Free American Vampire by Jennifer Armintrout Page B

mock salute.
    Jessa ground her teeth. “And you’re going to have to pay me rent.” She waited until he reached for his back pocket, then folded her arms across her chest. “Not what I’m looking for.”
    Hesitantly, he put his wallet back. “Is this…is this a sexual thing?”
    Ugh! She stomped into the house and headed straight for the kitchen, where she pulled a mason jar of clear liquid from the refrigerator.
    Graf followed her, and watched as she lifted the jar to her mouth. “Look, I know you’re pissed off because I beat up your boyfriend, but I’m not going to just sit back and watch a guy hit a girl. It’s not my nature.”
    Wincing at the burn of the moonshine as it tore a path down her throat, she set the jar down. When she spoke, her voice was rough. “I told you, he’s not my boyfriend. And to be honest, he’s been needing a good ass whipping for some time now.”
    “Okay…” Graf sat at the island and braced his elbows against the counter. “If you’re not mad about that, what are you mad about?”
    “You’ve never lived in a small town, have you?” When he shook his head, she continued. “Imagine if every time you walked down the street, every person you saw knew your business. They know about all the bad things you’ve ever done, and they know about all the bad things anyone in your family has ever done, and they’re all rooting for you to fail, because if you do, they’ve got more gossip to spread around. That’s what it’s like living here. You said yourself that I have a reputation. I’m not proud of it, but I earned it.
    “I showed up with you tonight, and that drew attention to me. They were already wondering who you are and how you got here, and what it has to do with me. That’s dangerous enough. People here are suspicious of everyone for the littlest things, and I don’t want knowing you to become a liability!”
    “A liability?” He snorted. “What are they going to do? Burn you at the stake?”
    “They’ve done it before!” she shouted, then clamped a hand over her mouth.
    “Okay, I can sense by your hyperbole that you’re afraid of people here.” Graf nodded, actually looking sorry for something for the first time since she’d met him. “I didn’t think about how showing up with me might affect you.”
    “You didn’t think about it, because you have no idea what it’s like to live here. Since It came around and we all got trapped here, all of the malice and bad feelings have just grown and grown.” She tookanother swallow of the alcohol. “You’ll see. The first time you do something wrong, you’ll see.”
    He reached for the jar, and she passed it to him. He took a big swallow and grimaced. “Let me guess…the ‘something wrong’ that you did involved Derek?”
    She worked hard to keep her expression neutral. Eventually, Graf would know all about her and Derek, every sordid detail. That didn’t mean she wanted to spill it all right now. Still, if he was going to be living there, he’d have to deal with Derek in the future. “People…don’t like the way I behaved after Derek married Becky. And before Derek married Becky.”
    Graf nodded. “You beat her up? Key her car?”
    “No.” She took another swig of moonshine. “No, I kept sleeping with her husband.”
    “Ah.” There was a hint of judgment in Graf’s tone that Jessa didn’t care for. “Well, from what I understand, he was your boyfriend to begin with.”
    “June tell you that?” She shouldn’t have bothered to ask. June wasn’t a gossip, but she wouldn’t withhold information from someone she thought needed to know something. If she’d suspected there was something between Jessa and Graf, she couldn’t have been more wrong, but she would have thought it only fair to warn him what he was getting into.
    Graf nodded. “She didn’t give me the full history, but she said that Derek wasn’t exactly supportive after your family died. Which I’m sorry to hear about, by the