Chapter 20
I pushed past Lawton and stormed into the house. I stopped in front of Brittney. "On second thought," I said, "I'd just love an apology." I crossed my arms. "And I sure hope it's a good one. Because unlike some people, I've got standards."
Her lips pursed. "Hey, I've got standards too."
"Yeah, except yours are too low to measure." I turned to Lawton. "A few hours ago, wanna know what I caught her doing?" My voice rose. "Boning my boss in the back seat of his car."
"Hey!" Brittney said. "We weren't boning. We were doing other stuff."
"Whatever." I turned back to Lawton. "So for your sake, I hope you wore a damn condom." I made a hard, scoffing sound. "You know what? On second thought, I hope you didn't. Because you deserve whatever this skank gives you."
Lawton's face crumpled. "Baby." With two long strides, he closed the distance between us. He reached for my hand. "I didn't wear anything."
I snatched my hand away. "How nice for you."
"Because," he said, "I didn't have to. She's only here for one thing."
Yeah, and it was pretty obvious what that was. "Exactly," I said.
"Not that." He turned toward Brittney. "She's here," he said, speaking very slowly and clearly, "to tell you how very, very sorry she is."
I snatched my hand away. "In her underpants? Do I look stupid to you?"
With a muttered curse, Lawton strode over to the front closet. He reached to the top shelf and pulled out a navy stadium blanket. He hurled it at Brittney. She didn't move to catch it. The blanket hit her torso and slid to the floor.
"Cover up," he said. "Or get out. Your choice."
With a scowl, Brittney leaned over to pick up the blanket, taking her sweet time. With the same languid motion, she stood and draped the blanket loosely around her shoulders, covering next to nothing.
I pointed to her pelvis. "I think you missed a spot."
With a huff, she tightened the blanket around herself, leaving only her bare legs exposed. She gave me a smirk. "Prude."
I gave her a smirk right back. "Squid-f*cker."
Brittney turned to Lawton. "Did you hear what she called me?"
Lawton gave her a cold look. "Like I care," he said. "Now, go on. Apologize. Chloe's waiting."
"Oh alright." Brittney blew out a breath and looked vaguely in my direction. Her voice was a bored monotone as she said, "I'm sorry about that little joke."
I stared at her. "A joke?"
She rolled her eyes. "You know. The prank. With Joey and Paul."
Joey and Paul? The guys in the ski masks? So that was their names?
Lawton's voice was tight. "That was no prank."
"Aw c'mon," Brittney said. "Yes, it was. Just a little joke. No big deal." She turned to me. "Go on, tell him. You thought it was funny. Right?"
"Funny?" I said. "So let me get this straight. Two masked men try to throw me in a trunk, and you call that a f*cking joke?"
She shrugged. "At least I have a sense of humor. Unlike some people."
"Gee," I said, "maybe some people don't like getting dragged away in the middle of the night. Maybe some people are funny like that. Maybe some people aren't totally f*cking nuts!"
"Hey, you're the one who's crazy," she said. "It wasn't the middle of the night. It was like, what, nine?" She turned to Lawton. "See? She's making it sound ten times worse than it was."
Lawton's gaze narrowed. At his side, his hands were fisted so tight that the corded muscles in his forearms looked hard as granite.
Brittney took a small step backward, but then quickly recovered. She tossed her long blonde hair over one shoulder and said, "So like I told you, it's no big deal."
"And like I told you," Lawton said, "it is a big deal. A very big deal. And if you were some guy, you'd be getting a lot worse than the chance to beg Chloe for forgiveness."
"Hey," she said. "No one said anything about begging." She threw back her shoulders. "Brittney Adams doesn't beg for anything."
"Not even car nookie?" I said.
She gave me a look. "It wasn't nookie." She turned to Lawton. "You believe me, right?"
"What I believe," he said, "is that you're supposed to be apologizing."
She pursed her lips and turned back to me. "Alright. I guess I'm sorry. But seriously, it's no big deal. In my sorority, we do that sort of thing all the time."
"Your sorority kidnaps people?" I said. "Seriously?"
With a little huff, Brittney turned to Lawton. "See? She's doing it again. She's making it sound worse on purpose, just to make me look bad."
Lawton gave her a murderous look. "You want to do a shitty job at this, fine." He pointed toward the door. "Get the f*ck out. Now."
"But I'm trying to explain," Brittney said. "She won't let me."
He crossed his arms and spoke very slowly. "Try harder."
With an eye roll, she turned to face me. "What we do," she said, "is steal their mascots. Swipe 'em for a day or two." She gave Lawton a pleading look. "But we always return them. It's no big deal. See?"
"No," he said. "I don't see."
"But it was just a joke," she said. "I don't get why everyone's freaking out about it." She adjusted the blanket and gave a dramatic sigh. "But just because you asked, I apologized anyway. So are we good now or what?"
I turned to Lawton. "So this was your idea?"
He pushed a hand through his hair. "Yeah, but—" He gave Brittney a hard look. "It was supposed to go a lot better."
Brittney threw back the blanket, and tapped her bare foot against the floor. She gave me a half-hearted look. "So you do accept my apology or what?"
"Hell no," I said. "That was the worst apology, ever."
"Hey, it was my first one," she said. "I thought I did pretty good." She turned to Lawton. "Didn't I?"
He crossed his arms. "No."
Staring at her, I felt my gaze narrow. "Just how long have you been here, anyway?"
She hesitated a split second before giving Lawton a long smoldering look. "Hard to say. We kind of lost track."
"That's it," he told her. "Get out."
"But I'm not dressed!" Brittney said.
"Whatever. Keep the blanket. Just get out."
"But I don't have my car," she whined.
Lawton reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He tapped out a quick message, and barely a moment later, there was a knock at the front door. Lawton strode toward it and flung it open. A uniformed driver stood at the ready.
"Take her wherever," Lawton said.
The driver glanced in my direction. "Yes sir."
"Not her," Lawton said. He pointed toward Brittney. "Her."
Oh God, how humiliating was this? He literally had so many girls, the driver was losing track.
"Of course," the driver said with a surprisingly straight face.
With Brittney protesting all the way, the driver hustled her, blanket and all, outside into a dark SUV. Lawton and I watched silently as it pulled down the drive and out the front gate.
From somewhere upstairs, I heard a male voice say, "Well, that went good."