“I’m not staying with you again!” she says, huffing and looking out the window. I half watch her, half reverse the car.
I could easily threaten her into doing it.
I could tell her I’ll take her from her room again, pile her into the back of the car, and that if she makes me go to all that trouble then she will be spending the night in the basement. I’d keep her warm, obviously, though I wouldn’t make that part of the threat.
But I don’t say any of that.
I’m learning to choose my battles.
“Alright… but if it doesn’t go well with your dad, then I want you to text me, and I’ll come and get you. Okay?”
I watch her reaction while I shift up the gears and it’s impossible not to notice the hint of a smile playing on her lips. “Fine.”
I’m confident enough that it’s not going to go well with her dad.
I pull out on to the road and see her body relax when she realizes I am actually taking her home.
“I meant what I said earlier,” I tell her.
She glances over in my direction. “What did you say earlier?”
“Right after you tried to swing for Liam.”
She turns her head and full on looks at me now. “You said you wanted to fuck my brains out?”
I flash her a smile. “Alright, maybe I never said it in the best way…”
“Is there ever a ‘best way’ to say that?” she says, followed by a little snort.
I push her away playfully while I laugh at her. “What I meant was, I’m proud of you.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “You still felt the need to come barging in like some white knight and save me, though.”
“Haha!” I throw my head back laughing, then I grab a hold of her hand and pull it to my lips, squeezing hard while I plant a kiss on it. “You’re confused. I’m not the hero, darlin, I’m the fucking villain, remember?”
Like clockwork, she messages me just after 9pm.
What are you doing?
I tell Tony to move his arse to the back seat and do a U turn in the road.
I’m on my way. I type back.
“What’s the plan?” Tony asks, squeezing himself through the space between the two front seats. “Are we doing it tonight?”
I think about it for a minute.
Do I really want Lacey seeing this? She was acting like she wanted to swing for Liam earlier, but she calmed herself down in about five seconds. She’s going to see that it takes me longer than five seconds to calm down.
But, maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s good that she sees this. I told her that with me, she’d always know what she was getting and I meant that. We won’t last long if she throws a hissy-fit every time I deal out some much deserved retribution, and I don’t intend to live my life hiding it. She’s going to need to learn to live with that side of me, and I’ve already waited too long for this.
My sister needs to know that he’s not going to walk away from what he did to her.
“Tonight’s as good a night as any,” I tell Tony. “Get Calvin and the rest of them to meet us there, and tell him to pick Heather up, too. I feel like an audience tonight.”
It doesn’t take long before I pull up outside her house. I beep the horn twice to let her know, and five minutes later she’s at the door and heading for the garden path with a bag over her shoulder.
Her dad comes to the door and I roll the window down.
“You get yourself back in here right now, young lady!” Laurence shouts from the door.
“Not a fucking chance!” she shouts back.
“Lacey, you’re being selfish!”
She just laughs at him as she walks towards the car. I press the button on the console to open the boot for her. She throws her bag in and jumps in the passenger seat.
I wave to Mr Tyler as I roll the window up and she grabs my hand and pushes it down.
“I’m sorry your dad’s a cunt,” I tell her as I pull the car away.
She shrugs. “It is what it is.”
It’s not though. It’s not right. And she’s just shrugging it off like it’s normal. I hate his guts, almost as much as I hate Liam McGuiness.
“Pass me your phone,” I tell her. She looks at me confused as fuck. “It’s important.”
She lifts her arse up on the seat and pulls her phone out of her back pocket, unlocking it before she hands it to me.
I open up her WhatsApp and find Liam’s name.
“We need to talk. Meet me at The Undercroft at 10pm.” Locking her phone, I put it down the side of the door, in case he messages her back.
“What are you doing?” she asks me.
I smile at her, giving her thigh a squeeze. “Something I should have done ages ago.”
She watches me carefully but doesn’t say anything else, and we drive in near silence to the pub. I park the car around the back and see Calvin’s already here.
Tony jumps out first and gets the door for her, and I take her hand as we walk around to the front door. The Undercroft has always been my dad’s pub. Not physically — he doesn’t own it, but he might as well. I’ve been coming here since I was a toddler and the barmaids would give me lollypops and dip my dummy in the lager-froth so they could giggle when my face screwed up at the revolting taste.
It’s changed a bit since then, though. They’ve done away with the sticky bright red carpets and tried to make it a bit more upmarket. The owner is still under my dad’s thumb, though.
We come in and I head straight for the bar.
“Calvin through the back?” I say to Derek, the landlord.
He nods. “Got here a wee while ago, do you want something?”
I look at Tony who just shakes his head. “Glass of rose for the lady, mate.”
Derek nods and flicks the dishtowel he’s been using to dry the glasses over his shoulder. “I’ll bring it through the now.”
I nod towards the back door for Lacey and Tony to head through, then I lean over the bar, so only Derek can hear me. “When Liam McGuiness shows his face, tell him Lacey’s waiting on him through the back, will you?”
Derek nods. “No bother, son.”
I follow the others through to the back room. Calvin is gulping down a pint while Doeboy takes his shot at the pool table. I clock my sister in the corner of the room, speaking to Stevie, and Lacey is already heading over to them.
“Fucks she doing here?” I say to Calvin.
He shrugs at me. “She was already in the car when you messaged, and wouldn’t take getting dropped off for an answer.”
Whatever. Stevie seems like the type who could stomach what’s going to happen… It’s Lacey who I’m worried about.
Derek comes through with a bottle of wine and takes it to the girl’s table, and it’s not long before they’re cackling away like the fucking Sanderson sisters. I stick a pound coin on the pool table, intending to play the winner, and stand back to watch Doeboy annihilate Calvin at the pool table.
“You’re meant to aim for the pocket, spaghetti armed wee fanny,” Doeboy says as Calvin misses the shot by a mile.
Calvin flips the cue around and taps the fat end of it, flashing his teeth. “I’m gonna aim this right up your shiter if you don’t give me peace, prick.”