Tainted Blood (58 page)

I headed over to the school to meet up with the guys for a game of ball in the gym. Because of what happened with the were-attack and all that, I’d pulled myself from the basketball team for the season. I think that might have been another reason for my dad to write me off. Sports was the only connection I’d ever had with the guy and me not playing ball this year, well, that meant we had nothing more in common.

But I loved the game and I missed it. My former teammates didn’t much understand why I wasn’t playing or why I was getting married, but it wasn’t like I could tell them what had happened to me. It sucked ‘cause I killed at the game now. A benchwarmer no longer, I was quick and more agile. Maybe the lack of pressure, like I got when I was on the team, helped make me better. Maybe because I was playing strictly because I loved the game and I didn’t have a coach barking at me, maybe that’s why I was better. Maybe, but unlikely. I was fairly certain that were-bite had triggered my vampire gene and, considering that gene came from a pure line of vampires, I’d turned into pure awesomeness!

It was just me and a few of the guys from the team—the ones that weren’t douches—playing and the game was going great! My team was up by quite a bit and we were having a blast. Then Ashton and the Douche Squad arrived. I don’t know why I was ever friends with that egotistical bastard.

He and the Douche Squad challenged us, and like an idiot, I accepted. We played shirts and skins, Ashton’s idea, of course, and he and his cronies tossed their shirts off the court. Please! Pure douchebags.

“What time is it?” Ashton shouted. “Game time!” his followers shouted back. Lame.

The game started out fine, a little more pushing than necessary from Team Douchebag but other than that it was going really well. Until I took a shot that cocky-ass Ashton’s thought I couldn’t make. When the ball swished through the hoop, winning us the game, I gloated and my buddies here on Team Awesome cheered and whooped and rushed me with high-fives all around.

“One more game,” Ashton shouted.

“Nah,” I said as me and the guys headed off the court for our bags.

“Chicken?” Ashton questioned with another smug grin.

I turned to face him, and the gym fell silent. “Not at all,” I said with my own grin, a hint of cockiness appearing. I knew he was making a dig at me and the fact I get paid to stand on a corner in a chicken costume. “You see, we’ve all got lives outside of each other.” I pointed to myself and the other guys on Team Awesome. “You know, like jobs and girlfriends and such. We don’t have time to entertain you all day. Plus, wasn’t wiping the floor with your sorry asses good enough for one day? Why would you want us to do it again?”

“Go fuck yourself, Carter.”

“I’ll pass, thanks.” I grinned, knowing I was stirring the pot. Me and the rest of Team Awesome shouldered our bags and headed out of the gym.

Just before I took a step out the door, Ashton called after me, “You hear Laney calling out my name in her sleep yet?”

Every muscle in my body tensed and a hot boiling fury burned inside of me. I would die before I’d let that piece of shit anywhere near her or her dreams. Just as I was about to turn around and challenge him, which was exactly what he wanted, a little voice in my head said, “Don’t let him win.”

I steadied myself with a few calming breaths, and just before I headed out the door
,
I looked over my shoulder and hollered back in the most easygoing tone I could muster, “Yeah, actually.” The arrogant smile fell from his face surprise. “She said, ‘Yay, the SOB is finally dead!’” I booked it out of there and out into the rain.

I stopped by the drugstore for a couple candy bars on the way home. The door chimed as I entered. I browsed the selection before choosing my regular fix. I paid, headed back out into the rain, and chowed my candy as I headed home. The guy at the counter had given me a funny look when I paid and it made me wonder if he’d been the same dude that was working the register when I’d bought that pregnancy test. Now I’m in there buying handfuls of candy and dude’s probably thinking the test was positive—that I was taking my chocolate hoard to my lady. Thankfully not.

I think I would’ve made her skip town with me if it had been true—if we’d, uh, well, you know. I think that, after I got over the initial shock, I would have rushed us home, packed our shit, and driven off into the sunset. But not in a romantic way. In a do-or-die kind of way. I know Oliver eventually would’ve tracked us down and most likely killed me, but I think that would’ve been the best thing for us to do.

My stomach turned and I figured it was because I was reliving that terrifying day when I thought I’d fathered a child with Laney, but then I remembered that it was getting close to the full moon again and I noticed my stomach was becoming sensitive like it had last month. It was like I’d become a freakin’ girl and I had a monthly cycle and shit. But it was better than being dead. Either way, my candy bars weren’t sitting too well.

Or, it could’ve been stress. I was not looking forward to dinner with Kiera’s grandma. She wasn’t the sweetest person on Earth. I honestly couldn’t wait for this wedding crap to be over. If it were up to me, which it wasn’t, we’d have run off to Reno already. I’d have to borrow a car, of course. I laughed at what a loser I was. I locked Laney’s car and ran upstairs to take a shower and get ready to face the grandma.

I headed out to my future wife’s grandmother’s house that evening, leaving Laney lying on the couch with her phone, awaiting Oliver’s call. For her sake, I was hoping Oliver would return from his hiatus soon. Not that I would trust his ass with her any time soon; I just knew she really missed him and she hadn’t been herself since he’d been carted off.

Holy Shit! Dinner was a freaking nightmare! I don’t think I’d ever been verbally attacked by an old lady before and it wasn’t something I
ever
wanted to experience again. She had the same concerns that Kiera’s parents had had—probably still have. You know, how will I support us, and such. In the end, Kiera’s grandmother, her mom’s mom, welcomed me into the family and then fed us an amazing meal. It was clear where Kiera and her mother had inherited their cooking skills.

Kiera’s grandma lived outside of town, past the strip club, and, being a man and all, I looked, possibly longingly, at the bar as we drove by on our way back into town. I slowed the car and pulled into the parking lot of the club.

“What are you doing?” Kiera asked. I was supposed to be taking her home. She’d told her parents that she wanted to get home to study but they were staying to visit with Grandma a bit longer so I offered to take her.

“I think that’s Felix’s truck,” I said, nodding to a large black SUV in the lot.

“So?” Kiera said. “He’s a grown man, and he can do what he wants. And what were you doing looking over here anyway?” She crossed her arms over her chest and I could see a pout coming on.

The SUV was parked away from the club, close to the field of cows that bordered the lot. I parked near his car.

I turned to Kiera as I took off my seatbelt. “I’m a guy, it’s what we do.” I got full on pout in response and had to fight back a smile. “Kiera, it’s just natural curiosity, but it’s not my thing.” She continued to pout. “Would you rather I lie to you?” I asked and she huffed and shook her head. “Wait here and lock the doors.” She protested my getting out of the car. I pretended I didn’t hear her over the thump of the music pouring out of the club

Fortunately, the rain had let up a bit. Unfortunately, a field full of wet cows was also full of wet cow shit, and it reeked! I peeked in the windows of the SUV, and sure enough it was Felix’s car. The empty candy boxes and wrappers in the passenger seat were a dead giveaway.

I held up a finger to Kiera through the windshield to let her know I’d be back in a minute. I knew she was pissed that I was going inside the club, but I was concerned about Felix. He’d seemed different the past few days, and this seemed slightly out of character for him. Not that I really knew him well enough to make such a judgment...

I showed my ID, paid the ridiculous cover charge, and headed inside. The place was dimly lit and very loud. Ladies wearing as little as possible worked the room, and on the stage, three different girls danced around three separate poles.

I came to a halt as my eyes fell on the center pole. There, in the center of the stage, hugging a stripper pole with her thighs, was a nearly naked Avery. She was in nothing but a G-string.

“Holy shit,” I breathed. Her brother would kill her if he knew.

I searched the rest of the club from where I stood near the bar. There was some shady stuff happening in that
place, and sitting
off in the shadows, I found Felix, lap dance in progress.

This was going to be super fucking awkward.

First, I waited. I waited for the current song to end and for Ashton’s slut of a sister to exit the stage. Then I waited for her to start circulating with the guests. Once she made her way out of the back room and onto the main floor wearing only slightly more than a G-string, I grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.

At first, she was surprised to see me and then her amazement turned to excitement. Nasty. She started pawing at me and I grabbed her wrists and held them to her sides. It was clear she was on something. She was seriously high.

“You go home right now or I’m calling your brother,” I told her, and the little tramp started crying. Like I’d really tell him. I could just imagine the amount of ammo this would give Ashton if he knew I’d been at the strip club.
I was not even going there,
but there was a part of me that still felt obligated to save his sister as best I could.

I was telling her to go home again, still holding her wrists, and she was still crying when a big-ass bouncer sauntered up. “Hands off the girls, buddy.” He went to forcefully separate me from Avery but there was no need, I was willing to let go of her. I released my grip and raised my hands in surrender as Dude came at me. It was like the bastard wanted me to put up a fight so he could beat my ass. No thanks! Dude was huge! I’ll pass. I’ve had my ass handed to me enough times in my life. I don’t go looking for it to happen.

Well, Dude got his fight—it just wasn’t with me and it was a little more evenly matched. Out of nowhere, well, out of the shadows of a private dance, Felix took Dude to the floor and beat his ass. Really beat his ass! Bouncer didn’t have a chance.

Bonus here was that I didn’t have to interrupt Felix’s lap dance. I don’t even want to imagine what that would’ve been like.

Needless to say, we were escorted from the club. I went willingly while Felix kept up a fight. It took three big dudes to wrestle him out of the club and I was surprised it only took three.

Once we were out front, Felix staggered my way and he ended up leaning on me. I’m not sure if you know this but Felix is a big guy! Not only is he close to seven-freakin’-feet tall, he was probably pushing three hundred pounds, at least. I probably looked like a scrawny little toothpick rolling a gigantic meatball out to his car.

“Are you drunk? Is that even possible?” I asked as I watched him try to get his car unlocked. Rain began to drizzle and Felix dropped his keys. I couldn’t let him drive. I scooped up his keys and he muttered something like “I’ve failed them.”

“Failed who?” I asked. “Amber?” He’d told me only a little about their past and I knew that he’d upset her with the whole Gwen-hook-up-thing.

“Ugh!” he roared. “Her too! I’ve failed them all. My brother, Hayden, Delaney, Ambrose.”

“What?” I questioned. What the hell did he mean about failing Laney and Hayden? He began repeating his list and I said, “No, no, I heard you. You don’t need to say it again!

Then that big-ass bastard took a face plant into the ditch between the club parking lot and the cow field.
Shit!
How was I supposed to get him out of there? Granted, the ditch wasn’t too deep, maybe three or four feet, but I still didn’t know how I’d manage it.

Kiera popped out of the car. “What’s going on?” And as she said it our attention turned to see Avery’s powder blue Volkswagen Beetle haul ass out of the parking lot. Kiera turned back to me, looking at me over the top of Laney’s car. “Was that…?”

“Yeah, it was,” I said.

She stared after Avery’s disappearing car and I tried to scrub images I could never unsee from my mind.

Felix’s cell began ringing, and after a moment’s hesitation, I jumped down into the ditched beside my multiple-great uncle and, though I really didn’t want to, I pushed him up far enough to get my hand into his front pocket and free his phone.

A questionable picture of Oliver flashed across the screen and I answered it. “Carter?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing answering Felix’s phone?”

“Well,” I began, as I heaved myself up out of the ditch. I slipped, slid back down on my stomach, the phone flew out of my hand and I shouted, “Just a minute!”
Son of a bitch!

Kiera was standing at the edge of the ditch looking down at me and getting damp from the drizzle of rain. I told her to get back in the car. Thankfully she did because I was in no mood to argue.

When I finally pulled my ass and Felix’s phone from the ditch, I found Oliver still waiting on the other line. “Sorry, dude,” I said then I continued where I’d left off before becoming a muddy mess. “I’m pretty sure Felix is drunk.”