Page 56 of Cry Baby
Was I acting this way because Caliger, Allen, and I had fucked around a few times over the years? No. Maybe it was just that Jailbait had always been…strange. Now he was dragging away my subordinate.
A cop.
Five years before, the shit-bag white-haired freak barely looked another person in the eye, and every conversation I heard from him sounded like he was just afraid to exist. He’d flinch if someone laughed too loudly, and he always tapped his fingers together.
Tonight?
Tonight he’d walked into O’Malley’s like he’d owned the place for years.
He was a cocky little bastard now, not at all looking like the five-foot-something he had, bagging every smile from broads and making every man adjust himself.
Including fucking me.
It was not right.
He was…popular?
Hell, even charming.
It didn’t fit.
I told myself I was only making sure Ryan got home in one piece so I could keep the dumbass working on shift.
That’s all.
This is not heroic.
I’m not being a dramatic bitch.
Just looking out for one of the guys.
I’m the boss now. Gotta keep the peons in check.
Right…
I stayed across the street, keeping the two men in sight without getting close enough to be noticed.
Ryan kept talking and staggering around while Jailbait wore his creepy fake smile. I couldn’t hear a damn word he was saying, but every few seconds he’d burst into another fit of laughter, and my mind concocted dirty innuendos or stupid nonsense.
“Do you think? Nah.”
Jailbait laughed too now, and not a fake laugh either this time, but a real one.
“I think Hollis is just a bully.”
The sound carried farther than I expected in the quiet streets, and I growled.
Bully.
I’ll show you fucking bully, Jailbait.
We left the glow of downtown behind soon after, and the sidewalks were beginning to narrow. The old fat maple trees stretched over the road, and their branches swallowed the moonlight.
Ryan nearly tripped over the curb, and Jailbait caught him at the last minute with a laugh.
“You good, brother?” he asked, watching my subordinate dangle over the pavement.
Caliger gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up that somehow turned into him pointing at absolutely nothing and laughing like a complete lunatic.
