Chapter Five
Pyro
All around the parking lot, you see a bunch of exhausted ass people. These watches are killing us slowly. It isn’t as if we can half-ass our shifts; we have to be careful with every single moment. Mine and Salt’s shift was proof of it. About another week to go before we have three more names to add to the shift roster, it’ll cut our hours down a little more and make it a little less exhausting per rotation.
“Pyro you want this?”
I rub at my leg; the therapy Ripley gave me last week helped, but not enough. I’m still sore as fuck.
“Pyro?”
I shake my head. “Go ahead, brother.”
Smokey shrugs and goes back to looking at his phone and smoking the rest of his joint.
“Your leg bothering you again?”
I watch Jinx climb the picnic table and sit on the top of it beside me. “A little stiff.”
She gives me a sad smile, and I give her one back because I’m not always an asshole.
“I haven’t gotten a chance to thank you for my birthday party.”
Before her sweet face and blue eyes slay me, I turn back around. “Welcome, darlin’.”
“Well, I won’t keep you. I only wanted to thank you in person,” she says quietly as she climbs off the picnic table.
“Jinx—” I’m interrupted by Winter chasing Braxxon out of the housing building.
“I don’t give a fuck, Brax!”
I stretch my leg out and hop off the picnic table and reach for my crutches but decide against it; Winter is squaring up against our president, I don’t have time to crutch my way over there.
I hobble run to where they are with Smokey hot on my tail. Winter is bawling her eyes out and pushing against Braxxon’s chest; her screams are a jumbled mess in-between her hiccups.
“Hey, hey,” I say gently, wrapping my arm around her midriff to pull her back.
“If you knew,” she gasps, “the shit he’s keeping from you, you’d knock him the fuck out.”
My attention snaps to Braxxon’s; he looks away, the muscles in his jaw ticking with anger.
“Let me go, Pyro,” Winter demands.
I loosen my grip; once she’s free, she’s back in his face pointing her finger. “I will never forgive you for this, never,” she yells at the top of her lungs.
His head snaps around, and his voice seethes with anger. “What the fuck were you doin’ in my phone? Huh? You fuckin’ know better. I’ve been too fuckin’ lax with you. Get the fuck over it and if I ever catch you in my phone again,” Braxxon leans down into her face, her finger slides off his cheek when he does, “there will be consequences.”
Winter takes a step back and delivers a blow to his heart. “The worst thing I have ever done in my life was marrying you.”
She looks to me, all red-faced from crying. “You’re his VP, and you honestly know jack shit.”
I turn around to face Braxxon. “What the fuck is she talkin’ about, Prez?”
His eyes go cold. “I’m the fuckin’ president, don’t fuckin’ worry about it.”
“Woah, what the hell is goin’ on with you,” Smokey demands from him, pushing me back a few steps in the process. I didn’t even realize I stepped up to him, that’s how fucking angry I am.
“I’m your goddamn president, I don’t fuckin’ answer to any of you,” he growls. “You’d be best to remember that.”
Smokey also takes a step back, I lower my gaze down to his hands and notice he’s balling his fists at his sides as well.
Sniper comes riding in through the gate with Rap; they park and jog over to us. “What’s goin’ on, brothers?”
“Your brother has lost his fuckin’ mind,” I seethe. “You best drag him away, Snipe. Smokey and I two seconds away from beating the fuck out of him.”
“Smokey?” Sniper questions, not sure he heard me right.
“Get him the fuck away from me,” Smokey growls. “President or not, treatin’ me like shit gets you no fuckin’ respect from me.”
“Is that so, motherfucker?” Braxxon hisses through clenched teeth. “You wanna fight me, asshole!”
Rap moves next to Sniper and Brax tries to push him out of the way. “Move your fuckin’ ass!” he roars.
“We ain’t movin’, Prez,” Smokey says calmly. “You’re out of control. We don’t disrespect our brothers, rank or no rank.”
Brax eyes his brother for a moment, then me and Smokey and turns away. “Fuck all of you!”
I shake my stiff leg out and breathe a sigh of relief I didn’t need to knock the shit out of our president.
“What the fuck happened?” Sniper questions.
“Brother, I’ve got no fuckin’ idea,” Smokey admits. “Brax and Winter came stormin’ out of the housing unit, and we had to drag Winter off of him.” He shakes his head and lights a cigarette. “Then Winter told Pyro Brax was hidin’ shit from his VP, and Pyro only questioned what she was talking about.” He shrugs. “Your bother snapped suddenly. Shit was weird as fuck.”
“Pyro?” Sniper confirms.
“It was fuckin’ quick,” I confirm. “You need to get him under control. We all have bad days, but if he keeps it up and someone calls for a vote to impeach his ass,” I growl. “It’ll be his fuckin’ fault.”
I shake my head. “My fuckin’ leg hurts. I’m gonna see if Ripley’s free for a rub. Fix your brother, Sniper. I’m fuckin’ serious.”
“Fuck,” Sniper yells out.
“We’re falling apart at the goddamn seam,” Smokey grumbles when I turn away.
“No shit,” I agree.
I reach my crutches and put them to use, when I get into the housing building I call out for Ripley, stopping in my tracks when I see Jinx sitting in one of the recliners. “You okay?”
She looks up, swipes her cheeks, giving me a fake smile. “Yes.”
I don’t believe it, so I sit down on the couch, and drop my crutches to the floor as Ripley turns the corner.
“What?” she questions.
“Can you work out my leg?”
“Yeah, let me go get your therapy bag,” she grumbles and walks off.
“Damn, everyone is moody today.”
“Everyone is emotional, if you trap a bunch of females up and they are going through stuff, you’re bound to have days like this,” Jinx defends.
“I didn’t mean anything by it, darlin’.”
“Take off your pants,” Ripley orders when she’s back in the room. Jinx picks up a book from the side table, ignoring us as she flips to the first page.
I shouldn’t have brushed her off earlier when she was trying to thank me. She was only being kind, and I dismissed her as if she was nothing, I guess I’m an asshole after all.
The entire time Ripley is working out my leg, I replay the way I dissed her through my mind. It’s eating me up, and every time I hiss in pain, I beg for her to look up and give me her eyes. Something to let me know we’re alright, I hate knowing I hurt her feelings when she was only being kind, she wasn’t even hitting on me.
Ripley’s hands stop, and I know my therapy is finished. “Feel any better,” she questions me, rolling up the therapy band and recapping the muscle cream she massaged into my leg.
“It isn’t stiff anymore.”
“Good,” she replies tersely.
“You okay, Ripley?”
“I’m good,” she mumbles while she packs up my therapy shit. “Bad day.”
I know she’s lying, she isn’t okay. Ripley isn’t an emotional woman; she’s too much of a tomboy. In fact, I’ve never even seen her cry, so when she’s upset, it shows.
I ignore my irritation with her brush off and peek back over at Jinx who is wrapped up tight in her novel. When she flips her page, I know she wasn’t paying me the slightest bit of attention, even with my pants down.
Ouch to my fucking man-ego.
“Use your damn crutches, Pyro. You have about a month left on them, and if you want to ride when the month is up, I suggest you use the things,” she warns before she leaves me alone with Jinx.
“Got it,” I grunt when I stand to put my pants back on.
I don’t turn to look at Jinx when I pick up my crutches and leave the room. I know Akela and Ripley being in the same vicinity was supposed to remind me of Lana and sizzle out my attraction to Jinx, but it hasn’t.
*