"That’s brotherly love for you," Scarlet mocked with a false yawn. "You should be grateful I got rid of her for you."
"Grateful?" My heart started pounding and, I swore to fuck, that if she wasn’t six feet away and behind bars, I’d have throttled her.
Scarlet was the only woman who made me forget she possessed a vagina.
If I could have beaten the shit out of her, I would’ve. But I’d never beat a woman.
Never.
Only around her did I have to repeat that mantra.
"Why the fuck do you hate me so much, Scarlet? Why the fuck do you think you can just wander into my life to stir shit? I never see you unless you’re hanging around to cause trouble."
She smirked at me. "What did Prince used to say?"
"That if you were a guy, your road name would be Troublemaker." I grunted. "Not hard to understand why. The hell are you bringing that fucker up for anyway?"
Her smirk deepened. "Mom never told you?"
"Told me what?"
"Ha! She didn’t. Christ, she hated you more than she hated me, which is really saying something."
Her words didn’t rake at me like they once might have done. It was only when I’d cut the old bitch from my life for good that I’d come to realize I’d have taken my mother’s hatred over her love any day of the fucking week.
Against the cinder blocks, Scarlet’s hair was currently her natural color—a rich, glossy black. She didn’t have the streak like me, but the rich obsidian looked like silk against the coarse concrete.
Dressed in an orange D.O.C jumpsuit, she wore it with a panache that spoke of someone who’d worn it many times before. Her feet were crossed at the ankle, her hands tucked into the pockets as she leaned against the wall.
Her expression was that of tedium, like I was boring her. Like my presence didn’t matter worth a damn to her.
It didn’t hurt, not when I knew it to be true. Knew it, in fact, and was glad about that.
We’d always fought like cats and dogs. For all that she tried to tear me down, there was a reason I had a family back at the clubhouse and she was barely tolerated.
"What did you say to Keira?" I repeated, trying to keep shit on track. Mostly, that was why I was here.
Keira wouldn’t answer her phone, and I was getting sick of trying to figure out where she was at. I’d hit up her friends, but they weren’t saying shit—it was desperation that had me calling, because I knew they’d dumped her when news of her pregnancy had spread around school before graduation. I knew her parents wouldn’t let her in. She wasn’t even at the motel where she’d taken to hiding out the last few times she’d run off.
Now she was out of school, and stayed mostly at home, I’d stopped using Jimmy to trace her, but I knew I had to keep an eye on her again. She’d proven herself to be a runner, and while that was her prerogative—you couldn’t stop an angel from flying—I had to know where she was.
I needed to know she was safe.
That meant, on top of the prospecting, Jimmy was going to have to start following her around when I was too busy with club business to trail her.
Shit with Grizzly was getting intense right now. We were having problems with the Famiglia buying up parcels of land in Jersey and thinking that they owned the keys to the kingdom as a result.
That wasn’t how territory worked.
"I said what had to be said," she retorted, wafting her hand and disrupting my thoughts. "That she’d be better off without you in her life, of course. Apparently she agreed if she left you. Again." She snickered. "What is that now? Four times?"
"She’s adjusting."
"That’s what happens when you aim for someone who’s too good for you. You have to stay among your own pond slime. You won’t be disappointed that way."
"Spare me your opinions. If you’ve got something to say, say it."
"What do you see in her?" Scarlet queried, her confusion clear. "I don’t get it. She’s not your type at all, and she’s that kind of boring bitch who’d stay a virgin until she found Mr. Right so she can’t have been good in the sack and couldn’t have twisted you around her finger with her cunt. What is it about her that makes you forgive her for making you look like a joke?"
"You wouldn’t understand."
She hopped to her feet, loping over to me with all the grace of a predator on the hunt. I recognized that expression, recognized it and gripped my hands to the bars so that I didn’t try to strangle her.
"Wouldn’t I?" she intoned softly, staring up at me, eyes gleaming with curiosity.
"Have you ever loved anyone or anything other than your-fucking-self, Scarlet?" I retorted.
"Only person in this world who’ll look after me is me, Ash."
"You’re so wrong. If you’d been anything other than a bitch, I’d have loved you instead of being glad your ass is in jail." I scoffed. "Remember how fucking happy I was when Mom landed up in here? Yeah, that’s how I feel about you now. It’s not like you can mess with my goddamn life if you’re behind bars."
"Oh, don’t try to challenge me. You know how much I love a dare," she mocked. "Come on, Asher. Tell me what it is about Ms. Goody-Two-Shoes that gets your dick in a knot. I wanna know."
"Why? So you can use it against me?"
"I wanna know," she barked. "What is it? You’re ashamed of your feelings for her, is that it? You think that—"
My mouth twisted into a snarl. "She’s the exact fucking opposite of you," I spat. "She’s the exact opposite of Mom. She’s no bitch in the clubhouse. No whore or Old Lady. She’s good, Scarlet. Good. You should understand that seeing as you’re the complete goddamn opposite.
"You know when she sees some homeless guy in the street? She gives him money, doesn’t pour her coffee into his cup of quarters. She holds her friend’s hair back when they’re puking up their guts, doesn’t dunk their face into the toilet. She doesn’t do drugs, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t whore herself out.
"She’s normal, Scarlet. She’s normal. And she’s good. And she’s kind and sweet and doesn’t have a goddamn criminal record." I leaned into her, aware her eyes were surprisingly big and that, for once, her trap was shut. "So yeah, I love her. I ain’t afraid to admit that. I ain’t afraid to chase after her when she spooks because anyone in her right mind would tear off at the shit I have to offer her.
"A bitch who wants me, who wants a Sinner, who wants to be tied to me, is the exact opposite of what I want in a wife, so if that makes me goddamn whipped, I’ll take it.
"But whatever you did, whatever you said, whatever you’re thinking of doing to destroy my marriage in the future, keep it locked in your head, because if you ever come between Keira and me again, I will kill you.
"See, all this time, I’ve been acting like you’re my sister. Like I should care about you. Like I should watch out for you. But you said it yourself—you don’t look at me like that. You think everyone’s out to get you, but guess what, Scarlet? They only fucking hate you because you’re the biggest cunt in the Tri-State area.