Page 72 of Shade
Willa waves me off with a flick of her wrist. “She won’t do it. She runs a hotel.”
“Talk to her,” I suggest, standing near the windows and staring at the pool. “Maybe she knows someone.”
“Okay. I’ll see, butno promises. Trust me though, I’m not going to leave you with just anybody.”
And then she pulls me aside about the time I’m going to check on the guy at the pool. I’m kind of wondering if he’s alive. Taco has a mean streak. Maybe he killed the guy while we were gone.
With her hand on my elbow, she refuses to let me go and even makes me look at her, and then gets Roan and Tiller involved. “We need to talk about your fighting.” She points to the two of them. “Ifthisis going to work, you all need to get your shit together. This iscrazy.” Willa glares at Roan and Tiller. “You two are talking—” She pauses and motions to the hole in the wall that’s more than likely broke the air-conditioner by overworking it. “How the fucking hell did that hole get there?”
“That’s actually a funny story,” Tiller pipes up with, a beer in hand now.
“I don’t give a shit.” She lets go of me. “Fix it.”
Tiller looks at me when she waddles down the hall and heads upstairs, leaving the three of us in the living room, alone. “Pregnancy doesn’t look good on her. She’s a bitch.” And then his eyes lit up. “Dude, can we get like a Playboy bunny or something? I bet they’re good atarranging.”
Roan finds humor in it, laughing. “Yeah, arranging what cock to suck that night.”
“Precisely my point.”
Tiller and Roan seem to have relaxed from the fist fight twenty minutes ago, so I dare to ask, “What’s going on with you guys?”
“I don’t know.” Tiller blows me off, raising his beer to his lips. “Ask him. He’s the one acting like a baby.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have asked.
Roan throws his head back, as though he’s done having to explain this to anyone. “You knowwhy!”
Tiller leans forward, his forearms on his knees and tips his beer at Roan. “Are you serious?” His eyebrows rise. “Are you still pissed off about that? I should get a thank-you for breaking her in for you.”
I’m not exactly sure who they’re talking about since I’ve been a bit distracted, but do you see that look on Roan’s face? Oh man. Just wait. Tiller’s about to get his ass beat. You can see the strain in Roan’s eyes, can’t you? Do you see the way his body is vibrating with concealed hatred?
And then he walks away. Just like that. Most bizarre fucking thing I’ve seen all day. Aside from the maybe dead guy near the pool.
Just as I retrieve my own beer from the fridge and sit back down on the couch, Auden walks in from outside, tosses his keys on the counter, and opens the fridge. See what I mean? Everyone lives here. Auden has his own apartment too but stays with us most of the time.
“What are you talking about?” I ask Tiller. “Who’d you break in?”
Tiller gives Auden a nod when he sits down on the couch next to him, a beer in hand and a bag of chips. Auden isn’t there a minute, and he’s patting his pockets for his wrinkled pack of cigarettes. Pulling one out, he tucks it behind his ear. “Nice run last night,” he says to me, then opens the chips.
I give him a nod of acknowledgment, my thank-you before Tiller rips the chips from Auden’s hands and begins eating them. “Okay, so apparently I may have. . . in like a lapse of judgment, Imayhave taken O’s virginity.”
Auden and I both snap our heads in Tiller’s direction at his confession.
Ah, yes. I haven’t mentioned her yet. Ophelia Hadley. Carl, our head of security’sonlydaughter. And she’s only nineteen. But here’s one more fact for you. Over the years, Roan has taken it upon himself to beherprotector. That my friends, translates into he wants to fuck her. Plain and simple. He was saving her for him. At least that’s the way I see it.
It’s nothing new to us either. O’s been coming around us since she was ten years old. Roan’s not a fucking dick like Jaime, so he never entertained the idea. Until she turned seventeen and got tits.
And Tiller went and popped the girl’s cherry first, and now it’s created a war.
Auden laughs, thinking it’s funny and then levels him a serious look. “Dude, what are you going to do when Carl finds out.”
Tiller blows it off, cracking open another beer, completely unfazed. “He won’t find out.”
I honestly don’t think Tiller would care if he did.
“Did you really take her virginity?” I ask, and then think to myself, cute girl like O. . . she couldn’t be a virgin, could she?
I’m actually kind of jealous Tiller fucked her. Not gonna lie, I jerked off to the image of her naked a couple times, but I would not have fucked her. I value my balls more than that, and when Carl finds out, Tiller won’t have any. But still, virgin? It’s mind-blowing.
