Chapter Twenty-Seven

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

“We definitely need to do that more often,” Letty sighed as she laid herself down next to me, sweaty and panting and looking completely satisfied. Almost automatically, her right leg hooked over my body and she tucked her left arm under me, curling herself into my side. Just as automatically, I wrapped my right arm around her, pulling her even closer to me. I can’t even count the number of times that we’ve fallen asleep just like that, our bodies twisted together until I can’t really tell where I stop and she starts.

“Good, huh?” I asked, smiling at her as I ran my hand through her hair.

“Damn good,” she laughed, rubbing her hand lightly over my stomach.

“Yeah, it was…but the next time we do this, I’d like to be able to move…”

“Oh, come on, Dom,” she teased. “You not being able to move is what makes it fun! Different and all…you know...”

I just looked at Letty. “What…you gonna break out those velvet-lined handcuffs next time you want to be in control?”

“You know about that?” Letty asked, turning her face into my chest like she didn’t even want to look at me. “How do you know about that???”

“Well I heard you girls talking about it in the garage…” I started explaining. “And then, Mia was wrapping up a box from that place on Sunset the day before your birthday… What’s it called…The Pleasure Chest? And then neither one of you would say what was in the box, so I figured…”

“Oh God,” she moaned, still not looking at me.

“Come on, baby,” I laughed, rubbing my hand up her side. “Sounded like it could be fun… I was actually kind of disappointed you hadn’t tried to use them on me already…”

“Really?” she asked hesitantly, lightly kissing my side before turning back to face me again.

“Yeah, really,” I assured her, playing with her hair again, trying not to laugh at her embarrassment. Letty's cute as hell when she's flustered...and I don't get to see her like that often enough.

Letty was quiet for a while, so quiet I thought maybe she’d fallen asleep. I was trying to figure out how I was gonna get both of us dressed and out to the car without waking her up when she started running her hand over my chest again.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” she asked after a minute.

“Not at all, baby,” I said as I turned to brush a kiss against her forehead. “But…I think Mia will hurt both of us if we don’t get home soon… I told her we wouldn’t be too long when I talked to her earlier, you know. Didn’t plan on you wanting to seduce me…”

Sure enough, Mia was waiting for us in the living room when Letty and I got finally back to the house. I just wanted to take Letty upstairs, curl up in bed with her wrapped in my arms and fall asleep, but one look at Mia’s face and I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“Dom,” Mia started right as we came in the door, practically jumping up out of her chair. I thought she was gonna to say one of two things. Either she was gonna bitch at me for making her worry, thinking Johnny had found Letty and me and done something else to us, or she was gonna be all concerned over seeing how bad I was hurt, and wanting me to go to the doctor. I hoped to God it was the second option…no one can bitch me out better than my sister, not even Letty.

I didn’t know how bad I looked…I’d been more worried about Letty than about myself the entire drive to the garage, hadn’t stopped long enough to even look at myself in the rearview mirror. I knew, though, that I must’ve looked pretty bad, for Letty to be so upset and so insistent on checking me over to be sure I was okay. She could’ve just been horny though, I guess…

But it didn’t seem like Mia even noticed my cuts and bruises. She just walked up to me, practically pushed Letty out of her way, didn’t stop till she was standing less than an inch away from me. Letty reached over and took my hand, and I had to stop myself from laughing, knowing she was prolly thinking the exact thing I was - hoping that Mia wasn’t pissed at us.

“Dom…I need you to listen to me,” Mia said, her voice low and gritty. “I need you to listen, and then I need you to tell me the truth.”

“Okay,” I shrugged, just wanting to get whatever this was over with.

“When was the last time you fucked Julie Tran?”

“What?” I barked out, wondering why the hell Mia was asking me that. I could feel Letty stiffen beside me, started rubbing my thumb against the back of her hand, trying to reassure her.

“You heard me, Dom,” was all Mia said. She couldn’t even look me in the eye…just stared somewhere over my left shoulder.

“Uhm…” I mumbled, trying to think. “I guess it was…three months…” I could feel Letty tense up even more at that, probably remembering that race back in December and what Julie had said to her. She stepped away from me a little bit, tried to pull her hand away from me, but I wouldn’t let go of her.

“Three months ago?” Mia asked as she finally raised her head, her eyes flicking over to Letty and then to me, her voice loud and angry and harsh. “What the hell is wrong with you, Dom? You know…maybe you deserved to have Johnny kick your ass. And maybe Letty should kick your ass next.”

“Fuck, Mia…would you let me finish?” I yelled, my voice pounding an echo inside of my head.

“Fine, finish!” she yelled back, interrupting me again.

“Three months before I went to jail. That’s the last time I fucked Julie Tran.”

“Oh,” Mia said quietly, and Letty relaxed next to me, stepped closer so our arms touched. Now it was her rubbing her thumb over the back of my hand…a sort of unspoken apology for doubting me, I guess. I wasn’t mad, though. I know Letty gets kind of insecure about us sometimes…doesn’t think she’s enough for me. She knows I love her and I’d never do anything I thought would hurt her, but it’s like she doesn’t always believe that. Especially when the sluts are hanging all over me at the races.

“I’m sorry, Dom,” Mia continued after a minute. “Can we…I have something I need to tell you.”

“Can’t it wait till tomorrow?” I asked, trying to keep the weariness out of my voice.

“No… Sorry, Dom, but I don’t think it can…” she replied. “Let’s go sit down somewhere…”

“So what’s going on?” I asked Mia when the three of us were finally settled in the family room - Letty and I on the couch with her curled up underneath my arm, snuggling against my side; Mia sitting across from us in the old recliner we’ve had since before she was born, perched on the edge of the chair, leaning forward as though she didn’t really want to be there, telling whatever story she had to tell, as though she would rather be anywhere else in the world at that moment.

“I know why Johnny did this to you,” she answered quietly, looking at the floor.

“What?” I demanded, trying to keep my temper in check, reminding myself that Johnny was nowhere around so getting angry right then wouldn’t do any good.

“You remember Lisa? My so-called best friend back in freshman year of high school?”

“Lisa, the one who only hung out with you ‘cause she thought being your friend would make it easier for her to get into Dom’s pants?” Letty asked, as I looked over at her.

“Really?” I asked, surprised. “I always wondered why she came around so much, even when she knew you wouldn’t be home…”

“Yeah,” Mia interrupted, “that would be her. Anyways, I guess the past year or so she’s been hanging around with Johnny’s crew, trying to get in with them. Well, she called me tonight, about an hour ago.”

“Why’d she do that?”

“Gee, I wonder…maybe so she could gloat?” Letty sneered.

“Yeah,” Mia said, laughing a little bit. “She hates you now, you know…couldn’t wait to tell me how bad you’d fucked up this time, how bad Johnny said he hurt you… Thought she was gonna pee her pants or something, she sounded so excited…”

“Okay, okay,” I laughed. “So she hates me ‘cause she never did manage to get me to fuck her. What’d she say?”

“Well,” Mia answered, “she said Johnny and Julie had a huge fight last weekend… I guess Julie is pregnant. And…she’s saying it’s your kid.”

“What?” I roared, and my voice sounded shocked and confused even to me.

“Yeah… According to Lisa, Julie told Johnny that the two of you got back together after you got out of jail. She’s saying that you fucked her every chance you got, sometimes even when she didn’t want to, told you no…”

“That bitch…” Letty muttered quietly against me.

“That’s not all,” Mia said, grimacing a little. “Julie also says that when she told you she was pregnant…you flipped out. Demanded that she get an abortion, and when she said she wouldn’t, you went psycho on her, called her a slut, a whore, a tramp…any name you could possibly think of. Told her you never wanted to see her again, that you had a new girl… And…”

“What, Mia?” I asked when she trailed off. “Keep going…”

“She says you beat her up, Dom,” Mia answered, looking straight at me for the first time since Letty and I had gotten home. “Kicked the shit out of her, left her bleeding in some alley. Says you almost made her lose the baby, you hurt her so bad. That’s why… That’s why Johnny’s so mad, why he jumped you. He wants you to admit that Julie’s pregnant with your kid…wants you to step up and take care of her.”

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“And everyone knows that you and Letty are together now…including Johnny. And he thinks that Letty’s the reason you won’t go back to Julie. Lisa told me that Johnny’s been plotting ways to hurt the two of you all week…said that any time he even thinks of the two of you being together he gets crazier. He’s determined to make both of you miserable, won’t leave you alone until you two’ve broken up and you’re back with Julie.”

“So…what are we gonna do, Mia?” I asked quietly. “I’m supposed to give up the best thing that ever happened to me ‘cause Julie can’t stand that I didn’t want to get back together with her? That’s not gonna happen…”

“I know, Dom…I know,” she answered, looking over my head. “I don’t know what we can do…but I’ll think of something…”