Chapter 1.81:

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Riley marched the whole way across the parking lot until she hit the side of the main road.  She made a right and continued down the street like she was going to walk home. She followed tightly to the edge line painted on the pavement until she disappeared behind a few trees where the road curved.

I leaned against my car and positioned my fingers into a few chord patterns against the door handle while waiting for her to reappear.  Once she calmed down, she would realize how idiotic she was for storming off in the first place. There was no way Riley would be able to walk all the way back to her house from here.  It was hotter than hell and she was wearing flip-flops for fuck's sake. She could trip over the questionable footwear and die from heatstroke simultaneously.

After another minute, she still hadn't made her way back to my car. It was clear that she would rather irritate the shit out of me than use common sense.  She was certifiably insane. 

Damnit, she was such a pain in my ass.

I rushed around the side of my car and jumped inside to go after her.

I barely waited for the car to turn over before gunning my car in reverse.  I peeled out of the lot and turned in the direction she was walking without even bothering to see if any cars were coming. 

When I rounded the bend, Riley was walking about thirty feet ahead of me as fast as she could manage. She was walking with her back facing me and on the wrong side of the road.  What if she was hit by a car —or even worse, get abducted by some lunatic who wanted her all to himself?  She wouldn't even see the asshole coming before it was too late.

"Fucking walk towards traffic," I screamed at her and waved my hands as I revved the engine to get to her quicker.

When I got up behind her, I slammed on my brakes and slowed my speed to match her pace. She didn't even stop and look back when I rolled down the window.

"Get in the car," I shouted the order out at her and pointed to the passenger seat.

"Nope." She held out the word dramatically without looking over at me.

Riley was acting like a spoiled child.

The girl's face was already bright pink and covered in sweat.  She was going to make herself sick under the bright sun in the sweltering heat. Her stubbornness was on another level I had never encountered before.  Riley was determined to hurt herself just to prove a point to me.

"Just get in and I will take you home." I groaned, beyond frustrated with the stupid girl.

"Not happening." She shook her head and continued down the road with her obstinate lunacy.

"Riley, it's like ten miles to your house and you're pregnant. Don't be ridiculous." I bit back my anger as I tried to reason with her. Her attitude was grating against my patience. 

I was less than a few microseconds from stopping the car in the middle of the street and jumping out to grab her.  The veins in my arms and neck were popping out from under my skin as I ground my teeth together and shook. 

Control. I had to regain control of myself—and her. 

Mostly her.

I took a few breaths trying to level my head out, when a car impatiently started laying on its horn behind me.  The deafening noise made me jump and hit my head against the roof of the car. I rubbed the spot and swore when the horn went off again in rapid-fire succession. 

I called the person behind me a few made-up curse words as I rolled down my driver-side window.  I stuck out my arm and motioned the car to go around me. My eyes darted back and forth between the car in the rearview mirror and the grouchy silent blond walking next to my rolling car.

"Fucking go around," I grumbled under my breath as I gestured wildly with my unnaturally long arm as the car sat there blaring on its horn.  There was no chance in hell the person behind me didn't see me waving it on. 

I didn't have time for this bullshit.  Couldn't they see I was dealing with something much more important than a traffic jam?

There was a pissed off pregnant blond, walking on the wrong side of a dangerous street—in fucking flip flops.

There was a second long blast from a different car a little further back. Riley finally turned her head, acknowledging what was happening behind me just as an asshole in a sports car burnt an imprint of his tires into the pavement to teach me a lesson.

I didn't give a fuck about any of the screaming and honking behind me. I only cared about the girl raking me over the scorching hot coals. She turned her head towards me and continued walking. Her pacing had started slowing as she gave me her silent glare.

She was giving in and wearing down fast. Carrying the baby inside her was taking a lot out of her. It was just another reason she shouldn't keep this pregnancy.

It was sucking the life out of her.

"I've got all day Ry. I will drive next to you and keep this whole line of cars behind me the whole way until you get home." I raised my eyebrow and leaned over towards the passenger side, swerving a few times in the lane beside her to keep her attention.

The guy behind me finally gave up and veered around me, slamming on his horn one last time like I cared.  I spun around and locked eyes with the jackass and waved to him.  As soon as the car was even with mine, I lifted my middle finger to tell him what I thought about him.  The fat, bald guy enthusiastically returned the gesture.

Fucking entitled prick.

I spun my head back to Riley, who barely moved any longer. She stopped in place and began chewing on her lip, while contemplating what she should do.  The tired beauty rolled her eyes at me and released her arms from over her chest.

I almost had her; it was time to turn on my charm.  Riley could never resist me, no matter how hard she fought it. She may not like me or want anything to do with me anymore, but that never mattered. As long as she left the door she hid behind open with the tiniest crack, I would find my way back in.

"Please let me take you home. I promise I will behave." I sang out with a mischievous smile.

Riley growled at me, a full-on guttural snarl minus the foaming at the mouth.  She pulled her hair and stomped out to the middle of the street next to my car. I came to a complete stop just in time for her to tear the door open and climb in. She reached over her shoulder and angrily pulled on her seatbelt without acknowledging I existed. Her arms were back to covering her chest as she sulked.

Riley desperately needed a good, hard spanking and a long nap.

Even if she wasn't going to say another word to me, I wasn't going to leave her side today until she got both. 

I pulled up on her street and into the empty parking spot in front of her house. I turned to face the angry girl. Riley was staring straight ahead with wide, fearful eyes and her hand was on her thighs with her nails digging into her skin.  She had little spotted red crescents splattered up and down where she mauled herself without realizing it.

I leaned my head over the center console and started inching my hand towards her waist to get a hold of her to pull her closer to me. I stopped short and dropped my hands when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

JD was standing on the front porch's stairs, staring directly at me with a questioning tenseness as I leaned into the cranky blond in my passenger seat.

Shit. 

I didn't expect to run into him today, but I should have known he would be here. Exactly nothing was going right with my life right now. I was surprised there wasn't a news camera or reality show standing behind him documenting my epic failures. 

"Hey, you two." JD waved at us awkwardly as I turned off the car.  He was playing it too cool as he put on a stoic face for his sister's sake.

Riley frantically unbuckled her seat belt and popped out of the car immediately. I wasn't as eager to exit the vehicle as she was. I moseyed out, taking my sweet time to stall as I tried to come up with some excuse for why I was even here.

Today was not the day to tell JD what was going on.  We both needed a little more time to work out what we were going to do about our situation before we nailed our coffins shut—or at least mine.

Riley was probably safe.  JD would never think she was a willing participant and would probably blame me for everything that happened.  He would never believe she chased me too.

Or that she used to chase me. Right now, I was the one out of breath from sprinting after her.

JD's eyeballs danced back and forth between us and lingered on Riley's sour face.  She was still wearing her emotions all on the outside and wasn't attempting to hide anything from him. 

JD looked lost in thought as he assessed catching us together.

This was it.

My fists were balled up and waiting for him to strike first.

"Did you guys go hang out or something today?" JD asked Riley slowly, looking towards her for an explanation.

"She was hanging out with Brynn and Aiden. I dropped in and rescued her." I intervened on her behalf to throw some of the pressure off the girl who was one step from having a mental breakdown.

"Didn't you two fight the last time you saw each other?" I noticed JD still directing his questions to Riley, wanting her to respond. He didn't want to hear anything from me. JD only wanted his sister to answer him.

"Yeah, I apologized. I was picking at her. I deserved it." I shrugged and tried to throw him off our scent to diffuse the tension.

JD stared suspiciously at me and the corner of his mouth pulled down in concentration.  His trust in me was waning. He had figured out that something about us being together today wasn't quite right, but he was still too slow to piece all the evidence together.

"You good, Ry?" JD finally asked her directly.

"Yep, thanks for clearing things up for me today, Ezra." Riley stared at me with absolute hatred in her eyes and ran towards the house to disappear inside.

I stared at her dumbfounded. She didn't even invite me to come with her.

"What the hell was that?" JD stepped up in front of me and asked as soon as Riley was out of earshot.

"Nothing." I stared down at him while his face and the tips of his ears turned red.

"You were supposed to open the store this morning. Instead, you are alone with my little sister, chauffeuring her around town." JD berated me for more information.

"Aiden called and said he was at Brynn's. I dropped in to hang out before work. When I got there, they were in the middle of a huge blowout. Riley was sitting outside in front of the house. She was upset. She asked me if I could take her home since she didn't have her car with her." I dodged and shrugged him off.

"And that made your five hours late for work? Last time I checked, it didn't take five hours to drive here from Brynn's house. What were you two doing that was more important than showing up to work?" JD challenged my story.

He definitely didn't want the real answer to that question.

"Riley said she was hungry and I took her to grab some food." I lied.

"Five hours? Seriously? Ezra, I had to go in and open the store because you didn't show up.  The regional manager was standing outside the gate waiting to do the quarterly inspection." JD ranted on. 

"Shit, I didn't know." I pinched the bridge of my nose and sniffed to try to get the raw spot inside to stop itching. I was starting to feel twitchy under JD's interrogation as the pills were burning out of my system in the heat.

"I almost got fired because you had your head in your own ass. I don't know what the hell is going on with you right now, but you need to pull yourself together.  You know I appreciate you looking out for Riley, but I can't let this keep happening.  You need to start showing up to work or I will have no other options but to find someone else who will." JD warned.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. It won't happen again." I snorted at my own lie. JD's threats reminded me of all the times Riley told me she was done with me.  I wondered if he had the balls to back them up or if, like his sister, it was all a ruse.

I guessed I would probably be finding out soon enough.

"Get your ass to work, I need you to close tonight."JD called out as I turned to walk back to my car.

"On my way." I lied again. 

I had other places to be right now. 

It was time for me to find a way to scrounge up a little money for a quick refill since I wasn't going to get a chance to see the inside of the Davis' medicine cabinet. Once I got myself squared away, I would find another way to convince Riley to talk to me again.


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