by Mae Doyle
Teague
I don’t know what made me want to tell Nora the truth about what’s in the storage unit and how it all came to be mine to keep safe, but I’ve been carrying the secret for so long that I want to share it with someone. I had no idea how hard it was to carry something like this by yourself, and I’m tired.
That’s it. I’m tired. I never told my mom since my dad made me promise not to, and I haven’t told Robby or anyone else at school. Bethany would give her front teeth to get in this storage unit, and I knew that if I trusted anyone with information about it that it would only come back to bite me in the ass later.
So why Nora? Why the person I hate? Those are questions for me to answer later, and they make me uncomfortable, so I push them out of my brain.
“So, you know that my dad is out of the picture.” Nora nods and sits down, gingerly perching on the edge of a huge box that I know is filled to the brim with cash. “He left when I was younger but reached out a few years ago. My mom doesn’t know that, by the way.” She nods, her eyes never leaving my face.
I pause for a moment to see if she’s going to interrupt, but she doesn’t say anything. It’s refreshing, since Nora generally has something to say about everything. “Okay,” I continue, “he was a lawyer, and a damn good one, but he got mixed up with some bad clients. The Gibbons family.” Awareness sparks in her eyes and I see her focus shift a little as she looks at me, but she still doesn’t interrupt.
Even though I appreciate how focused she is, there’s still something a little disconcerting about having her eyes locked on me like this. It’s the first time that we’ve been alone like this without dealing with a power struggle between the two of us.
“Anyway, he left. Not because of anything that my mom did, although she believes that, but to protect us. The Gibbons family – Jeremy’s family, Nora – is dangerous. Really dangerous. All of this money, these diamonds…they’re here for us to pay bills if something ever happens to our accounts or we need to get out of town.”
“But your mom doesn’t know that this stuff exists?” Her voice is a breathy whisper, but the storage unit is so small and quiet that I can easily hear her.
“No.” I shake my head. “And the papers and the guns aren’t for selling or anything. They’re for protecting us in case shit ever hits the fan.”
Her eyes widen and she raises an eyebrow at me. I can tell that she’s going to say something, but I interrupt her. “The papers have information about the illegal activities that the Gibbons family is involved in. Think of them as an insurance policy that my dad left me.”
“But why not use them now? Why not put them in jail, if you can, and get your dad back? Your family could be together again!” There’s passion in her eyes and I know that she’s thinking about her mom and wishing that she could be with her, but she’s missing a few important pieces of the puzzle, so while she makes it sound easy and fast, that’s not the way it would all work out, at all.
I sigh and drop my head into my hands for a moment before speaking. Finally getting to talk to someone about all of this is literally exhausting. I had no idea how much I was carrying for my family or how much of a toll it was taking on me. “Because if we do anything to the Gibbons family then they’ll take us down with them.” I don’t tell her that I’m not sure that my dad wants to come back. It’s the truth, but it’s far more painful and personal than anything else I’m telling her, and I’m not ready to go there. Not yet.
Silence. Not that I really expected her to have anything to say to that, but she always has a comment to make, so I’m surprised when she doesn’t say anything right away. After a moment, though, she speaks.
“What do you mean they could take you down with them?”
Anger starts to flood through my body. Anger at my dad, anger at Nora, anger at stupid fucking Jeremy. “Look around you, Nora!” My voice is louder than I wanted it to be, and I hope that nobody outside the storage unit is trying to listen, because they’d be able to hear every single word that I’m saying to her. “You think that this stuff is legal? You think that my dad got that bag of diamonds for being a good guy? I can’t turn in the Gibbons family because we’re tied up with them! I hold the key to their destruction, and I’ll use it if I have to, but they can take us down with them.”
Her face is white and she’s breathing slowly, probably trying to fight her reflex to run. That’s all she’s fucking done since she got here. Run and torment me, and I thought that maybe things could be different. I had hoped that by bringing her here and letting her know what I was up against that maybe – just maybe – we could come out the other side together, but she’s looking at me like I’m a monster.
Which I am.
A monster.
“I had no idea.” She moves like she’s going to stand up, but sees the look I give her and holds her place on the box. “Teague, I didn’t know.”
She didn’t know, and I shouldn’t have told her. Regret courses through my body. “Just help me with the boxes.” I stand up, and she stands too, quickly, her body close to mine. Heat passes between us and I think about running my hands through her hair, cupping her chin, kissing her…
Instead, I turn I pick up the box I was sitting on. “Open the door.” Her eyes are wide, but she does what I tell her to do, then grabs a box to follow me to the truck. I had parked as close to the storage unit as possible, and I drop the tailgate before lifting our boxes up.
“Can we talk about it?” She rests her hand on my arm after I lift up the boxes, but I walk away from her back to the storage unit.
No, we can’t talk about it. We have to get this moved. I have to get home and forget that I told her everything. It shouldn’t have come out of me, but I couldn’t help it. There’s just something about Nora that makes me want to trust her, even though I know that doing so is fucking stupid.
We don’t speak for the rest of the time that it takes to load up the truck. When the storage unit is empty, I lean in and turn off the light before slamming the door shut and grabbing my bolt cutters. Fuck the lock, it can stay here.
Nora’s already in the truck, waiting on me. Tossing the bolt cutters into the bed of the truck, I hop into the driver’s seat and turn on the radio before we get out of the parking lot.
Let’s see her try to talk over loud music. The new storage unit is farther out of town and it will take us twenty minutes or so to get there, but I don’t care. I like driving, and right now I need to ignore the fact that I fucked up by being so honest with Nora.
Halfway there, though, I change my mind. Instead of going straight to the storage building, I decide to swing by the house and drop Nora off at the bottom of the driveway.
I let her get too close, and while it felt good, it also scared the shit out of me. Her eyes are wide in my rearview mirror as I leave her behind. I’ll move into the new storage unit on my own, without her watching.
It’s just better this way.
***
“Can we talk about what we just did?” Nora managed to get in between me and the stairs as soon as I get home, which means that she’s doing a great job of blocking me from what I want: a hot shower, a wank, and to pass out.
Not necessarily in that order.
“There’s nothing to talk about.” She has her arms flung wide, touching both the wall and the banister, and a look on her face that tells me that she’s not planning on moving anytime soon, but I don’t give a shit. She’s like a fucking chihuahua and thinks that she’s bigger and tougher than she really is.
“Oh, I think that there is.” I make a move to push past her and she stiffens, preparing herself to try to block me. Instead of slowing down, though, I take her by the waist and pick her up, throwing her over my shoulder to carry her up the stairs.
“Teague!” She pounds my back with her fists but I ignore her and slowly start up the stairs. “Put me down, you asshole!” It’s a good thing that my mom isn’t home or she’d definitely come to see what all of the fuss was about. Nora is nothing
if not loud, and I’m sure that my mom would freak if she saw me carrying her like a sack of damn potatoes.
“Nora, would you shut up for once in your life?” I growl, the words deep and rough when they leave my mouth. There’s something about this girl that can make my mood change in a second, from happy to angry, from relaxed to nervous. She gasps and I continue up the stairs, not sure what I’m going to do with her.
The smart thing would be to put her in her room and leave her there. It would be a good idea for me to get as far away from her as possible so that I’m not putting myself in a bad situation, but I don’t know if I can do that.
I’m drawn to Nora like a starving person to food. Stalking down the hall, I pause for a moment outside my room and glance in. My bed is there, and I consider taking her into my room. The thought of what I could do to her makes my cock throb in my pants, but she shifts on my shoulder.
“Teague.” Her voice is a plea and I straighten back up and walk to her room. Once inside it, I drop her on the bed and then turn to walk out, breathing deeply as I do. Her room smells light and airy, like something clean and fresh, and smelling it makes me feel a little lightheaded.
“Wait.” Her voice cuts through my thoughts, and I pause, even though I’m not sure that it’s a good idea to turn around to see what she wants. I’m afraid of what I’ll see when I look at her, but I slowly turn, my eyes landing on her where she’s slid off of her bed and is standing, looking at me. “I really want to talk.”
Slowly she closes the gap between us, walking straight up to me, her body pressing up against mine. There’s no way that she can think we’re going to talk if she stands this close to me. It’d dizzying for me to try to focus on anything other than the way her tits feel pressing against my chest and the flush growing on her neck.
“There’s nothing to talk about, Nora.” The lie flows easily and I can almost convince myself that it’s true. Nora and I have nothing that we need to talk about. There’s nothing that talking can fix. She’s just now beginning to see how very broken I am.
At first, she doesn’t answer, and just gently reaches up to put her hands on my arms. I can feel the warmth from her fingertips as she gently massages my biceps. “Please, Teague. I don’t know where I stand right now.”
When she says that, I take a step back. I shouldn’t have let things go this far with her. If she doesn’t know where she stands with me then that’s my fault, but at least it’s something that I can correct.
Her hands fall from my arms, but she’s still looking me dead in the eyes.
“You don’t know where you stand?” My voice is chilly and harsh, even to my ears. She shakes her head but doesn’t say anything. “Then you need to pay more attention.”
Turning on my heel, I walk out of her room. I have to put as much distance between the two of us as possible or where she stands is going to change, and I can’t let that happen.
Getting close to her is a mistake. Caring about her is a mistake. The best thing for me to do now is to try to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and to do that, I need to put some space between us.
I need to remember who I am.
I’m the hunter, not a fucking pussy.
She’s the prey, not my friend.
No, it’s more than that.
She’s the trophy.
Chapter 10
Nora
You know what’s the worst class for anyone who’s not incredibly athletically inclined? PE. Hands down. Even though I’m supposed to be running drills right now, hiding under the bleachers is a great way to not only catch my breath but make sure that I don’t die on the track in front of everyone at Kennedy Academy.
I’m 100% sure that if I were to have a heart attack and keel over on the track that literally nobody would come to my aid. I can only imagine what it would feel like to be dying and have people continue to run their laps around me. No, thanks, that’s not something that I want to risk.
It’s been a few days since Teague and I moved the stuff in the storage unit, and while he hasn’t mentioned it, I can’t stop thinking about it. Whenever I pass him in the hall or in his house I try to talk to him, but he just grunts.
Like a stupid caveman.
Bethany and her friends are all too happy to talk to me, though. Shouts of “virgin” and “ice princess” follow me down the halls, but there haven’t been any more incidents with maggots, thank goodness. I don’t think that I could handle any more larvae.
I’m kinda surprised that the coach hasn’t sent anyone looking for me yet, but just like nobody would really care if I fell over and died on the track, I don’t think that anybody’s noticed that I’m gone from class. Sighing, I lean back against one of the metal bars holding up the bleacher, shivering at how cool it is. I’m sweaty and my face is bright red, so getting out of the sun for a little while is probably a great idea.
If only I could figure out a way to avoid going back to PE altogether, I’d be thrilled, but I don’t see that happening. There’s a crunch behind me, and I freeze, sure that Bethany or one of her cronies has followed me under here. Before I can turn around, however, I hear my name.
“Nora?” Normally, I’m pretty good at telling who’s calling my name, but the sound under the bleachers is a little distorted, so I don’t have any idea who’s back there.
Yeah, who else would it be hiding out under the bleachers like a loser? I plaster a fake smile on my face and turn around. As soon as I do, and as soon as I see who’s calling me, my stomach drops and twists. Reaching out, I grab the support bar and hang onto it to keep my feet under me.
It’s not Teague, and for the first time, I find myself wishing that it were him coming up behind me, not who it is.
Jeremy.
“Oh, hey, Jeremy!” In a split second, I decide to try to play this off as me being both friendly and dumb, which, given the opinion that most of the students here have of me, shouldn’t be too hard.
“Nora.” He smiles, but it’s not a friendly smile. It reminds me of something I saw in a horror movie. His teeth peek out at me, but his entire face looks strained. In fact, looking closer, I can see that he has dark circles under his eyes like he hasn’t slept very well for a while.
Jeremy looks like shit, and that’s putting it lightly.
“Everything okay?” The way he’s walking towards me cuts me off from being able to get out from under the bleachers in a hurry, which means that I have no way out. Turning around to look behind me is a huge red flag and I’m worried that I’ll just set him off if I do that.
No, the best thing to do is face this head-on and pretend like nothing’s the matter.
Like I didn’t just go and empty out a storage unit filled with information that could completely ruin his family.
The first time I met Jeremy I didn’t realize just how rich he really is, but now that he’s stalking towards me, it gives me a chance to look and see how nice his clothes are. He’s dressed to kill, even though he is just a nerd. Most guys who have that much money probably wouldn’t wear their clothes as wrinkled as his are, though. Or smelly. I gasp a little when I catch a whiff of him.
Now, though, I know better. The money is there. It’s in his huge house, his nice car, his gorgeous clothes. It’s in the way he and his family vacation every break. But something has broken Jeremy and kept him up at night and I have a sinking feeling that I have a lot to do with it.
I just hope that he doesn’t know that.
“No, things aren’t okay.” He walks up to me and leans against the same support pole I have my hand on, blocking me even more from being able to leave. There’s no way that I could push past him without him reaching out and taking me by the arm.
This close to him, I can see that his eyes are bloodshot. I’d think that he had been drinking except I can’t smell it on him. “Anything I can do? Maybe you could go home early today and take a nap.” I’m reaching, but I think that if I can keep him talking longer that I’ll be able to keep…
whatever from happening.
Whatever is going to happen.
“You know, Nora, there is something that you can do.” Jeremy reaches out and rests his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it hard enough that I want to pull away, but I’m afraid to. I have no idea what he’s capable of, especially not when he looks this rough.
I swear, this is not the same guy who picked me up the other night and took me to the storage unit. Guilt floods through my body as I worry about whether or not I’m the reason that he knows about the storage unit.
Did he see something in there? Did I lead him right to the information and money that Teague is trying to hide from his family? Not that Teague’s dad sounds like a saint, by any means, but it definitely sounds like the Gibbons family is bad news. Worse news.
“Need help in class?” Stepping back, I manage to get my shoulder out of his grip, although he frowns at me when I step away from him and leans against the support bar, blocking my view of the way out from under the bleachers.
Slowly, he begins to chuckle. The sound runs through my body, chilling my blood. “No, not class, Nora. I’m fine in class, although I did hear that you were getting some tutoring. With Teague.”
How does he know about that?
“Why don’t we walk, Nora, and I’ll tell you what I need from you?” He turns to the side, clearing enough space for me to squeeze past him and get out from under the bleachers. When I don’t move right away, he frowns. “Walk, Nora. Did I stutter?”
I shake my head and squeeze past him, trying my best to make sure that my body doesn’t touch his. My skin is crawling with the thought of him reaching out and taking hold of me, but I know that I couldn’t stop him. The thought of screaming runs through my head, but I have a feeling that I’ll regret it if I do.
There’s something terribly wrong with Jeremy, and I think that I brought this all on myself.
At first, I don’t think that he’s following me, but then I hear his footsteps. The bleachers end in about twenty feet, and I think that I’m going to make a run for it.