“I think you need to come back to the club with me tonight. You seem to have lost your balls and need someone of the female variety to feel around and help you find them,” Cooper joked from across the shop as he leaned over the car he was working on. Every word that left his mouth today had pissed me off, and I wasn’t in the mood to listen to this again.
Somehow, he managed to get laid every weekend by someone new and had fucked-up stories to bring back to the shop the following week. I can’t say whether the stories were always true, but they made for some entertaining talk with the guys on Monday mornings. How the hell did his grimy ass get a “Angelina Jolie look-alike with the biggest dick sucking lips you've ever seen”—his words—to make the short drive to his apartment without coming to her senses and calling the police? Or animal control? I guess some women lacked standards nowadays.
A few months ago, I made the mistake of taking him up on his offer to join him at the club on a particularly shitty Saturday night. Since then, he had been religiously pestering me to go back with him.
“Can't, I already have plans.” I shrugged him off, returning to the Oldsmobile I was working on.
I did have plans, but they weren’t anything he needed to know about, so I used my usual vague excuse. I loved sex just like every other red-blooded man, but I’d never liked the options that were presented to me at the club, and I was never in the mood to deal with the aftermath.
Women swarmed to me, desperate to dig deep and fix the broken “bad-boy” they saw on the outside. They had no idea what ugliness lay beneath the surface, and I wasn’t willing to reveal it to their drunk asses. I wanted nothing to do with being a fixer-upper for the clingy women I met at the club, or the drama that followed them.
“You need to stop being such a pussy and buy your own place, so you can bring girls home without your mom being there. You can move in with me if you don’t have the money. Ruckus is about to move with his girlfriend,” Cooper said as he closed the hood of his last car.
Niko, my best friend and number two at the shop, chuckled from behind his toolbox. He tried for years to get me to move out of Mom’s house and into his shitty bungalow with him and his controlling girlfriend. I didn’t budge then, and I wouldn’t be budging now.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” was my reply.
My mother could be a raging monster, but there was no way I’d last twenty-four hours with Cooper before slicing his neck open. I’d rather stick with the devil I knew.
“Whatever, dude. I still think you should come. I got a great piece of ass the last time you came out with me.”
He now moved over to the toolbox across from me, prying it open and replacing the socket wrench he stole. It was our coworker, Jake’s but everyone else was off this Saturday and that apparently meant Cooper could help himself to their locked toolboxes. I knew it would result in a fight on Monday morning and I’d have no problem turning a blind eye as Jake pounded the fucker’s face in.
I thought back to the night in question and couldn’t remember a single female Cooper had talked to who even seemed remotely interested in hooking up with him. The chill that ran down their spine whenever he came near and flashed his crooked, yellowed smile was most likely a turn-off. A few desperate clingers tried to take me back home, but I wasn’t in the mood.
“Who the hell was willing to touch your ass with a ten-foot pole that night?” I finally asked.
“The one who was giving us looks all night with the hot friend. The friend turned out to be a total bitch, but the other one let me fuck her in her back seat.”
He donned the signature creepy, large shit-eating grin that showed all his teeth. Niko slammed his toolbox closed and walked over to join the conversation.
“You mean the one who was staring daggers at you all night? She looked like she wanted to murder you…” I trailed off, thinking back.
Cooper thought the blonde was hot and would be an easy lay but couldn’t get her to even glance at him more than once. She must have said something to her friend because after that, the friend wouldn’t stop looking our way and murdering Cooper with her overly large, dark eyes. Neither of them seemed to be regulars of the club, earning the attention of every sick fuck in the vicinity who smelled the fresh meat from miles away. They couldn’t be blamed, though—the women who spent their weekends there were getting worn out, too strung on the drugs they were being fed to be attractive anymore.
It was clear that the blonde worked hard for the toned body she had, but her friend naturally curved in all the right places. I’d be willing to bet she never stepped foot in a gym. At one point we made eye contact, but she gave me a look of pure disgust and turned around, and I moved on to the next girl who gave me the time of day. How Cooper was able to get her to pry her granny-panties out of her ass long enough to fuck her was beyond me.
“Sometimes it takes a little bit of forced convincing,” he said simply, still smiling as he wiped his hands on a shop towel.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I tightened the oil cap on the car and closed the hood, my brows furrowing at whatever he was insinuating. Niko’s expression mirrored mine when he leaned against the car on my lift.
“Nothing really. I just coaxed her into seeing that her ass wasn’t better than me.”
He tossed the towel to the floor—something I was sure he did on purpose to piss me off since I’d warned him time and time again to stop.
“So, what, you raped her?”
I would like to think he wasn’t capable of that, but Cooper seemed to be a little off sometimes. When the words left my mouth, I realized there could be some truth to them and the thought alone made me want to rip his face off.
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say I raped her. She eventually enjoyed it. You gotta do what you gotta do, you know? Some girls like to be told how to be pleasured.”
He pushed off Jake’s toolbox and walked over to his own to close things up.
“What the fuck, dude?” Niko finally said, shooting a bewildered glance in Cooper’s direction.
The sick fucker just laughed and walked away, leaving me and Niko alone to stew in his words.
I was speechless. I shook my head with a scowl and threw my tools into my box, not caring where they landed. While I finished up closing the front office, I thought back to that girl’s face and felt a pang of guilt for what Cooper insinuated he had done to her.
As we locked the doors to the garage and walked out toward my truck, I couldn’t stay silent anymore. That shit just hit too close to home for me.
“So, what happens when she reports you to the police? Are you just going to tell them what you told me? ‘You gotta do what you gotta do’?” I used air quotes to make my point. “And what do you think Frank is going to say when the club starts getting attention for it? There are enough willing participants in that shit-hole to feed an army of sick fucks like you, why prey on the one who wasn’t and put us all at risk?”
We all hopped into the old Ford truck and I turned the ignition. I regretted offering to drive them into work today. Niko had the sense to sit between us on the bench seat, so I couldn’t reach over and knock Cooper out. He knew what Cooper’s words meant to me, and he sat alert in case he had to grab the wheel or come between a fight.
“Don’t be such a pussy. I’m positive she won’t say anything to anyone about it. Anyway, I’ve been watching her, and it doesn’t even seem like she cares.” He shrugged his shoulders and reached to turn the radio up.
My nose scrunched up as Niko and I looked at him like he had three heads. “You’ve been following her? So, first you raped her and now you’re stalking her?”
I pushed his hand away and turned the radio off, taking the next turn sharp enough to slam his head on the window.
“What the fuck, dude? It’s not like I did anything to you, so why does it matter? Damn right, I watch her. I have to make sure she isn’t going to say anything to give me away. I have a reputation to uphold around here, and from where I stand it looks like she’s been doing just fine. She owns her own business and everything. Lately, it’s been busier than ever. If anything, I gave her a push to make a better life.”
He crossed his arms and huffed out an irritated breath, as if it was ridiculous for me to even question him, the man who rescued this random girl from a boring life by raping her.
My fingers tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles whitening as I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t even look at him. I was driving ten miles per hour over the speed limit to get him home as quickly as possible. If he kept talking, I didn’t trust myself not to throw a few punches. This asshole had no idea who he was even talking to, acting as if it was nothing to take advantage of a woman and throw her to the side just to stalk her afterward.
Niko felt the tension radiating off me and attempted to change the subject. He gripped the edges of the bench seat to stop his body from flying around the cab of the truck.
“So, I think Sofia is fucking the landlord,” his mellow voice started, but was quickly interrupted by the rat sitting next to him. That only pissed me off more.
Cooper took my silence as acceptance and continued talking. “You want a piece for yourself?” The creepy grin returned, begging for my fist to smash into it.
“You’re just as much of a sick fuck as I am, Baker. Her place is called Moon Creations or some shit.”
He undid his seatbelt as I pulled into his driveway and put his hand on the door handle, ready to go as soon as I stopped the car.
“Fuck off,” was my response, and he laughed it off before jumping out of the truck and casually walking up to his front door.
Niko hissed out a breath of relief after scooting over to the passenger side and buckling himself securely into the seat belt.
“The guy is a jackass,” he concluded, grabbing the handle on the door to steady himself when I sped out of the driveway.
I nodded in agreement and silence fell over us while I stewed. Niko sensed I needed to cool off, so he turned up the radio and looked out the window, deep in his own thoughts. It wasn’t until after I pulled off from his house that I realized what he’d said about Sofia, and guilt bubbled up into my gut at the fact that I couldn’t even acknowledge it.
She was always fucking him over and taking advantage, but he was too nice to throw her out on her ass. It wouldn’t take long for her to find a new victim to sink her teeth into, but getting Niko to admit that Sofia was trash was almost impossible, and he rarely talked about her with me because he knew my stance on their relationship. I probably wouldn’t be able to get him to bring it up again and the realization that he had to suffer alone had my blood boiling all over again. Fucking Cooper.
I arrived home to find Mom passed out on the couch, exhausted from work and whatever high she was coming down from the night before. She was addicted to prescription medications, treasuring her relationship with pills more than she ever had with me. The poison she chose depended on her mood and while she may have been able to wait all day to pop one, she remained on edge until then. It was best to leave her alone until she could get one of the multicolored candies into her mouth.
She wanted me to move out, and believe me, nothing would have pleased me more than buying my own place. I had more than enough money saved for a generous down payment on my first house. But she scared me when she was alone and the men she attracted weren’t far off from Cooper. I couldn’t even count on two hands and feet the number of times I’d found her face down somewhere in the house, either with a black eye from falling or simply because she passed out on her way to bed.
I’ve even come home from work and found our living room TV missing, along with some of the money I had hidden away under my mattress. The scum my mother had been shacking up with decided to finally leave after four months of mooching off us and took whatever he could fit in his shitty car when he left.
To say I didn’t trust her judgement was an understatement. Even though she treated me like garbage and got me wrapped up in her bullshit, I still loved her and felt a responsibility to take care of her after I’d ruined her life. I didn’t ever mention our problems to anyone other than Niko, though, and that was just because he’s been around long enough to experience most of it with me. I didn’t like the pity I’d received as a kid being the poor little rape-baby, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to allow anyone to pity me now.
“Monti called, says he’s ready for you. If you keep making him wait the way you have been, he’s going to start using someone else and we’ll all be screwed,” Mom warned from the kitchen a few hours later as I brushed past her.
I knew Monti was ready, but he wasn’t going to get anywhere trying to push me around like he did with Mom. He took every opportunity he had to fuck me over, and he succeeded more often than not. It didn’t matter, though. When it came down to it, he needed me more than I needed him, and I wasn’t going to let him forget it anytime soon.
Without responding, I walked right out the front door and drove back to the shop. As I pulled behind the garage, I spotted three identical cars sitting at the back of the lot that weren’t there when I left. I lingered in my Focus after parking it, watching for any signs that it might be a set-up. Once I was satisfied that it was clear, I hopped out and walked toward the line of cars.
As per usual, Monti was in the back seat while his gorilla-sized bodyguard operated the large SUV, familiar pale face glowing in the light as he stared blankly off into the distance. I tapped on the back glass, signaling to roll down the window so we could talk. His phone glowed through the dark tint as he sat there, ignoring me.
I tapped again, more aggressively this time, and he waited a couple seconds, testing my patience before finally rolling the window down. His usual ugly smile was spread across his face, revealing the three new spaces where his teeth were missing. It came as no surprise to me—Monti made a game of pissing people off and it usually caught up to him.
The guy was my age, but he looked like he could be ten years older. He kept his orange hair long and slicked back with too much gel, and his face was made up of more freckles than regular skin. That wasn’t what made him ugly, though. He had a large pink scar running from his left temple to the side of his mouth that made you want to look away and stare at the same time.
No one knew how he really got it, but rumor said his dad put it there when he was younger and tried to out the Reapers by tipping off some cops during a drug run. The Boss wasn’t happy about it and as his number two, Frank had to take care of the rat—regardless of it being his own flesh and blood. It made him look like he was smiling all the time, and when he actually did smile, it pulled at his mouth the wrong way and made it seem like one side was smiling while the other side frowned.
No one respected him, and the only reason he continued to do runs like the one he was on was because his dad, Frank, insisted he took part in the business. Frank was second-in-command and was in charge of making sure the Reapers’ day-to-day ran smoothly, keeping his hands in a little bit of everything. He’d put Monti in charge of the easiest facet and he still managed to fuck things up regularly.
“What took you so long?” his high-pitched, pre-pubescent voice asked. I turned to lean my back against the side of his car, staring back at the shop. He hated when people didn’t make eye contact.
“I was busy,” I replied, crossing my arms in disinterest.
Monti grumbled, peeking his head outside the back window further than he was comfortable with to look over at me. He liked to keep his identity private during drop-offs in case there were cameras around recording, and I was forcing him to expose his face. It didn’t matter, the shop was tucked away enough for no one to care what we did.
“You need to have these two done by six. Martin will be back with the truck to pick up the parts. Don’t fuck it up like you did last time,” he warned, easing back into his seat.
I sighed, tugging my lip into my mouth to stop myself from telling him to fuck off like I’d really wanted to. “I told you to stop sending two at a time. You’re going to get us caught,” I spat back.
The past few times he’d made a drop-off with two cars, I almost got outed by employees coming into work early in the shops across the street. It was Saturday night, and the street should have remained bare for most of Sunday morning, but there was no way to predict if anyone decided to pop in. Monti knew the risk he was taking but didn’t care about the consequences. He handled business like a child would and risked multiple people’s lives in the process.
I made a habit of reminding them that I was only one person not a fucking magician, and I couldn’t get the work they were asking of me done on my own without a fallout. Niko offered to help, but Monti and Frank didn’t have anything over him like they did with me, so they preferred to exploit my weakness as much as possible.
Without responding, he rolled his window up and signaled to his gorilla to start driving. I barely stepped away from the SUV in time to save my feet from being ran over, and I punched the back quarter-panel just as they drove away. Quickly recovering, I stormed over to the first SUV and grabbed the keys from under the mat, quietly pulling it onto my lift inside the garage to start working.
I spent the night stewing over Cooper’s words from earlier while I worked on the vehicle in front of me. There was no real reason to care as much as I did about the stranger. I didn’t know the girl personally, but I had seen her at the club and observed enough to know she didn’t deserve whatever that sick fuck did to her. She wasn’t one of the girls who was there for a quick fuck. She was there for a good time and ended up having her life ruined because Cooper had control issues. I’d be willing to bet she didn’t even know the bar was owned by the Reapers.
Making quick work of the cars I was given that night, I wrapped things up and rested on a couch we kept in the garage while I waited for Martin to show up with the truck. After going back and forth about it, I finally allowed myself to look up her bakery and stalk her hours, only to discover that it was closed on Sundays. I wouldn’t be able to stop by tomorrow, but I could get off early enough on Monday to go check it out. Hopefully she wouldn’t recognize me and associate me with Cooper—it had to have been at least six months since it happened, so she might not even recognize my face anymore. I just wanted to check on her and make sure she was doing as well as he said she was.
I felt responsible for the whole thing. Cooper had made some fucked-up comments that night about her and her friend, along with several other girls. I just ignored them, though. I didn’t think he was capable of doing anything that serious.
I left early that night because Mom was harassing me about bringing her home another case of beer and I jumped at the excuse to leave. I was beat after working on a challenging truck that morning and doing a job for Monti the night before. He told me he wasn’t ready to leave, but we drove together, so I assumed he was going to take a cab home. Maybe if I had stayed there with him he wouldn’t have had the balls to go through with it.
I spent all of Sunday letting that sink in, beating myself up the more I thought about it. I wanted to see how the mystery girl was doing. So, instead of making plans for my day off, I spent the time doing mundane things and catching up on sleep. I went to bed early and slept restlessly, relieved when my alarm was going off for work the next morning.
Monday went by in a blur and I avoided Cooper at every opportunity I got, thanking whoever was in charge that I made it until three o’clock without putting my impact gun to his face. I punched out, rushed home to shower off the grease and dirt from the day, and found myself in front of her bakery within the hour.
The sign read Lunar Creations and was adorned with tiny cartoonish treats all around it. The windows were completely open, showcasing the entire store that was decorated in neutral tones and accented with bright, colorful decorations. A slightly older and plump version of the girl was standing at the counter with two customers, thumbing through a book and laughing animatedly. I entered the door and scanned the tiny shop once more, finally spotting her.
She glided easily through the storefront from the back with a pile of pictures in her hands. When she reached the cackling group, she neatly dumped the photos onto the counter and a strained smile crossed her face as she pointed to each one, mulling them over with her customers. I hadn’t even considered what I would say or do if she recognized me from that night.
In the moment, I didn’t care. My legs were working ahead of my brain and before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of the shop directly in front of her with a tight, unfamiliar smile plastered on my face—no doubt in my mind that I looked like a jackass, stalker freak.