Unbeautifully (Undeniable, #2)(50)

“Um, don’t you sort of need money to have your own place?”

“Yeah. Get a f*ckin’ job.”

“Hello? I start college in the fall. I won’t have time.”

He shook his head. “Spoiled,” he muttered.

Offended, I punched him in the shoulder, earning myself a loud snort. “Ow,” he said mockingly.

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t. Now go make breakfast. I’m f*ckin’ hungry.”

“There’s no food, Mr. Bossy. We ate it all.”

“There’s tequila.”

“Tequila isn’t breakfast.”

“Says you.”

? ? ?

Ripper was happy.

It had been so damn long, he almost hadn’t recognized the light, airy feeling.

Almost.

But then he remembered the way it had felt his first time catching a wave and not falling off his board, or his first ollie where he’d landed upright instead of on his head, or his parents’ twentieth wedding anniversary party during which he’d gotten his first blow job.

Or the first time he’d got on a bike and put the road behind him.

He smiled into his pillow. He was actually looking forward to the future. As long as it included Danny.

Which, at present, was going to be difficult, but…

If she couldn’t afford her own place, he’d help her out. Not sure how she’d explain that to Deuce, but Ripper needed her out of that house and more accessible to him. Maybe if one of her friends roomed with her…

That could work.

They could make this work. Yeah, it was going to suck sneaking around, but it was doable and it wouldn’t be forever. Just ten, maybe twenty years. Or until Deuce was too old and feeble to do anything about it. Or maybe they could just hold out until Deuce kicked it. The dude was getting up there, and in their line of work, no one usually made it to eighty. Except Blue.

“Fuck,” he groaned. He didn’t want Deuce to die. He wanted Deuce to accept him as Danny’s man.

Which wasn’t ever going to happen. Deuce knew all his dirty secrets, including how many bitches he’d f*cked and how many lives he’d taken. There was no way he was going to want a man like him with his daughter. It was hypocritical, but Ripper understood it. If he had a daughter, he wouldn’t want her shacking up with some trigger-happy *, who’d once made it his goal in life to f*ck as many women as he possibly could.

Fuck it. They’d have to sneak around. There wasn’t any other way. Danny was going to have to get her own place, her own car, maybe even move a town over. She could go on a few runs with him, so they could be out in public together somewhere far away from Montana without having to worry about being caught. He’d do what he could to make her happy and keep Deuce from finding out.

“Ripper?”

He flipped onto his back, expecting to find Danny carrying something resembling breakfast. Instead he found her standing just outside his bedroom doorway, trembling and wide-eyed with fear.

“Baby?” he asked, sitting up. “What’s the—”

Danny stumbled forward into the room and Nikki appeared behind, her heavily lined, angry eyes trained on him, the gun in her hand pressed into Danny’s side and…

Everything stopped. Everything. His brain, his breathing, his heart.

“You f*ckin’ scumbag *,” Nikki hissed. “You’ve been ignoring me, not answering my phone calls, and I’m thinking something’s happened to you! I was actually worried about you!”

Using the gun, she shoved Danny further into the room.

“But instead I find you at home? And with her!”

Again she shoved Danny and his entire body twitched as he fought the urge to leap off his bed and beat Nikki to death.

“Nikki,” he said, trying to keep his voice low and even. “What the f*ck are you doin’? Let her go,” he bit out through clenched teeth. “This ain’t what you think.”

Nikki’s eyes went wide. “It ain’t what I think? So you’re not shacked up with Deuce’s f*ckin’ daughter?”

“She was just stayin’ over,” he said quietly. “It ain’t like that.”

“Bullshit!” Nikki spat. “You haven’t touched me in months! And now I find Danny in your kitchen, half naked, and you’re tryin’ to tell me it ain’t like that? I heard you callin’ her baby, Ripper! It is like that!”

“So, what’re you gonna do, bitch?” he growled, his patience quickly waning. “You gonna blow a hole in Deuce’s f*ckin’ daughter? You do that, you know hell is gonna be rainin’ down on you.”

“I don’t give a f*ck!” she yelled. “I’ve put up with your bullshit for how long? Since I was twenty-two years old, Ripper, waiting to be your old lady! And instead, this is what I get in return? You f*ckin’ little girls behind my back!”

Fuck. Jesus f*cking f*ck. He wasn’t just going to kill this bitch, he was going to make it hurt.

“I’ve been f*ckin’ girls behind your back since the beginnin’!” he yelled.

“Whores!” she screamed. “You’ve been f*ckin’ whores and Danny ain’t no whore! I ain’t stupid!”

He glanced at Danny and his heart constricted. She was terrified. And it was all his fault.