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I try, I really do, to shake it off and tell myself it isn’t my place, he doesn’t mean anything by it, and even if he could get his dick up, Pearl is too smart to pay any attention to him. And then he goes too far. He reaches out and takes her hand to stop her from going any further.
I am on him like melted cheese on a hot pizza in July. “Don’t touch!”
He laughs it off like I might be telling him a big joke never looking at my face which isn’t laughing. “Please Spade, it’s not like you’re her Daddy. She can talk to me if she wants to. Or are you kinky like that?” He reaches out for her again, wrapping his hand around her wrist, “Is he kinky, baby?”
He makes several mistakes in the span of a heartbeat; one being the fact he asked something like that in front of every fucking body and two, giving me the idea of Pearl calling me Daddy. It’s enough to make me act before I can think about what I am doing. Before I know it, my fist is drawn back and I send it, right into Kent’s stupid, smiling face.
The restaurant goes silent, and Whit and Bear are up ready to back me up if I need them. But I don’t. I hit the asshole so hard that he’s flung out of his seat and lands on the floor with a split lip and a bloody nose.
“I told you not to touch her, you fucking idiot.”
I start to go for him again, but Whit and Bear take a step in front of me placing their hand on my shoulder. I know it’s just to keep me from beating the hell out of him and going to jail because of it but for a wild moment, I want to throw them off me so I can do exactly what they think I’m going to do.
It’s the soft, light voice that finally has me pulling back. I look over and see her give me a soft smile. “It’s alright Spade. I…why don’t you sit here?”
I pull away from Whit and Bear and disregard the look on their faces, before going over to sit down beside Pearl. She gives me a small smile and for just a second, I wonder if I might have scared her with my outburst. But then her face loses the smile, and her eyes widen. Before I can try to explain this is not how I normally act and I just feel protective of her she is taking me by the hand, her attention fully centered there.
“Oh my gosh, you’ve hurt yourself.” I look down at where she has my hand in hers and see the bruised and bloody knuckles. Apparently, that jackasses face is harder than I first realized. She dips her hand in the glass of water that’s already been set at the place she has chosen to sit so she can use the ice in it. She wraps the cubes in a cloth napkin before she puts it on my knuckles.
It's sweet but unnecessary. “I’m alright, you don’t have to…”
“It’s okay, I don’t mind. After all, you were kind of standing up for my virtue or whatever, so in a way, I kind of caused it.”
“You…weren’t the cause of it at all. You didn’t run your mouth or touch someone who didn’t want to be touched. He needs to learn not to touch without asking first.”
She gives me a tiny smile that does more for me than the ice ever could. And the sense of being in trouble hits me in the face again…almost as hard as I hit Kent.
Chapter Five
Pearl
Things have been quiet for a whole week and I’m settling in pretty nicely, I think. I go out of my way to make myself useful so no one can say I am taking advantage of my brother. I know it’s stupid to think that Roman would ever think that but I never thought my father would tell me to leave either.
For fun, I sometimes think about the tall guy from the hockey team Kat and Bea introduced me to. I’ve even rewatched some of the old detective shows that I thought he might be named after. Maybe it’s some misguided attempt to normalize his name so if I hear it again, I won’t do something dumb like break my neck to find out which way he comes from. Or fall. Yet again.
I am picking things up to put in the washing machine when I overhear my brother talking on the phone. I shouldn’t stand around and eavesdrop on my brother, but I can’t help it. I’m fucking nosey.
“Yeah, I heard about that. How did it feel, hitting that son of a bitch?”
My heart starts thumping too fast and my palms go all sweaty as I take a step closer to the half-shut door.
“He deserved it. He’s a real asshole.”
My brother laughs at something the person he is talking to says. Damn, I wish I could hear the other side of the conversation. Is it who I think it is? And why the hell has no one given any consideration to the fact you can’t pick the phone up to listen in when they use a cell phone? I pull back a little and try to get myself under control.
Maybe I’ve been watching too many old movies. I’m starting to act like some of the bad girls in them. My brother deserves his privacy and I need to stop being such a nosey bitch. What does it matter who he is on the phone with anyway? What difference does it make to me? I grab up my clothes basket and head away from the door.
“That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about actually. I was wondering if my sister could spend a couple of days with you.”
I turn right back around and sit the basket down. Now it is my business. Who the hell is he talking to? Because if it is who I think it is, there is no fucking way I am going to ‘spend a couple of days’ with him.
“Yeah, I have to go to Europe to clear some shit up and I hate to leave her by herself. I mean she’s already been uprooted and treated like shit by my parents.”
I cover my mouth, so I don’t audibly gasp and give my location away.
“I just…I heard what you did for her, and I trust you, man. You’re about the only person I trust with my baby sister.”
Oh great! Call me your baby sister to the hot guy, Roman! Why don’t you put me in pigtails and give me a lollipop so you can drive the image home harder, damn it? If that is Spade on the phone I will just die. Roman makes it sound like I’m freaking ten.
