“Hey,” a man says, but I don’t even look up.
“Not interested.”
“Whatever,” he says, getting the hint without having to be told twice. Maybe the men here aren’t as stupid as many of them look.
I swipe my screen, opening the page of a new chapter of my current favorite read, and ignore the laughter and talking all around me. I’m not interested in getting drunk or hooking up with any of the locals, something I’ve avoided for the last decade. My sister, though…she has always been about the carefree, fun lifestyle, giving the middle finger to the patriarchy and the traditional role of women.
We were both taught to be strong and independent our entire lives, and we are and always have been, thanks to our parents. Raising three girls couldn’t have been easy, but they gave us a set of skills to protect ourselves and be self-reliant, something I will always be grateful for.
“Rosie?” someone says, and I peer up at a face I haven’t seen in a while.
“Hey, Petey,” I reply with little enthusiasm.
“Whatcha doin’?” he asks.
Peter Walters, also known as Petey, has always been a nice guy, but he has a box of rocks inside his head, which doesn’t leave any room for brain power. But I’ve never held that against him because whatever he doesn’t have in smarts, he’s made up for in kindness.
“Reading.”
He smiles. “I like to read.”
I smile back, trying to be cordial even though he’s interrupting me. “Me too.”
However, he doesn’t read my body language at all and bends down, crawling next to me and making himself comfortable against the log. He leans over, trying to see my screen. “Whatcha reading?”
“A book,” I answer, being cagey because my types of books are no doubt not his types.
“I like comic books,” he tells me, which doesn’t shock me at all. “I could stare at the pictures all day.”
“That’s nice,” I say, going back to staring at my screen, hoping he’ll get the hint.
“My favorite is Superman.”
Nope. He doesn’t take the hint at all. “Yeah,” I mumble, but I don’t look in his direction.
“I have an entire collection. You want to see it sometime?”
I glance at him out of the corner of my eye and rein in my bitchiness at his interruption. He’s just being nice, and I shouldn’t be an asshole because I want to read. I’m sure there isn’t a person here who’s being nice to Petey, and he came over to me, hoping to find a friend in the crowd.
“Maybe, Petey, but I work a lot.”
“Whenever you want, Rosie. Just drop on by. I live in the same place I always have. You know where it is.”
“I do,” I tell him. “If I’m ever over that way, I’ll drop by.” In all honesty, I’m rarely over in his part of town, and even if I were, there’s no way in hell I’m going to Petey’s house to look at his comic book collection. It’s sweet of him to offer, though. The man couldn’t and wouldn’t hurt a fly.
“Who’s your sister talking to?” he asks me, and I peer up, following his line of sight. “Never seen him around here before.”
My blood instantly runs cold. The man across from my sister has a face I’ll never forget, but she certainly has by the way she’s laughing and allowing him to touch her.
I stand, tucking my phone into my purse, and take a step forward. “Rosie, where ya going?” Petey asks, but I have no time to be nice and answer his question.
I stalk around the fire, my arms at my sides, my body vibrating with anger and hatred toward the man who drugged my sister years before. I’m sure that hadn’t been the first time he’d done that, but she wasn’t one of his victims because I was there to swoop in and rescue her before he had a chance to have his way with her without her consent.
I grab Luna’s arm, and she turns her head, staring at me, confused. “Rosie, what are you—”
“Don’t talk to him,” I order her, shooting a look his way.
His eyes darken as he straightens his back. “Fuck off, bitch. This is between us, and you’re not invited.”
I tighten my fingers around her arm, and I’m hanging on by a thread. “You need to shut the fuck up, asshole.”
He barks out a bitter laugh, cracking his knuckles. “Or what?”
“Hold up,” Luna says, turning her deathly glare toward the man who isn’t bad on the eyes and could get laid without having to drug people. Clearly, he’s a psycho who gets off on the control of the unwilling and unconscious. “You do not get to call my sister a bitch, you cocksucker.”
“Sister?” His eyes narrow as he studies my face. “I don’t see it, and even if she is, she’s still a bitch, sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. She came out of nowhere to interrupt what we had going, and I don’t take kindly to shit like that or bitches who insert themselves where they aren’t wanted. If she weren’t so fat, maybe she could get some cock of her own because she clearly needs to get laid.”
Luna moves forward, because the crazy bitch will always have my back, but I pull her back and slide myself between her and the man who I’m sure would’ve raped her tonight if given the chance. “Rosie, no,” Luna says, knowing I’m going to go off and go off bad.
He moves forward like he’s going to touch my sister and somehow make a move, but I move too, putting us only inches apart. I peer up, looking into the eyes of a criminal. “I know who you are and what you do,” I tell him, snarling. “She won’t be one of your victims. No one here will be.”
“Oh my God. What? It was him?” Luna asks behind me, her fingers at my waist and digging into my muffin top. “This is the douchebag who drugged me?”
“Fucking bitches,” he hisses. “Talking shit out of your asses. I didn’t do fucking nothing.”
“You drug women,” I bark straight into his face. “I’m sure you rape them too.”
He doesn’t even recoil as his top lip curls. We stare at each other, a crowd around us, people murmuring to one another, no doubt thinking either I’m crazy or he is.
“Lying cunt,” he snaps and leans forward, bringing his face and beer-laden breath closer. “I’m going to teach you a lesson about minding your own damn business.”
“Fuck off, loser!” I yell back and quickly lift my leg, ready to knee him in the balls. But to my shock, he’s expecting it, grabbing on to my thigh with one hand and backhanding me with the other.
Pain shoots across my face from my cheek to my ear, and I hear nothing but the ringing of a weird, off-key bell somewhere deep inside my head. I’m momentarily blinded by the impact, something I’ve never experienced before. Luna and Gigi have smacked me plenty of times in my life when we were pissed or playing, but never has a blow landed with such force to render me fucking stupid with pain.
I shake my head, trying to see straight and find my bearings, when Luna rushes forward, but she is quickly stopped by an arm around her waist. I watch in horror as she’s hauled backward, and her body is replaced by a bigger one.
“You’re going to pay for that one, motherfucker,” a man says, going after the guy who just about laid me out. “You touched the wrong woman, and I’m about to make you bleed.”