Page 23 of Shattered

A startled expression crossed his face. “You ask a lot of questions.”

He hadn’t been put off by that until I asked abouthisrelationship with her. “You’re in the business of selling her entertainment, are you not?” I said. “I ought to ask what I’m curious about.”

He threw the rest of his cigarette stub on the ground. “It was fun. She was pretty drunk though.” He laughed. “She’s a real sloppy drunk.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “I should get her drunk, then?”

“Well,” he paused, “she can drink alot. It’s pretty rare that she crosses that limit, you know? And then she just passes out.”

“Was she passed out when you had sex with her?”

“You mean whenwehad sex?”

He was holding onto that idea, wasn’t he? “Was she passed out, Jake?”

His nostrils flared. “Bro, she’d never fuck me unless she was drunk. She’s that kind of girl, you know? Too good to fuck guys like us.” His lip curled, and he turned away. “She might have been passed out. I don’t know. I was hammered too.”

Not hammered enough that he had forgotten the details of what he had done.

After a few seconds had passed, Jake argued again: “She’s a good girl. I’m not saying to get her drunk. Besides, you have the money; you can just pay her.”

“How many times?”

An awareness crossed his face. He knew he was going in the wrong direction, but he didn’t know why.

“Once. A long time ago.”

But that wasn’t true, was it? “You said a few times earlier.”

“Man, I don’t know. I—”

“You like Mel, don’t you?” I cut him off, stepping toward him.

He stood his ground, but his fingers twitched. He was nervous. “Yeah, man. Who wouldn’t?”

“You’re in love with her.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Mel would never be with a guy like me. I’m sure you get that, in some way. Maybe before you had money.”

I sucked in a long, deep breath, sighing on the exhale. I stepped closer again. “So that made it okay to rape her?”

“What?” He rubbed his forehead. “Who said rape?”

“She would never be with you, so you waited until she was too drunk to protest. No—” I paused, touching my chin in a mockery of thought, “Perhaps you helped her get that drunk. You knew that that was your only chance.”

He laughed it off, hesitation dripping from his voice. “I knew she wanted it, but she would never do it, you know? Ihadto get her drunk.”

“Drunk and stupid and about to fall asleep.” I took another step forward, locking eyes with him. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

He took a step backward this time. “It’s not like she was mad at me.”

“Did you tell her what you had done?”

He paused, then stammered, “N-no. But she figured it out on her own. It was a long time ago, man.”

For being a security guard, he was scared easily. I suppose I wasn’t the typical club member though.

“So tell me, Jake,” I gripped his shoulder, “Would it be okay with you if I got you so drunk that you passed out, and then I fucked you in the ass? If I told everyone that it wasn’t wrong because I knew you wanted it. Hell, you could tell me right now that you didn’t want it, but once you were too drunk to care, it’d be a different story now, wouldn’t it?”