Shooter (Burnout) (24 page)

“She’s not that young!” Deanna snapped and Chris knew women weren’t the only ones who knew what buttons to push.

“No. But at least she’s human.”

Deanna slapped him. He saw it coming, but he let her have her little drama queen moment. He shook his head and laughed at her.

“You’re pathetic, Deanna. Go home. Don’t show your face again. And scrub off that clown makeup.”

She reached up to slap him again but this time he caught her wrist. “You get one, bitch, because I feel sorry for you. Don’t raise your hand to me again.” He shoved her lightly and she staggered back. “Go,” he ordered.

*****************************

Hayley heard a knock on the door and wiped her face on the towel. “Out in a second,” she called.

“Hayley, open the door.” She sighed. It was Easy.

“I’m fine,” she replied. “Everything’s fine. Just looking for band-aids.” She hadn’t really looked too hard. There weren’t any in the medicine cabinet and she was making do with toilet paper. It seemed like a dangerous endeavor to go looking through Tex’s things. God knew what might turn up. Hayley was just fine with the kinky version of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Another rap on the door. “Open up.”

Hayley sighed and flipped the lock on the knob. Jimmy came in and shut the door behind him. He frowned down at her thumb. “You didn’t find anything?”

“No, but it’s almost stopped. It’s not so bad.” She sighed and sat down on the floor, next to the tub and laid her head back on the rim. “This is a nice bathroom. I should’ve just hung out in this bathroom the whole time.” The smooth white surface of the claw foot tub felt good on the back of her neck. “This is a serious bathroom.”

Jimmy set the lid down on the toilet and sat on it. “That bitch is evil,” he declared.

“Don’t,” she said quietly. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, Hayley. It is not okay.”

“It’s not like I didn’t know. I knew. That he had…girlfriends. I just never thought one of them would actually have anything to say to me.”

“It wasn’t right. Her doing that. God, she’s so nasty. His right hand is better than that-”

“Jimmy.”

“Sorry.”

Hayley sighed. “Are you having fun at this party?”

He snorted. “No.”

“Do you ever have fun at parties?”

“Not anymore.”

“So you wouldn’t be too inconvenienced if I asked you to drive me home?”

Jimmy held out his hand to her.

On the way out the front door, she was surprised to see Chris standing in the driveway talking with Tex. Jimmy grabbed her uninjured hand and pulled her along. “Taking her home,” he announced.

“I’ll do it,” Chris replied.

“She asked
me
,” Jimmy snapped.

“Really, we’re fine,” Hayley intervened. “Jimmy wants to leave anyway. So we’ll just hang out at my house. You stay. Have fun.”

Chris stepped in front of them. “Hayley she’s gone. She’s not gonna bother you again.”

Hayley shrugged. “She didn’t bother me. She just interrupted me while I was chopping onions. That’s all. And you can go see her tonight. I’ll get a night off from making dinner.”

“Hayley, I’m never seeing her again.”

Hayley bit her lip. “You don’t have to do that. It’s fine.”

Chris shook his head. “I would never let someone treat you like that and get away with it.”

“She didn’t do anything. All she said was she spent the night with you last week and she’d like to see you again.”

“That is not all she said, Hayley,” Jimmy growled. “Don’t take up for that bitch.”

“Well, that’s really the only part I heard,” Hayley lied while smiling. “Because I cut my thumb and after that I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Well, I heard,” Jimmy announced. “I heard her loud and fucking clear. Especially that part where she said she’d lick his cock clean after he barebacked her and then she’d send him home to you.”

“That’s enough,” Hayley told Jimmy.

Jimmy’s jaw tensed. “Don’t sugar coat it, sweetie. I won’t. I’m not gonna stand here and let him think that shit wasn’t calculated and vicious.” To Chris he said, “And it better be over. And you better get yourself checked out at a clinic. I bet crack whores have cleaner twats. She for damn sure has a filthy mouth, I know that much.” To Hayley he said, “Get in the truck, honey. I’m taking you home so you don’t have to deal with this shit anymore.”

Hayley, not knowing what else to do, moved around Chris without looking at him and made a beeline for the truck.

Jimmy and Chris argued a little more, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying, which was just as well. Soon, Jimmy stalked to the truck and slid in behind the wheel. They rode the rest of the way to the little blue house in silence.

“He’s not the great guy everyone thinks he is,” Jimmy announced at her dining room table while she poured him a glass of tea. “He breaks promises. He hurts people.”

“He never made me any promises, Jimmy,” she informed him, sitting down next to him.

Jimmy snorted. “Well, don’t believe him if he does.”

Hayley played with the placemat in front of her. “What promise did he make to you?

Jimmy scowled. “Doesn’t matter. He didn’t keep it and that’s all that’s important.”

“He really didn’t promise me anything,” Hayley repeated.

“Where did he tell you he was Saturday night? Sleeping with
her
? And you just said okay?”

“It’s none of my business.”

“What did he say?” Jimmy insisted.

Hayley tugged at the corner of the placemat. “He said he was working late at the garage.”

Jimmy snorted again. “Yeah. See? He lies.”

“But it’s none of my business!”

“Did he
say
it was none of your business? No! He didn’t. He
lied
!”

“He doesn’t owe me anything,” Hayley said.

“Not even the truth?”

Hayley scowled at the placemat.

Chapter 17

Chris got out of Hawk’s truck practically as it was rolling to a stop on the curb. He’d let Easy and Hayley go because getting into it with Jimmy on Tex’s front lawn was not how he wanted to spend his day. He felt like an ass for getting busted lying to Hayley, then again for not protecting her from Deanna, and also because Hayley was getting caught in the crossfire of his problems with Easy. That was no place for her to be.

He saw her front door standing open and headed there first. He climbed the steps of the front porch and through the screen door saw Easy and Hayley standing in her kitchen. Hayley was washing dishes. Easy glanced up and noticed Chris making his way to the front door. He grinned, grabbed Hayley by the upper arm, turned her to him and pressed his mouth to hers. Chris saw red and nearly tore the screen door off its hinges.

Hayley shrieked, whether from Easy’s advances or the sound of the door bouncing off the side of the house, he wasn’t sure. He crossed the living room at a dead run, grabbed Jimmy and hurled him backwards and into the kitchen table. Jimmy recovered easily and launched himself at Chris. Chris grabbed him around the waist and the both of them crashed through the other screen door and they landed in a scuffle on the deck.

“Why’re you pissed, Shooter?” Jimmy yelled out derisively. “
You
don’t want her. Maybe I
do
!”

Chris punched Jimmy in the stomach and Jimmy clocked him in the jaw for his efforts. “You don’t!” he shouted to Easy. “You’re just fucking with her to get to me!”

“Is it working? Don’t see how,” Jimmy growled, landing a blow to Chris’ ribs. “What with you sticking your dick in anything that comes along! Can’t see why’d you care much. Or are you just mad because you got busted lying?
Again.
I told her she can’t trust you. She knows what a lying bastard you are!”

Chris grabbed Jimmy’s arm and twisted it, flipping the slightly smaller man face down onto the deck. “I was protecting her from the truth! And I’m sorry, Jimmy. Okay? I’m sorry it went down the way it did. I did what I had to do and I stand by it. You will get over it. You will. But you do not use her. Don’t do it. That’s not the kind of man you are, Turnbull. That’s not the man I served with. You’re pissed. I get it. You’re pissed at me. You’re pissed at the whole goddamn world. It’s allowed.

“But what’s not allowed is using Hayley as a pawn. She got hurt today, and that’s on me. I admit that. But you filling her head with bullshit, that’s on you. She doesn’t deserve it.”

“Fuck you!” Easy bellowed. “You walk around this town like you own it! You’ve got your house, no, your
two
houses, your garage, your bike. Walking around like your shit don’t stink when I only ever asked you for one thing. One thing! And you reneged. You think you deserve this life you’ve got? You think you can just live on this Earth, playing God, and no one’s gonna call you on your shit? Well, guess again. You’re not my brother. You don’t deserve brothers. You don’t know what the word means!”

*******************

When Chris had flung himself and Jimmy through the screen door, Hawk had taken Hayley by the arm and kept her from trying to intervene.

“This isn’t about you,” the giant of a man had told her quietly. “This is a storm that’s been brewing a long time, Slick. Best to let it play out. Sorry you got caught in the middle.”

Hayley could only watch helplessly as the two men traded punches. When Chris had Jimmy pinned down, the look in both men’s eyes was murderous and she was terrified not knowing what would happen. Chris finally got to his feet and stomped over to the table on the deck and slumped into one of the chairs. Hawk opened the screen door, probably only to be civilized since it was less a door than a huge, gaping hole, and hauled Jimmy to his feet. He told Jimmy quietly that it was time to leave and Jimmy stormed through the house to the front door, not bothering to acknowledge her. Hawk gave her a nod and a thin smile and followed him out.

Hayley picked up a roll of paper towel and began mopping up the tea and broken glass that had fallen off the table and broken when the men tumbled into it. As she worked to mop up the debris, a shadow darkened over her from the back door but she couldn’t really bring herself to look up. She heard him cross the floor and he knelt down beside her. “I’ll do this, Slick,” he said quietly.

“No, it’s okay. I got it.”

He sighed. “Rule is, you bust up someone’s house, you make it right. And you already got cut today. Don’t need you around broken glass, too.”

“It’s fine. It’s almost-”

“Don’t bust my balls.” Normally this phrase was delivered in an angry or teasing tone, but this time he sounded so bone-weary that it actually scared her a little and she looked up at him. Chris looked about as broken as the glass and the screen door combined. She pressed her lips together tightly, handed him the paper towel and moved out of his way.

“There are things I should tell you,” he announced while concentrating on his task of plucking up shards with his fingers.