Damage (Havoc #2) (13 page)

chapter seventeen

Stefan’s old dealer worked at Applejack Saloon.  Jesse and I headed over there in a rented Ford Ranger, fully dented and probably a nice, bright red when it was new.  Now, it was covered in layers of dust and filth.  I figured it matched my somewhat dirty new look.  For Jesse, I’d cut my jeans messily into shorts and cropped my black T-shirt to show navel.  Half of my hair went up in a bouffant and since I only had mascara, a begrudging Nate went to the drug store to buy some ninety-nine cent liner, which I applied generously below my lashline.

“Ideally, we’d lay you out in the sun till you were a burnt orange color, but I’m sure this’ll suffice,” Nate said, leaning against the desk.  Abram smirked as he handed me a shot of liquid courage.

“I’ll be seven seconds from you no matter where you are with him. If you need me, let me know and I’ll be there,” he said, kissing the tingle of whiskey from my lips till Nate groaned and said it was time to leave.  Abram walked me to Jesse’s car, struggling to leave my side till the last second.

“Don’t do that.” In the driver’s seat, Jesse pretended to scold me as I pulled down the mirror to smudge my eyeliner.  “If you’re going to play my girlfriend, you should be concentrating on acting like a crazy person right now.”

I rolled my eyes.  “If you meet an asshole in the morning, he’s an asshole.  If you meet assholes all day, you might be the asshole.”  I ran the back of my finger under my eye to thin the liner just a bit.  “Maybe your girlfriends weren’t all crazy, Jesse.  Maybe it was you.”

“Couldn’t it be both?”

“Knowing you.”

“Knowing me,” he laughed.  “You don’t know shit about me.”

I walked right into the trap.  “We both know that’s not true.”

Jesse peered through his rearview mirror to see if Abram and Jesse were still following.  “That’s right,” he said as if just realizing.  “You know more about me than most of my real girlfriends ever did.  We should be able to play these roles beyond convincingly.”  I flashed him a look of warning.  He laughed.  “I’m not trying to trick you into shoving your hands down my pants, Isla, I’m just saying affection is probably going to be a part of the act.  Once we find Stefan, you’re going to need to look decently convincing.  He doesn’t know a lot of things but he’s pretty well-versed on women and the kind I choose to date.”

“From what I gather, you like them half-dressed, half-sane and constantly providing some form of pleasure.”

“You do catch on fast.”  Jesse grinned when I rolled my eyes at him, the whiskey helping my irritation trump my nerves.  “What can I say? Dating crazy chicks is like an addiction.  You know you shouldn’t do it but you really can’t stop.”

“You should stop if only for the reason that you talk down on them all the time.  To the point that even your little niece knows.  Your mom raised you, Jesse, you can’t possibly think that all women are crazy.”

“I don’t.  I just think the crazy ones are best for me because they’re really good in bed,” he grinned naughtily at me till I had to look away.  But for the next few seconds, he drove in silence.  I could tell he was thinking.  “You’re not crazy though, and you felt like Heaven on my dick.”  When I let out a groan, he backtracked.  “Okay, let me phrase that with more class: you’re smart, you’re beautiful
and
you made me blow my load early, which I never do.”

“
Jesse
.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll be serious this time,” he laughed.  We stopped at a light and he leaned back in his chair, pausing and giving me a genuine look.  “You’re the full package guys dream about, Isla Maran.  A life with you would turn a boy into a man and knowing you exist makes me reevaluate the years I’ve spent chasing girls with histories of breaking and entering.  How’s that work for you?”

I tried not to laugh.  “Better.”

He smirked as the light turned green.  “Good,” he murmured as we peeled off again.

~

The inside of the saloon was darker than dark, and it wasn’t a stylistic choice so much as a light bulb outage in more than half of the lamps.  Jesse grinned, seeming to instantly like it.  I stiffened when he slipped an arm around my waist but forced myself to relax when he snorted.

“Hey, man, what can I getcha.”  The bartender sounded as bored as he looked.

“We’ll take two Jamesons.”  Jesse looked at me.  “Probably on the rocks for her.”

My lips twisted into a wry smile left.  “You regularly ordered for your girlfriends?” I murmured before calling down the bar.  “I’m actually gonna have a Redbreast neat.”  The bartender raised his brows and stuck his lips out in approval – as much expression as I’d see from him.  Shaking his head, Jesse looked at me and muttered under his breath.  “Don’t grumble, Jesse, that’s every girlfriend’s pet peeve.”

“I don’t think you want to hear what I had to say.”

“What did you say.”

“‘Oddly arousing.’  As in I never thought I’d get hard from getting shown up by a girl.”

“You’re right, I probably didn’t want to hear that.”

“Your man knows you well,” Jesse smirked as the bartender returned to put our drinks in front of us.  Jesse faced him.  “Hey, brother.  Does Mikey Guinness still work here?”

“I ask myself the same question every day.”

“What do you mean?”

“Slacker’s always here but he never really shows up,” the bartender said before shouting through a door.  “Mikey! You got friends.”

I easily figured at that point that Mikey Guinness was Stefan’s old dealer.  It took a good minute before he showed up, looking very much the part.  He was a disheveled kid around my age, gaunt in the face and spaced out in the eyes.  Once handsome, he’d probably gone on several too many benders.  If it weren’t so dark, I could probably confirm his dilated pupils.  “Hey! Hey, what’s up, man?” he greeted Jesse zealously in quintessential stoner voice.  “Shit, what’s your name again?”

“Jesse.”

“That’s right, that’s right,” Mikey nodded, clearly having no idea who Jesse was.  Jesse squinted at him, as if genuinely concerned that he’d hit his head at some point.

“I’m Stef’s brother.”

“
Ohhh
.  Right on.”  Mikey kept nodding.  “Right on.”

“Yeah.  You seen him around?”

“Yeah, man! I mean, no.  No, man.  He bailed, you know.  We kicked it for a couple weeks but then he was like, ‘I’m out.’”

Jesse was outwardly calm but I could see the green of his eyes shining brighter.  I could practically hear his heart beating faster. “What do you mean he was out?”

“What do you mean what do I mean?” Mikey laughed as if Jesse had told a great joke.  “I mean he’s out, bro.  He hasn’t been in town for awhile.”

“Where did he go?”

Mikey shrugged.  “Better places, man.”

I stared at the kid, unsure if having him was great or awful.  As easily as he was giving up information, he was still making things pretty hard.

“Did he say at all where he was going?”

“Nah.”

Jesse’s attitude shifted.  “I have something pretty important to tell him. I could really use some information.”  The gritty tone of his voice made Mikey blink, like he was confused as to why he suddenly felt uneasy.

“Uh.  Last week he said something about Reno but I’m thinking he’s made moves since then.”

I could see Jesse’s hand forming a fist under the counter.  I wasn’t sure if he was frustrated or about to beat the information out of Mikey, despite the fact that we both knew Mikey wasn’t holding anything back.  He was either telling the truth or too burned out to remember a thing.  I eyed Jesse’s knuckles under the counter, my pulse beating with increasing speed as they jutted further and further out of his skin.  I wet my lips. 
Hold on a second.
  Looking up, I tilted my head and smiled sweetly.

“Mikey, you said he was in Reno last week?”

Mikey looked at me as if only just realizing I was there.  “Whoa, break my heart why don’tcha,” he grinned, clutching his chest and pretending to stumble back.  Jesse gave a short, annoyed laugh.  “Yeah.  He was in Reno last week, but he said he was gonna leave that night.”

“You said you hadn’t seen Stefan in awhile.  That he left town after a couple weeks.”

Mikey frowned at me.  “Yeah?” He looked thoroughly confused by me.  “He did.  I haven’t seen him in ages.  But he’s been texting me.”

Jesse’s head shot back up.  “He’s been texting you?” I heard him whisper “
fucking idiot
” as Mikey nodded.

“Yeah, man.  He says he’s got no one good to party with but I’m just like, I got a baby mama now. I can’t just leave to party, you know?”

“Mm,” I nodded, in a daze as he was called away by the irritated bartender.  Unblinking, I stared ahead, a million fragmented thoughts trying to come together and form something coherent.  The second they did, I grabbed Jesse.  “I have an idea.”

“That’s nice but you probably don’t want to touch me there right now.”  I looked down to see my hand on his upper thigh.  He winced as I snatched it away.  “Alright.  What’s your idea, princess?”

I peered down the bar at Mikey.  He wasn’t far enough away so I leaned in to whisper in Jesse’s ear, rapidly and breathlessly detailing my scheme for fear that I’d lose it to my jumbled mess of thoughts.  Jesse leaned in closer, making my leg twitch when he gripped my knee for balance. I didn’t let it stop me.  My lips moved a mile a minute as I mapped out a plan, exhaling hard when I finally got all my words out, and clearly.  I couldn’t help being satisfied, even a little proud of myself.

But when I pulled away from Jesse, I found his heavy gaze resting on my heaving chest.  He lifted it slowly to my red lips and flushed cheeks, my blood just starting to rush with adrenaline.  He let his stare linger on me for another few seconds before sucking in a sharp breath and shaking his head.  It seemed like an odd time for it but the look in his eyes couldn’t be described as anything but pure lust. 
Come on. 
My face grew even hotter as he looked away with a distinct shift in his seat and a
fuck
under his breath.  “Jesse – ”

“Don’t start with me.  I’m allowed to be turned on by the fact that you’re smart."  He tossed back his entire glass of whiskey and grimaced.  “Yeah.  No wonder Abe fell so fucking hard,” he muttered, staring down the bar and flagging down Mikey to get started on my plan.

chapter eighteen

For what Jesse considered a fair price, Mikey Guinness handed over his cell for the night.  “I didn’t even know they still made these pieces of shit,” he murmured as he clicked through the chunky Motorola flip phone.  “Then again it’s managed to stay in tact all these years and I’ve already gone through five iPhones, so maybe we’re the ones getting played here.”  I could see Nate itching to laugh at the comment but he successfully fought off the urge.

We were all at a pool hall along the highway, waiting for the next step.  The plan was to arrange a get together with Stefan as Mikey, who had already helped set things into motion at the bar.  It had taken two hundred dollars and barely any convincing before he’d called Stefan to plant the seeds of our story.  “
Yeah, man, I got just enough to come out for a couple days.  Work’s got me bummed, you know.  Yeah, man, I’ll bring some of that shit.  Okay, I’m out of minutes, bro.  Text me
.”  And that was that.  Stefan, a notorious nightlife addict, was apparently party-starved enough to take the bait.

Now, we just needed to hear back from him.

Of course, there was no timetable on that.  The lead was promising but by no means a guarantee.  It was nerve-racking to consider that Stefan might never text back. So to take the edge off the wait, the four of us found a busy pool hall to drink at.  The scene was bizarre to say the least.  The bar was large but as usual, we were attracting looks.  I could only imagine how strange we must’ve looked to everyone – four out-of-towners in complete silence around one another, drinking with solemn expressions and for the most part, avoiding each other’s gazes.  We had forgotten how to relax and be somewhere for the purpose of having fun.  It seemed like a foreign concept and it took a solid hour for us to familiarize ourselves again.

“Solid eight,” Nate finally said, looking to Abram for confirmation on the blonde he’d been exchanging eyes with across the room.  Abram gave a nod and with that, Nate went to talk to the girl, giving the three of us something to chuckle at till we drank enough to join him at the pool table.

The blonde’s name was Allie.  Another few drinks and we were best friends for the night – Isla and Allie, Allie and Isla.  The two of us played pool against Nate and Abram, losing spectacularly.  “I have no idea how I’m still concentrating right now,” Nate said as he stood behind Allie, who bent over in her short denim skirt.  Her ample chest grazed the felt as she lined up her shot.  I could see Jesse looking down her tank top from the other end of the pool table.  I wasn’t expecting it but all I felt was relief – relief that for once, the majority of the attention wasn’t on me.  Besides, Abram’s eyes alone were enough to make me feel hot.

“Oh my God, you guys are so
cute,
” Allie squealed as Abram stood behind me to give me pointers – or rather, to give himself an excuse to press himself against my ass.  I had peered over my shoulder to smirk at him but he’d kissed me before I had a chance and it was at that point that Allie started gushing.  “Aren’t they the most gorgeous couple?” she whispered to Nate, who stood behind her, an arm wrapped around her pinched waist.  He didn’t answer her question, too busy whispering things in her ear that made her giggle and pout.  They were being so couple-like and cute that Jesse had to excuse himself to the bar.  It was official: Nate had gone long enough without sex to be nice to a girl.  I was thankful for that.

“Hopefully, that puts him in a better mood,” I murmured to Abram with amusement, trying to keep my composure as he bent me gently over the table, slipping his hand under my cropped shirt and molding his fingers over my breast.  “Hey,” I scolded gently, though I was sure it was too dark for anyone to see what he was doing.  Biting my lip, I felt his hot mouth on the back of my neck.  I closed my eyes for a moment, letting myself enjoy his kisses and the naughty little massage he was giving me under my top.

“Just for good measure.”  His lips curved against my neck as he pinched my nipples till they were both rock hard and fighting against the cotton of my shirt.

“Asshole,” I whispered, amused.  Clearly, I’d had enough to drink that I was okay with letting this happen in public.  And shamefully, that part turned me on the tiniest bit, especially as I felt Abram’s arousal pushing against the denim of my shorts.

“This is dangerous.”

“What is?”

“Getting me this worked up while I have you bent over like this.”

“Because you’re totally going to fuck me in the middle of the bar.”

“I could.”

I burst out laughing, taking the shot.  But when I tried to stand straight again, Abram slammed me back against his cock.  I gasped as my elbows hit the felt again.  “Take another shot,” he murmured in my ear, rumbling deep from his chest as I slowly arched my back and rose to my tiptoes, rubbing my pussy gently against him.  “Fuck,” he collapsed onto my back, grinning into my skin.

“See.  Two can play this game, Abram Lenox.”

“I’m learning this as we go.”  His voice was low, husky as his hot breath coated my neck, his erection torturing me through my shorts. 
God, yes…
I felt a light, breathy moan edging to the tip of my tongue.  No one would even hear if I let it out.  But when I opened my eyes, I choked it back.  Because at the end of the table I had a solo audience, his stare fixed s unapologetically on me that I froze.  Abram’s hands all over my body, I stared back at Jesse, startled and quickly, for reasons I couldn’t fully grasp, ashamed.

“Don’t be a fucking creep, Toro.”

Nate’s laugh pierced through the tension of the moment.  I shot the ball and hastily stood up straight, giving Abram a quick smile to distract him from the other two.  “Another round?” I asked him hastily.  From the corner of my eye, I could see Nate walking over to Jesse, letting his body crash straight into him, their faces too close for comfort as they began to mutter a mile a minute.  The second Abram was gone, I went to fix the situation, using cute, blonde Allie to my advantage.

“Boys,” I rolled my eyes at her, nudging her toward Nate as I went for Jesse.  We pulled them apart easily, but I couldn’t get Jesse to stop glaring menacingly at Nate, even as I pushed him farther and farther back.  “Can you not?” I hissed.

“He was talking about you.”

“Jesse, I don’t care,” I said, though I was barely able to finish my sentence as Nate came barreling back, poor Allie stumbling in her high-heeled efforts to contain him.

“You know you’re just asking for it, asshole,” he snarled at Jesse.  “You think this is a fun game? Piss him off some more and he’ll pull out every tooth in Stefan’s head till he’s choking on his own blood – and trust me, it’ll still be days till we let him die.”

“
Nate,
do not threaten him with that!” I growled, pushing all my weight and more against Jesse to keep him back.  His face was completely blank but every one of his muscles twitched and flexed against me, desperate for a piece of Nate that I refused to let him have.

“I’m telling you – don’t try to swing your dick, Toro.  You wanna fuck around, pick the trashiest girl in this room and screw her till you’re done looking at Isla, because trust me, you don’t know Abram.  You haven’t seen that crazy son of a bitch truly pissed yet and I promise you, it’s nothing any of us want to deal with.  You think I haven’t told him about whatever the fuck is going on with you two because I’m nice?” He sneered.  “No.  I’m trying to save my own ass from that side of him.  That’s what it is.  Now straighten the fuck up before you screw us all.”

I breathed hard as I watched Nate then stalk off after Allie, hopefully to apologize.  Swallowing, I slowly pushed off of Jesse’s body, looking up at him with a frustrating mix of both anger and sympathy.  “Jesse, just stop provoking him.  He shouldn’t have said what he said but you shouldn’t have even engaged his bullshit.  He’s crazy,” I whispered, keeping one eye on the bar in anticipation of Abram’s return.  I heaved a sigh when Jesse ignored me to keep staring down Nate, his muscles so tight under my hands that it felt like I was touching a stone wall.  It put me on edge.  Any time Jesse was dead serious, without so much as a hint of humor on his lips, I knew trouble was coming.  “Jesse,
please
.  Promise me you won’t fight him tonight.”

He still stared across the room.  “Define fight.”

“Don’t punch anyone tonight, Jesse.  I don’t care if they provoke you.  Just swallow it.  We have a good lead and this could be over soon, but not if you guys act up.  So promise me, Jesse, that you won’t.  No fighting tonight or ever during this trip.  Please.”

Looking down at me, Jesse’s hard torso relaxed under my palms.  “One more time.”

“What?”

“‘Please.’  And my name.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Please, Jesse.”

“Without the sass.”

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.  “Please, Jesse,” I let it out, sans attitude.  He stared into my eyes.  I waited for his stupid, charming grin and when it finally came, I groaned with relief.  “Fucking love that,” he muttered with irritation before nodding.  “Fine.  No fighting for the rest of the trip.  You have my word.”

I thanked him and broke away just in time to return to Abram, who was coming back from the bar with the cutest, sexiest little grin on his lips.  When he looked at me, I cocked my head, thankful for his ability to immediately pull me back into him, helping me forget everything else around me – at least as much as I could.  “What’s that look?” I asked.

“Bartender said he’d never leave home if his wife was as fine as mine.”

“You have a wife?” I bit my smirk as he circled his arm around my waist and kissed my neck.

“Tonight I do.”  Abram took my hand.  “A gorgeous one,” he added, his blue eyes gleaming as he studied me in a way that made me feel as if we were alone, the world and everything in it stopping to give us this rare moment of quiet. I held my breath as Abram’s lips parted to say something else.  But with a little laugh to himself, he decided suddenly against it.

“What?” I teased to hide my genuine curiosity.

“Nothing,” Abram murmured before the bartender called him back to take his credit card.  I realized only after he left, because of the tingle still humming on my skin, that he had been stroking my ring finger.  I looked down at it.  Staring, I shook my head to myself, repeating the word
coincidence
in my head till I’d pushed away the frilly fantasy that had dared to pop into my head for a second. Yellow roses, lacy veils and white dresses.  All these beautiful things I had no business thinking about.  Not now, not here or ever.

Standing in the middle of the bar, I sucked in my bottom lip. 
Maybe not
ever
.  Just not for a very long time.
  I allowed myself that idea and as a result, must’ve looked like an idiot, smiling by myself in the middle of the bar for a second.  Catching myself, I suddenly looked around, scanning the area for Jesse and Nate like a mother hen ensuring that her kids were behaving well.  There was nothing but smiles and laughter in the room, which eased me for all of a second before I realized that neither Jesse nor Nate were present.  I squeezed my drink, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up as my eyes shifted slowly around, waiting for it – waiting to hear a crash or broken glass or a woman’s scream to indicate their fighting.

But there was nothing.

My shoulders eased.  And just as I breathed –
bang.

The gunshot sound had my blood running like ice till I realized it was only the burst of a back door flying open.  Still panicked, I watched Nate storm through it, pushing past the crowd, his face red and a vein bulging from his forehead as he spit a string of curses till he was out the front doors.  Watching them swing shut, I felt a familiar dread creep into my stomach and while everyone quickly resumed to their business, I couldn’t.  Weaving slowly, tepidly through the crowd, I made my way out the door that Nate had come in, walking past the chipped red fence and garbage cans to follow what started as a faint sound.

I don’t know why I kept going when I realized what it was. 
Fuck, yes, fuck –
the moans were pleasured, tortured, on repeat and in unison with the sound of flesh slapping flesh.

Turning the corner of a wall, I froze.

Bent over a patio chair was pretty blonde Allie, her breasts swinging between the back of the chair she leaned on and the wooden table she gripped.  From behind, Jesse pounded her, his thrusts deep, hard and pitiless.  My legs filled with concrete, refusing to let me walk away.  Unblinking, I stood there, watching Jesse drill the blonde girl till she screamed and shook with an orgasm that at least a few people in the bar had to have heard.  I caught sight of his thick shaft as he pulled out, jerking himself over the condom before plunging back in and resuming that animal pace.  His biceps bulged, his jeans sliding down his ass as he caged her, ramming in and out.

But his stare was bored, flat.

Till it floated away to spot me.

My heart stopped, his stare flaming with a flash of surprise.  But in the same second, it settled on me, searing into me. With Allie slumped, her legs weak and her lips still dribbling pleasure, Jesse fixed that dead gaze on me.  He didn’t look away.  It stayed glued to me.  And with each angry thrust between her legs, it traveled over my face, glinting more and more awake.  Paralyzed, I knew the second it was going to happen.  And the second it did, his throat dispelling the longest grunt as he shuddered inside her, I left, my pulse pounding in my ears as I ran back into the bar.  Inside, I panted, opening my mouth wide with a desperate need to fill my lungs with new air – to replace what I’d swallowed while watching Jesse fuck a girl and cum to me.