Cole: The Wounded Sons, Leah Sharelle [the reading list .TXT] 📗

the house, his bank accounts. Like his government support cheques, anything that was in his name was addressed to my grandparent’s house. The man was street smart if nothing else.

Finding me would be challenging, but I had no illusions it was impossible, not for the Club. I even stayed away from Thayer, only talking to her on the phone, so she wouldn’t have to lie if asked of my whereabouts. Thayer was a shit liar and she accepted that. What she didn’t like was that I ran, having a lot to say on that matter.

“Are you freaking insane, Oaklee! You quit your job!” They weren’t questions, shrilled at the top of her lungs, rather than disbelieving statements.

“It’s for the best,” I tried to soothe her, but it was too late; my friend was off and running. Her tirade aimed firmly at me.

“The best for whom, Oaklee? You? Cole?” Thayer’s voice rising an octave higher.

“No, for him, I’m … I’m taking off for a while, Thay, if I leave now, Cole won’t have to decide between seeing me and being loyal to Creed.” Bracing myself, I waited for her to say something and waited and waited.

Did the call drop out? Taking my phone from my ear, I looked to see that her contact details were still on the screen.

Nope, still there.

“Thay, you still there?”

“Oh, I’m still here. I just don’t know if I want to hit you for being a dickhead, or kick Creed in the balls for being a cocksucker.”

Stifling a giggle at my friend’s unique and creative descriptions, I tried again to calm her.

“Thay, I know what I am doing. If I stay low for a while, Cole will forget all about me and eventually get on with his life. I am going to stay with my parents for a while, and no, before you ask, I will not give you the address.”

“You what? He will forget … eventually! Well, cut my leg off and call me stumpy, Oaklee! Looks like I am hitting you the next time I see you!”

As I said, Thayer had a lot to say about my decisions of late.

Wrinkling my nose at the rancid smell coming off my mother, I walked over to the pantry. A door was missing thanks to a drunken idiot thinking he could hide in it to get away from his imaginary attacker. I hunted for the banana and orange I’d stuffed inside the box of stale cornflakes.

Wanting to get out of the stinking smell of stale cigarettes, spilt beer and vomit, I decided that walking to the corner to meet Thayer was best also to save my hungover mother from a tongue lashing from my tiny blonde but fierce tempered friend.

“Why don’t you have a shower and brush your teeth, Carla. At least pretend to join the human race, even if you can’t act like one.” Ignoring her one-fingered salute aimed at me, I headed for the back door, making a note to call the agents and ask them for a time to come and inspect the property. I didn’t want my parents kicked out on the streets, but I was done with them taking advantage of me and being their punching bag. I didn’t ask to be born, and it was about time they turned their blame laying around on themselves. Thirty-nine and forty being too old to be living off their only child.

Feeling a little better, I started down the over-grown garden path, the weeds reminding me of that day when Cole came and helped me at my house.

The day I fell completely in love with him.

“Thayer!” I shouted, jumping out of her car and slamming the door with a bone-shuddering slam. “What the hell are we doing here?”

“When Thayer called and begged me to go out with her, to drown my sorrows in copious amounts of Vodka and Tequila, which was not happening FYI, I didn’t think she would be so bold as to bring me to a place the Wounded Souls owned.

Though, why I was surprised was a surprise itself. Thayer wasn’t exactly known for well-thought-out plans.

“It’s Girls’ Night! Male strippers! Duh!” Thayer squealed, jumping up and down, drool practically dripping from the corner of her mouth.

“Jesus Lord above, Thay, just hire a male escort already,” I moaned, reluctantly following her across the packed car park.

“You know that the Club owns this place, right?”

“I do, and that can’t be helped. Girls’ Night only happens here at Body and Souls, so suck it up, buttercup, because I have a pocketful of five-dollar notes, and it’s your turn to shout the drinks.”

“How is it my turn?” I asked stupidly. Of all the things Thayer just said, I chose to focus on the one that I didn’t care about all that much.

Since quitting my job and getting no rent income from the real estate, I had to sell my car to beef up my savings account. That extra money eased some of the worries of being unemployed, plus I still had the use of my grandpa’s car until they got back from their cruise.

“Since you disappeared and gave up on Cole’s and your relationship like a coward. Now, hurry up, I don’t want to miss shoving money in the first dancer’s crotch and hopefully copping a feel,” Thayer yelled over her shoulder. She was at least twenty metres in front of me, and not giving a shit that people were around us, gawking with avid interest at the small petite blonde shouting at the top of her lungs that I was a coward, or maybe it was that she wanted to grab a man’s tackle. Either way, she was going to pay for that and pay big.

Gratefully, the bouncer at the front door wasn’t wearing a Wounded Souls cut or familiar to me, so it made paying the entry fee and getting a wristband free from being recognised. Thayer was chomping at the bit as we waited