Beautiful Outlaw by Emily Minton
Slave Driver
Bowie
I walk into the house, and the scent of something fuckin’ delicious cooking in the kitchen hits my nose. It’s a hell of a lot different than the smell of weed and stale beer that normally fills the house. Like a magnet, I start to walk towards the kitchen but stop when I hear Tin say, “What the hell happened here?”
I stop and look around the living room, wondering the same thing myself. Everything’s still the same as it was when I left, all of Grandpa’s old furniture is still in the same spot, but it’s all spit-shined. I swear, the wood floors are so clean you could eat off of them, and there isn’t a speck of dust in sight.
A slow smile spreads across my face as I look at my brother. “Shay happened.”
He looks down to his dust covered boots and then to mine. “What the fuck are we supposed to do, take our boots off outside or what?”
That’s exactly what Nina would’ve made us do, but that shit is not gonna fly in my house. Instead, I walk back out the door and beat my foot against the porch, dislodging as much dirt as I can. Then I head back in. “I’m going to find out what in the hell smells so good.”
Leaving him behind, I walk straight into the kitchen. My first sight is Shay on her hands and knees with her ass in the air. She’s got a rag in her hand and is attempting to clean off a decade’s worth of food splatter from the front of the old stove. Without looking around the room, I walk straight to her and grab her hips.
Grinding my dick into her ass, I say, “Hey, baby.”
Her head comes up and knocks into my chest with such speed that she damn near knocks me backwards. “Good Lord, Bowie. You scared me to death.”
I hear a chuckle and turn my head to see Tag standing on a chair, running a cloth over the blades of the ceiling fan. “What the hell are you doing up there?”
He nods his head to Shay. “Your woman may be hot as fuck, but she’s whacked in the head. She pulled me out of bed, fed me, and has had me cleaning shit ever since.”
I can tell by his tone that he’s teasing her. If not, I would jump his ass for giving her hell. I look around the kitchen and see it’s nearly as spotless as the living room. All the dirty dishes are gone, and all our empties and pizza boxes have disappeared. “Damn, Shay. You’ve been busy.”
“She sure in the hell has,” Tin says as he comes into the room and looks around.
She uses my body to pull herself from the floor. “I didn’t do much.”
“Bull shit,” Tag shouts as he jumps from the chair. “She hasn’t stopped for a minute. She’s a damn slave driver.”
Tin chuckles as he walks to the fridge and pulls a beer out. “She is, is she?”
“Hell yeah, I swear, I had to beg to take a piss.”
“That’s not true,” she says to him, placing her hands on her hips.
There is something about the playful banter between them that makes me smile. “Even I would let the boy take time to piss.”
Her voice grows louder when she says. “I gave him a break.”
“Oh, yeah, she did give me a little down time when we walked to the store to grab stuff to make dinner. She called that our break,” he replies, using his fingers to make air quotes when he says break.
“What the fuck?” I say as I look to Shay. “The store’s nearly a mile away. Why the hell would you walk there?”
She shrugs, turning to stir something on the stove. “I don’t know how to drive, and even if I did, I don’t have a car.”
“You should have called me,” I growl out, angry that I hadn’t even thought to ask her if she needed anything.
“I told her I would drive, but she wouldn’t let me take your truck,” Tag states, finally sitting his ass down.
Tin chooses that moment to notice the aroma floating around the kitchen. He looks around the room, trying to find the source of the scent, and smiles. “Shit, Shay, whatever you got cooking smells fuckin’ amazing.”
“I made roast beef and potatoes. It should be done in a few minutes.”
“She made an apple pie, too,” Tag adds, looking like a kid on Christmas morning.
I stare at him a second, taking in his excited face. He doesn’t even look like the same kid I met in the barn. I finally turn away from him and back to Shay, still angry that she walked to the store. “I gotta teach you to drive.”
She nods but doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. Finally, she starts to speak in a nervous voice. “I talked to the manager at the salon, and she had to let me go for not calling in. I’m gonna have to look for a new job, but I’m not sure what I’ll do until I find one.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, wondering why she’s acting so unsure of herself.
“I have a little money put back, some that Jeremy gave me and some from my job. It won’t last long.”
I look at Tin to see if he knows what she’s talking about, but he just shrugs. Turning to her I say, “If you need money, just tell me. You don’t need a job.”
Her face goes hard before she replies, “I’m going to get a job and have my own money, but I would appreciate it if you would teach me to drive.”
I start to interrupt her, tell her that I would take care of her, but she cuts me off. “I may need to borrow your truck, though, until I can get enough money to put a down payment on a car of my own.”
I want to tell her that she’s as wacked as the kid says she is, but I can tell it’s killing her pride to ask me to borrow my truck. So instead of giving her hell, I just nod. “Come on, baby. I’m gonna teach you to drive.”