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“So, tomorrow night then?”
Her mouth twitched up one side, and she looked away like she hadn’t decided yet.
“Come on,” I stretched the two words and reached for her chin, forcing her to look at me. “You know you’re at least dying to see me blow my big chance, if nothing else…”
She snorted, and reluctantly nodded. “Fine. Tomorrow night.”
“In that outfit,” I reminded her.
She sighed and rolled her eyes, giving me a sideways glance as she started toward the house. I grabbed her hand and tugged her back toward me, earning a little squeal, before I silenced it with a firm, lingering kiss.
“G’night Princess.” I winked.
She blinked a few times, pinked in the cheeks, and briskly sought the front door. I didn’t see Forty, but I knew he was in there. His bike was parked in front of the garage.
I hope he saw it all.
I hope he felt me creeping up on his daughter, and his chrome throne.
I spit toward the foot of his driveway and fired up the engine. I made a grand show of letting the pipes roar as I pulled around the block, too.
It was all for his benefit, I looped around a few blocks down and parked. I threw my hood up, stuffed my hands in my pockets, and started back toward them on foot.
I kept my shoulders high, like some awkward soul that was in a hurry to make it safely home. Those people rarely drew attention.
If I approached from the East side of the property, I could squeeze through Diane’s overgrown blackberry bushes and slide along the shed. It was the perfect cover, and the best angle to see inside her bedroom window.
I expected to hear voices, certain Forty was going to air her ass out for wearing that costume and mingling with his men. Yeah, she served drinks, but that wasn’t exactly the same. People knew her name and face, they recognized her as her father’s daughter, but they weren’t familiar with her like I was about to be.
He knew it, too.
He’d seen me snare bitches in my web before. Most of them were nothing more than a waste of time. All of them were the same woman when I left them.
A shell, drained of joy, funds, and confidence.
I sucked my teeth and watched her silhouette in the window while she changed into her lounge clothes and fucked with her phone.
My pocket lit up as my own phone vibrated against my leg. I shifted back into the darkness, retreating to the sanctuary of the blackberry vines.
I didn’t even look at the screen, I swiped to answer like I honestly thought it would be her.
“Where the fuck are you at, numb nuts?” My father’s voice instantly made me cringe.
I jerked the phone away from my ear and almost hung the damn thing up.
“What? What the fuck do you want?” I hissed, stepping back toward the edge of the shed.
“Boy, do you think you’re speakin’ to your fuckin’ mother, right now? Huh?” he demanded, before addressing someone in the background, “You dropped him on his head when he was little, that’s it. I don’t give a damn what you say.”
I hung up the phone, unwilling to entertain his fuckery, or be deferred from mine and Kennedy’s little ritual.
Well, it was more mine than hers, since she was unaware of our nightly encounters. My phone began vibrating in my pocket every few seconds. For the most part, I caught it before the damn thing made its first chime.
Twice.
Three times.
I moved to the lowest part of Forty’s brick wall that separated his property from the adjoining yard and stepped onto it. The bricks elevated every three feet or so, until they ended at the base of the second story patio.
