Under Locke

by Mariana Zapata

Life was hard sometimes, and there was no book or movie that could prepare you for how harsh it could be. Except maybe that zombie television show where everyone died. That was pretty accurate.

All of this assured me that I’d avoided having to interact much with my boss. The owner. The bleeding mouth sore.

Maybe he wouldn't be so mad at the world if his pubic hair wasn’t longer than his full-blown erection.

"It's fine." I snorted. "Son, it's really fine. Knock his teeth in another day." I laughed again. "Or maybe once I find another job, okay? Then you can bust all his teeth and his kneecaps for all I care." Those hazel eyes, that were an exact replica of mine, narrowed. And then he quirked a little smile. "His kneecaps too?"

Mortified because I was A) an idiot, B) an idiot, and C) an idiot.

me

Him? Beg? I’d be sending parkas to hell the day that happened.

"Babe, button up your fuckin' sweater. Everybody can see your tits like that."

Dex has me constantly swinging between "ooh" and "eww"

A few minutes later, I’d somehow managed to hold down the right amount of pressure and followed the outline better than I expected. Then I thrust the gun at Slim. “You finish it. I can’t do it.” He blew out a raspberry, shaking his head. “You can finish it another day. Deal?” “Maybe,” I offered him. He winked. “Deal.”

Epilogue?

Sonny’s features softened at my weak-ass smile. “Iris.” A second later, he dropped down to his knees, placing his palms on each of mine. “It’ll be fine.” Listening to him was one of my life's dumbest decisions.

Uh oh

Hot Dex with a piercing in his thing.

YOU'RE 24, JUST SAY PENIS

“You never said it was going to be that expensive!” the guy shouted at Blue, completely ignoring me. Yes. Yes, she had.

Average customer service experience

Liam chuckled again, sounding deeper. "Whatever you say," he whispered… right before he kissed me.

I hope he dies, and i hope he suffers before that happens

If calling someone a dumb shit was a way of showing affection, then I definitely didn't want to have any friends.

Holy shit. I liked Dex.

Duh

"My ma used to tell me you have to fight through some shitty-ass days to get to the best days of your life. So I’m tellin’ you now, that you gotta hang in there. I swear to you, after this shit is over, you’re not gonna have to worry about him ever again.”

He leaned forward over the counter, elbows propped up on the edge. "Sooner or later, you'll figure out that eventually I find out everythin', Ritz." That suddenly sounded like way more of a threat than I hoped he'd intended it to.

creamy words

Don't like that phrase

“Baby, there’s nothing wrong with my judgment. I know exactly what I’m doin’, and I know damn well that if I ever see you smile at somebody like you did at Trey today, I’ll kill the poor bastard.”

“I’m not jokin’. I don’t wanna see that shit ever again, so unless you want me goin’ to jail for murderin’ somebody, quit it,”

Ok im sold on dex

"You wanted a solution. I got you one, Miss Taylor," he purred easily, taking a step so close to me that he managed to reach out and almost touch my face.

Oh no

I could tell Dex was furious that I hadn’t accepted his puny attempt at an apology—that lacked the keyword: sorry—and since I was mad and hurt, I didn’t give a crap.

I noticed that

It might have been made worse because I wanted to find out why Dex had a purple and blue splattering of blood vessels on his chin. I wanted to know how he got it, but it wasn’t like I could ask.

I hope Luther clocked him for talking to Iris like that

On the other hand, did Dex have a good reason to have lost his shit like that? Not to that extent. To add onto that, he had tried to apologize in his own Dex way.

No ma'am. We dont excuse mantrums

"Don't ever think that. I might get pissed, and I might take shit out on you, but that? Never. Never fuckin' ever, you hear me?"

YOIKES

He was like aloe vera, rough and prickly on the outside, but the inside held all the gooey goodness.

"But I'm not a good man, and I'm gonna take everythin' you want to give me and everythin' you don't."

Why the heck were so many things out of my control?

Me, every day of my life

You're a big girl, Ris, so I'm not gonna tell you what to do. You might not trust me, but I trust you."

Pocketing that one to use later

“You get me hard as a fuckin’ rock, honey. ’Specially watchin' you with the kids for so long," he whispered.

Oh, ew. Phrasing.

when Dex had stripped my clothes off, laid down flat on his back, and pulled me over to straddle his face—swamped

And we're just gonna skip right past this????

Slim tugged at my hand, squeezing the fingers he held. "It's not your fault." "It is." I told him with a sigh. I felt terrible.

It's not , tho

My new friend, Lee, had come up at some point and rubbed the top of my head before sitting on the couch next to me and going straight into a story about how weird it was going to be getting his “goods” fondled at the doctor’s office.

That's real family shit

"Here you go," the hotel employee said as she handed me two key cards, her eyes straying from the tattoo on Dex's neck and then back over to the nasty bruise on my cheek. Oh hell. Whatever.

“Kid,” he finally spoke after what felt like a year. “You pissed me the hell off, but I love you anyway. Nothing will ever change that. Not even that dumb monkey you got playing bodyguard.” “I like my dumb monkey.” Like hell was I going to bring up him being mad at me again. I was going to focus on something other than that. Sonny sighed again, this long-suffering sigh. “That’s unfortunate.”

"Quit being such a bi⁠—” The drop of two pizza trays on the table drowned out the end of his sentence. Dex's imposing figure loomed over the table, his hands gripping the edge. "You finish that fuckin' sentence, and I'll skin you alive."

Unfortunately, you didn’t get to choose family; Sonny had told me that once. But you did get to choose everyone else.

You're the best thing that ever yelled at me."