Rule (6 page)

I was getting ready to crack open a
beer and plop in front of the flat screen to relax and watch the game when Nash
came out of his room pulling on a hoodie and a black ball cap over his shaved
head.  He was a few inches shorter than me, built a lot stocker but in all
actuality was a hell of a lot better looking.  He kept his black hair shaved
close to the scalp because he had twin tattoos on the side of his head and
bright, bright eyes that looked more purple than blue and stood out starkly
against his much darker complexion.  He didn’t have as much metal in his face
as I did, just a hoop through the center of his nose and both ears sporting
obsidian gauges, and for whatever reason he kept his hands and neck free of ink,
which always made me laugh because of the stuff permanently marked on his
head.  We were a matched set so when we went out together it was usually a
given we wouldn’t have to come home alone.  Nash was a much nicer guy than I
was, he just looked several degrees more badass.

“Jet and Rowdy are at The Goal Line
watching the game.  They wanna hangout if you’re game.”

Rowdy worked at the shop with us
and Jet was the lead singer of a local metal band we liked to go see play. 
They often rounded out the group that Nash and I traveled in and going to the
bar to watch the game sounded a lot more fun than brooding on the couch by
myself.  So I put my beer back in the fridge and shoved my feet into my black
boots.

Nash drove a fully restored 73’
Dodge Charger.  It was a monster of black, chrome and motor.  I was pretty sure
everyone in the apartment complex knew whenever we were coming or going because
it was just that loud and rumbly but it was a cool ride and I knew it meant a
lot to him because he had done the rebuild mostly by himself.  Nash’s
background was a little sketchy, but since my own was less than stellar I never
really pushed him to talk about it.  I knew his dad had died when he was really
young and that his mom had remarried some rich asshole that to this day Nash
refused to have anything to do with.  Phil, the same Phil that let us make his
shop our own, had been integral in getting Nash to adulthood without a criminal
record and a whole pack of illegitimate kids.

The bar was in lower downtown or
LoDo as the locals called it.  It was a popular hangout for mostly locals and
industry people and since I hadn’t been around on a Sunday in years I forgot
how packed it could be when the Broncos played.  The guys had a table in the
back right under a massive flat screen and already had glasses and a pitcher of
beer waiting.  Fist bumps and head nods for greeting went around the table as a
raucous cheer went up in the packed bar as the Broncos scored.

“What up fellas?”  Nash poured us a
round as we settled in.  Rowdy wiggled his eyebrows up and down and motioned to
a spot over his shoulder towards the bar.

“Isn’t this better than family
time?  Nobody wants to see mom dressed like that.” 

The girls that worked in the bar were
all dressed in sexy sports themed uniforms, some were super sexy cheerleaders,
some were in really small jerseys and hot pants that laced up like football
pants and my favorites were dressed in little tiny referee outfits that barley
covered their bottoms.  It was hot and way better than getting torn to pieces
by my parents just for breathing.

“No they sure don’t.”  It was nice
to just chill and spend time with the guys when normally Sunday’s were the worst
part of the week but today was awesome and even if I felt a twinge at my
selfishness I knew enough beer would squash it.

Jet looked up from the plate of
nachos he was steadily demolishing and pointed a finger over his shoulder
towards the bar.  “Wait until you see the chick waiting on us.  Dude, just dude
there aren’t even words.”

Jet’s band  Enmity was pretty big
in the local scene and I knew from firsthand experience he had his pick of
groupies and rock chicks so if he was impressed than the girl was probably a
dead 10 and I couldn’t wait to check her out.  We chatted and pounded the
pitcher away in under a half hour and the guys were getting louder and rowdier
but it was a good time and we needed another round sooner than later.  I had
yet to see the elusive waitress of hotness when the hair on the back of my neck
went up and I suddenly snapped to attention.  There was a blond making her way
towards the table.  She had on the requisite referee outfit complete with ruffly
little black shorts and fishnet stockings.  She also was wearing a pair of
black boots that looked a hell of a lot like my own, only girly and they went
up seriously awesome legs to rest below her knees.  The hair was so blond it
was almost white and instead of being in a sleek, low ponytail like I was used
to it was in twin pigtails on either side of her head and startled green eyes
were looking at me from under razor straight bangs.  Her mouth was a bright
slash of red against a pale face I was as familiar with as my own and while I
struggled with recognition my idiot friends were leering at her while Nash was
climbing to his feet to enfold her in a bear hug.

“Hey girl, what are you doing
here?”  Shaw gave a little squeal as she returned my roommates hug but her eyes
never left mine.

“Uh I work here, I have for a
while.  I normally have Sunday’s off but since my schedule changed and it’s
busy I picked it up.  What are you guys doing here?”

I knew the question was directed at
me but I was still too stunned at how different she looked to respond.  Nash
left an arm around her shoulder and pointed at our friends.  “The guy with the
goatee is Rowdy; he works at the shop with me and Rule.  The guy shoving his
face full of nachos is Jet, he sings for Enmity.  Guy’s this is Shaw, she grew
up with Rule and his brothers.”

I watched in a mixture of awe and
repulsion as my friends practically fell over themselves to shake the hand she
extended.  I still hadn’t said anything and it was starting to get awkward but
she just smiled and picked up the empty pitcher and told us she would be back
with another in a few minutes.  All four sets of eyes followed the swish of her
hair and the ruffles on her ass as she walked away and I wanted to punch
everyone, including myself in the face.  As soon as she was out of earshot
Rowdy turned on me and reached across the table to smack me upside the head with
the flat of his hand.  I swore and glared at him but made no move to retaliate.

“What the fuck?”

He shook his head and pointed a
finger at me.  “That’s the girl you complain about driving home with every
weekend?  That’s the girl you whine endlessly about walking in on you when
you’re acting the fool?  That’s the girl you dodge calls from and avoid like
the plague?  Geez Rule I never knew you were gay.”

Nash snickered and Jet busted out
in a full belly laugh.  I flipped Rowdy off and narrowed my eyes.

“Shut up.  You don’t have any idea
what you’re talking about.”

“No?  I have eyes and that chick is
killer so either you’re blind or stupid because if I was cooped up in a car
with her for two hours every week I’d be thanking God not bitching about it.”

Nash shook his head.  “I can’t
believe you didn’t know she worked here.  Do you really just ignore everything
she says to you?”

I glared at him.  “You didn’t know
either and you talk to her when she comes over on Sunday.”

“I ask her if she wants coffee, not
how she makes a living.  Dude admit it, you suck.”

I was going to argue but he kept
going, “And she is hot, she’s always been hot you just don’t like her so you
can’t see it.  She looks good in all that fancy crap she’s normally in, but man
in that uniform…”

“I like her fine.”  I refused to
comment on her hotness or lack of because that was weird to me.  Of course I
had eyes in my head so I knew logically she was a beautiful girl, but she
always seemed so cold and so untouchable that I never really thought of her as
attractive more like an impressive work of art that was meant for viewing in a
museum rather than every day enjoyment.

“Don’t lie.  You two can’t stand
each other.”

I shrugged a little.  “She’s like
family.  You know how I feel about my family.”

Jet lifted an eyebrow, “I wish my
family had members that looked like that.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Knock it off. 
Stop being a creeper.”

She came back with not one pitcher
but two and a plate of wings.  She smiled at Nash and the other guys but when
her bright gaze landed on me the shudders came down.  “These are on me.  I just
can’t help myself from trying to make sure you eat on Sunday.”  She turned away
with a flip of her pale hair and moseyed over to another table full of middle
aged guys in ill-fitting jerseys.  I narrowed my eyes when one of them put his
hand on her ruffle covered butt.  Clearly used to it Shaw flashed that killer
grin and easily side stepped the groper.  It was such a different way to see
her that when she walked past the table again clearly intent on ignoring me I
reached out and grabbed her arm.

Her eyes flashed an emerald spark
as she looked at the tattooed fingers I had wrapped around her wrist.  I was
surprised when a jolt shot all the way up to my shoulder at the contact.  I
lifted both eyebrows at her and gave her a nasty sneer.

“Do your parents know you work
here, and what about Margot?  I have a hard time believing any of the adults
you try so hard to impress daily know that you’re prancing around here half
naked.”

She scowled at me and shook my hand
off.  “No, my parents don’t know because they’ve never asked and Margot knows I
work in sports bar but she doesn’t know what the uniform looks like and I’m not
even close to being half naked.  Leave me alone, Rule.  My roommate works here too
and she’s giving me the look that means she’s about to call in the troops. 
Unless you want to be carted out of here by three very big bouncers you’ll keep
your hands to yourself and your trap shut.  I like Nash, he’s always been nice
enough to me, but I have no problem getting you and the rest of your friends
86’ed if you continue to piss me off.”

We glared at each other in a
hostile standoff until one of her other tables flagged her down.

“Just one weekend.”  I frowned at
her as she muttered the words so low I almost didn’t hear her.

“What?”

Those eyes blazed so much at me I
couldn’t even pick out one solid emotion.  “Just one weekend I wanted a break
from dealing with you.”  She flounced away from me and for the first time since
I had met her I realized maybe spending time with me was as much a pain for her
as it was for me.  When I turned back to my friends they were all looking at me
with a mixture of pity and awe.  My scowl darkened even more as I chugged back
my full beer in one swallow.

“What?”  I could hear the surliness
in my tone.

“Dude, what’s the deal with that?” 
Rowdy was the one who asked the question but Nash and Jet both looked like they
wanted to ask the same thing.

“What are you talking about?”

Nash lifted up his beer to hide a
smile.  “You looked like you both wanted to box each other or tear each other’s
clothes off and go at it right in the middle of the bar.  What gives with that,
I thought she bugged you.”

“She does.  She’s rich and spoiled;
we don’t agree on anything, we never have.”

Rowdy gave me a look that outright
called bullshit on my claim.  “I know what I saw and there is no way that if
that girl didn’t offer it up you wouldn’t take it.”

I wanted to yell at him that he was
wrong, so very wrong because before she was any of the things that annoyed me
and got under my skin, she was Remy’s and there was nothing in heaven or hell
that would make me forget that.  Pulling in my temper I poured another beer and
lapsed into a moody silence.  I wasn’t attracted to Shaw, it was just seeing
her in a new environment, seeing her in something other than her fancy outfits
that cost more than I made in a month that had the tension between us reading
to other people as something else.

We were almost to the bottom of the
second pitcher and silently Shaw had dropped of a replacement when a really
pretty girl with super short dark hair suddenly appeared at the edge of the
table.  She was tall and had eyes the color of Jack Daniels but there was
nothing on her lovely face that came across as welcoming.  She had a mouth that
would give Angelia Jolie a run for her money and a body that was meant to stop
traffic displayed in all its glory in a matching uniform to Shaw’s only instead
of kick ass boots she had on a pair of spiked heels that probably made her
taller than Nash and Jet.

Jet sat up straighter and Rowdy,
who was by far the drunkest of all of us since he had started adding shots of
tequila twenty minutes ago, almost fell off his stool when she posted up at the
table between the two of them.  Her gaze was trained directly on me though so I
met her look for look until she finally spoke.  She had a soft southern twang
and I could swear I saw Jet fall in love on the spot.

“You’re Rule.”  It wasn’t a
question so I just nodded.

“I’m Ayden Cross.  I live with
Shaw.”

I wasn’t sure why that was supposed
to matter to me so I kept silent while my best friend whipped his head around
to glare at me.  I was being kind of rude, but I was buzzed and still pissed at
Shaw so I didn’t really care.

“I don’t know what your deal is but
leave her alone.  She doesn’t need you screwing with her head anymore so just
back off.”

I blinked because I honestly had no
clue what this babe was going on about.  “I don’t mess with Shaw.”

She narrowed her eyes and pointed a
finger at me.  “I know exactly what you do and don’t do Tattoo Boy.  I adore
Shaw.  She’s sweet, nice and the best roommate ever so you need to just go do
your troubled, bad boy act somewhere else, she doesn’t need it…”It looked like
she was gearing up to lay into me even more but something caught her eye and
suddenly her eyes were glowing with gold fire.  “Oh my God!  I cannot believe
that asshole had the nerve to show up here.  I need to go get Lou.”  She spun
on her heel and marched through the crowd leaving me reeling.  I had no clue
what she was talking about but clearly something had crawled up her butt so I
looked over my shoulder and felt every protective cell I had suddenly come
alive.