Bang Gang (41 page)

It was becoming a regular thing.

So regular that this
play it by ear
shit needed to come to a head one way or another. But I was nervous, like a stupid teenager, scared of blowing my chances by handling things too hard too soon.

I had a habit of doing that.

All I pissing needed was for Lorraine to put a spanner in the works. Rather she come to me than try to screw things up Jodie’s end. Fuck knows what the bitch wanted from me.

Although I had an inkling.

Tonight,
I said.
Come to mine. You’d best not be shitting me, Lorraine.

I got back to work and didn’t give the cow the courtesy of another fucking thought.

I swung the door open without any niceties, ignoring the fact that Lorraine was dressed in her finest with a bottle of wine in her hand. Like I ever fucking drank the stuff.

“What do you want?” I grunted.

She tutted, brushed past me and went to the kitchen like she owned the place. She took out two glasses and uncorked the bottle, pouring two hefty fucking measures. She held hers up.

“It’s been a while, Darren. Cheers.”

I pushed the second glass away from me, shunted it across the counter.

“What’s this about?”

She smiled, pretended this was a regular thing. Like fuck it was. “It’s about you. Me.
Us
…”

I couldn’t hide my disgust. “There is no
us
, Lorraine. There’s never been an
us
…”

“No,” she said. “Because there’s always been a
Jodie
, and I’m sick of it Darren, I’m sick of watching you chase after her like she’s Mother fucking Mary, like she can do no fucking wrong.”

I laughed. “Mother fucking Mary? I think she’d surprise you.”

“
No
,” she snapped. “I think she’d surprise
you
.”

Her eyes twinkled, that smug grin plastered on her face as she sipped at her wine. She was a know it all, but I was done. I’d had enough of this shit.

I pulled my cigarettes from my jeans. “I’m gonna have a smoke. You’ve got a couple of minutes to either drink your wine and get out of my face, or tell me what the fuck you’re really doing here.”

“Don’t be like that…”

I walked straight down the hall, practically launched the front door from its hinges. I was halfway through my cigarette when I heard her heels behind me. I didn’t bother turning around.

“You want her, don’t you?” she said, and there was that tone again, that condescending fucking tone she’s always used around me. “You want to move back home, and get her to play little wifey, cooking and cleaning and looking pretty around the house while you go and bang half the fucking village and play a dirty bit of rough for anyone who’s willing to pay for it.”

“What I want with Jodie is none of your fucking business, Lorraine.”

“Oh, but it is,” she said. “I’m Jodie’s boss,
practically
her best friend… and you and me… well, we’re…” Her fingers trailed up my spine as she stepped around me.

I glared at her. “We’re nothing. I offer a service, you paid for it. End of.”

“
Offered
. Last I heard, you couldn’t get it up.”

I took a drag. “Yeah, like that sounds likely.”

She bit her lip, raised an eyebrow. “Hope not, Trent. Hope you’re not losing your touch. Maybe you need some more lessons…” Her hand shot to my crotch and squeezed. I grabbed her wrist, pushed her away. “Don’t be coy,” she said. “Not like I haven’t seen it all before, baby. You’re everything you are now because of me… Jodie’s reaping the benefits and she doesn’t even know it…”

“I’m done,” I said. “With all of it. I’m done with you.”

“Sure you are…”

“I am. Think what you fucking like, Lorraine. It’s over.”

“And that’s it, is it? No more clients, no more
Bang Gang
, no more cash lump sums you can use to treat that cute little
family
of yours? Is my money not good enough for you all of a sudden? You’ve taken enough of it.”

“Can’t speak for the rest of the lads,” I said. “Give Buck a call. I couldn’t give a shit.”

“I don’t want a four-way, Trent, and you know it.” Her eyes were full of spite. “But Jodie does… In fact, I don’t think she’d care if you were there or not from the sounds of it…”

I looked right at her. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

She sighed, full of drama. “I didn’t want to tell you, but I can’t stand by and let you make a fool of yourself, even
I’m
not that cruel.” I waited for it. “I know you may think this is about
you,
Darren, but she’s using you. She doesn’t see you as any more of a
keeper
than I do. You’re just a piece of rough to her, same as you are for everyone else. She wants a gangbang just the same as every other cheap slut in this village, only she won’t tell you that, will she? It’s not as if she can afford one…”

I kept my gaze steady. “You think she’s only with me because she wants to have a free fucking gangbang, Lorraine? That’s seriously what you think?”

She grinned, triumphant. “That’s what I
know
. She told me as much. She told me she’d never be with you, not properly, not with you being such a loser, such a liability, such a
player
.”

“But she wants to fuck the rest of the guys? I’m just a free meal ticket?”

She nodded. “She’s a woman finding herself again. It’s only natural, Darren. She has needs and no means of paying for them, of
course
she’s using you… It’s clear she wants an
actual
relationship, just not with you. She needs someone who can be a proper role model to those girls, and she knows it… but in the meantime she’s… out to have fun… at your expense, it would seem.”

I flicked my cigarette away. “And when did she tell you all this?”

“Only the past few days, or I would have come sooner…”

“Let me get this straight. Jodie told you that she’s only using me to get a shot at a gangbang with the guys, and she told you this a few days back?”

“I guess the gossip has finally reached her. Turned her head. Like I said, it’s only natural she should want what other women are having.” She smiled at me. “See how ridiculous you’re being? How pathetic? Thinking she wants you when she only wants your cock, yours
and
your mates’…”

“Clear off,” I said. “Now.”

Her mouth dropped open. “What? Oh, come on, Darren! You can’t seriously want to take this out on me. Don’t shoot the pissing messenger!”

“Like hell you’re a fucking messenger, Lorraine, you’re nothing but a cheap liar.”

She folded her arms. “I’m not lying, Trent. That’s what she wants, you just can’t accept it. Don’t be a fool! She’s using you! Laughing at you!”

I leaned in close, my mouth to her ear, and my voice was full of fucking malice. “The only person who’s taking me for a fucking fool around here, Lorraine, is you.” I brushed past her and stepped back inside, making it damn well clear she wasn’t invited to follow me. “It’s over, you and me,” I said. “So stay out of my fucking face, and stay out of Jodie’s too.”

“Darren! Just hear me out! You’re angry, I know, but you’re making a big…”

I slammed the door before I could hear any more of her shit.

I nearly sent Jodie a message right there and then, nearly told her exactly what a conniving little cunt Lorraine really was, but to do that I’d have to tell all. I’d have to hash up all the sorry details of the long seedy history between me and that fucking woman, a woman I should never have touched with a fucking barge pole.

I’d have to tell her that I’d been fucking Lorraine in secret for years, that the majority of the cash in the box under my bed was from her seedy advances, that she’d been the one to orchestrate the whole fucking lot of it.

And Jodie thought they were friends.

They weren’t fucking friends.

I tried to type it out, tried to say what I needed to say, but everything sounded shit. I’ve never been fucking good with words.

I changed my message to a general
we need to talk
that sounded so fucking ominous I didn’t want to send it. And then what? If I did? I tell her about Lorraine and what? We weren’t even together, not yet, not definitely. Something like this could put a spanner in the works before we’d even had a shot, before we’d even given ourselves a fair fucking chance of making something real again.

What if Jodie took Lorraine’s side
?

She wouldn’t. Couldn’t. Not with a bitch like her.

But would she believe me? Why would she believe me? She hadn’t even trusted me with Mia’s fucking bullying issues.

I hated to think what fucking shit Lorraine would whisper in her ear.

I smoked another cigarette when the cow had finally fucked off, and another after that. I needed to tell Jodie something, needed to warn her, but now wasn’t the time.

We had the rally weekend coming up, in person would be better, talk her through it when I could see her face and she could see mine. Tell her it didn’t mean anything, that Lorraine didn’t mean anything, tell her that I wasn’t even Bang Ganging anymore, hadn’t been since she first came over.

I’d tell her everything. Lay it all out on the table.

Nothing like breaking the habit of a fucking lifetime.