a lie of omission if a person side-steps the question? I really did know the true reason why Tyler started seeing Cara…and also why he dumped her. She had served her purpose, he got what he wanted, and there was no need to waste any more time with the woman. I sure as hell wasn’t about to confess all that to Andi. Honestly, though, I didn’t know my asshole cousin was going to break up with Cara tonight. Eventually? Yes. A few hours ago? Hell no.
I could tell that Andi wanted more out of me, but she had too much pride to ask. Since I wasn’t offering up any other information, she moved on to the next question.
“If I hadn’t been there tonight, would you have saved Thor from getting the life beaten out of him?”
Holy shit. That certainly came out of left field. I anticipated something about my being a gypsy, why wasn’t I married already, and how could I expect her to trust me after all the secrets I kept.
Letting out a deep breath I hadn’t even known I’d been holding, I stared straight ahead and kept my eyes on the road. My hands clenched the steering wheel tightly as I weighed my options.
“I’ve never lied to you, Andi, and I’m not going to start now,” I admitted, deciding to go with my instincts on this one. It was easy to let the falsehoods slip off my tongue when I tried to pull a scam or get people to bend to my will. With her, it made me sick to my stomach to be deceitful. She was so innocent, so trusting, so real. And I didn’t want to hurt her. “No, I wouldn’t have stepped in.”
“Oh,” she muttered in surprise at my brutality.
“I’ve learned that it’s best not to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong. If you keep your head down and don’t involve yourself in other people’s business, then it makes life go a lot smoother.”
“Then why did you intervene tonight?”
“Because I saw the way you looked at me. Like you expected me to be the one who jumps in and saves the day. I’ve been telling you all along that I’m not anyone’s knight in shining armor…but for one second…I felt like I could be…like I should be yours. To have done nothing and let you witness the potential murder of a random stranger…it would have broken both of us. You for having to watch…and me for letting you see that. So I stepped up and acted like a man. That’s all there is to it. I didn’t do it for him or for me. I did it for you.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, near tears, putting out her hand and gently squeezing my arm.
No more words were exchanged on the drive back to her apartment. Once we reached the parking lot, Andi leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before jumping out of my truck. I knew she had a lot to process, so I let her have some space.
I’ve done all I can for one night. I can only hope she has enough faith in me, enough trust, to let things play out and not hate me for what I’m about to do to her. It’s the only way to come out on the other side and rid myself of the burden that’s been weighing me down for so fucking long. I’ve come too far to back out now.
Chapter Seventeen
Andi – Wednesday Night
“…so that was pretty much my evening in a nutshell, Hailey,” I breathlessly explained, giving my sister a full recap of the drama that unfolded with Roman the night before. I had just gotten off the phone with Cara after telling her a much more watered down version of the story, and my throat was going dry from so much talking. I honestly expected my phone battery to die from overuse at this point.
“Wow,” she replied. “Since when did you fall down the rabbit hole and land in such a giant pile of crap? What happened to my mild-mannered sister whose biggest decision used to be which color socks to wear?”
“No shit, Sherlock. What do you make of it?”
“It’s hard to say, Andi. I feel like I’m getting all the details as they played out, but not any of your emotional reaction to anything. What did Cara say when you explained things to her? She knows more about these guys than I do. Isn’t she able to give more insight than I am?”
That was a very interesting response. Hailey always had an opinion about everything, so I found it odd that she held back on me.
“I only talked to Cara very briefly as I drove home from work today. She was on a ten minute break and mostly cared about the parts involving Tyler. I really didn’t want to admit that he had an actual fiancé, so I just sort of fibbed and told her I saw him with another girl on his arm. I mean…that was true, so it’s not like an outright lie. Of course she immediately insisted I never see Roman again and wash my hands of the whole thing.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“What are you? My shrink?”
“I’m trying to help you come to terms with your feelings, Andromeda. Also, I might have watched a few episodes of ‘Dr. Bill’ when I was supposed to be working from home but really took a Snickers break that turned into two hours of sitting in front of the television and not moving. I have PMS, okay? Let me take care of things my way, will you?”
“You’re insane.”
“Possibly. Quit avoiding the question and let me use my new skills to assist you.”
“Fine! It made me feel annoyed when I was talking to Cara. As usual, she turned the conversation to her and Tyler, completely ignoring the fact that I needed some advice. I’m sure Cara would prefer it if I don’t see Roman anymore because she got dumped and doesn’t need a reminder of her failure. She can be selfish at times.”
“Like all the time,” Hailey snorted. “So we’ve come to the conclusion that Cara has no new inf
ormation and she doesn’t have your best interest at heart. Speaking of the most vital organ in the human body…what is yours telling you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Liar. I saw the way you and Roman kept shyly glancing at each other on dad’s birthday. He doesn’t seem like some barbaric gypsy con artist out to swindle you and then run off to the next town with his caravan of fortune-telling circus freaks.”
“I don’t think so, either. He’s never done anything to make me question his intentions. If the man casually asked me for a loan, pressured me for sex, or talked down to me like he was a caveman and I was a moron…then that would raise a red flag. Roman has actually been a complete gentleman. In fact, he’s probably too respectful.”
“How so?”
Hmm. Hailey is far more open regarding her sex life, than I am discussing mine. There must be a way to phrase this delicately without embarrassing myself.
“Let’s just say that things were moving along at a nice pace and I wanted to go further…but he put on the brakes.”
“That’s a warning sign right there, Andi. Guys always want more, not less. What if he has a secret fiancé like Tyler?”
“Believe me, I’ve thought about it,” I admitted, grabbing a huge throw pillow off my couch and hugging it for comfort. “But there’s been no evidence to suggest that. One random bar skank approached us and complained because Roman finally had a date and it wasn’t a gypsy girl. Tyler’s fiancé and her friend also mentioned that they didn’t like Roman because he acted better than everyone else.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m leaning towards giving him another chance. Honestly, he really hasn’t done anything personally that has even come close to a deal breaker. If you were a gypsy, would you go shouting it from the rooftops? They don’t exactly have a pristine reputation, now do they? That’s the only thing he kept from me.”
“He didn’t tell you about Tyler’s fiancé.”
