Are you with Teagan?
I don’t recognize the number, but I’m pretty sure I know who it is.
I respond with my own text: Go away.
“Who is it?” Teagan asks, wiping her nose again.
“It’s Mick, I think.”
“What does he want?”
“He wants to know if I’m with you. I told him to go away.”
Bring her to RW. Don’t let her go to that hole.
“He wants me to bring you to Rebel Wheels. They don’t want you over at the Golden Tooth Legacy.”
She huffs out a snort. “Like they can tell me what to do.”
I chew my lip, trying to figure out how I can manipulate her into going to Rebel’s place. I’m with Mick. I don’t want her hanging out with the break-dancing alcoholics at her old apartment complex where she still has a place. “Listen, babe … don’t you think you’re better off in a safe place where kidnappers can’t snag your ass and punch your face off?”
She hesitates and I hold my breath, waiting for her response. I’m worried I’ve pushed too hard and will end up hitching a ride home.
“That’s not going to happen again. No one’s going to touch me. My step-mother knows they’re watching her.”
“Let’s hope not. But just to be sure, I’d sleep a lot better knowing you have a wall of muscle between you and the bad guys, if you know what I mean.”
“But that muscle is a liar.”
“Only some of that muscle is a liar. You still have Colin, and if you ask me, he’s plenty of muscle all on his own.” I can still remember the pile of wasted human being that greeted us at the top of Rebel’s stairs, when he basically rescued Teagan from their asses. One of them was in a coma for a week and the other one had just about every bone in his face broken.
Teagan sighs out long and loudly. “Fine. Take me to Rebel Wheels. But I am not sleeping in the same room as him. I’m sleeping on the couch.”
“Good. I don’t want you sleeping with that turdle. He needs to come clean and tell you the whole truth.”
“Damn straight,” she says, starting up her car and reversing out of the space. “I’m not putting up with any bullshit. I may still be poor and pretty much totally dependent on him for survival, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let myself get walked on. I’m not a friggin doormat.” She spins her car’s back wheels out as she takes off onto the main road.
“Hell to the yeah, you’re not. And don’t shoot me for saying this, but I don’t think Rebel would expect or want you to be. Doormattage is not sexy.”
“Yeah, well, I thought I knew him pretty well, but now I wonder.”
The rest of the ride to Rebel’s place passes in silence. I come up with no less than six conversation starters, all of which I abandon in favor of saying nothing. I want to believe Rebel didn’t lie and that this is all a big misunderstanding, because without his support, I really don’t know what my friend will do. I could probably get my parents to let her stay on our couch for a couple days, but after that I know they’ll tell me she has to go. Our house is just too freaking small and with Jersey there making everything ten times harder than it would be without him, having guests is just beyond my parents’ stress threshold.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
WE PULL INTO THE PARKING lot of Rebel Wheels as the door to the main office flies open. A girl with long black hair comes storming out, and Teagan barely misses running her over.
She screams in surprise and then glares at us through the windshield. “Watch where you’re going, you crazy bitch!” she screams.
Teagan yanks her emergency brake up in one quick pull and throws open the door. “I know you didn’t just call me a crazy bitch.”
The girl with the hair is no dummy. Even I’m scared at Teagan’s tone. She takes one look at my BFF’s angry expression and hightails it over to her white BMW. She’s in with the doors locked before Teagan even makes it around her Beetle.
“That’s right!” Teagan yells at the back of the car as it roars past us. “You better run!”
I look at Teagan and start laughing. Her hair is all over the place and one of her boobs is almost out of her dress.
“What are you laughing at?” she says.
“I’m not sure, but I think I’m looking at a very angry hooker.” I point to her chest. “Your fun bags are coming loose.”