Page 4 of Prince of Pain
“You really need to mind your own business,” I chuckled lightly, sliding from the hood to glare down at her, my strappy heels adding to the extra height I already had on her. She was short, and most of her face was hidden by the ridiculously large hood that she always kept over her head.
How she’d been able to pull any girl she wanted before being with my sister, I’d never know.
She sneered at me, not being intimidated by my size. “If you like your teeth, I’d stop being a bitch if I were you. Just text your damn dad and let him know you’re okay. He’s worried since another sex tape of you and some asshole surfaced.”
“The one with that guy ramming my ass? I know, I’ve seen it. I don’t get why he’s so worried about it,” I shrugged, not particularly fazed. There’d been a lot of those circulating since I’d started high school, and most people had seen me naked at some point in their lives.
Getting upset over it was pointless.
The guy who’d just been eating my face scowled, stalking off to his friends when he realized he wasn’t about to blow his load.
“Yeah, well, when it shows up at your parents’ strip club, and your dad spends the evening killing the guys who talked shit about you, expect him to be annoyed with you,” Riley replied dryly, confusing me for a second.
“Huh?” I blindly reached for the hood to lean on, ending up stumbling and almost landing on my ass if it wasn’t for Luna grabbing my wrist.
“Three guys were watching your latest sex tape while drinking at Wet Dreams tonight. They were having a laugh, talking shit about you without realizing your parents own the club. One even showed Milky over the bar, so he’s probably washing his eyeballs with bleach. The three guys have been getting diced up over the past few hours by your pissed off dad,” she explained, making Luna cringe. “If you’ve never seen someone make a body disappear, then I expect you don’t know how much mess and work that entails. So three bodies? He’s not happy.”
Milky was Dad’s right hand. They ran the Reapers of Chaos crew, and Mom managed the strip club. We didn’t see much crew activity, our parents deciding it was best to keep it hidden from us as if it would keep us safe.
Joke was on them since Luna had been kidnapped a few months ago, thanks to Riley’s association with illegal street racing, and I was on a tightrope of death every day, toying with my life as I mixed pills, alcohol, and questionable sex acts.
I didn’t give a shit if I lived or died, and I always left it up to fate to decide if I’d live to see another day.
Laughter drew my attention, and my stomach twisted as Ryder and Beckett walked towards us, a girl laughing as she leaned into Ryder’s side. He had his signature playboy smirk in place, hiding the cruel asshole below the surface.
I’d been excited for him to get out of rehab, so I’d been hurt when he’d shown up four months ago and acted as if I didn’t exist. No one else noticed since we didn’t really hang out unless we were partying in Blackwater, but all my texts to him had gone unanswered too, telling me what I already knew.
He’d cut me off completely, deciding his fresh start at life wasn’t going to include me.
“Are you two fucking fighting again?” Beckett scoffed, snapping me out of it as she pointed at Riley then me. “You’re traumatizing Luna.”
Ryder’s light green gaze slid to mine, a blank look on his face as he seemed to look right through me. It was as if all those nights we’d spent texting and keeping each other alive had been nothing but part of my imagination.
My fingers twitched, wanting to reach out to toy with his messy black hair like I had a million times before, but I had to mentally curse at myself for even thinking he’d allow it.
He turned to Beckett, his smile slipping back into place. “I’m heading home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Riley scowled, looping her arm through Luna’s. “Can you two finish fucking before we get there? I don’t need to hear you.”
“You won’t. You’ll have Luna’s thighs around your ears like earmuffs the second you get into bed,” he deadpanned, not looking my way before leaning down to nibble the girl's earlobe and turn her legs to jelly. “C’mon, babe. Let’s go.”
My chest ached as they left, and I tried not to watch them. Most people knew I’d slept with him, but they didn’t know just how close we’d been or how frequently we’d ended up naked together.
It wasn’t a friendship, but it wasn’t a relationship either. I couldn’t explain it, but it had meant the world to me. He understood me like nobody ever could, and now it felt like I was completely alone.
I rarely slept without a one-night stand beside me, but I was always lonely.
Ryder knew how I felt since he was the same, but it seemed his trip to rehab had carved me out of his mind.
It wasn’t like he’d stayed sober, he drank regularly since getting out and continued to stick his dick in whatever pussy would let him, but it seemed he’d managed to stay off the drugs.
I missed getting high with him.
“You’re boring me,” I sighed as I pushed Ryder from my mind, giving Riley the side-eye. “And if my father spent his evening burying bodies because of his temper, then that’s his problem. I didn’t force his hand.”
I stalked off as fast as my heels would let me in the grass, and I had to squint to see where I was going. I didn’t give a shit who I went home with, as long as they had a car and could get me the fuck out of here.
An arm slid around my waist and the stupid part of my brain hoped it was Ryder, but when I turned, I found Logan Donohue. We’d fucked before, he lived in Hawthorne Heights which was the next town over.