“He’s Asa to me,” I told her ruefully, climbing into Echo’s deserted spot. “But today, he’s definitely Grease.”
We sat on my bed as Echo wandered into the living room, and I grabbed her hand as my heart raced. It took them longer to make their way to my room than I thought it would, and by the time they did, Farrah was leaning heavily against my side with her head on my shoulder.
Asa led a man I’d never met into the room, and I braced, only to relax a little when I saw Poet come in behind them. It was nice to see a familiar face, and I couldn’t help but smile when he winked at me from behind the others.
“Farrah—” Asa rumbled, but his words were cut off by the girl at my side.
“Hey, Pop. What are you doing in my neck of the woods?” she called out cockily.
I watched in awe as three pairs of eyes opened wide and the man in front cleared his throat nervously.
“You know who I am?” he asked, tipping his head to the side as he studied her.
“Mom has a picture of you,” she answered flatly. “You look a lot older, your shit’s gone gray, but yeah, I know who you are.”
He looked at a loss for words as he stared at her, eventually taking steps closer to the bed. With every inch, Farrah’s hand tightened on mine beneath the blankets at our hips, but she showed no other display of nervousness.
“I’m gonna make this right for you,” he told her, his eyes intent on her face.
“Why bother?” she scoffed. “When mom was shooting up and letting junkies into our house, you didn’t ‘make things right for me’. You didn’t do shit when she started whaling on me for no reason. And I’m pretty goddamn sure that you were nowhere to be found when her husband beat the hell out of me—” she pulled the neck of her t-shirt down,“—and used a cigar to burn me.”
Slider’s eyes went glossy for a moment, and Poet ran a hand over his face when she bared the insides of her breasts. When she turned her head away from them in dismissal, Slider pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes with his fingers.
“I’m gonna make this right for you,” he repeated, his voice hoarse. “I shouldn’t have left you with your mama. I got no excuse except that I had a wife—”
“Yeah, I’m well versed in married men who fuck my mother,” she replied in a bored tone, never looking his way. “And parents who put their pieces of ass before their children.”
“I know you’re pissed at me, and you got a right to that, but I don’t ever wanna hear you disrespect my wife,” he warned, looking at the back of her head where her hair was still matted and tangled.
“You don’t ever have to hear anything from me,” she answered quietly. “Get the fuck away from me. You’re nothing.”
He was scary, and he had a way of looking at you that made you think that he could kill you at any moment and not feel anything. But the tremble in Farrah’s voice, and the knowledge that she’d hate them looking at her the way she was, had me squeezing her hand and jumping off the bed. I strode to where her dad was standing and stopped right in front of him while Asa looked on with his jaw clenched.
“Out,” I ordered, pointing to the door.
“What?” he asked incredulously, his eyebrows lifting in surprise.
“Out of this room.”
“Calliope—” Asa called in warning, but I waved him off.
“I get that you’re scary, and you could probably snap me in half,” I told him seriously, “but she isn’t yours, she is mine. You gave up your rights. She wants you out of this room, and I don’t care how you feel about that. I also don’t care how I have to get you out of here—I may have to knee you in the balls and drag your crying ass into the hallway, but you will leave this room.”
We stared each other down for a few minutes before he turned abruptly and walked out of the room, mumbling to Asa to control his woman. I flipped him off behind his back, and Poet covered his laugh with a cough as he strode out behind him.
“The fuck, Calliope?” Asa roared at me, as I started to push him out of the room.
“We’re not having this discussion now,” I informed him as I moved him to the doorway. “Your loyalty may be to him, but mine is to her.” I pointed in Farrah’s direction. “Now make sure that those men are in the living room or kitchen and out of the hallway. I’m gonna help Farrah take a shower. She looks like shit.”
I closed the door in his face and swung around quickly at Farrah’s laugh.
“I don’t care if I have to knee you in the balls!” she snickered at me. “That was fucking classic.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled back at her as I tried to find some clothes that wouldn’t fall off her thin frame. “You’d better be thankful. Asa likes to spank me when he thinks I’ve done something wrong.”
She snorted with laughter and climbed gently off the bed. “Dude, I know. We all heard that shit at your party.”
“Shut up,” I griped back, my skin burning. “Grab a towel from the closet, would you?”
We made our way to the bathroom without interruption, but I was helping her undress when there was a knock at the door.
“We’re busy! Pee outside!” I called, causing Farrah to snicker.
“Yeah, I know,” Echo’s voice came through the door, causing both of us to freeze.
I looked at Farrah to get her permission and then opened the door a little to let Echo into the tiny bathroom. His gaze was locked on Farrah as he stepped inside, and I felt like a third wheel as I tried to scoot my way past him.
“Echo will help me, Callie,” Farrah told me quietly, lifting her hand to his face.
“Okie dokie! I’ll just, you know, go.” I scrambled to open the door and escape the intimacy I was witnessing. “Let me know if you need anything!”
After I closed the door behind me, I straightened my shoulders and made my way to the living room.
Chapter 47
Grease
I’d been half embarrassed and half impressed as I’d watched Callie stare down Slider and force him out of our room. It was a stupid thing to do, but hell if she didn’t do it in a way that had both Slider and Poet looking at her with respect.
We were standing around the counter, quietly making plans, when Callie tiptoed into the kitchen. She tried to act like she was unaffected by the men in our home, but I could tell that old demons were surfacing by the slightly panicked look in her eyes. I met her gaze and lifted my arm for her as she scooted around the counter and slid in beside me, wrapping her arms around my waist and laying her head on my chest.
“Hey, Sugar. Farrah still in the shower?”
“Yeah, Echo is helping her,” she answered me quietly. “She didn’t need me in there.”
“Yeah, he’ll take care of her.”
“Like he did before?” she scoffed lightly, before turning her face away from me.
I gave her that and didn’t start an argument, no matter how badly I wanted to set her straight. The man did his best, and he was broken up about it. There was no use pointing fingers at people who weren’t to blame, especially if Farrah had already forgiven him.
“You’ve got brass ones, girl,” Slider called to Callie from across the table, a smirk on his face.
“My name is Callie.”
“Know what your name is, but you threatened to kick me in the balls earlier, so I think I’ll call you girl.”
“Whatever.” She looked away from him with her nose up, and I couldn’t stop my lips from pulling into a grin. Brass ones.
“Girl,” Slider’s voice lowered, “I’m glad my daughter has you on her side. Ain’t many people that would stand up to a man like me.”
“I didn’t help when it mattered,” she confessed quietly.
“There was nothing you could do to stop it,” he answered, leaning forward across the counter. “Girl like you might think she can take on the world, but she’d be wrong. Don’t know her, but I have a feeling your friend is a whole lot like me—keeps her cards close to her chest. Doubt you even knew
what was happening.” His voice lowered to an intense whisper, “You ain’t to blame for that.”
He leaned back and turned to Poet who was watching the scene with a thoughtful look on his face. “Need a smoke.”
As Slider left the room, Poet came to stand in front of Callie and reached down to run his hand along her hair in a soft gesture.
“Definitely not the same little girl I met a year ago,” he told her tenderly. “You keep fighting back, Callie. Proud o’ you.” Then he followed Slider out of the house.
“Holy shit,” Callie commented, looking up at me in wonder.
“Yeah, Sugar. Looks like you have the seal of approval from two of the scariest men in the United States.”
Chapter 48
Callie
Asa and most of the men left the house that night around dinner time. I knew where they were going—all of us knew, but no one said a word about it. They just got up as a unit and started for the door at a certain time without any words spoken. Echo went with Asa, which didn’t surprise me, but what did surprise me was that Poet stayed with us.
He sat on our couch, calm and relaxed, watching some motorcycle show on cable, and didn’t pay any attention to Farrah and me when I brought her out for dinner so I could change the sheets on my bed. She was getting up and around more after her shower, but she hadn’t left my room while Slider was there. I didn’t blame her; he hadn’t exactly endeared himself during their five-minute conversation.
I wanted to sit with Poet and ask him how he’d been, but I never got the chance. Farrah stuck to me like glue that night, jumping at shadows and any noise outside of the ordinary. She tried to play it off, and wasn’t outwardly clingy, but when she stood outside the bathroom door while I did my business, I wanted to cry for her. She reminded me of myself, and it brought me back to a time I’d tried my hardest to forget.
The men were only gone a couple hours before I heard the roar of bikes outside. Farrah stood so close to me we were almost touching as Poet unlocked the front door, letting the men file in. I was watching for Asa, and the minute I saw his face, I took an involuntary step forward.
He looked wrecked.
He came right for me without pausing for a second, and knocked into me hard enough that I lost my balance and had to wrap my arms around his neck to keep from falling. He didn’t stop there, though. He took another step, knocking my legs out from under me as he grabbed my thighs and wrapped me around him. Echo was doing the same thing to Farrah, though much gentler, and our eyes met over their heads.
Asa buried his face in my neck and took a long inhale as I pulled the rubber band out of his hair so I could run my fingers through it. I wasn’t sure how to soothe him, but I tried my best as I tightened my arms and legs.
“Slider and the boys are heading to a hotel for the night,” he growled into my neck, his voice husky and deep. “Echo’s using your car to take Farrah home with him.”
He lifted his head as I turned mine toward Farrah, preparing to argue.
“He needs his woman tonight and she needs him. Ain’t nothing for you to protect her from.” I nodded once, looking down into his face, and my chest burned at his next words. “He needs his woman and I need mine. You gonna give that to me?”
“Yeah, Asa,” I murmured back gently, running my fingers into the hair behind his ear. “You can have whatever you need.”
“Good,” he growled, before setting me down and walking away.
I stood in the middle of the living room and watched the men around me. Their faces were drawn and their jaws were tight, but not one of them said a word about what had happened. Asa and Slider rounded them up, and when Slider was the only one left, I watched him walk to Farrah and put a hand on her shoulder. He whispered something to her that I couldn’t hear, but I saw her nod into Echo’s chest before Slider leaned forward and dropped a soft kiss on the back of her head. Then he was gone.
Echo and Farrah left right after everyone else, and as I locked the door behind them I felt Asa move in against my back.
“Need you, Callie,” he mumbled into my neck, pulling my shirt over my head without letting me turn away from the door. His hands pushed and pulled roughly at me, stripping off my clothes efficiently, until I was standing completely naked. I heard his belt clink as he unfastened it, but I didn’t move from my position.
He was riding a fine line of control, I could feel it in every one of his movements, and I knew that a single twitch could set him off. I was panting, resting my hands against the door when I felt him fall to his knees behind me, jerking my hips toward him so I was bent over at the waist.
“Fuck,” he whispered against my skin, slowing his movements. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t scare me,” I rasped, pressing my forehead against the door.
He didn’t reply because he was pushing his face between my legs and capturing my clit between his lips, bypassing every other piece of flesh. He rubbed it slowly at first, warming me up, but the minute I started writhing against him he sucked. It took only a few minutes to come with him shoving me over the edge, and before I could come down from my high, he was standing and spinning me around.
His jeans and boxers fell to his feet as he lifted me up, and without pausing, dropped me onto him. He used his body to press me to the door, but instead of holding me with his hands on my ass like I was used to, he ran his arms under my knees until they were resting on the insides of his elbows. I wrapped my arms around his neck in a death grip, but the position left me with absolutely no control unless I wanted to fall to the floor.
“Lift your chin for me, Sugar,” he ordered huskily as he pounded in and out, causing my back to slam into the door.
The second I tilted my head back, I felt his tongue and teeth at my throat as he bit down and then sucked strongly. When he was done, he pulled back to gaze at it and mumbled, “Better,” before dropping his forehead to my collarbone. I let go with one hand, trusting him to keep me from falling, and ran my hand softly through his hair as his thrusts became fast and jerky and he came with a slow groan.
He held on to me and shuffled into our bedroom, falling to his back on the bed. I kissed him as I climbed off, and went to crouch at his feet when I felt something running down my leg.
We hadn’t used protection.
I didn’t say a word as I rushed to the bathroom to take care of the mess, and when I got back to our room, he was laying in the same position with his forearm resting over his eyes.
“You want to talk about it?” I asked gently as I pulled off his boots and socks.
“You don’t need that shit in your head,” he told me with a sigh. “It was a clusterfuck. Farrah’s ma was there.”
He didn’t say another word, and I didn’t press as I stripped away his jeans. I started for the dresser to get us some clean clothes but he stopped me.
“Don’t get dressed tonight,” he said wearily. “Want to feel you when I sleep.”
I didn’t reply, but turned back toward him and climbed back in the bed.
I bit the inside of my lip as he crawled under the covers, but couldn’t stop myself from blurting out, “We didn’t use protection!” before averting my eyes.
“That a problem?” he asked as if he didn’t see one.
“What if I get pregnant?”
“What if you do? I’ve got a job, we’re both adults, and you’d be a hell of a mother,” he answered, closing his eyes as his head sunk into the pillow.
My mouth open and closed a few times, trying to decide on a suitable reply, but he reached out without opening his eyes and pulled me down next to him.
“Stop worrying about it, Callie,” he told me simply.
His body was relaxed into the bed as if boneless, and for the first time that night his face wasn’t drawn and tight. I could force him to have the conversation with me; he’d do it if I asked. But as I felt his arm tighten around me, and his breathing grow even, I couldn’t make myself say anymore.
?
??I love you,” I mumbled, my lips pressed to his chest.
“Love you, too, Sugar.”
Chapter 49
Callie
The next few days passed in a blur as Asa and I argued about when I was going to move. He thought it made perfect sense to pack up the rest of my shit and move it when he left, so he didn’t have to make an extra trip. I could see his logic, and in any other situation, I could have agreed with him.
But Farrah needed me.
I couldn’t move to Oregon when she was still startling at every noise. She was staying with Echo, but driving to my house whenever he was working which meant she was at our house a lot.
I wasn’t sure what was happening with the Aces, but the guys that came down with Slider and Poet still hadn’t left. Something was brewing, something big, and I wondered what Asa wasn’t telling me as he and Echo disappeared for meeting after meeting. For some reason, his insistence that I move to Oregon with him immediately had turned almost desperate, and he was snapping and snarling at me constantly.
“Farrah doesn’t need you here!” he roared, continuing the argument the minute he walked in the door that night. “She’s living with Echo! He’ll deal with her shit!”
“She was there for me when you weren’t,” I told him calmly, refusing to get into another screaming match. “She sat with me the day of my parents’ funeral. She came by every day to make sure that I wasn’t alone.”
“Don’t throw that shit in my face again, Calliope!”
“I’m not throwing it in your face,” I replied, “I’m trying to explain to you that I owe her.”
“You owe her? That’s what this is about? That’s fuckin’ ridiculous.”
His automatic brush-off of something I felt so strongly about made my entire body tense with anger and I had a hard time controlling myself as I answered him.
“She was taking care of me while she was living through a nightmare, Asa,” I seethed through clenched teeth. “She was taking care of me, and I was so caught up in my own shit that I didn’t even notice that anything was wrong with her.”