Those Heartless Boys

by E. M. Moore

  “I didn’t know pairing up with you guys made me a babysitter.”

  He gets that fierce look on his face again. “Oh, it makes you so much more than that, Wilder. You can deny it all you want, but you’re ours however we see fit.”

  Wyatt snickers. “Oh, I bet she loved that conversation.”

  “I’m pretty sure it made her all hot and bothered, actually.”

  “Think again,” I call back, waving over my shoulder at them as I follow Lucas up the trail.

  Wyatt’s dark laugh carries with me as I head toward the parking lot. Just as Stone promised, my dad’s truck is here, so close to Wyatt’s that I’m not sure how I missed it when we were solidifying our partnership in the back of Wyatt’s truck. When I get in and it turns over, I place my head on the steering wheel and smile. It’s such a dumb thing to equate a possession with a person, but I can’t help it. This truck is my dad personified, and I’m thrilled to have it back in my life again.

  I’d be more appreciative, but all Stone had to do was throw his money around to get me this, and it probably wasn’t even a drop in the bucket for him. I don’t care what my body says around him or the others, the line of men in my life who’ve warned me off the Jacobs can’t be wrong.

  The Jacobs—and any of their friends—can’t be trusted.

  12

  Lucas sprawls out in the passenger seat of the truck like he owns it, hands resting on his thighs. He’s quiet as we make our way back into Clary. Even though we don’t talk, I’m attuned to him. Every steady breath he takes makes my nerves ratchet higher. I can’t get over the things he said while we danced. The claim he made on me. It was easier to be mortal enemies with these guys from far away with a history between us a mile wide and stories told around a campfire buzzing in my ears. Now that they’re here, they seem dangerous but in a different way. Not like they want to take the treasure from my family, but like they want to take something from me instead.

  “A picture lasts longer. You’re going to break your neck if you keep looking over at me, Wild Girl.”

  I choke on my next breath. “Wild Girl?” I ask, my face flaming. “You clearly don’t know me.”

  He smirks when I peek over at him again. “I think I do.” He lifts his hands to wrap around the seat back. The way he’s lying there so casually, yet domineering, plays with my emotions. He can find a comfortable spot almost anywhere. Maybe that’s why I get that stray cat feeling when I watch him. “I think there’s a caged tiger in there just begging to be set free.”

  I bear down on my jaw, trying not to let his words get to me. They shouldn’t hit so close to home, but they do. Being an outcast has always kept me in the background. The only place I’ve ever felt alive was in the mountains, and even then, it was the Jacobs who got all the attention.

  “You think so, too, or else you never would’ve worn that outfit.”

  Jesus Christ. That’s the second time someone mentioned this outfit. I’ve had it for years. Literally years. The only reason why the shirt fits me like a crop top is because it was one of mine from almost a decade ago. That’s what happens when you’re poor. You don’t get new clothes on whims. You have to make do. “I have clothes like this, you know?”

  “So, why do you dress like a farmer at school?”

  “You’ve been in my school for two days. You can’t possibly know how I dress.”

  He chuckles. “That’s where you’re wrong. When you’re me, it’s easy to spot who people really are. If you weren’t comfortable in the clothes you wore to school, I’d be able to tell. But what you’re not comfortable in are the clothes you wore to the party. You keep pulling the shirt down despite the fact that you have nothing to be embarrassed about. You should have zero self-esteem issues on that front. Unless you were lying and you actually do let Meghan get to you.”

  I glare at him as we hit the city limits. “Sounds like you fancy yourself a therapist, Lucas. I got a question for you then. What’s up with you and Stone claiming me like some sort of possession?”

  His lips pull up, and he immediately turns toward the window to hide it. It takes him a while to answer, and when he does, he only psychoanalyzes his friend, not himself. “Stone likes pretty things and puzzles. I guess that puts you at the top of the list at Saint Clary’s.”

  “And Meghan?” I ask. I can’t fucking help myself even though I feel petty for even bringing her up. She was all over him for the past two days, but things turned after I jumped off that truck bed with them.

  He turns heated eyes toward me. “Meghan? She’s basic,” he says, mimicking a girly voice. “He can see through her ten miles away. She’s not strong enough to keep his attention. Someone like you though...”

  I turn into the dorm parking lot, marveling at the quiet engine and obsessively trying not to disseminate all the information Lucas just gave me. The last time I pulled into this parking lot with Dad’s truck, I swear everyone within a five-block radius could hear me.

  Lucas jumps out once I’m parked. He stretches his hands above his head, revealing a toned set of abs. I gaze away before he catches me looking and chastise myself. Lucas is just as off-limits as Stone is.

  I push the truck door open, and he’s right there, pulling the open door wider for me so I can jump down. He keeps doing the opposite of what I expect him to do. It’s unnerving to say the least. I’m used to being by myself. Even when my dad was there, he wasn’t really there.

  “You know you don’t have to stay with me,” I tell him, half hoping he’ll take me up on this offer. “I’m locked into this now.” My attention turns to the letter that’s currently sitting at the top of my closet. If I find the treasure, I’ll find my dad. There’s no going back now because no matter what, I have to find out what happened to him. I owe him at least that, and despite my feelings toward Stone and his friends, I can’t let that derail me from getting what I want.

  As much as it sucks to admit this, Stone, Wyatt, and Lucas will be helpful up in the mountains. I mean, if I can’t have ol’ Dickie, then they come in second place. It’s a far back second place, don’t get me wrong, but they’re second place, nonetheless.

  “We take care of our own,” Lucas says, that purr back in his voice like he’s trying to trap me. If it wasn’t for the meaning behind his words, I would probably fall right to the ground in a pile of mush. The tenor in his voice strikes a chord in me. A drawn out note that turns something on inside me with the ferocity of a lightning bolt.

  “And here I thought I was taking care of you. Stone told me to make sure you were safe.”

  The grin Lucas gives is straight from Lucifer himself. If I didn’t know any better, I’d drive right back to the Devil’s Hole and try to force him back underground where he belongs. “That’s Stone trying to make you feel important. He has a way with people.”

  My lips thin. “You know, you’re kind of a dick.”

  “Oddly not the first person who’s said that to me.” He steps in closer. “But I’ve also been told other things…”

  His voice trails off, letting the innuendo hang in the air between us. “If they said you have a sparkling personality, they were lying.”

  The corner of his mouth tips up. “Told you. Caged tiger. Your daddy was right to keep you locked away in that house when you weren’t up in those mountains.”

  I push past him. I don’t mind verbally sparring with the asshole, but let’s not bring my dad into it.

  “Aww, come on, Dakota,” he says from behind me. His sneakers kick up the small pebbles in the stone parking lot. I suppose I could give him a pass because he’s probably on the drunk side, but no. That’s not my style. Since he thinks he knows me so well, he should know that. I march up the steps that lead to the second floor. Lucas’s footfalls sound behind me. Compared to my soft thuds, his are like anvils being dropped on each step. I groan inwardly. Does this fucker have no respect for people? It’s got to be past midnight and people are probably sleeping.

  Or maybe that would ju
st be me if I hadn’t actually been invited out to the party that I’m never invited to.

  I get to my door first and push it open, silently planning to close it in his face, but then I remember I have no real lock on the door and my stomach sinks again. If they’re so keen on letting me be one of them, maybe the first thing they can do is buy me a lock for the door they ruined. I go to flick the light on, but nothing comes on once I do. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I growl. I start inside, trying to remember where I put that flashlight I brought from home, but Lucas’s arms come around me again, pulling me back to him. I try to struggle free, but he only holds me tighter.

  “What?” I demand, definitely not in the mood for any of this shit.

  “Shh,” he chastises, and just the way he says it pulls me back into reality. His chest thumps against my back.

  I hold still, nothing sounding but the beating of my heart in my temples. My eyes scan the dark interior, picking up shadows, but discarding them when they don’t move.

  “Look at the other dorms,” Lucas whispers. “Their lights are on.”

  I look up and down the wooden walkway. It’s true. Beyond the front curtains, hazy glows of interior light can be seen. “I must’ve blown a fuse, maybe?”

  Lucas’s hand tracks down and squeezes my own. He moves in front of me. At my doorway, he squats and removes something from his shoe. It’s only when he brings himself to full height again that I realize he’s holding a knife.

  My heart thumps wildly. I hold on to the railing behind me as Lucas moves into the dorm. He doesn’t bother with a flashlight as he prowls like a stray on the hunt.

  Waiting outside feels like it’s taking forever. Any other day, I wouldn’t be freaked out. I’d sigh in annoyance and charge right in like I attempted to do at first. Lucas is taking this seriously though, so fear dances up my spine, settling with a tension right in the base of my neck.

  A few minutes later, Lucas reappears. He’s on his phone. I only catch some of the conversation but it’s enough to set me on edge. “Yeah, we can’t stay here. Compromised.”

  “Compromised?” I ask. What are we, in a James Bond movie?

  Lucas ignores me, pulling my dorm room door closed. He moves to the balcony, propping one foot up on the lower ledge as he listens to whatever is being said on the other side of the phone call. Eventually, he says, “Yeah. Sounds good.”

  I roll my eyes and push off from the railing to head into the dorm myself. If it is compromised—whatever that means—it’s because those assholes broke my fucking lock.

  “Dakota,” Lucas calls after me. “God dammit.”

  I head for the kitchen and pull out the small flashlight from the junk drawer. I shine it around the dorm. It’s in an even bigger mess than the guys left it. I gasp when I see that not only are the cushions pulled off the couch, but they’ve been torn up, tufts of stuffing litter the floors in white, puffy clouds. All the cupboard doors in the kitchen are hanging open. The refrigerator, too.

  I close that door and then march into my bedroom, pulling up short. I hold the light on my perfectly made bed and blink a couple of times.

  “Dakota, come on,” Lucas says. He seems to have sobered up in the last few minutes. “We can’t stay here.”

  I clamp down on my jaw as I read the bright red message on my bed. Good girl. I walk forward, fingering the G in girl only to find it slightly damp. Red spray paint. The edges of some of the letters end in fading red dots instead of thick, straight lines. However, it matches the same block lettering as the letter that’s in the top of my closet.

  I swing the flashlight to the closet and find all of my clothes on the floor. There are even a few holes inside that look like the drywall has been hammered through. Chunks of the wall decorate the heap of clothes at my feet.

  “Come on, Dakota,” Lucas urges. “We have to go.”

  “Go? Go where?” I ask, spinning around to shine the light in his eyes.

  He brings his hand up to block it, squinting against the light.

  My voice is desperate and lost. “This is where I live, Lucas.” I want to cry at the mess. At the intrusion into my life. Who would come in here and write that? What makes me even more pissed is that it has to be Lance Jacobs. I know Wyatt, Lucas, and Stone couldn’t have done it because they were with me, but Lance was the last person in here making a mess, but I’m supposed to believe someone else did it this time?

  “You can stay with us.”

  “Fuck that,” I growl. I agreed to be their partner, not to give up my freedom. Lucas’s and Stone’s voices are ringing in my ears. They want me for their own. Maybe they had someone come here and tear this place apart while we were gone, just so they couldn’t get blamed for it.

  I move to the closet and run my hand across the top shelf. I make a noise of pure frustration when the letter isn’t there. The one I was sent two days ago? It’s just fucking gone.

  I march past Lucas and head right through my living room, eyeing the fucking broken lock with a snarl. These assholes managed to uproot my life in only two days. Fucking bastards. Twice my dorm room has been ransacked. I’m getting creepy letters and messages.

  It’s so dark inside my dorm that when I head outside, I still can’t see anything, and I run right into a body. “Whoa,” a slurred voice says.

  I peer up at Todd who’s clearly just getting home from the party. He stops to smile at me, but then almost falls over.

  Jesus. I hope he didn’t drive himself home. I right him, holding the top of his arms until he can get his feet under him again. He narrows his eyes, and they sparkle over a cloudy haze. “Blue’s Clues. You’re killing me.” His gaze rakes down my body, but I shrug it off. He clenches his shirt right over his heart. Well, it would be over his heart if he had the right hand up. “You hurt me today. Straight up wounded me.”

  I start to walk away, but Lucas’s footsteps in the living room sound, reminding me I have nowhere to go. I put on a placating smile even though I doubt he can even see me clearly. “Hey, do you need help to your place?”

  He grins, and it’s kind of cute in a sloppy kind of way. “You might be making my night—”

  “Dakota,” I supply for him before he can even think to call me by that stupid name. Fucking Meghan, I swear to God. It felt good to pull one over on her today. Come to think of it, I didn’t even see her after Stone had a talk with her. Good. Bitch. I hope she left the party alone and feeling miserable.

  “Da-kota,” he says, testing it on his tongue, and it doesn’t sound nearly as sexy as when Lucas says it. Or Stone for that matter. That’s neither here nor there though.

  Speaking of... Lucas finally emerges and steps out onto the balcony. “Dakota, what are you doing?”

  I look back over my shoulder. My arm is around Todd’s waist. He towers over me by at least a good foot. “Helping Todd back to his place.”

  “Wait...” Todd says, putting two and two together. “Is this the dick?”

  Lucas snarls. “Get your hands off her.”

  Todd, whose hands weren’t even on me before, slides them around my waist. He must’ve grown some balls with all the alcohol. “This way, pretty girl.”

  I turn away from Lucas, leaving him right where he is as we move the few doors down to Todd’s room. He tries to go one too many, and I have to convince him that the door we’re in front of is actually his room. I take his keys from him and actually place them in the lock to fully convince him, to which he says, “You really are a treasure hunter.”

  The awe in his voice is too funny. I can’t help but laugh because his comparison is just outrageous.

  As soon as I swing the door open, Todd trips into the room. At least, I think it’s a trip at first until a strong arm pulls the door closed in front of me. I gaze to my left to find Stone Jacobs standing there, a mask of fury on his face. “What did I tell you about other guys?”

  “Blue’s Clues? Where are you?” Todd calls out from the other side of the door.

  Stone move
s my back to the door, crowding into my space like he did at the party. He sniffs the air, and his demeanor turns even more sour. “You smell like cheap beer now.”

  I try to push him off, but he doesn’t budge. “Get away from me.”

  “Mmm, nice try. You’re finally ours, and I’m not backing away.” The handle on the door tries to turn, and a guttural noise comes from the back of Stone’s throat. “If you open this door, I won’t just maim you, I’ll kick your ass for thinking you can put your hands on what’s mine. Do you understand me, fuck boy?”

  “Fuck boy...” It takes a moment but then a laugh erupts on the other side of the door. Todd is well and truly obliterated.

  I glance behind Stone to find Lucas and Wyatt standing there. It’s Wyatt’s turn to look bored, but Lucas is frowning.

  Stone moves my chin, so I look him in the face again. “You were going to get down with that?”

  This time, I really do shove him off. “Fuck you,” I growl. “In case you didn’t hear, I don’t have a place to stay now because of you three fuckers. I wasn’t going to fuck him. I was going to ask if I could spend the night.”

  Stone tightens his grip. “Do you know what ‘spend the night’ is code for in fuck boys like Todd’s eyes? It means you’re down to fuck. He’s drunk as shit. He outweighs you by seventy-five pounds or more, do you really think you want to go down that route, Wilder? All he has to say is that you said yes.”

  My throat burns. Embarrassment creeps to my cheeks in a wildfire of scorching shame and fury. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t think of that first or if I’m pissed because he thinks I can’t handle my own shit.

  “You’re too innocent,” Stone says. His words are nice, but he says it like a curse.

  Indignation clogs my throat. Stone doesn’t know me at all. I’d wager no one does. “Not that innocent,” I bite out, pushing past him.

  A growl rips from his throat as the meaning is one-hundred percent clear between the three of us. “After I get through with you, you’re going to eat those words.”