I mean… “Did you really expect anything else?”
He should know better by now.
“Okay.” Gio clicked his tongue and folded his arms over his chest. “We can play your game.”
Excellent.
“But you’ll get fucked in front of you neighbor.”
He just had to go and take the fun out of it.
My eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t.”
“You sure about that?” he tipped his head. “How far do you think I’d be willing to go to humiliate you right now?”
Let’s see, on a normal day he’d go pretty far, and judging by the way his forehead was crinkled, I’d say his mood was extra sour today. Meaning things didn’t look too good for me. Now ask me if I cared.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m quite adept at humiliating myself, so do your worst.”
I humiliated myself so much that I didn’t get embarrassed anymore. The naked gator squirrel fight I had at Greg Davisson’s party last year kind of drew that line in the sand.
“Get in the house before I shoot your neighbor in the head.”
Okay, that was pretty bad.
There was no doubt in my mind that he would do it. If last night had taught me anything, it was that he had no problem pulling the trigger. Gio won this round.
“Fine.” I stood up and marched past him. “But I’m having another cup of coffee.”
GIOVANNI
Novalee Ford was the living personification of the word attitude. She didn’t even have to try. It just oozed off her. The subtle roll of her bright hazel eyes, slight tip of her head, or cock in her hip when she strutted past all screamed, go fuck yourself. I was constantly caught in this perpetual state of wanting to choke her to death and fuck her at the same time.
So, it wasn’t hard to understand why someone would want to slap her. That didn’t make it okay.
Nova lifted her chin and my jaw clenched at the bruise on the side of her face.
That deep purple stain mocked me with the outline of Marty’s fingerprints. He fucking touched her. Another man touched my shit, and left his mark behind to taunt me. If I could, I would scrub it off her skin.
And then there were the possible marks I couldn’t see. Who else touched her? Did someone else meet her at Quackwater besides that asshole Snake? Like her blonde friend, or Chuck? Neither one of them had a problem sticking up for her.
My eyes narrowed as Nova strutted past me. “What the fuck were you doing yesterday?” And who was she doing it with?
“Other than watching you shoot someone for no reason…” She paused to look over her shoulder at me. “Nothing.”
“I could’ve killed him.”
When I finished with Marty, he probably wished he was dead, but he wasn’t. And why was that motherfucker still breathing? Because Nova would hate me if I killed him. How fucked up was that? Since when did I give a shit about what Novalee thought? She should hate me. I hated her for making me weak.
I wasn’t weak, and I sure as hell didn’t lay awake at night worrying about some weak minded fool who couldn’t handle shit. Yet, I laid awake last night. I shot Marty, and she checked out. It scared me, I thought I broke her. Which was why I came rushing over here like a damn fool when Nova didn’t show up for school.
And what was she doing? She was sitting on her fucking porch, talking to her crazy ass neighbor, as if nothing happened.
Nova spun around, eyes wide. “He’s not dead.”
“Really?” Was she seriously relieved? I was definitely going to kill the fucker now. “He hit you.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to shoot him.”
