Impetuous (Victory Lap Book 1)

by Mercedes Jade

  War was the one that gave her a hard time first. “You said your father was out of your life,” he said, almost turning it into a question.

  “I lied,” she retorted.

  “Does your mother know he’s here?” Keir asked, piling on another layer of guilt.

  Hell no. Her mother would burn the townhouse down before she’d let Greg into it.

  “Who do you think told me where to find dad?” Tess lied.

  “No,” Bastion simply said, sliding his hand over her hip and pulling her into his protective space.

  “You work for Jensen?” Kade asked, stepping forward, in front of Tess. Bastion worked in tandem with him, keeping her from interfering with his suddenly firm grip on her hip.

  Greg laughed. It burned her ears, reminded her of all the times Tess had helplessly stood aside while he rained selfish hell down on their family and then joked with his dirty friends on the force about the stupidity of the law. Nobody could touch him. Gregory Sinclair was a monster without equal, a family man that would sell his own daughter.

  Had sold.

  “Tutoring is over. Get out of my house. If you want to score some shit to fuck you up, rich boy, go back to Daniels and tell Rachel I sent you. She’ll give ‘em a five-finger discount the first hit, won’t she, Greg? Or is her hand too chapped from jerking-”

  Her father shoved Kade and reached for her. Ashley screamed. Tess flinched.

  He didn’t touch her. Not Greg, although all four boys were surrounding her, even Kade, who hadn’t really gone far with the shove, pivoting to stay in front of her.

  “You will show your father some respect,” Greg said.

  “I’m not a child anymore,” Tess said, soft but determined.

  Greg smiled, showing off a gold cap. Her mother hated that fucking tooth, had been the one to knock it out with a bat to start with and then had to give Greg all her paychecks for months to make up for it. Could have bought himself a mouthful of veneers, but all he wanted was one gold tooth to smirk at her mother with and he’d used the rest of the money on booze and stupid bets.

  “You’re old enough to earn your keep,” Greg said with glee. “No more child payments for your schooled ass. Don’t think these pretty boys are gonna fund you for college. Girls are cheap.”

  “Are you done?” Bastion asked.

  Fuck. She needed them gone. Her father had paid them some attention but if Tess got rid of them, he would focus on her again. Tess had what he needed, or at least, he probably thought she knew where it was since she was the only one talking to mom.

  The hospital was a better jail than the real thing would ever be with dad’s connections on the force. Witness protection with cameras and plenty of lunatics to take out any idiot foolish enough to risk trying to get to her mother while she was hospitalized.

  “You’re done,” Tess said, turning to face Bastion. “All of you, get out. I’m not repeating myself again.”

  Nobody moved. Her father was getting that look in his eyes that said he was going to take his impatience out on somebody, strike out, and the boys were all presenting the closest targets, surrounding her. That was the look that separated Kade’s anger at the Watsons from the antipathy of her father’s rage.

  Greg would kill her. She had never really gotten away.

  The boys were going to have their hearts broken.

  Hers was already bleeding, her lifeblood beating away in the seconds before the trigger was pulled. There was no choice, none. She was going to have to be the one to hold the gun to her chest too, a final indignity to suffer.

  They would be safe. It was all that mattered.

  “Tess, call the police,” Bastion said.

  She laughed, thinking in her head how much she sounded like the crazed jackal at the hospital, making the only sound she knew to respond because otherwise, she would be screaming.

  Run. Hide. Don’t let him find you.

  Greg even eyed her with wariness. Was another lunatic in the family too much for him to handle? Fuck no, that wasn’t fair to her mother. Madeline Sinclair was mad but her husband had driven her over the edge.

  The metaphor was a strike of lighting in Tess’s brain, everything firing at once as the spark of an idea struck, all the pieces she had been trying to puzzle together suddenly revealing the center of the design to her.

  It was still a guess but Tess knew in her heart it was true. The brain’s logic for all its smarts couldn’t replace intuition, replicate luck in the direst moments to give a glimmer of hope.

  “Don’t bother calling anyone, boys,” Tess said. She kept her voice different, hard and bitter, in complete opposite to how she felt about them. It was like she had turned into her mother, riding another personality to defend herself from the pain she was about to feel, to inflict.

  Greg crossed his arms across his chest. Yep, he knew shit was up but that defensive posture was only a bluff. He was no doubt armed with a gun and felt he had the upper hand.

  Perfect.

  “Get rid of them,” Tess said. She pushed her way to get past Kade, dug her nails into both of Bastion’s hands and growled at him when he refused to release her. “Stop holding me hostage. Greg here, he’ll shoot right through me to kill you.”

  Bastion tightened and released her. She wasn’t the only one fighting the urge to do something violent to threaten Greg off, but those kinds of heroics only ended up hurting everyone in the crossfire.

  “I wouldn’t shoot anything vital on you, sweetie,” Greg whispered darkly, pulling his gun where it had been concealed under his jacket. Same spot as always.

  Ashley gasped again. “Kids, get out of here,” Tess ordered. “Go wait by the silver Mercedes and keep your fucking mouths closed and your hands off your cells.”

  Jason grabbed Ashley’s hand and yanked her out the door after a moment’s hesitation spent looking at Tess and seeing nothing reflected back. Nothing she could reveal. Her blank look scared him enough to save the sister he could get his hands on.

  “Tess, what is going on here?” War asked, accent thickly rolling with his agitation.

  She glanced at him and back to Greg. “Nada, a meathead like you don’t know anything, Luce,” she said to War. “He’s the dumb muscle,” she added to Greg.

  “Get out,” Greg said, smartly not moving a muscle to gesture that would mess with his aim. The gun was directed at Kade. He was the next one she had to save, although they probably wouldn’t leave until she had freed them all and they could go together.

  “He’s a chained dog. Send the Bluebell and his twin Trouble out the door or Luce is gonna heel there all night. Bossy may as well leave too. Ain’t no point keeping around these boys. They don’t have what Jensen wants,” Tess said. She took a breath so she could say the next lie. “I do.”

  Her father shifted his gaze to her and that gun moved a little with it. Out of the police force too long, or too many easy pickings as a dirty enforcer for a drug lord. He was losing his touch. Bastion noticed as well, the only one not looking at her and instead focused on the gun.

  “What are you talking about?” Greg asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “Is he your middleman? I don’t know what you call a drug pusher, the asshole at Daniels, the one mom told me all about after your bitch raked her claws down mom’s back. I talked to Jensen and he’s got Larry’s number. They asked me to shake these boys down to prove my loyalty. You know I would do anything for mom.”

  Greg moved the gun to point at her.

  “Tiger, shut up,” Bastion muttered at her. She didn’t know if Greg caught all of that but her father’s focus didn’t shift from her.

  She smiled at death, a crazy kind of happy that Bastion had decided she was fierce enough to earn Tiger. Greg wouldn’t get it with all the nicknames they had been throwing around.

  Enough dancing. She had to go in for the kill. Uncover the secrets that her father would sell to feed his soul’s addictions.

  Sting like a bee.

  Kade and Keir ha
d been quiet. So quiet. Tess risked one quick glance at them, ignoring the gun so she could catch the stormy eyes of both twins. Those windows to her own soul were open while she said the worst lie of all, the guess that was the lynchpin to her makeshift plan.

  “Larry sent me after the twins because their mom was the broad that hit the pole with a bottle of rye and... well, you know, same shit you have mom running,” she said. Drugs? Probably, although God knew what else Jensen would be at odds with rich, upper-class boys like Kade and Keir about other than his merchandise. A dead body was Tess’s only other guess.

  Wasn't their father a lawyer? Maybe it was criminal law with that extra, personal touch?

  Kade’s jaw tightened. Keir took a step towards her.

  The gun moved back to Kade and Keir, settling on the twin that was moving. “Stop right there.”

  Greg was high up in the crime syndicate, Larry’s right-hand man since his days on the force, turning an eye as long as his palms were lined red. He might not even know what someone like Jensen, further down the food chain, even was running and how Kade and his mother had gotten so tragically involved.

  Tess only had to make her father think she knew.

  And she had to make sure he saw the guys as a dead end.

  “They’re in high-school for fuck’s sake. Let ‘em go. Jensen knows where they live, not that it will do him much good. They’re clean as a nun’s drawers,” Tess said. “And Greg, get the fuck out of my house too. It ain’t worth Larry’s copper to have to see your ugly mug again.”

  There was no mad lunge to slap her this time. Nope, Greg dropped his gun and shoved it back in his chest rig. He gave her a long look and finally took a step to the side.

  Bet he couldn’t wait to get out of here and on the phone with Larry. The stopwatch started now.

  “Get moving guys. This bitch pass is time-limited and non-renewable,” she said, keeping the anxiety out of her voice. She hadn’t sugar-coated it. This was the only way she could keep them all safe from her father for the moment. The next day, there were no guarantees, but now they had been warned.

  Run. Never stop.

  Bastion was staring at her. None of the others would move without him. She was about to get physical and literally try to shove him out the door when he spoke up.

  “Backstabbing slut,” Bastion denounced, pulling her panties out of his pocket and leaving them on the side table. He walked out the door.

  Greg didn’t defend her or stop him.

  “Watch your back in school,” War said, managing to make himself understood underneath the accent. He walked over to Greg and stood right in front of him, risking a look back at the twins, and then he returned his challenging gaze to her father.

  “Snitches get stitches,” the twins said in unison, whispering it to her as they came up on either side, hands brushing her hips in a brief caress. Greg probably didn’t hear them, busy with War in his face, but Tess had to suck in a deep breath when they taunted her with the catch-phrase.

  Box. Box. Box.

  “Everybody out,” she ordered. It didn’t have strength. She had used all of that up already. No matter, the ball was rolling downhill and a fucking cliff was at the end.

  “I’ll be back to have that talk, Tessa,” Greg said, leaving in front of War.

  “Call next time. I’ll be waiting,” she said.

  Said the spider to the fly.

  Tess walked up to the door and shouted for the kids. They had been standing near the stairs, Bastion talking quietly to them. War took Ashley’s hands in his as he reached her and Bastion had clapped Jason on the back, huddling in for their conversation.

  Greg was watching. She called them again and shooed the rest of them off with an order to scram before she called the police. She made sure it was loud enough to get the attention of the neighbours.

  Tess closed the door once the twins entered the townhouse, turned and slumped down in front of it. She didn’t even look up at her younger siblings, uttering one life-changing word that might just keep them alive. There was no plan to be had, only an impetuous choice.

  “Pack.”

  The guys wouldn’t understand but she hoped they would forget.

  Bluebell, Trouble, Luce and Bossy. She sent them one last group text. In it, she detailed what she had worked out in her head, including the questions she still had about Kade’s and Keir’s mom and that accident. She warned them to stay away from her dad, Jensen and Larry and asked if the twins would watch over her mother. She said goodbye and sorry and she told them that if there was love, at first sight, she didn’t care because her heart had been broken four times over in less than a week and she was never going to put it back together again.

  Then she left her phone on the table beside her panties.

  The last text she hadn’t sent because it had been selfish, and really, it only mattered if they had as quickly started falling in love with her as she had them. If their hearts would follow, no matter what their families and the school wanted. It would mean risking everything.

  Pumpkin: Catch me if you can.

  The End.

  Acknowledgements and Thanks

  THANKS TO PAULA FOR the beta and Kate for the alpha and both fabulous ladies for the encouragement.

  Readers too, thank you for spending time with Tess. There will be another book. Just imagine the boys' reaction to that last text and your wait will be worth it! This is the Victory Lap Series.

  Cover designed by Trillian Fire Designs. http://trillianfiredesign.com/ Custom, hand-made jewellery, crafts, and graphic design including ebook covers. Email: alicia@trillianfiredesign.com

  Also by Mercedes Jade

  FAERIE SERIES - TRILOGY

  No Faerie Tale Love

  Falling Into Faerie After

  Faerie Cursed, Nevermore – coming soon

  Maeren Series – Ongoing

  Every Witch Demon but Mine

  No Witch Way Out

  Witch Darkness Follows – coming soon

  Victory Lap Series – Duology

  Impetuous

  Standalones

  The Bully Switch Novella

  About the Author

  I’VE DRUNK CAFÉ SUA dau on a Saigon street. The binary system is a language and I remember the first thing I ever cooked in a microwave (hotdog) and when I was the only girl in a classroom full of boys and noise computers and it was no typing class. I heal people and soothe souls for those that can’t be cured. I’m a fangirl. I believe in fairness and rescuing kitties from trees. You can depend on me. Book recommendations are the best gift next to a smile. Humour is a must. You live a lot to learn. Be kind.

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