Page 13 of Empower

Wondering how they would feel if I pressed mine to them. Would they be soft, or hard? Would he work his tongue with my own?

Lena Rae, stop it. He’s much older than you.

He’s probably got a wife, especially with how good-looking he is, and here you are ogling him when you have more important things to do.

Shaking my head at where my thoughts were headed, I placed my hand in Red’s, and then as I stood up, my book fell out of my lap.

Before I could bend to get it, the man to my left did it for me.

Talk about a shot to the heart.

He stood, looked at the cover, then handed it to me, grabbed my duffle bag as Red grabbed the grocery sack, and then they both turned and headed to the black van.

I grabbed my quilt and followed them.

The man to Red’s right took up their rear and was on my ass as we walked to the van.

When Red opened the side door, they both put my bags in and then Red opened the passenger door.

He looked at me, and then lowered his voice to almost a whisper, “The man behind the wheel is Hippie. Cool as fuck dude. Just don’t talk about the government. Okay?”

And that was when a man with hair almost as long as mine and almost as dark as mine, leaned forward, he had a piercing in his eyebrow, one in his nose, tattoos on the right side of his face, and snake bites on his lips.

He growled, “Why do y’all think I think you're stupid for having phones from major companies? I’m telling you; they are in on it; the fucking government is listening in on everything. They know when you get laid, right down to how many times you fucking cum. That’s for you to know and the woman or women, or man to know. Nobody fucking else.”

Once he was done, I looked at Red and grinned, “Got it.”

“Now, let’s go in there, and get the rest of your shit,” Red started to turn, but I grabbed his arm, and stopped him.

I shook my head and nodded to the bags and my quilt, “This is everything. The only things left are the furniture.”

Red looked aghast on my behalf, but he didn’t need to, “You mean to tell me this is all of your stuff?”

I nodded, then shrugged, “Yeah. I don’t need much.”

“We’re gonna fucking change that,” He growled as he held open the door for me so I could climb in.

But it was the other man, the one I had made a probably blushing fool of myself as I checked him out, shifted in front of my dad, leaned his head in, and asked, “The real reason why this is all the shit you have?”

I sighed, “Because his daughter Karly wanted everything. He made her happy.”

He nodded, “Know you don’t know me. But one thing I won’t tolerate is being lied to. You ever not give me the straight answer again, I’ll tan your fucking ass.”

I so wasn’t going to touch that with a ten-foot pole. Even though I wanted to. Desperately.

How tan would my bootie get?

To hide my thoughts, I let out a groan, “Fine. The reason I don’t have a lot is also because Karly is a bitch. She didn’t like the way a guy at our school looked at me when I wore a cute top and a nice pair of jeans. She came home the following day, while I was at soccer practice and burned all my clothes. While that asshole laughed about it. What I have now, I found at Goodwill.”

That was when something twisted and dark came over his face, “She in the house?”

I nodded since I heard her door open and close while I was packing my things, “Yeah, up the stairs. Last door on the left.”

Then, he growled, “Where is he?”

I tilted my head and answered him, “In the recliner in the living room.”

And once I said that the man nodded, turned on his boot, and headed into the house, three men broke apart from the group and followed him inside.