Page 23 of Lick

“Addiction is a fucking excuse. I’ve lived with addiction my whole fucking life, and you don’t see me shoving that shit up my arm. I’m not a coked-out junkie. Betsy shouldn’t have started that shit in the first place. She took the coward’s way out, like our bitch of a mother did. She was a selfish cunt just like the whore who raised her.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I don’t? You don’t fucking know. You don’t know what eats away at me at night. What’s in here!” He takes the heel of his palm and slams it into the side of this head.

“Is that why you are the way you are?”

He laughs. “And how the fuck am I?”

“You have no respect for women.” There, I said it. I said what I’ve thought since the moment I walked up to the clubhouse and he’d started in on me.

“Most women don’t deserve respect.”

I swallow down my emotions.

“Don’t worry. I’m still on the fence with you.”

“On the fence? That’s funny.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, I think. You’re on the fence as to whether or not I deserve your respect.” I shake my head. “Yet you prove to me just how much you respect me when you call me all those God-awful names.”

“They’re my names for you.”

“I have a name, Tylan.”

“I know you do, Jenni.” Honest to goodness that’s the first time my name has fallen from his lips. “And so does everyone else. But here’s the thing, Sweet Tits, those God-awful names you seem to detest so much are my names, mine and no one else’s. No one can take that away from me.” I see him slouch down into the seat next to me, crossing his arms, leaning his head along the headrest. His eyes close.

I quickly decide to change the subject. “What did you decide to do with your sister’s body?” I glance at him and then back to the road.

“Not a damn thing.”

“You can’t do that.”

He turns his face to mine. “You bet your sweet ass I can, and I fucking did. Sister or not, she made her bed, and she can fucking lie in it for eternity. Ain’t no skin off my back.”

“What about her kids? Where will they go to mourn her when they’re older? You’re just going to take that away from them. Let her be burned and placed in some cold container under a number. That’s how you’re going to allow her soul to rest?”

Sitting up, he leans towards me. “Really? You’re gonna try to pull that shit with me? Don’t you try to fucking guilt me over this. You’re concerned about some kids you don’t even know?”

“They’re innocent, Tylan. I’m sorry to say this, but they don’t deserve to be treated that way. They deserve to know where their mother is so they can choose to visit her when they’re older.”

“Fuck that shit! Fuck that shit right there. The day she decided to taint her veins with that poison is the day she lost me as a brother. I don’t owe her or those kids anything.”

“You’re still their uncle, Tylan, and they still need you.”

“They don’t fucking know me, sweetness, let alone need me. After tonight, they won’t remember what the fuck I look like.”

When Lick swings the metal, door open to the building, Maggie’s standing there, waiting. “There you two are. I thought you might have changed your minds.”

“Did you give us a choice?” Lick snaps.

“Oh, Mr. McCoy, we both know we always have choices. Good or bad, they’re ours to make.” She gives him a wink before turning on her heel. Over her shoulder, she continues to talk as we follow her deeper into the building. “Please remember that children are fragile by nature. They may be timid, shy, especially Roxy being as young as she is. Ryder, poor boy, seems to be having a rough go of it. Very moody, that one, but now I see it may run in the family.”

Her comments make me smile. Lick, on the other hand, only deepens the frown he’s had plastered on his face since he got out of my car.

“I’m sure everything will go fine,” I reassure her.