Talkin' Trash
Page 37

Tantor. His twin brother.
Oh, holy shit.
As if my day couldn’t get any worse.
God. Dammit.
“Sorry,” I extricated my wrist from the man’s grasp, feeling my heart thundering in my chest. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”
Actually, I had been. Only, I never expected someone to be entering the exit only door that only employees were supposed to use.
You know. To fucking exit.
“No worries,” Tantor lied. “Do you mind opening that for me?”
Yes, yes I did.
I wasn’t opening the door to the back entrance of a hospital enabling the man to completely bypass the security guard as well as the metal detectors that he’d be forced to pass through had he gone the front way like he was supposed to.
I winced. “I can’t. I’m sorry. It’s an exit only and this one doesn’t have a badge scanner. You actually have to have a key.”
That was a lie. I had a key, but he didn’t know that.
His eyes narrowed on me, but he allowed me to pull away from him.
“Bye now.”
He grunted something and had stepped back into my path when I heard my name called from somewhere beyond the man.
The simple relief at seeing the man that I loved beyond this man that I knew had done bad things to my family and friends had me breathing a sigh of relief. A sigh of relief that quickly turned to a whimper as I remembered the awful pictures that I’d been trying in vain to purge from my memory since I’d seen them.
He looked awful, and as I paused there, looking over the man who was still for some reason blocking me from moving, I realized that he looked sick.
I would be, too, had I been caught doing what he’d been doing in those pictures.
“Excuse me,” I murmured, trying once again to go around Tantor.
Tantor grabbed my arm just as Linc arrived and grabbed my other.
I obviously went with the enemy I knew rather than the one that I didn’t and would’ve likely hidden behind Linc’s back had Tantor let me go.
I twisted my wrist hard and took the man by surprise.
The moment I was free, I moved until I was behind Linc.
His big body felt reassuring, and I wanted nothing more than to throw my arms around him.
But then I saw that he was still wearing what he’d been wearing when he left—those stupid blue goddamn workout shorts and a simple gray tee—and remembered where those clothes had been.
I took a step back, and another, and another, not realizing it until it was too late that I’d left Linc and Tantor alone—or at least alone enough for Linc to feel justified in taking a swing at Tantor without fear of me getting in the way.
I gasped when he did it, wincing slightly when Linc’s fist connected with Tantor’s jaw, and he went down like a sack of potatoes.
The moment his body hit the concrete, I felt Linc’s attention turn toward me.
“You didn’t answer your phone,” he accused.
I laughed then.
“Neither did you.” I paused. “Which is funny. I guess you were busy doing that girl instead of meeting with FaithSports. Was this just some elaborate ruse that you worked out with your agent just so you could have a reason to leave?”
I said it so calmly that you would think that we were just having a short conversation about the weather—not about the photos of him cheating on me being splashed all over the internet.
“And just so you know, I’m going to kill you.”
Linc bent over and threw up.
That’s when I decided it was time to leave.
“No!” Linc moaned. “Please wait.”
I viciously ripped my hand that he’d somehow latched onto away from him and growled. “Leave me alone! I’m going home.”
“I’m going with you,” he said. “We really need to talk.”
I laughed then.
“You’re fucking out of your mind if you think we’re talking after what I saw today.” I laughed. “Out of your mind. No. You’re going to your house, and I’m going to mine. Thank God that I didn’t move in with you.”
Thank. God.
That would’ve been awful.
At the end of the day, at least I had somewhere to go that was away from him.
He reached for me again, and again capturing my wrist.
“Please.” He squeezed my wrist tighter. “Please listen.”
“I can’t listen right now,” I told him honestly. “Truthfully, about all I’m capable of right now is killing you by wrapping my stethoscope around your neck.”
Linc’s shoulders slumped, and it was then that I saw the hospital bracelet that was on his wrist.
But I shoved the concern for him back and turned away from him.
“Fine.” He dropped my hand. “I’ll leave, but only if you agree to stay with one of your friends. Don’t stay alone.”
The thought of having to stay with one of my friends after having Linc do this to me? That sounded about as fun as shooting myself in the foot with a harpoon. Yet, I wasn’t going to argue. I had a feeling if I didn’t agree, and follow through with it, I’d be seeing him again.
And I did not want to see him again.
“Fine,” I agreed. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get your face out of mine. I never want to see you again. What we used to have is over.”
Linc licked his lips and would’ve said something more, but the reporters that I’d been avoiding by going the back way turned the corner and started running toward us.
“Go,” he said.
I didn’t stay more than a second, and I wouldn’t admit that I felt sort of bad leaving him to deal with them.
But…the man had to reap what he sowed.
Chapter 17
Sometimes I feel like I need a shot of whiskey for every single person I’m forced to talk to.
-Text from Linc to Conleigh
Linc
I threw up again, but this time it wasn’t because of the medicine that was in my system. This time it was due to the goddamn look on Conleigh’s face when she looked at me and told me it was over.
“You okay, man?”
I looked up to find the last person on earth that I wanted to see and contemplated tackling his ass to the ground and pummeling his face in until he couldn’t use that goddamn mouth of his to ruin my life anymore.
Then thought better of it when I saw the cop standing at the front of the emergency room entrance gazing around the parking lot as if he was only waiting for a reason to exert his authority.
I drew in a deep breath and then stood to my full height.
“I know that you had a play in that,” I said softly. “You think I’m completely stupid? I’m not.”
Tyson Threadgill’s brother, aka Tantor, was a dead man.
He just didn’t know it yet.
“I haven’t a clue what you’re referring to,” Tantor lied.
I felt my hands once again curl into fists, and this time I wasn’t sure that I’d care if there was a cop to witness this beat down or not.
“Go fuck yourself,” I growled, angry as hell now.
Tantor picked himself up off the ground where he’d been passed out for the last minute and smiled at me.
“I told you to follow the rules.” He brought his hand up to his jaw and stretched it out by opening and closing his mouth a few times.
He had told me to follow the rules. His rules had been very straightforward: tell your friends that it’s time to find new support.
That’d been it.
It’d literally been thirty-two hours ago. I’d been seconds away from boarding a plane as this fool had been disembarking his. We’d passed and he’d stopped me by putting his hand on my chest.
After uttering those words, he’d left me there, standing and wondering what in the hell that was supposed to mean.
And let’s not forget that I had a pair of earbuds in and I only caught what he said by sheer luck.
Some chick had been behind me and had dogged my steps all the way onto the plane, and when I’d sat down in my seat in first class, she’d sat down in the one behind me.
After calling Bayou and relaying what I’d heard from the little piece of trash and getting confirmation that we weren’t going to let him intimidate us and agreeing, I lost track of time.