Free Unattainable by Madeline Sheehan

was going to go sit in the kitchen, in
a corner, facing the wall until Deuce got here.
    “ Okay,” she finally
whispered. “Thank you.”
    Dirty hightailed it down the hallway,
already dialing Deuce. Hitting the kitchen, he fell to his knees
and waited for his prez to pick up.
    “ Yeah?”
    “ Got a
problem.”
    “ What?”
    His voice shaking, Dirty did his best
to explain everything that had transpired since last night and then
he waited for Deuce to respond.
    “ Ellie?” Deuce asked. “As
in Danny’s Ellie?”
    “ Yeah.”
    “ You sure it was
Mooresville?”
    “ She is,” Dirty said. “I
didn’t get a good look at him.”
    “ Fuck,” Deuce growled. “I
don’t need this shit. We got a huge deal about to go down and I
need that fucker in place, and I’m thinkin’ he ain’t gonna be in
place if he’s too busy worryin’ ’bout Ellie rattin’ him
out.”
    That was not what Dirty wanted to
hear.
    “ She can’t stay here,
Prez,” he whispered. “You gotta get her outta my place.”
    Deuce went silent.
    “ Brother,” Deuce said
after several moments. “Did you do somethin’ I need to know
about?”
    “ No,” he gritted out. “But
I need her the fuck outta here.”
    “ Gimme fifteen,” Deuce
said quickly. “And I’ll be there.”
    Trembling, Dirty let his phone fall to
the linoleum with a loud clatter and then his head dropped and he
pressed his forehead against the wall. Fifteen minutes. He could
keep his shit together for fifteen minutes.

CHAPTER FIVE
    ZZ: Where the fuck are you?
    Rolling my eyes, I typed ZZ back a
short text.
    Me: Fuck you.
    My phone buzzed again.
    ZZ: Can’t. You ain’t here.
    Me: I’ll be home later.
    ZZ: Where the fuck are you?
    Me: Since when do you care?
    ZZ: Answer me.
    “ Fucker,” I hissed under
my breath.
    Narrowing my eyes, I glared down at my
phone. What the fuck was wrong with him?
    Angry, I punched in exactly two
letters.
    Me: No.
    “ Teg?”
    My head shot up and I found Hayley, her
husband Joe, and our mutual friends, Tara and her boyfriend Tim,
and two of Joe’s douche canoe friends, Doug and—Scott? Skip?
something with an S —all staring at me.
    And Hayley looked seriously
annoyed.
    “ What?” I asked, feeling
pretty annoyed myself.
    She gestured toward Scott or Skip. “I
was just telling Steve how much you appreciate motorcycles and it
just so happens that he has one.”
    Whoopee. Like I fucking
cared.
    “ Oh yeah?” I said,
glancing at Steve. “What kind of ride?”
    The douche canoe grinned at me,
revealing two perfectly straight and glaringly white rows of
teeth.
    “ A BMW,” he said.
“R12—”
    “ A sports bike?” I
interrupted, wrinkling up my nose. “How super gay for
you.”
    The table went quiet as everyone
glanced uncomfortably at one another. Rolling my eyes, I stabbed a
piece of tofu on my plate and shoved it in my mouth.
    When I’d finished chewing and still no
one had yet to speak, I glanced around the table. “What?” I asked.
“Sport bikes are for pussies. True fucking story.”
    Hayley let out a long-suffering sigh
and Joe shook his head. Whatever. I shrugged again and went back to
eating.
    Exactly one extraordinarily painful
half an hour later, I was finally on my way out the door, racing
through the night with Hayley hot on my heels.
    “ What is wrong with you?”
she demanded. “Are you trying to stay single forever?”
    I picked up my speed, suddenly pissed
off that both my work and my apartment were within walking distance
of Hayley’s home.
    “ Tegen!” she shouted,
breathing hard behind me. “I just want to see you
happy!”
    “ I’m perfectly fucking
happy!” I shouted over my shoulder. “In fact, the only thing I’m
not happy about is you constantly trying to marry me off to Joe’s
douchey friends!”
    “ You are not happy!” she
shouted back. “You are so far from happy!”
    Oh, hell no. How dare she?
    I came skidding to a stop and spun
around. Upon seeing my murderous expression,