Rebel: Enemies to Lovers Bully Romance

by Savannah Rose

  I ran the plan by Cori, who wasn’t pleased at all with my decision to keep things a secret from dad, especially since, one way or the other, I’ll be relying on his assistance. But the truth is, if I tell him, there’s no way he would allow me to get involved.

  “You sure about this?” Cori asks, clicking her seatbelt into place.

  I nod.

  “You have the burner phone?” I ask.

  Now, it’s Cori who nods. I reach a hand out to her and watch as she pulls the phone from her pocket.

  All I need to do is get Cain keyed into the meeting that’s happening at Stone Rich Bridge. My bet is on the fact that Gabriel will show up. And if Cain finds Gabriel there with Lucas, it’ll be clear as day that Gabriel was the one who betrayed their family. Not Kace. That doesn’t exactly help to get Kace out of jail for drug possession. And that’s where my dad comes in. He’s working out a deal with the DA. If Kace gives them something bigger, the charges will be dropped. There’s a lot more lawyer jargon that’ll go into the agreement. And, if we’re really lucky, Kace’s innocence will be proven in the midst of the charges being dropped.

  I pull the phone into my palm and save Cain’s number which I’d stolen out of Kace’s phone. My GPS told me that Stone Rich Bridge isn’t too far away from Kensington, which means, as long as this deal isn’t done and over with in five minutes, Cain should have enough time to show up and see the magic happen. I’ll send the message around the time I shoot a message to my dad, letting him know to get the cops down here as soon as fucking possible. That last part, I know will go without a hitch. If my dad thinks I’m in danger, he’ll pound his fists so hard the earth will shake and all the right dominos will fall into place.

  I pre-type the message to Cain on the burner phone and then pre-type the message to my father on my phone. With everything now in place, I nod to Cori.

  She puts foot to pedal as she leads us away from home. About a half an hour later, we’re driving into an area that possibly looks worse than Kensington. There’s no one on the streets and the houses all look abandoned, as though even the spirits that should have lingered simply gave up on the place.

  The emptiness tells me that we’ve got to ditch the car. With the actual bridge just up ahead and lots of hiding places close by, we should be alright. Lucky for us, there’s no one around as of yet. I tell Cori as much and reluctantly, she pulls the car behind an abandoned house.

  “We should ditch the car,” she suggests.

  “Ditch the car?”

  “Yeah. A car is a hell of a lot easier to spot than people.”

  She’s not wrong about that, but somehow, the thought makes me uneasy. What the hell have I dragged my pregnant sister into? Guilt threatens to creep up and close around my throat. When Cori’s hand closes over mine, I know she can feel the energy coming off of me.

  “You’re stupid for playing detective,” she laughs. “But honestly, this should be pretty easy. They chose an area where there’s no one and, by the looks of it, we’re the first ones here. We’ll be fine.”

  I take her logic and breathe myself back to normalcy. Our next moves are quick ones as Cori verges into a backyard where the car remains wholly hidden. We sneak into the house two doors over, getting ourselves a better view of the bridge. And then we wait. And wait. And wait.

  It feels like an eternity before the first car rolls in. I pull my phone out of my pocket and shoot off the message to Cain. A text comes back almost immediately.

  “Who the fuck is this?”

  I don’t answer. I don’t need to. My lack of a response will have him acting faster. Not that outing myself was a part of the plan. I tuck the phone into my pocket and smile as I peek through the window watching my plan play out.

  Beside me, Cori is hunched down on the floor. When I look at her, I realize she’s got a phone in her hand too. She’s videoing the whole damn thing.

  “Just in case the cops don’t get here in time,” she says.

  Smart.

  Really smart.

  Some more time passes before another vehicle rolls up. And then another. A guy in a black hoodie drawn down into his face pulls a case from the backseat of one of the vehicles. By the way he lifts it, there’s no questioning that it’s loaded. Most likely, it’s drugs. Perhaps the kind that was hidden in my car. Maybe the rest of the batch that sent Kace to jail.

  When the next car pulls in, I cringe. Recognition springs to life as I watch Lucas and Gabriel exit the car, side by side, like the best of buds. Lucas looks older here, amongst them, than he looks in the confines of our school building. Still, everything about him screams danger. From the way he looks behind him every two seconds, to the bloodcurdling smirk on his face. My skin burns and my teeth clench in anger as I watch them walk under the bridge to join the other guys.

  The icing on the cake comes only moments after when a car that could only belong to Cain comes speeding in. Rather than coming to a stop beside or behind other cars, it completely rails the car Gabriel and Lucas stepped out of, causing a loud bang to ring through the air. The men under the bridge jump, some coming within inches of their life as they avoid being impaled by the vehicle soaring toward them. And as though that weren’t enough, Cain jumps out of vehicle, guns blazing as he fires off two shots, completely shattering the back windscreen of Lucas’ car.

  I throw my hands over my ears. We’re quite a bit away from the action – but not far enough that the gunshot doesn’t have an effect.

  If I didn’t know my sister was an adrenaline junkie before, I sure as hell know it now. Bent down in the corner, her eyes wide, she looks like she’s just walked into a Vin Diesel movie. Me, on the other hand, has fingers shaking like a broken dryer as I try to send off the text I had drafter for my father. By the grace of God, I manage, then push the power button to turn the phone off as I slip it into my back pocket and focus on the scene ahead.

  Cain is right in the middle of the other guys now, every gun pointed at him and his gun pointed at his brother. Even from this far away, Gabriel looks just about ready to shit his pants. He’s shaking his head, fast and hard and then slow.

  So much of what is happening here is a win as far as I’m concerned. There’s no way Gabriel will be able to convince Cain that he’s not involved in the deal that is about to go down; that he’s not the rat, the one who turned his back on their family. If anything, that should take away the massive target that’s been set on Kace’s back. When the thought hits, I breathe a little easier.

  The yelling on the outside goes on for a while. And then a while longer before slowly, but surely, Cain starts to walk away. He’s not alone, though. His gun is now trained on the back of Gabriel’s head as he steps further and further away from the bridge.

  It’s not lost on me how fucked up all of this is. How little trust every single one of them holds. Lucas and his guys could have easily taken Cain’s head off and yet, they allowed him to walk away. Didn’t stand up for Gabriel when he very clearly needed them. When he turned his back on his family for them. Traitors round and round, through and through, if you ask me.

  Cain lifts his hands and my eyes squeeze together in anticipation for what’s to come. It looks like he’s about to end him, right here and now and no amount of bleach will be able to wash a sight like that away from my memory. Maybe it’s the naivety that didn’t make me see this coming. My chest feels tight, my guilt strong. I’m the reason he’s here, after all. I’m the reason Cain found out about Gabriel’s betrayal. I shake my head in an attempt to wash the thoughts away. In no way is this my fault. I didn’t make their beds for them, they made it all on their own.

  A second passes. And then another. And then a sound. It’s not the sirens that should be bleeding blue and deafening any and everything in its path. It’s not yelling or screaming or the sound of cars screeching across the gravel. It’s not even the impending gunshot from Cain’s gun. Instead, it’s the sound of Cori’s cellphone.

  Cain’s eyes turn to the building we
’re hiding in.

  My eyes find Cori and for the first time, nestled in their depths is the kind of fear that I feel. The kind of fear I can’t put into words.

  “Hide,” Cori whispers.

  I don’t have to be told twice.

  42

  Janey

  The house we’re in doesn’t look like it could have ever been a home. Dust fills the air as Cori and I try to move as quickly and quietly into the next room. Her hand, tight around my wrist, Cori pulls me here and there, dragging me into a small closet and creaking the door shut behind us. The scent here is suffocating, like something or someone is rotting under the floorboards. I try not to think about the substance beneath my feet that makes my sneakers feel like they’ve been plastered in chewing gum.

  Everything is silent now. Everything but my thoughts and the rapid pattering of my heart. Cori’s hand is now in mine, our fingers weaved together in an attempt to provide the security neither of us are capable of offering. If I’d had any feelings of regret before, they are doubled now. I think we’re dead. I think we’re very, very, very, much dead. This house is small in every sense of the word. Five minutes, ten minutes tops, is all it’s going to take Cain to find us.

  I close my eyes and whisper a silent prayer. And then I wait. Wait to hear something outside. After all, Cain still has Gabriel to deal with. For a while, I hold onto that thought. The fact that he should be more worried about his traitorous brother than he is about anyone who might want to be in this house. I wait to hear a car start up as he decides that maybe he didn’t hear what he thought he heard. Maybe it was someone else’s phone that rang. Possibly Gabriel’s, possibly his own. It’s all wishful thinking, though. No more than five minutes go by, though it feels like an eternity. A creaking in the distance can be heard and then footsteps.

  “Show yourself,” his voice comes. It’s low and raspy. The kind of voice movie producers usually give to their villains. Fitting.

  The footsteps start up again and then a stomp. He’s in the first room. The one where we ran from. I can hear as he moves around, pushes the bed, moves the makeshift dresser. Then there’s some cursing – a long line of expletives.

  “Show your motherfucking selves,” he grunts again and then rage. The sound of him throwing his fist against hard surfaces, wrecking the little that hasn’t already been wrecked.

  The clinkering of metal on metal tells me he’s in the kitchen now. A cupboard slams. Glass breaks. Cain curses. And then some more. It’s like he’s playing a game of cat and mouse. Teasing his prey before he pounces. There’s no other explanation as to why he’d be spending so much time in one place and it’s not because he’s being thorough. The fact that he’s going to take longer to get to us than he should doesn’t calm me even a little bit because I know that eventually he’ll be here. And when he gets here…

  “We need to make a run for it.” My sister’s voice is so quiet that I should barely hear the words. Still, they ring loud and clear and I shake my head.

  There’s nowhere to run to. We weren’t smart in picking this room. Sure, moving to the last room in the house had its benefits, if only to stretch this cat and mouse game out even longer. But, the last room in the house doesn’t have a window. There’s no way we can make it to the hallway without Cain seeing us. And I’m not stupid enough to think that I can outrun a man twice my size. Plus, Cori’s pregnant. If I know anything about her, I know she’ll put herself in the line of fire for me. It’s part of the reason she’s here, because she knew, one way or the other, I was going to do what it takes to get Kace out of jail.

  Maybe I’ve been able to forgive myself for what happened to Dani. But if something happens to Cori…I’ll never be able to get over that. She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my bone-headed plan.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” I whisper to her and she scoffs, as though to say that ship has long sailed. “You’re pregnant, Cori,” I add. The reminder seems to shift something inside of her. Her hold on my hand tightens just a little and I’m pretty sure her other hand moves to her stomach.

  If it comes down to it, I’ll be the one to protect her. I close my eyes, allowing that thought to sink in. Wondering whether or not I should just pull away right now, run, fix Cain’s attention on me so that Cori can get away. But it’s too late. The footsteps are clearer now. Walking to, and stopping by the door we’re locked behind. It’s like he’s teasing us. He’s searched every room and knows, without a shadow of doubt ,that we’re in here.

  “Ready or not,” he taunts and I cringe, ready to throw myself at him as soon as the door creaks open. And that’s just what happens.

  “Bitch!” he bellows as I scratch at his face, his eyes, throwing punches and kicks wherever they dare to land.

  “Run,” I scream to Cori, but she’s not so quick to move. She’s trying to push Cain. Trying to pull me away. Begging me. Pleading with Cain. And then…the sound of a bullet leaving the barrel of a gun. Everything goes eerily still. My hands, my feet, my heart. Everything except my head as I feel Cain’s forehead crash against mine and then a fist meet the bridge of my nose. And then the world fades, going black around the edges, fading into nothingness.

  43

  Janey

  “Janey…Janey…Janey…wake up. Please, Janey…wake up.” My father’s voice is dull in my ears, like he’s talking while under water. I’m fighting the darkness behind my eyes, but every time I try to pry them open, I give up. They’re too heavy. Everything hurts. Not just my head, but my nose too.

  I try to move my toes and then my fingers, uncertain as to whether I’m dead or just at God’s gate. They say that about death, that you hear your loved ones calling you away from the light. When I try to peek my eyes open, the brightness scares me. It’s intense. More intense than staring into the sun with microscopes for glasses. Way too intense… and my head hurts. It makes me wonder why anyone would ever walk toward the light rather than pull away and go running for something much, much more…easy on the eyes.

  “Janey,” my father whispers again, this time, his voice is a little clearer. So clear that it’s evident he’s crying. But there’s still that faraway thing to it. Like when someone’s calling out to you but you’re in the midst of a deep slumber or underwater. Something similar to that day on the lake with Dani.

  I try to reach for my father’s voice. He must be terrified. I have to let him know that I’m still in here. Again, I try to pry my eyes open. It’s a little easier now, though it still hurts. I reason with myself that if I wait a moment longer, if I try to peel them open a bit at a time then it’ll be easier.

  “Janey, baby,” dad says. I try for my voice.

  “Daddy,” I whisper, and I’m just as shocked as I am pleased by the fact that it works. What I’m not so pleased by are the memories of what happened rushing through my mind. If this is what they mean by seeing your life flash before your eyes before you die, then it’s a lot more grim than they try to make it sound. Because apparently the only part of my life that counts are the horrifying parts. The phone ringing. The panic as Cori and I rush through the house in search of a place to hide. The stench in the closet. The minute Cain pulled the door open. The gunshot.

  “Cori,” I scream, no longer a victim to my battered and bruised body. My voice comes in sharp and loud. “Cori…” I scream again. My body jerks forward and I’m off the floor. My eyes are open now, and I realize that I’m outside and the light I was staring into was indeed the sun and not the ones preceding the pearly white gates of heaven. The pain I’d felt when I initially tried to open my eyes, however, that’s not there. It’s been replaced by a much deeper pain, one that crushes my heart. I turn to my father, not caring about biting back the tears or the guilt as I wail and wail and wail.

  “Janey, calm down,” my father says, and I don’t like the sound of that. I remember hearing a gunshot. I remember…I don’t remember much after that. Cain had a gun, that much I know. He’d used it to keep Gabriel in place while he
walked him away from Lucas’ crew.

  As my father pulls me to his chest and cradles me hard and strong, I can’t bear to feel his touch. I don’t deserve it. Not after forcing my sister to come here with me. Not after putting her in danger when I knew she was pregnant.

  “It’s all my fault,” I whisper against him.

  “You’re damn right about that,” comes another voice. My head jerks up and fresh tears pool in my eyes.

  “Cori?”

  She doesn’t look hurt. Not in the least. There isn’t a scratch on her face or a strand of hair out of place. I’m almost convinced that we both died. But my head still hurts and I’m pretty sure death isn’t supposed to come with pain, it’s supposed to erase it.

  “You’re alive?” I ask. She looks at me with confusion on her face. “I thought…I heard…He didn’t shoot you?”

  Cori rests a hand on my shoulder and squeezes gently. “The cops got here just in time,” she tells me. “They shot the gun out of Cain’s hand.”

  So that’s what I heard. Relief washes over me as I cling to my dad and feel Cori close in behind us. We sit like that for her a while, them holding me, me allowing myself to be held.

  “No more secrets,” dad whispers, pulling back.

  I look up at him, about to say something and he shakes his head.

  “You could have gotten yourself killed today, Janey. You know that!”

  He’s not wrong. How things played out was…well, as close to the worst-case scenario as I could have gotten without actually ending up in a body bag or having my sister in one. I take full responsibility for that and promise my dad that I’ll be smarter about my decisions from here on out.

  “There’ll be repercussions for your actions,” he says. The sternness in his voice only lasts for a moment before I’m engulfed in his arms again. “But for now, I’m just happy that you’re okay.”