Chapter 4: Rebel Revenge: Chapter 4

The hotel room Bart had booked for me was the most luxurious I’d ever been in. If theirs was even half as nice, I couldn’t blame my mom and Bart for spending the day in bed and ditching me for dinner. I might have done the same if I’d come up here first. I ordered room service since I hadn’t eaten downstairs, and ate it sitting in bed, watching a movie, with the city lights twinkling through the window outside.

For the first time in a week, I slept soundly. The sheets were silk, the mattress free of lumps, and I woke up feeling almost like a new person.

All fine and dandy until I looked at my phone and realized the blackout blinds weren’t the cheap, shit kind I had in my apartment that let sun in from the crack of dawn. Oh no, they were the freaking expensive kind that kept it as dark as the middle of the night, even when it was eleven and you were due at your mother’s wedding in forty-five minutes.

“Fark. She’s going to kill me.” I staggered out of bed, regretting the three extra vodkas I’d consumed from the mini bar after my dinner. In the bathroom, I got the shower going and peeled off the clothes I’d slept in. Not wanting to do it, but knowing I needed to, I cranked the water all the way to the right and let it spray over my naked body. “Oh, finger nuggets. That’s cold.”

But it did the trick in waking me up. I toweled off at record speed and carefully reapplied my makeup, covering every bruise. Next up was the gold satin dress I hadn’t worn in a very long time. The spaghetti straps and low-cut back meant no bra, not that I really needed one with my less-than-a-handful of boob. The hemline fell around my ankles but the skirt had a large split up the thigh.

I stared at myself in the mirror and realized there was no way I could wear this. It was too much. Too revealing. For all the reasons I’d loved it when I’d bought it, I now hated it.

But I hadn’t brought an alternative. The only other option was the dress I’d worn last night, which I’d also slept in, so it was a hot mess. I shrugged on my coat instead. It wasn’t long enough to cover the slit in the skirt, but I could hold that together with my hand. I was out of other options, and out of time. It was ten minutes to twelve, and I didn’t have time to hang around here, pondering over how much skin I was showing off.

On the elevator ride down, my female-only ride-sharing app unhelpfully advised there were no drivers in the area in the next fifteen minutes. That was just great. But there’d been a lot of taxis dropping off and picking up guests the night before when I’d arrived, so I strode out to the drop-off bay, praying I’d be lucky.

A taxi pulled in right as I arrived, letting out an elderly couple who had to have come from the airport, judging by the stickers on their suitcases.

The driver slammed down the trunk and then looked at me. “You need a ride?”

I froze. The idea of being in a confined space with him felt too out of my control. It would be all too easy for him to lock the doors and drive me somewhere private, where he could take whatever he wanted from me.

The man waited patiently for my answer.

I couldn’t breathe. I only had minutes to get to the courthouse, but I couldn’t do it. I shook my head quickly.

Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. I hated this. It was so far removed from who I was, and yet I couldn’t stop the fear crawling up my throat. I didn’t want to be this girl.

I sucked in a few deep breaths and gave myself a mental pep talk. Not every man was Caleb and his friends. Not every man wanted to hurt me, and I couldn’t live my life in fear. If I was going to be like this, I might as well go back to starving myself until my body gave up.

Or take the quicker option, via the gun locked in my apartment.

I was going to get in the next taxi that pulled up. No matter who was driving.

The next vehicle in was exactly what I’d been waiting for. A female-driven, completely empty taxi.

I waved at her, and she pulled up right in front of me. I could have leaned through the open window and kissed her for having a vagina. Instead, I grabbed the handle of the front passenger seat. “Thank you so much—”

The back door jerked open with a squeak, and I stopped mid-sentence as a man slid into the back seat of my ride. “Hey! This is my—” My mouth dropped open. “You!”

The man grinned at me. “Hey, Roach. You getting in or what?”

I glared at him. “I am, but you’re getting out.”

“Nah. Need a ride.”

“This is my taxi.”

He cocked his head to one side. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law, my little insect friend. And I’m the one sitting in the car while you stand there checking me out.”

“I’m not checking you out.” But of course, because he’d brought it up, my gaze skimmed down his body, taking in the dark stubble on his jaw, the white, open-necked shirt, and a navy suit that fit him to perfection.

He chuckled.

The sound drew my gaze back up to his face. God, it would be satisfying to punch him right in his full, pink lips.

The driver glanced between us like she was at a tennis game. “You getting in?” she asked me eventually.

As much as I didn’t want to get in a car with him, he didn’t give me that sick, uncomfortable feeling either. And I really didn’t have time to hang around, waiting for another female driver to appear. I got in. “Courthouse, please.”

“You got it.” She glanced at Cockface in the back. “Good with you if I take her first?”

“Ladies always come first.” He leaned forward, so his head was in between our seats, but it was me he turned toward. “A motto I live by in all areas of my life.”

I glanced over at him, trying to ignore how close our faces were. “Got references to prove that?”

He sat back, shaking his head with a laugh. “How about an on-the-job trial instead? Plenty of room in this back seat if you want to climb over and take me for a test ride.”

The urge to make immature gagging noises rose swiftly, but we were pulling up outside the courthouse, and I was saved by the need to pay the driver. “Add an extra-big tip on his ride, okay? You deserve extra for having to hear his verbal diarrhea.”

I got my credit card out to pay my bill, but Cockface reached over and tapped his card before I could get mine to it.

Ugh, he was one of those guys, who thought they were all charming and generous, flashing around the fact they had money. “Don’t expect me to say thank you. You owed me that for breathing all over my neck while you were trying to be sexy.”

“Trying or succeeding? I think the latter.”

I put my hand on the door and opened it. “Oh, thank God. Room to escape your rapidly expanding head.” I tapped the driver on the shoulder. “Have a great day. Thank you.”

She nodded at me, and I closed the door, turning away to stride up the courthouse stairs.

“Wait up, Roach.”

I spun around. “Seriously? You’re following me now?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I’ve got an appointment.”

I grinned. “With a judge? What did you do? Wait, let me guess. Indecent exposure?”

“Nothing about me is indecent, Roachy.”

“Whatever. I’m late. One can only hope the judge locks you up so you can’t inflict your less-than-stellar personality on any other woman. Lucky you let them come first because I’m sure they don’t stick around for pillow talk.”

At the top of the stairs, he held the heavy door open for me. “Plenty of spare pillows in my room at the hotel if you want to find out.”

“I’d rather suffocate myself with one.” I picked up the pace, scanning the entrance board that had a directory of the day’s events and the various rooms they were taking place in. Locating the room that had “Wedding of Kemp and Weston” written next to it, I followed the signs down a long hall.

Cockface kept pace with me the entire way. “I’m Vaughn, by the way.”

“I think I prefer Cockface.”

“Fair enough. I’m pretty partial to Roach for you anyway.”

“You aren’t even going to ask my name?”

“Why? I already know it. Rebel.”

I paused with my hand on the door to the ceremony room, gaze snapping to his. “How?”

He pushed open the door for me again, but neither of us made any move to go inside. I don’t know why he didn’t, but I was too busy gaping at him.

He winked. “You’re my new sister, Roach.”