Misfit(12)

“To see you. Open the fucking door.”

He cracked it open, enough to show his face. “Are you fucking insane?” he whispered. “If any of these fuckers saw you…”

Cash shoved his way in, interrupting Stretch’s chastisement. “If you act guilty, motherfuckers say you are guilty.”

Stretch used the open door as a shield to hide himself. When Cash turned, he lifted a brow.

“Close the door.”

“No.”

“I don’t have all fucking night. I have to get back to Daphne before she wakes up, so close the goddamn door and listen to me.”

“Open it. Close it. Make up your mind.”

Glowering, Cash folded his arms.

Stretch slammed the door, averting his eyes from Cash’s face. He didn’t want to see his pity—or whatever. More than anything, he didn’t want to be seen as inferior in Cash’s eyes. He was a beautiful man, almost perfect, with an odd blemish here and there. Nothing substantial, though. Not like Stretch, who had a scarred face and body, and had been shot twice in the line of club duty.

“I came to apologize, so can you fucking look at me?”

“I can look at you if I want to. I don’t, so apologize and get out.”

“What are you pissed about, babe? Fee or Daphne? Or both?”

He’d resigned himself to Fee’s presence weeks ago. At times, it was still hard. Cash wouldn’t listen to his grievances, so Stretch stayed silent. “Does it matter, Cash?”

“Obviously, asshole, or I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Stretch thrust his fingers through his hair and leaned against the wall. “I’m not sure what I’m angriest about,” he admitted, his cane coming into his line of vision.

Without acknowledging the gesture, like a childish asshole, he grabbed it and started toward his bed as Cash turned his back, allowing Stretch to retain a shred of dignity

“Thank you,” Stretch said, reaching his bed and pulling the comforter over his legs.

Sighing, Cash faced him again. “I didn’t come in here earlier to fuck you and Fee. I came to escort her out. We ended up enjoying each other. I didn’t want the night to end so fucked up. Shit spiraled downhill because of Slipper and I had to do damage control. I’m sorry for Daphne.”

At almost three in the morning, fatigue wore Stretch down. He was confused about his feelings for Fee and annoyed with himself for his inability to let go of Cash. As is usually the case, he took out his frustrations on the one closest to him. “Are you, motherfucker? As I recall, you fuck Daphne as much as you can.”

“You’ve fucked her yourself,” Cash snapped back. “With me, so stop being a damn hypocrite.”

“I fuck her when I want to, not because she’s forced on me.”

“No one is forced on you.”

If that was true, then Stretch wouldn’t feel so fucking threatened. “Fee was.”

“Any time I’m with her, you can leave. The truth is, you don’t want to. You think she’s coming between you and me.”

“Isn’t she?” After Cash’s dictate, that’s what she was doing. Their relationship had never before depended on someone else’s involvement. “If the three of us can’t be together, then none of us can. We had a relationship before you met her.”

“One reason I want to put the brakes on the whole affair,” Cash admitted. “I don’t know…it was unfair how you and I became you, her and I. It was fun and games at first. It isn’t now. I don’t know how to deal. Besides, there’s the big problem of Outlaw.”

Big problem was an understatement. But their president was fair. “All we have to do is show him we won’t hurt her.”

A moment of shocked silence passed between them, before Cash shook his head. “You do want her with us.”

Stretch thought long and hard about the truth. Without her near and Cash demanding Stretch accept her, he admitted he did. But he also wanted the choice. He wanted to know her as Cash did. “Whenever the three of us are together, it’s about sex, Cash. I’d like to see another side of her, too. Know her on a deeper level. I tell myself I love her. It’s so fucking shallow, based on pleasure.”

A muscle ticked in Cash’s jaw, then he nodded. “Do you accept my apology or not?”

“I do,” he responded.

Cash headed for the door, but Stretch halted him with a question.

“What now?”

He turned to him. “I have to play tonight off. Make sure Slipper doesn’t put ideas into Outlaw’s head.”

“If you act guilty, motherfuckers say you are guilty,” he threw back.