Unbeautifully (Undeniable, #2)(35)
“I need something to keep my mind off Jase and Chrissy,” Dorothy whispered, rubbing small circles on Ivy’s back. “She’s out there talking about their upcoming anniversary—”
Eva stopped listening. Dorothy was a broken record when it came to Jase. Constantly upset yet still holding out hope that Jase would someday leave his wife, when it was clear to everyone except Dorothy that he never ever would.
Lost to her own thoughts, she watched as Ripper came through the swinging kitchen doors and hooked a left toward them. She braced herself for his usual death glare.
“Yo,” he said, passing by her and a still chattering Dorothy.
Her eyes widened in surprise. It wasn’t friendly but…it wasn’t horrible either.
Was he finally ready to forgive her for being married to the man who’d hurt him? She hoped so. It devastated her seeing his scars, what Frankie had so callously done to him.
My god, how had she not realized what her own husband had been capable of until it was too late?
Eva shook her head, still trying to clear Frankie from her thoughts, when the kitchen doors swung open again and Danny walked out, headed in the opposite direction.
“Hey you,” she called out and Danny spun around, a startled look on her face.
“Uh, hey,” Danny stammered, her cheeks pink.
Studying her, she noted that the girl wasn’t just flushed but sweaty…and disheveled. Really disheveled. As in her pink tank top was on inside out and her jeans skirt was partially unzipped.
Drawing her brows together, Eva glanced over her shoulder to the end of the hall where Ripper had paused to talk to Mick and Bucket and then she looked back at Danny. Her heart did a nosedive down into her stomach.
Danny and…
Oh my god, she couldn’t even think it, it was just too bizarre. Bizarre and…Deuce was going to flip his shit. All she could envision was bullets and blood and bodies piled sky-high.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay, okay, okay…she had to think about this…about what she going to do about this.
Yeah, right. What the f*ck was she supposed to do about this?
One thing was for sure, she couldn’t leave Danny with only her brother and father in the middle of whatever mess she’d gotten herself into with Ripper.
God, how had that happened?
And what the f*ck was Ripper thinking?
If Deuce ever found out, he would kill him. Kill. Him.
For the second time in the span of only a few minutes, her heart dropped.
Ripper wanted to die. He’d finally lost his very last shred of give-a-damn and jumped off the cliff of no return. She’d seen it coming, everyone had seen it coming, but everyone had been holding out hope that after enough time had passed he’d eventually pull himself together.
Instead, the opposite had happened. He’d grown worse over time, bitter and cold.
What was Danny doing with a man like him? An angry, broken, older man, who was in all probability using her to get himself killed.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
She wasn’t in any position to judge Danny. She’d made her share of mistakes over the years, some far worse than anything Danny would ever do.
And Danny was legally allowed to have sex with whomever she wanted.
But Danny was still a teenager, a deadly combination of immaturity and feelings. A big, fat, messy bank vault full of female emotion that you needed a jackhammer just to breach the surface of.
Who obviously wasn’t thinking clearly. Or at all.
“Shut up, bitch!” Cox roared, startling everyone as he appeared at the end of the hallway.
“Never!” Kami screeched, her heels clicking heavily on the cement floor as she marched after him. The second Kami caught sight of Ripper, Eva cringed, knowing exactly what was coming next.
“Ripper,” Kami purred, headed his way. “Hey, baby.”
“Stay back!” he yelled. “I refuse to get shot because of your crazy ass!”
She grinned. “You did prefer my ass, didn’t you, baby?”
Behind Cox, Danny made a small choking noise and Eva watched Ripper’s gaze shoot to her, his jaw clenching.
“Ripper!” Cox bellowed. “I’m gonna f*ckin’ bury you!”
Sighing, Ripper grabbed his gun from the back of his leathers and waved it around in the air. “Either of you take another step in my direction and I’m cappin’ you in the knee.”
“You want me on my knees?” Kami said silkily. “You got it.”
“Kami!” Eva hissed, grabbing her best friend’s arm before she could get any closer to Ripper. “Stop it!”
“Christ,” Ripper muttered. “You touch me, Kami, I’m gonna put a bullet in each of those bony knees.”
Ignoring Eva, uncaring that Ripper had no problem shooting her and Cox was ten seconds from strangling her, Kami continued smiling sensually at Ripper.
“You’re so f*ckin’ crazy, bitch!” Cox yelled, yanking Kami out of Eva’s grip and pinning her up against the wall.
“And you’re a f*cking whore!” she screamed.
“I smiled at her, bitch! That’s all I f*ckin’ did! For f*ck’s sake, you insane f*ckin’ whore, I f*ckin’ married you! I haven’t been inside another bitch in forever!”
Kami brought her knee up straight into Cox’s balls and he went down like a sack of potatoes, cupping himself and groaning. Hands on her hips, Kami glared down at him. “Do you want a medal, Cox-sucker?” she hissed. “I already know you haven’t touched another woman! I have you followed!”