Rock Chick 07 Regret(159)
Hector didn’t notice us and put his face close to the man’s.
“That’s my fuckin’ woman you’re talkin’ about,” he growled and then stepped back, taking the man with him and slammed him into the doorframe again.
“Hector,” I whispered, putting a hand to his forearm but he didn’t even look at me.
The man put his hands on Hector’s forearms too. “Christ, man, I was givin’ you a fuckin’ compliment!”
Hector did the slamming then getting into his face business again and snarled, “By tellin’ me you jacked off to her picture? What the fuck’s the matter with you?”
“Hector, stand down,” Luke said in a low voice.
“Take it outside,” the Lincoln’s guy put in.
“What’s going on?” Ava asked from behind me.
“Hector let him go,” I ignored Ava and got closer to Hector.
Hector didn’t let him go and the man’s face started getting red or more red.
“Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d have a shit fit. Christ. I’m sorry, okay?”
Hector gave him a good, old, scorching glare and then stepped back with another solid push while letting go.
Then he turned The Scorch to me and ordered, “Get our shit. We’re gone.”
I thought my best move at this juncture was to “get my shit” and pronto. Which I did.
I grabbed my purse and waved good-bye to Ava and, a bit more hesitantly, Luke. Hector was bent over, nabbing the helmets out from under the table as I saw Natalie walk by, her face pale, her eyes on me. I could swear she mouthed the words, with the barest whisper of sound, “I’m sorry, I was wrong,” and then she hurried away when Hector straightened.
I didn’t have a chance to process this. Hector tossed me my helmet, I caught it, he moved in, his arm curled around my neck and he guided me firmly out to the bike.
“Maybe you should calm down before we get on the bike,” I suggested when we stopped by his motorcycle and he took his arm away.
Hector’s eyes sliced to me. “Next time we go out, I’m not bein’ the nice guy and backin’ down. You’re gonna put on the fuckin’ tank.”
My eyes bugged out.
How did this get to be about me?
“Now this is about me?” I asked.
“You came up behind me, I smelled your perfume. You heard him talkin’ about you. So yeah, it’s about you. This whole fuckin’ thing proves my fuckin’ point,” he shot back.
“That’s very bizarre logic, Hector Chavez.”
“It makes perfect sense to me.”
“Well, perhaps you shouldn’t be seeing me then,” I returned. “Perhaps you should be seeing someone else that people won’t talk about. How about Natalie? I met her tonight at the bar. She seems like a nice girl. No, wait, you’ve already fucked her!” I yelled.
Hector got close, I could feel his fury, I didn’t have to see it and I retreated until I felt bike.
“Dios mio,” he hissed. “Natalie. That’s why you looked like someone ran over your puppy when you came back to the table.”
“Heck yes!”
“What the fuck did she say?”
“To be careful of you, you were a dawg and that your dawg-ness was not ancient history, like I tried to tell her it was, since you nailed her six weeks ago.”
His hand went up, he tore his fingers through his hair then his hand dropped again to his side.
“And this pisses you off?” he asked, sounding now both furious and perplexed.
I opened and closed my mouth twice before shouting, “Yes!”
“I hate to break this to you, mamita, but I wasn’t a virgin our first time,” he told me sarcastically.
“Count back, Hector. Six weeks. Six weeks!” I yelled.
“Yeah? So?”
“Six weeks ago, tonight, I was raped!”
His body went completely still.
Mine couldn’t go still, I was breathing too heavily.
When he spoke, his voice was a lot quieter but I could still hear the edge of anger.
“Sadie, I wasn’t fuckin’ Natalie while you were bein’ raped.”
“The night before?” I snapped.
He shook his head but did it jerkily, still angry but now his voice had a thread of impatience. “I don’t fuckin’ remember.”
“She says you nailed half the women in there.”
“She’s probably right.”
I leaned away from him and breathed, “Oh my God.”
He got closer, taking away the minute space I’d gained. “Sadie, we got two choices. You can list for me all the men who got in your pants, which I don’t wanna fuckin’ know, and I can return the favor, which, trust me, mamita, you don’t wanna know. Or we can go on from here, you and me, the past is fuckin’ history. Choose. Now. I’m not livin’ under the threat of this fuckin’ time bomb either.”