Now, Slate Declan, he’s all mine. He’s been mine since the second grade. And six years ago, he broke my heart, smashed it to smithereens. So, that Declan brother is all mine to break, and I plan to shatter his ass.
“Oh, believe me, when I see Slate Declan, it’ll be an instant break,” I say, and struggle to keep the doubt from quivering in every word.
“Yeah, that’s what you keep saying,” Emmie says with a knowing smirk. “Well, I’m heading to JZS. I’ll see you guys when you get there.” She starts for the door, stops, and glances over her shoulder. “Ya never know, maybe Slate will be there tonight.”
“Maybe.” I grin at her. She knows our history. She knows that it’s going to kill me to see Slate Declan, but it’s going to happen. It has to.
“You can do it girl.” She winks before heading out the door.
The door clicks shut. Lurlene sets her book down on the sofa and looks up at me. “You really cared about this guy, huh?”
I turn to her. “We dated for almost five years. He was my first everything—first love, first lay, first heartbreak.” I take a deep breath, hugging a throw pillow. “But that was years ago.” I sit up straight. “I’m over him.”
Lurlene’s eyes squint up at me. “You sure about that?”
“I have to be. After what he did to me, there’ll never be an ‘us’ again.”
CHAPTER TWO
“Gathie.” I knock on the door a little harder. “Gath, open up.”
“No!”
Fuck. I press my forehead against the door. I need to get high. It’s been hours. “Come on, Gathie girl.”
“Go away, Slate. I’m not lettin’ you in.”
“Okay. Just open the door so I can see ya, then. So I can talk to ya.”
“Not happenin’!”
“Agatha,” I say in a rising tone, and then take a quick step back as the door swings open.
“Don’t call me that,” she snaps, hand gripping the doorknob with her pink-streaked blond hair flowing over her bony shoulders. Beneath a low cut tank top, her chest heaves as that little green frog tatt on her left breast jumps along with the ride. She’s loaded with tatts and rings. Heard she had one on her pussy lip. Me, I wouldn’t know. That pussy has seen more dick than a boy’s high school gym locker room. I’ve never touched it.
“Ah, there’s my girl.” I smile. I know she has a hard-on for me. Well, that’s if a chick could get one, and I have no problem using it to my advantage. I’ll do almost anything to get what I need.
“Don’t give me that shit.” Her hip shifts with her usual sass. “You wouldn’t be knockin’ on my door if you hadn’t kicked the shit out of the biggest drug dealer in Galveston County.”
“Fuck Boner, he had it comin’. He sold me some bad shit.”
“Yeah, well, keep it up and nobody’s gonna sell you any shit, good or bad. That’s why Digs won’t do it. All those assholes are connected and you know it. Besides, you busted Boner’s nose. You think that ain’t comin’ back on ya?”
“Aww, you worried about me, Gathie?” I’ve known her since high school, though we never hung out until a few years ago, when I started circling in the same undesirable crowd. High school…I don’t like to think about it because it reminds me of the monkey. It’s bad enough the monkey shows up whenever I hallucinate; it’s why I stay away from the all-American drug. Snow White—I don’t like the bitch. She hasn’t been up my nose in quite some time now.
“Worry ‘bout you, the great Slate Declan, the best damn MMA fighter in Galveston County. Yeah, right,” she snorts. “I ain’t got nothin’. Go home.” She starts to close the door and I slip my foot forward to stop it.
“Oh, I know you better than that,” I grit between clenched teeth, pushing my knee to the side to open the door a bit more and alleviate some pressure from my foot. “You got somethin’ stashed somewhere in there. I know you do. So, be a darlin’, let me in and share.”
“I can’t.” She loosens her grip, allowing the door to open a little more. “Digs will be pissed if he found out.”
Hell, yeah. Digs isn’t home. Now, I know that I have a fightin’ chance. “Dig’s don’t need to know. It’ll be our little secret, promise, Gathie.”
She pushes a pink strand back from her face. Her bloodshot eyes roll down my body and then crawl back up. “Whatcha gonna give me if I share?”
Shit. I know what she wants. Wouldn’t be the first time she’s tried to bargain sex for some hydros. But I wouldn’t fuck her—not even with three gloves on. No fuckin’ way, there’s no amount of rubber that’d keep a guy’s dick safe from whatever she’s got going on between those scrawny legs. And, sure, half my body’s mangled to shit already, but my dick is still intact. No matter how bad I need to get high, I’m not taking any chances when it comes to my dick. “Now,” I slump against the doorframe, “I told ya before, I don’t mess around with another guy’s girl.”