“Ow!” I yelped as the impact cracked through my hand and sliced through my palm, where I held the keys.
“Jesus, fuck!” he yelled, not having anticipated my actions, so the likely puny blow I landed took him by surprise, which took him back two paces, his upper body jerking to the side, his hands coming up to his face.
“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Tabby yelled, grabbing my hand and pulling me.
I watched in horror, keys dangling from where I was pressing them at the junction between thumb and forefinger as I shook the sting out of my hand, while he righted himself.
I saw the mark.
I’d torn through the flesh of his cheek with my key and he was bleeding.
Profusely.
And he looked mad.
Seriously.
I turned on my stiletto heeled booties and ran.
“Follow the leader!” Tyra yelled.
“Got it!” Tabby yelled back. “I’m with Curly.”
Curly?
We made it to the red wreck and she pulled my keys out of my hand.
“I drive,” she declared.
I was shaking top to toe so I was okay with that.
I dashed to the passenger side just as Joker’s dad made it to the car.
Luckily, Tabby was already in.
Blood pouring down his cheek, he tore open her door, and I squealed as he went for her but she went for the ignition.
I barely had my bottom to the seat before she roared out, her door open, my door open and everything.
He staggered back.
She raced to the tail of Tyra’s Mustang in front of us, her car door slamming with the movement of the vehicle.
Unfortunately, I had to reach out and grab mine.
I did, taking my life in my hands to slam it shut.
Then I buckled up.
Only then did I realize I was hyperventilating.
“That was rad,” she muttered.
She was crazy.
I looked at her to see she was grinning like the crazy I thought was at the windshield.
“Keyed his truck, keyed is face. Abuser fuckwad, bested by a girl with curly hair. Totally… fucking… rad,” Tabby decreed.
Her words hit me.
They soaked in.
And I began grinning.
She was right.
It was.
It absolutely was.
Totally… fucking… rad.
* * *
Following Lanie, Tyra, and Elvira into a very posh establishment that I’d never been to, Elvira instantly bellied up to the bar, hand up, fingers snapping, and a bartender came right to her.
“Five cosmos, one bag of ice, immediately, but not in that order.”
“I’m driving, Elvira,” I told her and her head snapped around to face me.
“We’ll get you home.”
I took one look at her and shut up.
The bartender put a towel filled with ice on the bar.
“Hand,” Elvira ordered.
I got close and gave her my hand.
She grabbed it by the wrist, placed it on the bar and set the bag on it, holding it there.
That felt good.
“Now, girl, what the fuck?” she asked.
“Um…” I answered.
“What’d I say about backup?” she pushed.
“Well, uh… just to say, if you guys hadn’t showed, I’m pretty sure I would have gotten away with the keying.”
“Right, let’s talk about that,” she stated, then repeated, “What the fuck?”
“What the eff what?” I asked.
Her brows shot up. “Keying his car? What’s that gonna do?”
I straightened my shoulders and answered, “Make me feel better.”
“I hear you,” she replied instantly. “What I mean is, what’s it gonna do for your man?”
“Nothing,” I stated. “I wasn’t gonna tell him. My job with him is to be at his side and let him deal with it in his own time. What I did tonight was for me.”
“Totally rad,” I heard Tabby mutter.
Elvira stared at me.
“He has a nice truck,” I told Elvira. “His house is run down. His body is run down. He scowls at old ladies in the grocery store, so clearly he’s in a perpetually bad mood, not to mention he’s rude. But his truck is nice, newish, and clean. He likes it. Now it’s messed up. He’s messed up a lot of things far more important and got away with it. He should have something of his that’s messed up. Now he does.”
“Yeah, like his face,” Tyra mumbled.
I looked at her, now that the rush of it was over, feeling kind of sick about that. “That wasn’t the plan.”
She grinned at me. “It was a good addition.”
I bit my lip.
“You done with that shit?” Elvira asked and I turned back to her.
“I think so.”
“You’re done with it,” she declared. “But if you get another wild hair up your ass and decide to roll with it, you,” she leaned into me, “call your girls.”
“All right,” I whispered.
“Shit,” she muttered, looking to the side. “Where’s my cosmo?”
“Here,” the bartender said, setting up five martini glasses and starting to fill them from a cocktail shaker. “Just so you know, these are on the guy down there.” He jerked his head down the bar but his eyes came to me. “He wanted you in particular to know he hopes your hand is okay.”
I looked down the bar at a man in a suit, no tie, dark blond hair, very nice looking, eyes on me, smiling.
“She’s Chaos!” Tabby shouted. “Don’t you see the tube top?”
The guy blinked.
I started shaking, but not from fear, from something else entirely.
Then I started giggling.
Lanie started giggling with me.
Tyra burst out with it.
Elvira muttered, “Biker bitches. Someone kill me.”
That was when Tabby burst out with it.
And I did too.
* * *
I sat on the couch in my living room, boots on, jacket off, one light lit at my side, waiting.
And fretting.
It was nearly three o’clock in the morning and the mellow of the cosmos (I’d had two, which was one too many, but they were tasty) and girl time had worn off.
Several hours ago, Elvira had driven me home in my car with Tyra trailing. She’d joined them and they’d taken off on waves and smiles.
Girl time was good.
Cosmos were yummy (I’d never had one).
But now it was hitting me what I’d done.
I’d vandalized Joker’s dad’s car and I didn’t get away with it.
He caught me. He saw me. He saw all the girls. He could pick me out of a lineup. He could probably pick all of us out of a lineup.