Devil's Despair: Travis's Stand Part 22

Looking down at her, I see her eyes bright and smiling. She's beautiful and genuine; no matter her disposition, she's always stayed real and true to who she is.

"You said I'd lose this," she mentions casually. "This isn't losing."

"No, it's not," I reply. This is definitely not losing.

Wrapping my arm around the back of her neck I pull her against me again and take her mouth with mine. I feel the soft, possessive moan coming from the back of my throat.

Her response is the same. Her hands start to roam my lower back, the jacket in the way of more contact. Her legs wrap around my waist and she pulls me further in to her. Her breaths are heavy, reminding me of my weight pressed against her.

The s.p.a.ce we're in is dark, but the colored strobe lights s.h.i.+ne on her face with their ever-changing direction. She stills under me and gently removes her hands from my back, inhales, swallows hard, leaving her mouth slightly open, and searches my eyes.

Then she smiles.

"Uhhh, I don't mean to interrupt you two, but the round's closing and Ace is looking for you guys. What should I tell him?"

I turn my face to Hayden, who's standing against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, as if he's been comfortable there for a while. I hear Sarah gasp beneath me and both arms fall to her sides as though the feel of me next to her was forbidden. When I aim my eyes down to her, I see hers are watering.

f.u.c.k that.

I look back at Hayden; he's now standing facing toward us but looking out over the crowd.

"We're goin,'" I tell him.

"You sure? 'Cause the two of you look pretty f.u.c.king comfortable."

"Yes," Sarah whispers so only I can hear.

She starts to get up, but I leave my body weight on her. Looking into her eyes, I say to Hayden while looking at Sarah, "Walk away and we'll talk later."

Hayden doesn't move so I turn my face in his direction again and find him staring at Sarah with a wondering expression. "Sarah, wipe your eyes and don't give anything away. Ace can't deal with this here."

Sarah nods and I give her room to sit up. By the time I have her standing beside me, she looks okay, but nervous.

"Well, f.u.c.k," she says first. "Lacey knows. Rae probably knows. Hayden definitely knows."

"Yep."

"No one seems surprised," she adds.

"Nope."

She moves to stand in front of me, faking confidence, and pushes her hair out of her face. "How do I look?"

"You look like Sarah," I answer casually, trying not to worry her.

"Good," she answers as she turns around and heads into the other room.

Fifteen minutes later, we're standing up front and removing all the guns and jackets. Sarah tries to ignore both Hayden and me. He's been bouncing back and forth on his feet, waiting to see the scores pop up on the large black and white screen above the counter.

In no way does my best friend act anywhere close to his age-no way. By all observations, my sister already has two kids. She's got her boy and girl, so if you ask her older brother, there's no reason to keep breeding.

Sarah's ignoring me as she stands next to the girls, a few steps off to the side. She's not said a word to anyone and has kept her attention on the screen as well, for entirely different reasons.

"I bet I won," Hayden tells the group, giving his much-too-small jacket over to the attendant. "I had to have."

"Shut up. You didn't. You don't win unless you're cheating," Lacey snaps.

"Bulls.h.i.+t, Lace. Favors, remember that. I'll be collecting a few tonight, by the way."

"Whatever," she mumbles, tightening her ponytail.

Raegan, happy to get the oversized jacket removed, stretches her small body and Ace moves in and rubs her shoulders to help ease her obvious ache.

Marlee and Toby are sitting on the bench against the wall as we all wait patiently for the scores. The birthday party we played with is settling down and they've separated themselves, boys on one side and girls on the other. Their hands are full of pop and candy, and the belches coming from the ten-year-old boys coupled with Sarah having to avoid me in front of the others, is wearing on my last nerve.

I look back at Sarah, who has her arms crossed over her middle. Her face is still red from exertion, but she's not sweating anymore. Her body is rigid and she looks scared. I shouldn't have risked being caught. This is on me.

"No f.u.c.kin' way!" Ace yells. "How'd you cheat?"

All eyes. .h.i.t the screen briefly then fall to Hayden smirking as he looks to his side to find his wife fuming. My sister, on a good day, is fair and honest. On a bad day, she's quick witted and mouthy. We're about to witness what she's like on a really bad day.

Her blonde ponytail flies through the air before her voice rises loud enough to create an audience of onlookers who are left gawking at our scene.

"f.u.c.k that!" she yells, pointing to the score. She doesn't hear the gasps from the parents circled around us, staring at her in shock.

"d.a.m.n," Rae interjects defeated. "I suck. I got my a.s.s kicked."

Ace bends down to kiss the crown of her head. "I should've put favors on the line like Hayden," he tells her, smiling over her head. The rest of us see him grin, she doesn't.

Turning around, she gives him as hard a look as Raegan can give and corrects him. "You have a lot of s.e.x, Ace. A lot. If you start complaining I'll buy you some special soap for the shower to make it easier for you to finish without me."

"Oh my," Lacey utters.

"I'm nice that way." Rae finishes with a shrug.

I look at Sarah as she tries to hide her smile.

"Soap you'll use on me, maybe," Ace flips back at Rae.

"I win!" Hayden's arms rise above his head and his palms close in triumph as he makes his final claim to fame.

Marlee and Toby stand without commenting and walk to the counter to get the printout. Someone should frame this for Hayden. He couldn't have cheated so this appears, on the surface, to be legit.

We all start walking away from the counter to let the next group get their scores.

"You kinda sucked today, Trav." Rae comes to my side to make fun of me.

Sarah joins in and confirms, "He did."

"I was busy," I reply quickly, then hit Sarah with a "don't f.u.c.king go there" look.

Rae's eyebrows rise. "Busy?"

"I had my hands full."

Sarah looks like she's choking on the words she was about to say. She chooses to remain quiet.

"Stop!" Marlee yells for us before we make our way out. "Hayden Merit Flynn, stop right there!"

Middle name, Hayden. Not good.

When I look at Hayden, his eyes are dancing with humor and his grin is so wide it's telling on him before the truth comes out.

"Busted," he whispers.

Lacey lets go of his hand and turns to him. "What did you do?"

"I won. That's what I did."

"No, you didn't." Marlee hits him in the chest. "You cheated."

"What the f.u.c.k?" Ace asks, but he's not angry-or surprised.

"How'd he cheat?" Lacey asks as Toby stands quietly by her side.

Sarah's eyes roll as she waits to hear what he's done. "Oh G.o.d."

"Whose jacket did you wear today, Hayden?"

He doesn't answer.

Marlee points to Raegan. "You took Rae's jacket. That's why yours was so small and hers was huge!"

"Too far, Hayden. Too far." Raegan shakes her head, glaring at Hayden standing across from her beside Lacey. "You took my jacket? Why would you do that?"

"I'd like to know how you did it," I say, wrapping my arm around Rae's shoulders. She winces from the soreness she feels, so I let her go but remain close to her side.

"Why?" Rae asks again.

Hayden's hands come up in front of his face; a plea for the rest us to back up. "I need favors," he tells us his reasoning without any shame. "We've been busy and I'm not getting the rightful attention I deserve."

"Oh, you're gonna get that attention. You've got night s.h.i.+ft with Olivia for the next week for this s.h.i.+t."

Confirmed. Lacey has two kids and in a sense she just grounded her oldest.

"Why Rae's jacket?" I ask, ignoring the laughing eyes of Sarah that I know I have trained on me.

"I may be a cheater, but I'm a smart one," he says while grinning and pulling Lacey in to his side where she reluctantly settles herself. "I knew Travis wouldn't shoot her. He can't stand a sad Rae. I knew Ace wouldn't, well, 'cause if he p.i.s.sed her off . . . soap and all." Looking over at Raegan, he finishes with an apology. "I didn't think the jacket was going to be so heavy. Even your little one weighed a f.u.c.k of a lot. I'm sorry, Rae."

"You're making this s.h.i.+t up to me, Hayden."

Hayden's smile falls instantly. Rae's version of a proper apology from Hayden is to publicly humiliate him in the form of one of her "cla.s.sic" favorite groups' songs. I'm sensing Hayden's in line for Neil Diamond or Elton John.

"f.u.c.k," he hisses, pulling Lacey with him out the door.

Now it's her smile that's reaching her eyes.

Sarah doesn't say anything as we head farther into the parking lot. It's starting to get dark and the kids are outside running around, enjoying the unusually warm winter day.

On the way to the Jeep, Sarah stops me in the parking lot with the sound of her small whimper. When I turn around to see, she's lagged quite a ways behind me. I realize she's holding her hamstring and, of course, she's cursing.

"d.a.m.n it, I think I pulled something," she tells me the obvious as I make my way back to her.

Happy to have the focus off what happened inside, I explain, "You attacked little kids in there, Sarah. This is karma's way of getting even."

"I didn't attack jack s.h.i.+t. They came at me."

"They came at you because they weren't on your team. What's the name of the game?" I mock her words from earlier.

She continues to hold her leg and takes deep breaths in attempt to steady herself. "Travis, this is bad. It's knotting."

Now I'm less worried about the tension from the evening and more focused on her pain. "Did you drink any water today?"

Her nose scrunches, giving me the answer before I hear her words. "I had the water that was in my coffee this morning. You saw me drink the d.a.m.n thing."

"f.u.c.k."

"And my Diet c.o.ke at lunch before we got here."

"Jesus."

"And-"

I've heard enough. I cut her off by leaning in to grab her small body. I lift her up, cradling her to my chest, and carry her the rest of the way to the Jeep.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

Travis I'M LOOKING DOWN and messing with my keys as I start to open the door to the apartment. I'm startled when I nearly run into Hayden standing on the other side of it.

"Whoa." Hayden surprises me, smiling with his sungla.s.ses still on. "Where are you rus.h.i.+ng off to?"