“What? Because my face would be out there?”
“No, because you advertised a fucking fanny pack. Seriously, it’s fucking ugly and not at all manly.”
“Just wait until you see the other colors I got.”
Craig pulled others out of the back of the truck and started unwrapping them. I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t believe they were getting all worked up over this shit. And to make matters worse, Derek, Hunter, and Rocco all walked up at that very moment, looking way too fucking interested.
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered.
“What’s that?” Hunter nodded to the bed of the truck.
“Man packs,” Craig grinned, pulling one out for him. “I got them for all the teams. Badass, right?”
Hunter looked it over and then shoved it into Craig’s chest. “I’m not wearing that.”
“I don’t know,” Derek said, snatching it from Craig. “This looks pretty interesting.”
“So you’d wear it?” Craig asked excitedly.
“I think I might.”
“It can hold so much shit. I’m telling you, this thing is awesome. Imagine being out on a job and not needing to shove all that shit in your pockets.”
“Whoa, I never said I would wear this in public. There’s no fucking way in hell that I would wear that outside of these walls.”
“Then what would you use it for?” Craig asked.
“For my crocheting,” Derek shrugged. “Yeah, this main pouch could hold the yarn and I could put my scissors and needle in the other pockets, along with a few hooks. It could be handy.”
“I hope you realize how fucking stupid you sound,” Hunter glared at him. “You won’t wear it in public, but you’ll use it for your crocheting?”
“Hey, crocheting is manly. It takes skill and-”
“A womanly air,” Rocco finished.
“Hey, I’m not a woman. I’m all man.”
“And you’ll look like even less of a man if you put that shit around your waist,” I pointed out.
“Just try it on,” Craig pleaded with me. “I swear, you’ll love it.”
“I’m not trying that on.”
“Come on,” he said, reaching forward toward my waist. I slapped his hand away.
“Stay the fuck away from me.”
“Just try it. I swear to God, I deserve this after you abandoned your team.”
“I said I’m not fucking trying it on,” I shouted.
Craig glanced at Derek and something passed between the two of them. I felt the air shift and then arms were grabbing at me, dragging me down to the ground. My belt was yanked at and people were shouting as I fought against the assholes grabbing at me.
“Hold him down!”
“Get his belt!”
“Turn it around. The loops are on the wrong way!”
“Hurry up. This fucker is strong!”
I fought with everything I had, but I couldn’t fight all the arms that were pressing me into the ground.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Everyone stilled around me, slowly looking up. I craned my neck around to see Cap standing a few feet away, looking at us all like we were insane. The guys slowly released me and stood. I pushed off the ground and brushed myself off as Cap looked me up and down. I glanced down at my waist to see a bright pink man pack stuck to my hip. I gritted my teeth as the other guys snorted their laughter.
“Alec-” Cap sighed heavily, scrubbing his hand across his jaw. “What the fuck are you wearing?”
“They made me do it,” I accused.
“Really? That’s what you’re going with? They made you do it?”
“It’s true, Cap. You saw them wrestling me down on the ground.”
“It looked to me like they were trying to get it off you and you were fighting them. I never thought I’d see the day when you would wear a fucking fanny pack.”
“But-”
“Pink really isn’t your color,” he said before he walked away.
The guys all chuckled around me, laughing at the fact that Cap had totally just made me look like an asshole. I slammed my fist into Craig’s face, watching him drop to the ground. I stepped over him, tossing the pack on top of him as I went.
“I really fucking hate you guys.”
CHAPTER NINETEENReid
I was so nervous. I was supposed to meet these people that said they were my relatives today. I didn’t know anything about them, except that they wanted custody of me. Were they nice? Were they like the senator? I really hoped they weren’t. They were my dad’s sister and brother-in-law, so I was praying that meant they were good people. Then again, my mom had left me at the hands of the senator for years. She hadn’t protected me like a mother should. And I knew that was partly because he beat her too, but shouldn’t she have tried to get us away from him?
I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror and took a deep breath. I looked like I was sick. My face was pale and sweaty and my nerves were so out of control that my whole body was shaking. But I had to be strong. Alec and Florrie had worked with me to give me the confidence to handle anyone that tried to hurt me. But the biggest threat to me right now was that I would be taken away from them, and then nobody would be there to help me out if things got rough. What if everything was fine now, but then fell apart the minute I left?
There was a knock on the door and I turned just as Alec peeked his head inside. I walked out of the bathroom and stood nervously in front of him. I didn’t want to be a scared kid in front of him. I wanted to be strong like him.
“How are you holding up this morning?”
I shrugged. “I’m okay.”
“Yeah? Because you look like you want to puke.”
It was true. I did want to puke, but I swallowed down the churning in my stomach and pretended that I was fine. Alec sighed and walked over to my bed, sitting down like he was waiting for me to join him. I stayed where I was. I
