My hands curl into fists. “Be careful what you say next, you ugly piece of...”
“Vi.” Chief says, carefully. “Enough.”
“No, it’s fine, baby,” Jaq interrupts, and there’s something gleaming in her eyes, something feral. She wants this fight. She has always wanted this fight. “It’s your fault for picking the wrong pussy all those years ago. Now look what you’ve done...”
My throat is a live wire. “Watch it.”
She sneers. “What is it you really don’t like about me, little girl? Scared I will steal your daddy?”
Chief runs a hand down his face.
“He’s my family, it’s you who should be worried.”
She straightens, her eyes narrowing. “Fuck you.”
“No, fuck you, bitch,” I snap, stepping up closer to her.
“Enough, both of you!” Chief slams his fist on the desk and the room vibrates. “Jaq, get out.”
She glances at him, then at me, and for a second, a thin crack of something almost human shows. Then her mask snaps back. “I don’t need to be scared of you, or your mother, because it’s me he comes home to every night. Don’t forget that.”
“You’ll never be her. Never.”
Jaq’s eyes go glassy, but she smiles. “What makes you think I fucking want to be? At least I got the balls to stick around,unlike your precious mother. She went running when things got hard, like a fucking weak bitch. It was my pussy he came to when things were hard, while she sat in her little room crying...”
I snap.
I reach into my purse and pull out the gun I always keep in my purse, even though I really shouldn’t. I point it at her, but she doesn’t even flinch. She truly doesn’t think anything of me.
Jaq raises her hands mockingly. “Oh, nooooo.”
Chief doesn’t move. “Vi. Put it down.”
“I want her out,” I say, my voice hollow.
“You gonna shoot me over a little snippet of truth?” Jaq says. “Look at you, daddy’s little princess, ready to throw yet another tantrum.”
I thumb the safety off.
She laughs. “Go on, then.”
Chief is moving. Faster than I can process, he’s between me and Jaq, his back to me, arms out. “I fucking said enough.”
I lower the gun, and the room goes very, very still. Travis is behind me, I don’t even know when he moved, nor did I feel his hand on my back, almost gently begging me to put the gun down and yet at the same time, letting me have this moment with a woman who has been a thorn in my fucking side since the moment I met her.
He knew deep down, I didn’t have it in me to shoot her.
But it still feels good, to think I could.
“Get the fuck out. We’re done.”
Chief’s voice is thundering, but it isn’t at me, it’s at Jaq.
Her eyes widen, and I lower the gun, not moving my gaze away as Travis takes it from me. “Excuse me?”
“I didn’t fuckin’ stutter, get the fuck out and don’t come back. We’re done.”
Now she has the audacity to look flustered. “But...”