“You did not,” she hissed.
“Melinda,” Banger said quietly. “You have about three seconds to catch your driver and get back into your car and off this property, or I’ll make you get off this property.”
Melinda looked at Banger as if she’d just used Tongues to speak.
“Three,” Banger started.
“Two. One!” Salem snapped. “Go, shoo. Nine. Now. Go!”
“Nine?” Banger asked curiously.
“Isn’t that no in German?” Salem asked.
Banger shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“Me neither.” Salem shrugged. “Why aren’t you gone yet?”
Melinda narrowed her eyes at Salem. “Because I have just as much of a right to be here like everyone else does.”
“No,” Salem said at the same time Banger said, “You don’t.”
“Oh, boy,” I heard someone say behind me.
Possibly Price, but I couldn’t quite pin the voice since they were talking so quietly.
“Now,” Salem ordered. “Leave.”
“I…” Melinda started, but Banger had had enough.
With a quick step forward, she was in her mother’s face and hissing loudly.
“He wouldn’t want you here,” she declared. “He hated you. Hated everything you represent. Hated the way you treated me. Hated the way he wasted so much of his life trying to fix something that was so disgustingly broken. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d love for you to make life easier and get out. Before I start remembering exactly why I hate you.”
I already remembered. But there was only so much one could deal with before they shut down. And I’d apparently reached that breaking point already.
Melinda sighed, then gestured for her driver to get the door, even though it’d have taken her a half second to get there, while it took her driver at least thirty since he was sitting in the car.
Melinda dropped inside as if she hadn’t just been kicked out of her ex-husband’s funeral, then sat straight forward while they drove away.
“How’d you know she was coming?” Banger asked Salem.
Salem shrugged her shoulders in answer then threw her arms around her sister. The two watched the town car drive away.
I waited in the wings until my girl remembered I was there.
“God, I could use some pizza and beer right now,” Salem grumbled darkly. “That woman drives me to drink.”
My chuckle finally reminded Banger that I was there, causing her to turn toward me.
“Oh!” Banger cried out, reaching blindly for me. “There you are. Salem, meet my boyfriend, Easton.”
Boyfriend.
I liked the sound of that.
Even if it sounded somewhat childish to be so happy about being called someone’s boyfriend.
“Easton, this is my stepsister, Salem. She formally requests pizza.” Banger smirked. “And you met my mother.”
I lifted my lip up at that.
If I could choose one person to never meet, it’d be the person that thought the woman of my dreams was something gross to scrape off her shoe. The woman that told mine to ‘grin and bear it’ when it came to the man that kidnapped her.
CHAPTER 22
Oh, my God. You get to do him for the rest of your life?
-Salem to Banger
BANGER
“Wow,” Salem said as she stared at the barndominium over her head. “This place is… nice.”