I glare at Levi, ready to put my fist through his fucking face.
“Oh yeah, she might have ended up back here last night.”
I push him out of the way and shove into the room, because I like to torture myself, or I have to see it to really believe—I don’t know which.
I stare at Ali. She has a Kings of the Iron Age blanket wrapped tightly around her chest, her hair is wild and sticking up at all angles, and her eyes are heavily shadowed and smeared with makeup.
“Did he hurt you?”
“What?” she asks, and I get the sense she’s just as angry as I am. “No. He didn’t hurt me.”
“Did you drug her?”
“Of course I didn’t fuckin’ drug her,” he snaps. “Oh, well we did some blow. But that was her suggestion.”
“Levi,” Ali says, “stop talking.”
I glare at Levi. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Man, what the fuck is wrong with you?” he snaps. His hands ball into fists at his sides. “You think just because some bitch doesn’t throw herself at you that I had to drug her to get a taste of that pussy? She came to me willingly and she came all night long.”
His words eat me alive. They surge through my blood like acid, consuming everything in its path until I explode with rage. I swing my arm back and punch Levi in the face and then I lunge at him, tackling him to the ground. It doesn’t matter that he’s completely naked and I’m fully clothed. All I want is to beat the shit out of him for being where I wanted to be. It’s fucking Jackson Rowe all over again.
“Oh my god, get off of him,” Ali screams. Grabbing my arm, she yanks me away from him. I let her because I’m hungover, and tired as all fucking shit, and she’s completely naked, standing before me with so much fire in her eyes it could raze me on the spot. “What the fuck is your problem, Coop?”
“Oh I don’t know,” I snap. “Maybe it’s the fact that you left me in one hotel room and disappeared with this cock-fuck into another.”
“Okay, first of all, you were drunk. Not just a little drunk, but off-the-wall, mentally-purge-every-random-thought-in-your-head kind of drunk. You threw yourself at me—mauled me, actually—and know what the icing on the cake in that scenario was? You know what really made my night, Coop? When you called me Holly.”
My blood turns cold. “What?”
Her expression softens, and I think I see tears prick her eyes, but she bats them away and glares at me. I rake my hand through my hair and sigh. “Shit. I’m sorry, Ali.”
“You know what? It really doesn’t matter. You two can just have this out, roll around on the floor some more, hit one another—fight. Do whatever the fuck it is you rock stars do, but I’m done. I don’t get paid enough to deal with all of the bullshit you boys are bringing. I quit.”
“Ali—” Coop says as I wrap the fluffy blanket around me and gather up what little of my belongings I can find. My head hurts like a bitch, and my stomach is all kinds of twisty. I stare dazedly around the room, trying to locate my things, but even that hurts my brain. I don’t know where my jeans or my shirt, my phone or my wallet went, but I find my lucky red Cons and what I assume to be my room key and I gather them up and head for the door.
“Babe—” Levi says, reaching out to grab my arm, but I yank out of reach and point my finger at him.
“No. Don’t babe me. I’m not your babe.” And because I haven’t quite humiliated myself enough this morning, I turn on Coop. “And you. Fuck you.”
“Nice,” he says and shakes his head.
“Goodbye, boys,” I say, and gather myself together. I wrap the blanket around my body and hobble from the room—yes, you read that right—I hobble, because holy huge dick batman, I feel like I rode a stallion bareback halfway to fucking Texas … which, come to think of it …
Once I’ve slammed the door behind me, I sprint for the elevators—or I try to sprint, but, again with the stallion. I garner several suspicious looks from lecherous old men in the elevator, but this is Vegas, Sin City, where the party never ends.
I get out on my floor and try swiping the key card in the lock, but it doesn’t work on account of it apparently not being my key, so I gather up my blanket and head down to the lobby on the ultimate walk of shame.
“Look, just ring Zed’s room. He’ll vouch for me,” I say to the uppity front desk bitch for the third time, trying to convince her that I’m a guest of Taint, and am not in fact a crazy person. I guess I can’t blame her; the only women walking around this hotel as scantily dressed as I am are the showgirls. I’m beginning to think I need one of those “I’m with the Band” bracelets strapped to my wrist at all times.
The woman purses her lips, probably about as close to losing her shit as her job allows. I’d lose my shit too, if my hair were pulled back so tightly it practically gave me a facelift. She reaches beneath the desk and gives the security button a sneaky little push. I’m engulfed by a huge-arse hug that lifts me from the ground and almost sees my blanket slip down around my boobs.
“There you are, sweet cheeks. I’ve been looking for you all over,” Levi booms, because I wasn’t attracting enough attention dressed only in a blanket. “She’s with us.”
The minty tang of his gum wafts across my face as he leans down and lays a smacking wet kiss against my cheek. “Little underdressed aren’t we, babe? Let’s keep the party contained to our room to reduce fatalities. I don’t want everyone seeing that hot arse stripped bare and sporting my love bites.”
I turn and glare at him in horror, leaning in to whisper, “I better not have hickies on my arse, Levi.”
“Red, I was all over that arse last night. You’d be hard pressed to find an inch of your skin that I didn’t mark as mine.”
“I hate you,” I sneer.
“I’m sorry, miss,” the front desk bitch says, with a saccharine smile. She’s the picture of sweetness now that Mr Fancy Pants Rock Star has shown up. “What room did you say you were in again?”
“1303,” I repeat again, as if she doesn’t know.
“Miss Ali Jones, was it?”
“Yup. Like I’ve been telling you for the last hour, that’s my name.”
“Here’s your new room key.” She smiles and I smile sweetly back, trying to hide the fact that I’m imagining grabbing her by her perfect, sleek blonde ponytail and slamming her perfect Vegas-tanned face into the pristine marble counter until her perfect white veneers crack and go flying. “I’ll add the lost key fee to your room.”
I glance across the vast lobby and see Cooper leaving the hotel, and studiously ignoring me as a barrage of flashes go off.
“Fine. Charge it to the room,” I say to the uppity bitch behind the counter. It’s all on the Taint expenses card anyway, so I don’t really give a shit. “In fact, I feel like celebrating my new-found freedom. Send up a bottle of Dom Pérignon. I could use a good stiff drink.”
“Is that wise, love?” Levi asks.
“And I want pancakes, with those little hash browns you have here, and a fruit platter.”
“Yes ma’am.” Front desk bitch nods as she types my demands into her computer.
“And don’t call me ‘ma’am’. I’m at least fifteen years younger than you.” I snatch the key from her outstretched hand and leave her gaping like a fish out of water.
Levi says, “Cancel the champagne, and here’s a tip for your next spray tan.”
I suppress a laugh, because I am pissed at everything right now: him, Coop, myself, and Levi’s fucking tree limb of a cock because … ow! Jesus Christ, how do other women survive him without a trip to the emergency ward?
“Yeesh, Red, remind me not to piss you off,” Levi says, pinching my arse through my fluffy blanket.
I yelp and slap his hands away. “Do not talk to me.”
“Why are you so pissed at me?”
“Because you … you took advantage of me,” I say as I slam my fist against the elevator button, turning and stepping inside the first lift that opens.
I hurriedly press the button for the doors to close before he can join me, but it seems even the hotel elevator is conspiring against me. Levi steps into the car and I swipe my key and hit the button for my floor, ignoring how close he’s standing.
“I never would have slept with you if I were in my right mind—”
“Uh, uh, uh,” he says, “Doing the coke was your idea, and actually, now that I think of it, so was the amazing sex.”
“Nuh uh. No fucking way.”
“Think about it, Red,” he says. I shake my head, staring at the bay of lit buttons and praying like hell the elevator will go faster. Levi moves closer, his lips brushing my shoulder with the smallest of touches. I’m so damn bone-weary, I don’t even care that he’s cornering me in an elevator. I just want to drop where I stand and sleep for a hundred years. Everything hurts, and when I say everything, I mean fucking everything.
I open my mouth and massage the muscles on my cheek, feeling as if at some point in the middle of the night I encountered a pretty severe case of lockjaw. I have some vague recollection of gagging on his huge twelve-inch cock, and I shake my head and close my eyes.
“Well how much do you remember?” I ask quietly. “I don’t remember anything, so maybe we didn’t have sex. Maybe—”
“Babe, I had you everywhere and every way a man could have you, all over that room.”
“Please tell me we didn’t do anal.”
He smirks. Fucking smug bastard. “Fine, we didn’t do anal.”
He’s lying. I know this because my arse hurts just as bad as my vagina right now, and that hurts a lot. Not in that fuck-I-really-need-to-visit-the-ER kind of way, but almost. A myriad of images assault my brain—his body on top, behind, beneath, the shower, the bed, the spa, and finally pushed against the glass of the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out on the lights of the Vegas strip as night faded and slowly gave way to the blush of dawn. I came hard, I came slow, and I came all fucking night long, just like he’d said.
Oh my god. I bury my face in my hands. The problem wasn’t that Levi had taken advantage of me—the problem lay in the fact that I was hurt. I’d used him to escape the pain that Cooper had inflicted on me. I’d wanted Levi, and I was just as responsible for this happening as he was. And what’s more, I had loved every damn second of it.
“Oh my god,” I say out loud, because maybe if I just keep repeating that idiotic phrase this will all go away.
“That’s what you said.”
“You can stop talking now.” I glare at him. The elevator comes to a halt on my floor with a musical ding and the doors open. We’re met by a small group of girls. None of them look old enough to be roaming the hotel without adult supervision. But they all know us—or more to the point, they all know Levi.
He’s bombarded with screaming girls and I use the opportunity to slip out of the elevator unseen. Unfortunately, Levi manoeuvres the girls in a way that has them in the elevator, and him just outside of it. A savvy brunette slams her hand against the door to prevent it from closing while they all pose for a group selfie.
“I love ya, ladies,” Levi says, winking at them, “but I gotta go.”
“Is that your girlfriend?” a little blonde, who couldn’t be older than thirteen, asks.
“Why yes, yes it is,” Levi responds.
“Fuck you, Quinn,” I say and one by one the fangirls pop their little heads out of the elevator to stare at me.
“Are you wearing a blanket?” one of the teeny boppers asks.
I slide my key in the lock. “Yep. Just say no to drugs, kids.”
Fuck.
I fucked this up so royally that now I don’t know how to go back and undo it. What the hell was going through my head?
I think of Holly all the time. We have a kid together—I talk to the woman every other day. We Skype, and I see Pepper and witness how fast she’s growing.
I still carry a whole lot of hurt. I loved her, and she left me for someone else. That shit fucking hurts, no matter what way you paint it. I’d thought a part of me will always love her. But I haven’t thought about her in that way since … well, since Ali came along.
Bets aside, I couldn’t make a move with her—apart from when I’m drunk and in confined spaces, obviously. I’m an A-grade fucking arsehole. I need to go and talk to her.
I stand up, and Deb shoots me a glare from across the bus. “Where the hell are you going? It’s bad enough we have to sit here in the stinking Vegas heat waiting for Cockhead Number One, now we have to wait for you too?”
“She can’t quit,” I reply.
“Who can’t quit? Red?” Deb asks. “Red quit?”
“When?” Zed asks. His eyes are bloodshot and his legs are jittering from the come down. He can’t sit still, and rocks back and forth at a pace that lets me know he’s close to losing his shit.
“This morning,” I say, avoiding their unimpressed faces.
Zed balls his hands into fists and he actually looks as if he might hurt me.
“I found her in Levi’s bed,” I add, because even though I fucked up, I’m not the only one to blame here. I’ll be having a little chat with Levi the second I get him alone.
“Nice one, shithead,” Deb says, throwing her magazine on the dining table. “Maybe if you hadn’t called her by your baby mamma’s name she wouldn’t have run into Quinn’s open arms. Who am I supposed to steal tampons off now?”
“You called her Holly?” Ash asks, screwing up his baby-faced features in a what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you expression.
“I was drunk,” I protest, running my hands through my hair. My head is throbbing like a bitch. “I don’t even fucking remember it.”
“Well that makes you even more of an arsehole,” Zed says, surprising me with the venom in his tone.
I sigh and throw my head back, glaring at the ceiling, and then I head to the front of the bus, past James, who’s been waiting patiently all morning for us to get our shit together and get on the road. But just as I step off the bus, Levi approaches, and behind him, carrying her faded frayed Slayer backpack with all her clothes in it, is Ali. I let out a sigh of relief.
She points her finger at me. “I am not here for you.”
I nod, because even though it cuts me all up inside to think about her fucking Levi, I’m glad she’s here. I screwed up. I hurt her, and that’s the last thing I ever wanted to do, but I made my drunk and disorderly bed, and now I get to lie in it.
“Fine,” I say, and try to act all non-fucking-chalant. She glares between us and then she brushes past me onto the bus.
“Hit me again and I’m hitting you fucking back,” Levi says, as he stares me down. I step in front of him and put a hand on his chest, stopping him from going any farther.
“You had your fun, but if you fuck with her again, I will not hesitate to kick you off this bus,” I warn.
“And if she wants to fuck with me?”
“She’s off limits.”
“Since fucking when?”
“Since the second I met her. I fucked up. You got lucky, but you go there again and I will castrate you myself.”
“She’s a sweet piece of arse, Coop. It might be hard for me to keep my distance now that I’ve had a taste.”
“Let it go, Levi,” Ash says, and we both turn to look at him. Ash, who ordinarily avoids conflict at all costs; Ash who always has Levi’s back, no matter what. Ash stands on the stairs, his grey knit cap that he never takes off pulled low on his forehead.
“Dude, what the fuck?” Levi asks.
“Leave it the hell alone, man,” Ash says.
“Why? So Coop can have her?” he hisses. “Oh, poor, Coop. He lucked out again. Let’s all feel sorry for him and maybe Ali can give him a pity fuck. Screw that shit, man. You’re not the only one that might want a taste of something real.”
I feel as if I’ve just been sucker punched. We both stare at Levi in shock. He runs a hand over the back of his neck and shrugs. “I like her. She’s an awesome chick.”
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter, and push past Ash to get inside and away from the fucking ridiculous notion that Levi might want something more from a woman. From my woman. Fuck. She’s not my woman at all. She’s not my anything.
Fuck.
Ash and Levi board the bus and move to their bunks. Zed, Deb and Ali are already in theirs, or they’re in the back room. I lean over the kitchen counter, gripping the edge of the smooth black veneer until my knuckles ache.
“Fuck!” I slide my hand out and sweep the contents of the counter on to the floor. Canisters of coffee and sugar that someone hadn’t put away land at my feet, and I throw my head back and glare at the ceiling, trying to gain control of my temper before I lose it entirely, pull Levi out of his bunk and start beating the shit outta him again. When I get my breathing under control, I lower my gaze and see Ali standing in the aisle beside her bunk. Her face is wet with tears, and I feel like a complete arsehole.
“We ready now, boys and girls?” James sticks his head in the cabin and asks in a tone that tells me he has no time for our pathetic Days of our Lives bullshit.
“Yeah, we’re done here,” I say, looking at Ali.
And I am in no hurry to come back to Vegas.
We’d left Vegas two days ago, but whoever had said what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas was a fucking bullshit artist. We hadn’t left Vegas behind the second we drove out of the city limits. We hadn’t even let go of it three days later, after crossing state lines and playing shows in Phoenix, Santa Fe and Denver. I was tired of ignoring the big fucking elephant in the room. And I missed her.
“Are you awake?” I whisper, staring up at the ceiling of my bunk.
“Yes,” Levi whispers.
At the same time that Ali says, “No.”
“Shut the fuck up, man.”
“You shut up,” Levi says.
“Both of you fucking shut up,” Ali snaps. “I don’t wanna talk to either of you.”
“Should we rule out you blowing either of us then?”
“Knock it off,” I say.
“Yes sir, Ryan sir,” Levi says, and I can’t see him, but I have no doubt that behind his curtain he’s saluting me like a fucktard.
Revelry (Taint #1) Page 16
