“I feel like a pussy.” Michaela hated that word. Even as she heard more shots ring out, it touched a nerve. A pussy was supposed to be soft, and although Michaela possessed one, there was nothing particularly soft about the rest of her. Janice Coates had not raised her to be a softie. She flipped up the sheet and gave Jared a hard—but not too hard—slap across the cheek. “Hey!” He put a hand to his face. “Don’t say that.” “Say what?” “Don’t say pussy when it means weak. If your mother didn’t teach you better than that, she should have.”
