Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(15)

Hugging the shirt to my chest, I considered the inevitability of running into Creed Gentry. He lived nearby. He often ate at Cluck This. He was the brother of my friend’s boyfriend. It would have been easier to deal with if he was just some random guy I had little chance of encountering again. But I would see him around. I knew it. I wondered if he would bother to say hello and I wondered how long it would take for the memory of last night to fade so that I could stop wanting him so much.

When I returned to my bedroom I set Creed’s shirt on top of my dresser. If he needed it back he knew where to find it.





CHAPTER SIX


CREED



It had been a full two months since the awful night Chase was in the hospital and I had risked myself so that Cord wouldn’t have to take the burden. Gabe Hernandez was nothing but sleaze and he knew he had us over a barrel. He would give us the names of the cowards who had attacked our brother. The price was a strong body in the ring. I knew exactly what it meant. Gabe wasn’t talking about the kind of fights we were used to; pocket change matches in dirty venues. Those fighters were amateurs and all you needed to do to win was push the other guy down.

But I’d always heard of another game in town. It was one where the payouts were huge and the man who was knocked over sometimes didn’t get up again. That was what Gabe was itching to dive into.

Cord had been on the verge of offering himself up. I saw it in his face. Cordero might have been the best of the three of us. He’d gone to the mat time and again. Cord was a natural fighter. It was tough to imagine that anything could take him down. But I’d seen him grab for the chance at something better when he fell for Saylor. I knew it would destroy him to lose her.

So I spoke up first because I had nothing to lose.

It wouldn’t be the first time a Gentry had chosen violence. Back home that was what defined our people; violence, poverty, cruelty. It was some rotten shit to be raised in.

Gabe had assured me that he would be in touch when he got something arranged. Gabe was a man who expected that promises to him would be kept. The boys wanted to know why I couldn’t just back away with a shrug. But since I’d done most of the setup deals I knew a few things Cord and Chase didn’t. Namely, I knew Gabe Hernandez had the power to enforce promises if necessary.

For two months I’d been rather single minded in focus. I’d worked out religiously and beat on bags until my knuckles were numb. Then I went home and got friendly with a bottle. During those two months I’d been suspended in a state of grim faith that sooner or later the phone would ring.

Then one day that’s exactly what happened.

I was feeling pretty fine in the days after my wild night with Truly. It was a ferocious release and seemed to calm something deep inside. When I thought about girls I couldn’t remember another one who had been able to keep up with me the way she could. Each time I figured she’d had enough she would bend down and take me in her mouth or flip over and pull me inside once more. Since that night, every fresh boner arose from memories of her and it made me hungry to see her again even though ‘again’ wasn’t an idea I attached to women.

It was the middle of the week and Chase was poking around in the kitchen cupboards. He was also complaining loudly.

“Jesus, what do you people have against going to the grocery store?”

“There something the matter with your legs and your wallet which stops you from going?”

“I’m always the one who goes,” grumbled Chase.

“Bullshit, junior. I spent two hundred bucks at Fry’s on Saturday. It’s just that you eat like a f*cking garbage disposal.”

Chase belched. “I’m a growing boy.”

I leaned against the wall, close to the fridge. I was afraid I’d never look at a fridge again without sporting some serious wood. It might be a little sick but that appliance was now linked in my mind to the vision of Tallulah Rae Lee wrapped in the most irresistible dick stimulator ever created. It was black. It was lacy. It was tight. It would be in my head for as long as I could still think.

“What the f*ck?” Chase demanded.

“Huh?”

“You’ve got this disgusting thing on your face that might have started out as a smile.”

I cuffed him across the head. I let him sputter for a few minutes about what a vile brute I was and then I nodded at him seriously.

“Hey, what do you do know about that Truly girl?”

Chase grinned from ear to ear. “I know she’s got a sharp tongue and tits enough to drown in.”

“Is that all?”

“Does there need to be something else?”

I glanced towards Say and Cord’s room even though neither one of them were home. I could have asked Saylor about her friend but that would have raised more questions than it answered. She hadn’t brought any of it up again and neither had I.

“You know,” Chase mused, “I could get in the mood for some chicken. What do you say, man?”

I didn’t know if Truly was working tonight. Chances were she would be there. She’d been there every other time I’d shown up. The thought of seeing her again excited the shit out of me. I wanted to see her again. All of her.

“I could eat chicken,” I agreed and Chase started pushing me towards the door.

When my phone buzzed I figured it was either Cord asking what we were up to or else the university calling to find out if I could work an event. I came to a dead stop when I saw I’d been wrong on both counts. Chase turned around and peered at me curiously.