by Emilia Finn
Iz doesn’t do development days anymore, she hasn’t in a long, long time. But even so, with her far more experienced competitors, she’s nailing it.
I’m so fucking proud of her; to walk into the stadium or gym, breastfeed Bean then don her mouth guard and smack some chicks down. She’s amazing and I’m so proud of my baby sister.
Kit is also nailing it, and now she’s had five fights, which means she has to move out of the development days. Even Bobby seems to be handling her fighting better; at least he’s not almost passing out from the stress, and he’s not dragging her out of the ring and tucking her under his arm.
Jack has also moved away from the friendly bouts, so until my Smalls is old enough, and only then if I let her fight, because now I get how Bobby felt watching Kit, we’re done with those.
Smalls’ arm is all better now, her cast long gone. Although the original one, the pink one, is proudly displayed on her dresser in her room. Like a trophy of sorts.
A couple weeks after they officially moved in, I took Tina to meet my mom, to tell her of our plans for an unofficial – for now – ceremony. Turns out my mom and Tina already know each other from way back, and Evie already calls her Gramma.
What. The fuck?
That was a weird day, and one that Jimmy thought was the funniest shit he’d ever seen in his life.
Mom was happy for us, offered unlimited babysitting and went out immediately to start buying Barbie shit.
So now I have stupid shaped bowls in my cupboards, and Barbie shoes everywhere I step in my home.
I love it.
Tina and I, and the whole family, planned a ceremony where we went through all the motions, including the gown for my bride and sisters, we wrote our own vows, and Tina threw her garter, which conveniently landed in Jon’s lap.
We did it all, we just didn’t file any paperwork.
That won’t fly for me forever, but I can’t for the life of me think of a way to get it done without Sean coming to find them. I want to kill him. I want to bury that fucker, because he hurt her, he hurt them, and he’s still running their lives. Now he’s running mine too.
I’m still thinking of ways to get around him. Or maybe I’ll borrow Lindsi’s revolver and fix him up permanently.
A hole in the head is a nice accessory for pieces of shit like him.
Surprising everyone, except me since I was the one who threatened exposure, Jack brought his girlfriend along that day.
Stephanie.
She’s cool. She’s sixteen, a year behind Jack. She’s a sophomore, but we’re almost done with this school year so she’ll be a junior soon and Jack will be a senior.
His last year before college.
Steph is cute as a button, about Tina’s height. Smaller than Kit, taller than Tink. She has wavy, mousy brown hair, hazel eyes and a cute buck tooth.
She’s funny, but shy. As long as Jack had her under his arm, like he did almost the entire day, she was okay.
She comes from a smaller family, and a Kincaid wedding was probably not the best time to fling her into our group, but she held up well and she teased Jim fluently. She’s a winner in my eyes.
And she met my mom, so I guess it’s official.
She’s sweet, and I definitely won’t tell Kit or Steph’s mom about the times I caught her and Jack making out.
I remember being seventeen. I wanted to make out with girls all the time too.
“Babe?”
“Yeah?” I turn from the bag I’ve been kicking in the gym to find Tina in her teeny tiny booty shorts and I frown.
I love them. I really do, but it seems a lot of the other guys around here do too.
I bend over and grab my tank, pulling it back the right side out then I approach her and kiss her brow.
“Yeah, Peaches?”
“What are you d--”
She pouts when I slip my tank over her head, feeding her arms through the holes like she was a child. “You’re a dummy.”
“And you showing your ass to anyone but me makes me sad.”
“Sad?” She laughs at me, so I pull her against my chest, relishing the way her breath rushes out and straight down my throat and filling my lungs.
“Yeah, sad. Cause a lot of the guys here are my friends, and to break their faces would make me sad, but I’ll do it the next time they stare.”
“You’re being silly.” She kisses my jaw, her hands softly holding my sides, running her fingers along my ribs.
“I’m just taking care of what’s mine.”
“Mmhmm.” She kisses the other side of my jaw, licking her way down my neck. I probably taste like sweat, but she doesn’t seem to mind, not one bit. “Anyway,” she murmurs against my skin, the soft vibration running straight to my dick. She has to stand here now until my raging boner settles, or alternatively, and my preferred choice, she can come to my office and ride my cock like we’ve done a hundred times before.
“Wanna step into my office?”
“Yeah.” She nods and my dick jumps against her. “In a sec, but first I wanna run something by you.”
“Walk and talk, Peaches.”
I grab my towel and water bottle, pat my dick down as best I can then I take her hand and start dragging her toward the hallway.
She giggles, but she follows.
“What did you wanna talk about?”
“I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind looking after Evie tonight?”
I frown, letting my steps slow and looking into her pretty eyes. “Look after her?”
She nods nervously.
“Sure, but where are you going?”
“We want to do another girls night out. Without the guys,” she adds before I invite myself along, which is exactly what I intended to do.
“Without us? You don’t love me anymore?” I’m teasing her and she smiles and brings our clasped hands to her mouth. She kisses my knuckles, red from the bags, then she nods.
“I do love you, but we want a girl’s night. Y’all kinda interrupted our last one.”
“Which was good timing,” I remind her as we enter my office and I close my door behind us. “Seems to me I remember you talking to some dick named Marcus, and my sister getting in a fist fight.”
“I was never going home with him, so stop it.” She kisses my jaw again as I sit on my chair and she straddles my lap, her hot pussy already emanating enough heat I can feel it through my shorts.
I know she wasn’t going home with him, but still, it’s a point of pride for me that I remind her, and remind her what I brought her home to instead.
“And Izzy was fine. She’ll be fine tonight too, and I’ll make sure Tink stops announcing Iz’s age all over the place.”
“Yeah, telling a club about that was kind of like painting a bullseye on her back. Doesn’t make that fucker right, but it definitely got his attention.”
“Yeah, so we live and we learn.” She grinds down against me again and we both groan. My hands leave her face and cup her ass instead, pushing her against me, looking for more friction and closing her eyes, she rests her forehead against mine.
“You feel so good.”
“You too, baby.” I slide my right hand around and pull my shorts down a few inches, just enough to free my dick, and at the sight, Tina groans again. “And yeah, I’ll stay home with Smalls, easy done.”
“Thank you.”
“Good, now, you want some?”
“Mmm, yes please.” She shuffles on my lap. I let my fingers trace her thigh, moving higher, faster, not waiting or wanting to stretch this out.
I slide my hand inside the crotch of her shorts and panties and we both hiss when the tips of my fingers find her wet and waiting. Pushing the fabric aside, I pull her over me again, then taking her weight, my left arm wrapped around her waist, I line her up and I slam her down.
She cries out and I capture her mouth with mine. “You feel so good, Peaches.”
“Mmm.” She grinds down harder, asking for more and I groan. “You feel good, Aid
en. So damn good.”
“I love you, Peaches.”
“I love you too. So much.”
Twenty Five
Tina
Assassinations and
Orange Juice
“Do we have to explain our mistakes from last time?” Iz smiles patronizingly at Tink, and Tink rolls her eyes behind her back.
“Yes, Mother. No more talk about jailbait or almost virgins. No more barely legals and no more Scotch. I got it.”
“Good.” I smile as we head inside 188, guy free, and head back upstairs to the same area we were at last time.
It’s Saturday night, it’s about three quarters full, and thankfully, there’s no rowdy bachelor party eyeing us off.
A young waitress with almost silver hair approaches us, taking our order and promising to be back in just a minute.
I’ve never seen table service for anyone else around here, everyone else has to go to the bar, so I guess Tink coming along must get us special treatment. She’s handy like that.
Our drinks are delivered, most of us drinking cocktails, but Kit’s is vodka and orange juice and she picks it up, drinks it in one go and slams the glass down, the banging noise on the table making the rest of us stop and look at her.
“Umm?” Iz quirks a brow as she lifts her drink. “Something wrong?”
Kit shakes her head then turns to catch the waitress’s attention again. “Nope. I’m just here to get fucked up.”
“Why?”
“Cause I can.”
Oh boy. “Kit, hon, you always can. So why tonight are you getting fucked up? You wanna be spewing in the morning?”
“Did you know Bobby and I have been trying for a baby for almost a year now?”
“Shit.” Tink sits her margarita down and hugs Kit around her silver sequined waist. “I’m really sorry about what I said that time.”
“I know.” Kit hugs her best friend back, although the sadness and defeat in her eyes remains. “You already apologized. A bunch of times. We’re okay.”
“But I feel like a total douche for what I said.”
Another drink is set down in front of Kit and eyes lighting up, she picks it up and drinks it down in one go again. This is going to be bad.
“It’s okay, Case. Honestly. I’m just mad it’s taking so long. You’d think two young, fit people would be fine. We’ve even been in for tests. Nothing is wrong, we just have to keep trying.”
“Where are you in your cycle now?”
Kit looks up to me, studying my eyes. “I just finished the latest two week wait. That’s why I suggested we come out tonight. I’ve hardly drank this year, I eat super healthy, I train and keep fit. I was doing all the right things, but this month beat me. I really thought this was the one.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I started spotting three days ago. I took a test yesterday and today anyway, just to make sure, but like every other month, nothing. Stupid fucking tests.”
We spend the next two or three hours downing drink after drink after drink. We dance, we laugh, the creepy guys leave us alone, since Bobby’s friend Mike is standing in the corner and watching us, and we laugh some more.
“When are you going to have a baby?” Kit shouts across our tiny huddle on the dance floor and my head snaps up.
Her words are slurred, her eyes are pink, and her dancing is atrocious. But we’re having a fucking blast.
“I dunno,” I shout back. “Not yet anyway. Still gotta find a way to assassinate Sean.”
“We should totally do it!” Tink shouts excitedly and I giggle. Is this how people get arrested? Is this not already a crime, to talk about it? “You know where he lives, right? We should just go there, leave the guys home because they’re like wet blankets about this stuff, then you can parade your ass in there, get him in bed then off him.” She runs her finger across her throat in a slashing motion, her tiny body looking so feral and dangerous and I giggle again. She’s ridiculous.
“I don’t think Aiden would approve of me parading my ass anywhere.”
“Which is why I called him a wet blanket,” Tink snorts, like she told the world’s funniest joke. “We could do it. We could get on a plane right now and go.”
“Can’t.” I shrug my shoulders, but continue giggling as our group keeps bumping into each other, holding onto the girl next to us for balance. “I have no ID. I’m lucky I can even drink. If they card me, we’re all out.”
“Shhhhh!!!” Izzy shouts, way louder than she needed to, and when eyes land on our huddle again, we fall on each other in hysterics. “Don’t announce it, you dingbat.”
“Dingbat!” I snort again, hiccupping on my drunken laughter. “Dingbat is a super lame insult. You dingbat!”
“Okay, so no planes.” Tink says seriously, as though this was a real conversation and she wasn’t tripping in her six inch hooker heels. “So we drive. We can take Bobby’s car. It has loads of room for a road trip.”
Kit’s drunk eyes go sad again. “He got that car for our family.” Her bottom lip pops out, almost comically, but the sadness is real.
“I’m sorry!” Tink falls on her, hugging her tight. “I didn’t mean to bring it up.”
“S’okay.”
“Can’t drive either,” I tell them, feeling superior because I can make these sensible decisions even while super drunk. I feel like the smart kid at school, and proud of it.
“Why not?” Iz asks, genuinely pouting like I knocked the ice cream off her cone.
“Cause, we’re drunk, you dingbat.”
“Dingbat!
“So where does that leave us?” Kit asks and we all shrug our shoulders.
“No driving and no plane… does anyone know of any of those people in Vietnam and such, where they have little carriages stuck on the back of their bikes? We could do that.”
“You wanna ride across the country?”
“No, dummy! I want him to ride,” Tink explains. “We just sit and drink.”
“I don’t think I can go,” Kit adds sadly. “If we’re riding, it’ll take too long and I won’t be back in time for my next ovulation.”
“How long have we got?” Iz asks and Kit counts her fingers. She gets to nine then looks back up at us.
“I have no fucking idea.” She snorts again, then her eyes fill with tears. “Why don’t we have a baby yet? We’re good people. I would love it lots.”
“Are you sure you’re not?”
Kit rolls her eyes at my question. “Yes, dingbat. I took a test this morning.”
“When’s your period due?”
“I think two more days.”
“Are your boobies sore?” Iz asks, loudly, and I shush them. People are looking again. Maybe we really do need our wet blankets to keep us out of trouble.
“Yes. No. I dunno, sometimes.”
“We should test!” Iz declares, and Kit’s eyes snap up again. “Now. Let’s go to the bathroom and test.”
“You’re a dumbass,” Kit giggles. “I don’t just carry pee sticks everywhere I go.”
“Me either,” I add. “But there’s a drug store just down the street.”
“Let’s go!” Tink declares, fist bumping the air and I’m reminded of a childhood superhero. She grabs Kit’s hand, even as Kit tries to pull away. I grab onto Iz, since we’re all still stupid drunk and I can’t seem to walk straight.
“Ladies.” Mike steps in front of us as we approach the top of the stairs, his large body looming, his large arms crossed in front of his chest. “If you’re leaving, then I’m gonna call the guys to pick you up.”
“Listen, drill sergeant.” Tink plants her hands on her hips in an attempt to look intimidating and I giggle again. “We don’t need the guys. We’re just going to pee.”
He nods over our heads. “Ladies room’s back that way.”
“We need to go to the drug store first,” she explains stubbornly. “I got my period. I’m bleeding. Alllll over the place. You should probably get a spill crew back there before someone slips in it. Proba
bly some slippery floor signs too.”
His poor face has gone pale and his tough demeanor has taken a hit. “Seriously,” she continues. “Just the drug store, then we’ll be back. No need to call the guys.”
“Besides,” Iz says as she pokes his chest. “We’re all grown-ups. We don’t need babysitters.”
“Sissy,” he shakes his head indulgently, period talks already forgotten. “Anyone that has to screech that they’re grown up, isn’t grown up. You still need supervision.”
“We do not. You can even set your watch, we’ll be back in five minutes.”
“You better be or I’m gonna be pissed at you. Do you understand? The guys put me in charge of watching your stupid asses tonight. I can’t leave cause I’m working, but if you’re not back in five, I’m coming searching and I’m calling the guys. My loyalties are with them.”
“Yeah, they would be,” Iz mumbles, though it’s easily loud enough to be heard. “Just remember I know some of your secrets, Michael. And my loyalties are with Becky. Watch yo’self.”
“Go.” He gently shoves her toward the stairs. He glares at each of us as we step past him. “I’m watching you. You have four minutes, fifty nine seconds.”
“So bossy,” Tink throws back, but at his scowl she turns on her heel and runs down the stairs. I turn back just before we run out the front of the club, our hair on point, our heels hooker high, our dresses probably too short, and I spot Mike bring his phone from his pocket.
“Run, we have about thirty seconds before he dobs us in.”
Twenty Six
Aiden
Wet blankets to the rescue
I look up at a knock on my front door and I mute the TV. Evie’s in bed, Tina is out, and I’m watching the Ninja Warrior finals.
I know it’s just one of my brothers, since I would have been alerted to the gates opening, so I get up and swing it wide to find all my brothers there, including Jack with Bean in the carrier on his front.
“What are you doing here?”
“We gotta go,” Bobby says as he, then Jimmy, Jon and then Jack file into my living room. “Jack’s staying with the girls.”
