MacKenzie Fire(92)

“Oh, I’m flattered.” Ginny puts her hand on her heart and bats her eyelashes.

I narrow my eyes at her. “So when you were being all friendly in the hospital, you were just bullshitting me, huh?”

“You’re so intelligent.” She tilts her head and speaks in a saccharine sweet tone. “Did you go to college?”

“As a matter of fact, I did. UF. Graduated summa cum laude. Did you?”

“Yes.” She sticks her chin out. “In La Grande.”

“Community college,” Hannah says, leaning towards us to clarify.

Ginny loses her uppity expression in an instant. “Shut up, Hannah.”

“You shut up, Ginny.” Hannah glares at her friend and takes another sip of her beer.

Ginny’s smile is tight. “Anyway, we have nothing to say about your friend Andie, so you can move along.” She gestures to the targets at the other side of the room, three feathered darts sticking out of the top of her fingers. “We’re in the middle of a tournament here.”

I snatch the darts out of her hand and throw all three of them at her board together. One sticks in the edge and the rest hit the wall sideways and fall to the floor.

“Hey!”

“That’s your turn,” says a guy on the other team. “You got ..” He looks at the target. “A whole lotta nothin’.” His entire team snickers.

She pushes my shoulder. “You messed up my score!”

I push her back. “You messed up my best friend’s life!”

Ginny looks like she’s about to combust. Her face is bright red and her eyes are nearly falling out of her head. “You touch me again and we are so going to fight.”

“You say one more word about Andie or Ian and you’re damn straight we’re going to fight.” I bob my head a little so she knows I’m serious.

Her mouth twists up into something seriously ugly. “Andie MacKenzie is a no-good slut who not only ruined my wedding to Ian and my entire life, but Hannah’s life too.”

I drop my purse on the ground behind me and push up my sleeves. “All right, that’s it. I warned you.”

Hannah looks worried, but Ginny doesn’t. She looks strangely excited by the prospect of me whooping her butt.

The guys back away and start laughing, nudging each other in anticipation. You’d think we were about to jump in a tub of Jell-O the way they’re leering at us. Idiots.

I’m so busy making sure the material of my blouse is up high enough on my elbows that it won’t get ruined that I’m not prepared for Ginny’s first move. She blindsides me with a bitch slap to the face, whipping my head sideways.

I recover a split-second later and leap on her without thinking, going for her hair. I know that’s the easiest way to get a girl like her on her knees. I’m a f*cking ninja when it comes to this shit.

She screams. “Ow! That’s my hair, you bitch!”

I yank for all I’m worth, bringing her to her knees with the pain. “If you want to keep it you’ll promise to leave Andie alone.”

“Screw Andie! And screw you too, you lunatic!”

I pull harder. “What was that?”

She has her hands up, trying to undo my grip, but there’s no way. I’m using my all-steel kung-fu grip. An earthquake couldn’t get me off her, even though she’s killing me messing with my stitches the way she is.

“Ow, quit!” She gives up on trying to get me to let go and instead punches my thighs and my calves repeatedly.

The crowd is going wild, cheering us on. God, Baker City is full of complete imbeciles. I’m never going to live here. I don’t care how cute Ian is. It makes me all the more dedicated to fixing things for Andie. She’s stuck here, she doesn’t have a choice, but there’s no reason why she should have to suffer bitches like this one giving her grief.

I hold tight, blocking out the pain of Ginny’s assault. If I let her up she’s bound to kill me or pop one of my boobs at least, and I don’t want to have to go through that surgery again for sure. It took forever before I could hold up a dryer again after my implants went in.

“Candice, what the hell?” It’s Ian and he’s standing off to my right.

“Just stay back, Ian. I’ve got this under control.” I’m grunting with the effort of absorbing Ginny’s punches. She has some really boney knuckles.

“What’s wrong with you people?!” Mack yells, addressing Hannah and the other spectators. He puts two beers down on the nearest high top table.

“Ginny, get up.” He comes around behind her and lifts her to her feet.

Ian takes me from behind, but I’m not letting go of the wench’s hair for anything. This is my only leverage to get what I came here for.

“Let go, bitch!” Ginny screeches.

“Not ’til you promise to stop making up lies about my friend!”

“I’m not telling any lies about that whore!”

“Now, wait a second,” Mack says.

That’s when I let go of Ginny’s hair. This is about as good as a confession as I think I’m going to get, but it’s good enough for me. Now Mack knows what’s going on and soon everyone else will too.

I let Ian pull me back and put some distance between us and her. My stitches are on fire, but I don’t feel any blood escaping, so I consider that a win.