disability. And welfare only goes so far. The measly food stamps she gets don’t exactly cover everything.”
“Where does she live?” I ask, pulling the seatbelt over her, locking it securely in place.
“Why?” she questions suspiciously, scrunching her eyebrows together.
“Because we’re going to her house now. We’ll get this sorted, and then we can start our night.”
She slaps her palms on her bare knees and throws me a dirty look.
“I just told you, Finn. I don’t have any extra cash to give her.”
“You don’t, but lucky for you, I do,” I quip back, turning the ignition on.
“I don’t need your charity,” she snaps.
I switch off the engine and unlatch my seat belt to get in her face.
“Look at me, Stone. Really look at me,” I order, grasping her chin in my grip. “Do I look like the type of guy who is charitable in any way? Fuck no. I’m a selfish asshole, and I own it. This has nothing to do with trying to help your mom out. This has to do with making sure her daughter is in the right headspace and, in a couple of hours, is jumping on my cock as if it were a trampoline. That’s it. That’s all this is,” I lie, schooling my features to hide my bullshitting.
She sucks in her teeth, staring me down, and when I don’t budge, the playful tint in her eyes return.
“Are you so hard that you’re willing not only to meet my mom on our first date but also to help her with her electric bill?”
I grab her hand and place it on my bulging cock, to which the fucker instantly bobs at her mere touch.
“Hard enough for you, little girl?”
She slants her eyes at me, but the playful grin stitched to her lips is all the confirmation I need that she fell for it hook, line, and sinker. It doesn’t matter if she believes me to be that egotistical and self-centered. As long as Stone is good, that’s all I care about. Sooner or later, I’ll probably be the one to hurt her anyway. The Society will make sure of it. So if I can care for her now, and for as long as she’ll let me, then how I go about it doesn’t matter. What she believes my motives to be behind my altruistic actions shouldn’t matter either.
Nothing matters.
All that does is keeping that glorious smile of hers on her face for as long as I can.
Or for as long as The Society will allow it, anyway.
Chapter 17
Stone
Damn it all to hell. She’s wasted.
I should have known. Shit!
I really wish Finn would’ve just left things alone. Why did he insist on coming here? And why the hell did I give in so easily? I wasn’t lying about not needing his charity. I would have come up with another way to get her some money. It’s just, I really needed to see her. The way she was so erratic over the phone, taking forever to calm down, really hit a nerve. That’s my mother for you, though. Up one minute and down the next.
I’ve read plenty of articles describing how people who have her condition can lead perfectly normal lives once they have the right medication. The only thing they leave out is the hefty price tag that goes along with playing the game of ‘let’s see what meds work for you, Ms. Bennett.’ When you’ve grown up dirt poor, even cold medicine is a luxury. So adding my mom’s bipolar meds into the equation, we couldn’t exactly jump from one test drug to the next if we wanted to make sure we had a roof over our heads and food in our bellies.
“Baby girl! You came!” she slurs with a happy tone.
I look around at the empty whiskey bottles and cans of beer and see she at least bought enough booze before that dipshit ex of hers stole all her money.
“I just wanted to check up on you.”
“Always the dutiful daughter. How did I ever get lucky enough to raise such a good girl?” she continues with a wide smile, hiccupping at the end of her rant.
Her steps are clumsy and her pupils dilated, so when she begins to sway from left to right like walking on a boat, I know she’s more than shitfaced. She’s high as a kite, too. I should have figured—booze and meds don’t mix. Before she stumbles to the floor, I run to her side and help her keep her balance.
“Had too