Brandon might have been the one Preppy hit, but I felt as if he’d punched me square in the gut.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

PREPPY

Life was fucking loud.

And Doc was fucking engaged.

She kissed me.

Noise was everywhere and anywhere.

Whispers, laughter, chattering, music, tires on the gravel, birds in the trees. Even the low buzzing of King’s tattoo gun in the next room had jack-hammer-esque quality to it that made my pulse pound in my head.

With each passing moment the noise grew louder and louder until I was face first on the mattress covering my head with a pillow and screaming into the sheets over the ear torture of everyday life.

I’d come to the apartment so that Doe, I mean RAY, and King’s kid could have her room back but also because I thought it would be quieter.

I was wrong.

The last straw was a motherfucking cricket sitting just outside the open window. I jumped to my feet and darted from drawer to cabinet, discarding contents to the floor. I was so focused on my search I didn’t hear Bear come in until he spoke up from the doorway. “Something I can help you look for?”

“My gun. Do you know where it is?” I asked without looking back at him. “Did you keep it or throw it away like the rest of my shit.”

“Fuck you. We kept your shit for a long time and you know we don’t throw away guns.” Bear tilted his head. “You got someone to kill?”

“Fuck yeah I do,” I corrected.

“You gonna tell me who?”

“Why is it all so fucking loud!” I shouted, opening the last cabinet in the kitchenette, pushing aside the pots and pans with no luck. I slammed the door and headed to the bedroom to start on my search there.

“Uhhhhh hear what?” Bear asked, following me into the bedroom and then the bathroom.

“Fuck, it,” I finally said, giving up my search. I turned to Bear and held out my hand. “Let me use yours.”

“First tell me who it is you thinking of killin’,” Bear insisted, placing a protective hand inside his cut over his gun.

“You really don’t hear that?”

Bear looked around and even briefly closed his eyes before opening them again. “I don’t have a fucking clue what you’re talking about.”

“Close your eyes again. Fucking LISTEN,” I snapped, growing frustrated. My mind racing.

The second Bear closed his eyes and removed his hand off his gun I reached inside his cut and before he could stop me I shot through the open window, blasting the little green bug into smithereens and in the process exploding the piece of faux marble covering the window sill and shattering the glass of the window when it fell from its locked position.

“Much better,” I said, tossing the gun back at Bear before he had a chance to grab it back from me.

“You don’t grab another man’s gun, asshole,” Bear growled, anger lacing his every word as I climbed back into bed. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting rid of some of the god-damned noise around here. That’s what I was fucking doing.”

“Preppy, you’ve lost your goddamned mind is what you’ve done,” Bear barked over me. The door to the apartment slammed open and King burst into the room, a frantic look on his face.

“What the fuck was that?”

“Preppy sentenced a cricket outside the window to death by firing squad of one,” Bear remarked.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” King shouted, pulling me up and holding me in front of him, his face only inches from mine. An angry vein thrummed in his forehead as it had always done when he was pissed. I missed that vein.

“What the fuck is your problem?” I asked.

“Are fucking kidding me right now? My problem is that we have kids and women who fucking live here and you’re firing a gun outside the god damned window like it’s the wild west. Fuck, Prep. I know shit’s different around here now, but that shit you just pulled wouldn’t fucking fly before you went away either.”

“I’m so fucking sorry that I don’t live up to your new family man standards,” I said, grabbing his wrist and tossing it away from where he had gathered a handful of my shirt in his hand. I grabbed a duffel bag from under the bed and tossed a few pairs of shorts and shirts into it.

“You need help?” King asked, his anger turning into frustration. “Do we need to send you somewhere? Just tell me what you fucking need, Preppy!”

“I need the noise to stop. I need the light to stop burning my fucking eyes. I need my fucking cock to work instead of lying limp between my fucking legs.” I zipped the bag and tossed it over my shoulder. I looked back at King who was standing there with that look on his face that I was tired of seeing. “I need my friends to stop looking at me like I’m some dog who got hit by a fucking car.”

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Bear asked as I made my way to the door.

“Somewhere much fucking quieter.”

King’s arm shot out, blocking me from the door.

“Just let him go,” Bear said pulling on King’s arm. He reluctantly let it fall with a growl and I left, slamming the door and leaving my two best friends behind me.

Nobody followed me.

Which was good.

Because I had no fucking idea where I was going.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

KING

“Hey, you busy?” Pup asked, peeking her blonde head around the door.

“Just finishing up,” I said, snapping off my black gloves and tossing them into the trash bin. I rolled my stool to the center of the room and she didn’t need another invitation, she stepped into the room and between my legs so I could wrap my arms around her, but it wasn’t close enough.

Never was.

I grabbed her hips and pulled her close until her body was firmly against mine and my face against her chest.

“What’s going on?” I mumbled from between her tits. My last client just left and I was beat. It was the last session of six for one of the biggest and most intricate back pieces I’d ever done.

“Oh wow. It’s beautiful,” Pup exclaimed and when I looked up she had my phone in one hand and the other was covering her mouth as she looked down at the screen at the picture I’d just taken before I’d wrapped up his back and sent him on his way. “It’s your best one yet.”