“O-kay,”I drawled. “How 'bout, I fingered her in the backyard to get a rise out of herfamily and now they more or less hate me?”
Shelet her jaw drop open, before saying, “You,what? Vinnie, what thehell!”
Ishook my head, chuckling brusquely. “It wasn'texactlylike that, but... yeah, it was, uh, not one of my finer moments.”
“Youhave to apologize to them!”
Levelingher with a hard glare, I said, “No way. I mean, maybe one day, when this shitblows over, but not now. Her sisters are ...” I rubbed my fingers over mybristled chin, searching for the words. “They're ... difficult, I guess is thebest way I can put it. They're judgmental as fuck and they've been sayin' shitabout me since before I even met them. So, like, I'm not sayin' that what wedid was okay, 'cause it wasn't, but if I owe them an apology, they owe me one,too. And until they're ready to give it to me, I ain't giving them shit.”
Jennacrossed her arms, considering what I'd said, then nodded. “What don't they likeabout you?”
“Honestly?”She nodded. “It feels like everything, but I'm thinkin' it's more along thelines of, I don't meet their standards. I have a shitty past, I wasn't bornwith a silver spoon in my mouth, and I dunno, I'm not going off and playin’golf with Daddy to impress him or some shit. I think that rubs them the wrongway.”
“AndAndy's a good girl,” Jenna pointed out.
Snickering,I shook my head. The events from the day before were proof of how wrong shewas. “Well, maybe at one point ...”
“Right.Before she met you.”
Ipursed my lips, letting that sink in. Then, I nodded. “So, you think Icorrupted her, too.”
Jennagroaned and rolled her eyes. “I didn't say that. I'm sayin', maybe she lived asheltered life or she always played it safe or ... I dunno, whatever. But then,you come along and you ...” She snorted. “Well, let's just say you've neverplayed it safe, and you’ve introduced her to a whole new world.”
“Okay,Aladdin,” I laughed, shaking my head.
Shegroaned again and grabbed the ladle, stirring the sauce. “I'm just sayin', itmight've been a long time comin' for her. Everything she's doing with you,maybe she was always destined to do it and you were just, uh, there to open thedoor to rebellion or somethin’. Her family might blame you for it, when really,her bad girl side has always been begging to come out.”
Ilaughed, reaching out to grip her shoulders. “Sis, just say I corrupted her.”
Shelaughed as I shook her gently. “Fine. You're the devil and she signed her soulover to you.”
“Thankyou. That's all I wanted, just a little bit of credit,” I said, laughing, as myphone buzzed with a text.
Ipulled it from my pocket and saw it was from Andy.
Andy: So,I don't know how to say this but ... what we did last night, I want to do itagain. Can you get more? Like, I don't know how you go about doing that but Ifigured you do. Obviously.
Andy:Also, I'm being vague in case anybody else sees this, haha. You know what I'mtalking about. Okay, I'll see you later and hopefully we can do that stuffagain. Love you so much.
Istared at the screen, not knowing what to say or what to do. This wasn'tsupposed to happen. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. But why hadn't Iassumed she'd enjoy it and want to do it again? I knew how this story went, Ihad lived it before, so why hadn't I suspected it would happen to her, too?
Becauseshe's a good girl, the devil on my shoulder whispered,orwas. But you’ve ruined that, haven’t you?
Itstruck me then that there was no devil, sitting on my shoulder and whisperinghis sweet nothings into my ear. There was only me. A devil in disguise.
“What'sup?” Jenna asked, reminding me I wasn't alone.
“Oh,”I forced a smile and stuffed the phone back into my pocket, “just my favoriteclient.”
Shelaughed. “She beggin' you to corrupt her a little more?”
“Yeah,”I muttered, as I headed out of the kitchen, while a sickening feeling twistedin my guts. “Somethin' like that.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
VINNIE
It hadbeen a couple of weeks since the party at her parents' place, a couple of weeksafter she'd been introduced to the beautiful tragedy that is cocaine, and we'dfallen into a routine.
