by Jacie Lennon
“Do we ever get up to no good, Marlene?” Corbin says as we follow her outside to the patio.
The ocean breeze is stronger out here, and it feels good, cooling the small beads of sweat on my forehead. She laughs and shakes her head as she gestures to a table in front of her.
“Y’all sit down, and I’ll bring you some drinks. What do you want?”
“Water is fine. Thank you,” I say, and she smiles before walking away.
I lean back in my seat, placing my arm around the back of Corbin’s seat next to me, and take a deep breath. It’s a nice clear night, and I can see the stars twinkling above us. Bodhi’s fingers drum on the tabletop, but none of us speak. There’s nothing to say.
“Here you go.” Marlene’s voice cuts through the tension as she sets our waters down.
A chorus of thank-yous ring out before she walks away again. I check my phone—a minute past nine—and now, I’m getting antsy.
I glance out into the dark, where I can hear the ocean waves hitting the shore, squinting to make sure I don’t see anything. Bodhi’s incessant drumming starts to get on my nerves, and I open my mouth to shut him up as the door to the patio opens.
We all watch as Drake saunters through, a smirk on his face and his cronies behind him. I can see Marlene hovering behind them, a worried look on her once-smiling face.
She trails them to the table as they pull chairs out, but only Drake sits in the chair beside Bodhi, and I can see Bodhi visibly tense.
“You’re late,” I say, and Drake chuckles.
“Lighten up. We are all brothers here, right?” He spreads out his hands, but his smile doesn’t fool me. Behind his eyes is a dangerous glint that doesn’t bode well for us.
I need to tread lightly since this is Loredo territory.
“You aren’t my brother,” Bodhi mutters, and Drake looks at him.
“Your mom would beg to differ.”
“She’s not your fucking mom,” Bodhi says, and I cringe.
I can see this escalating very quickly.
“Stepmom, but she’s been good to me,” Drake says with a smile that makes my skin crawl.
I have a thick skin where our mom is concerned, but I know Bodhi doesn’t. He was affected a lot more by the betrayal, and I’m regretting bringing him to this meeting now.
“We aren’t here to talk about her,” I cut into their bickering, and Drake’s eyes land on me.
“What are we here for?” He clasps his hands on the table and leans forward.
I can see a revolver strapped to his waist. Not the best choice of gun for a shoot-out, I wouldn’t think. Maybe he fancies himself as a Wild West outlaw. Who knows?
“I have a proposition for you.”
“Sorry, Brock, I don’t swing that way,” Drake says, sitting back and crossing his arms.
His dumb friends laugh as they stand behind him. I roll my eyes and sigh.
“I’m not propositioning you, you idiot. I have a proposition for you. I want to make a deal.”
“And what makes you think I’d want to make a deal with you?”
“Mutual interests,” I say. “It’s come to my attention that you and the Lions are in a bit of money trouble, having to rely on others for income. Basically, you are someone else’s bitch right now. Wouldn’t you want to be your own boss?”
Drake’s eyes grow dark as he leans in again, saying nothing as his narrow gaze stays trained on me.
“What do you know about our so-called money issues?” he finally says after a few beats of silence.
“That you have them, and I have a way to help.”
“Why do you want to help me?” Drake looks skeptical, and I don’t blame him.
I don’t want to help him. I want him to fuck off, and I figure this is how I can get him to do that.
“I can give the Lions money to help you out of your rut, and in return, I want you to never contact Peyton again.” I lay it all out there and then clench my teeth as silence descends over the table again.
Suddenly, Drake guffaws, and I flinch. Not exactly the reaction I was expecting. Bodhi looks at me, subtly shaking his head, and I can sense Corbin shifting in his seat. Drake’s goons are standing behind him, like the loyal little servants they are. I’m sure they think he can get them in the Lions because of his daddy.
“You think Peyton wants you? You think she won’t come crawling back to me at some point? She’s mine. Her child is mine.”
“So, you don’t want my help?” I can’t tell if Drake is playing hardball with me, trying to get me to beg.
Maybe my intel was wrong, and they don’t need money that bad. If so, I’m going to have to come up with a plan B. I don’t care if the child does turn out to be his; no one deserves to be subjected to not having any options. Well, maybe Drake does.
“Now, I didn’t say that,” Drake says, crossing his arms again. “I’m willing to let you help us, but I can’t promise that Peyton will pick you.”
“She already has,” I say, waiting to see his reaction.
Drake doesn’t appear ruffled on the outside, but I can see one side of his body move with the movement of his leg as he jiggles it.
Good. Let him sweat.
“I want you to call off your hit. I don’t want any threat to me or my boys here. In return, I will give you fifty thousand, cash.” The thought makes my stomach roil. If my dad ever finds out that I used the emergency funds in the safe for this, my head will roll. I plan on putting it back as quickly as I can.
“Fifty thousand,” Drake says with a whistle. “That must be some good pussy.”
It takes a second for his words to register, and then I’m snarling. Corbin plants his hand in my chest. I didn’t even realize I had moved. Drake’s guys step forward, but he laughs.
“Shut the fuck up, Drake,” I growl, and he only smiles wider.
“How about you do something for me, plus that fifty grand, and then we’ll call it even? I’ll leave Peyton alone.”
I don’t like the sound of this. I can tell by the way Corbin is shaking his head that he doesn’t like it either.
“No, I already gave you my terms.”
“And I’m countering them with my terms. You came to me. You didn’t think I would agree without any sort of pushback, did you?”
No, but I was hoping.
“What are your terms then?” I stretch my neck side to side, popping it as we stare each other down.
Drake grabs Bodhi’s water, taking a long swig and then setting it in front of him, lazily drawing one finger through the condensation that’s settled on the cup in the balmy ocean air.
“I need you to transfer that money.” He tilts the water up again, draining it before standing and slapping the table. “Then, I need you to make a drop for us.”
26
Peyton
It’s been two days, and I haven’t seen Brock, which is weird. But I’m not going to beg for him to hang out with me. We aren’t a couple, and I get that. I’m the one who said we weren’t together, so I won’t be clingy.
“Hey, Scholarship,” someone whispers, and I roll my eyes, not even interested in turning around and talking to fucking Kelsey. “Scholarship.” The whisper grows louder, and finally, I turn my head a little bit and narrow my eyes at her.
“What?”
“Want to get together today to work on our project?”
I would rather eat nails.
“Sure,” I say with a sigh. “As long as you stop calling me Scholarship.”
“I’ll think about it,” she says, and her stupid friend giggles, as if she made the wittiest joke ever.
“Meet in the commons after school?”
“Why don’t you and Trixie come to our room? Less noise and all that,” Kelsey says, and I squint at her.
What is she up to?
“Hey, Trixie,” I say as I look up and see her entering the classroom.
She smiles at me, and then her smile drops off when she notices Kelsey beside me.
&
nbsp; “Peyton,” she says, not saying anything to Kelsey.
“Want to get together with Kelsey and …” I look questioningly at her friend, as if I can’t remember her name.
“Savannah,” she says, drawing it out as if I couldn’t hear her.
“Right, Savannah,” I say, giving her a sweet smile. “After class and work on our group project?” I tilt my head at Trixie, who stifles a sigh.
“I would love nothing more,” she says, the sarcasm evident in her tone.
“Perfect. Our room, after class,” Kelsey says, standing from the desk she was sitting in and making her way back to her desk.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” I say to Trixie as she settles in.
“Ah, what’s the worst they could do?” she asks, setting her laptop on the desk and turning it on.
“I don’t know … kill me and dispose of my body? They hate me.”
“Don’t get in a fight, and you will be good,” Trixie says.
Then, the teacher comes in, clapping her hands and silencing the room.
I raise my hand to knock on Kelsey’s closed door, but before I can make contact, it’s wrenched open.
“What the—” I sputter when my dad’s face looms before me instead of Kelsey’s or Savannah’s. “What are you doing here?”
The stench of alcohol overwhelms me, and I reach up to cover my nose. Being pregnant has messed with my sense of smell. I swear I can sense a chocolate bar being opened from a mile away.
“What are you doing here?” he growls back, an irate look on his face, and I frown, shrinking back a little.
This doesn’t make any sense.
“I’m here for a group project,” I say, stepping back and running into Trixie, who grabs on to my arm.
“Who is this?” Trixie murmurs against my ear as she continues to hold on to me.
Kelsey and Savannah are smirking at me from where they sit on one bed.
“I’m taking you home.” He reaches for me, and I shrink back even more.
Trixie goes to step around me, but I put an arm out.
“No,” I state firmly and raise my chin, standing a little taller. “How are you even here right now? Why are you in their room? That’s super weird.” I frown more and glance around.
“Your sweet dad showed up, looking for you in the school office this morning,” Kelsey says, piping up from inside the room. Her face appears from around my dad with a shit-eating grin, and I want to claw her eyes out. She doesn’t know what she’s done. “We offered to have him hang out here and thought we’d surprise you with the little reunion.” She says it as if she planned the best surprise party of the century, even clapping her hands together.
“I can’t believe you would jeopardize your future and mine by pulling this damn stunt,” Dad says as he grabs my upper arm where Trixie was holding it moments ago.
I glance behind me and see she has her phone out, and she’s glancing up every so often as she types.
“I’m not going back.” I plant my feet and try to twist my arm out of his grip. “I’m going to finish school here. I’m going to make something of myself.”
As much as I hate that this is taking place in front of Kelsey and Savannah, I still have to stand up for what I want, and I don’t want to go back to my trailer and abusive boyfriend and sad existence. I don’t deserve that, and neither does this child.
“You’ll do what I say,” Dad growls and pushes me backward as he walks out of the room. I stumble a few steps, and then Trixie is at my back again. “You won’t ever make something of yourself, so ya might as well quit trying.”
Trixie gasps, and I take a deep breath in.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Trixie says, drawing out the sir so it sounds sarcastic. “You can’t come in here and extract students from school grounds.” She sounds so proper, and I would smile if the situation wasn’t so serious.
“She ain’t a student. She’s my bitch of a daughter, and I’m taking her home. I didn’t give my permission for her to be here, so I can have her listed as a runaway.” He turns a sly smile toward me. “And who knows how that will impact your status as a mother?”
I watch as the corner of his mouth twitches like he wants to laugh. The asshole. Finding pleasure in this. He’s always wanted to control everything, and I’m a pawn in his stupid game he’s playing with the Lions.
I shut my eyes tight in a grimace as it registers with Kelsey what my dad said. I don’t look at her, but her gasp and laughter say it all. Savannah is whispering, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she couldn’t put two and two together. It’s sad that they did this to me. For the second time, they’ve helped get me kicked out of a good future. If I have a daughter, I hope that she will champion the girls and women around her instead of always making everything a contest.
Maybe I do need to get out of this environment. I can’t let myself get in any deeper with these people. They all smile to your face and then stick a knife in your back as soon as you turn around.
I press my hand to my stomach to remind myself of why I’m doing what I’m doing. I have to stay. Get an education and then take myself and my child away from here. I won’t let her grow up how I did.
“You can’t threaten me with that. I’ll be eighteen in a month and a legal adult.”
“Yeah, a lot can happen in that time. I got debts to pay, and you are my way out,” Dad retorts.
I wrench my arm from his grasp and plaster myself against the opposite wall in the hallway. Always something to be used.
Kelsey’s shrill laughter rings out as she stands in her doorway, Savannah recording the incident, and I feel angry but also sad for them. They will always be bitches, and they won’t know how they truly affected someone else’s life because they don’t care. Once a shark, always a shark.
“Fine,” I spit, but before I can say anything else, Dad walks up and crowds me, his breath reeking of alcohol, as is his body. It’s pouring from every surface.
I don’t know how the girls could stand being in the same room with him. I guess their reward was greater than the risk they took, having him here.
“Where’s the money you have hidden, girl?” he spits, and I try not to flinch.
I hope he won’t hit me here. I pray he won’t go that far and that he won’t want to hurt the baby, only wanting to use it as a bargaining chip.
“What money?” I ask, knowing exactly what he’s talking about. The money I have stashed in my dorm room at this exact minute.
“Don’t play fuckin’ dumb,” he hisses, lowering his voice. “You run off, knowing how much it will hurt me, and then you don’t even leave me anything to work with. I could be dead right now, and that blood would be on your hands.”
My eyes widen as I stare up at him. Is he trying to blame his bad decisions on me? He’s done this my whole life, playing the victim and leaving me out to dry. Well, he has four weeks to try, and then I’m done with him. And hell if I’m going to give him my hard-earned money. That’s going toward starting a new life for me and my child.
“I don’t have it,” I lie, staring him in the eyes. “But I’ll come home for the next month. After that, you have no claim over me.”
“Don’t need you for four more weeks, just need you to pay a debt,” he says, whispering so I’m the only one who can hear, and I grimace, my stomach roiling at his smell and his words.
“Go. To. Hell,” I whisper back, and he narrows his eyes, wrapping his meaty paw around my arm once more and heading to the elevator.
27
Brock
It’s been two days since my meeting with Drake at the diner, and I’m starting to get irritated. I’ve heard nothing from him. The guys keep asking what we are doing, but I don’t know. I have no information.
I’ve been avoiding Peyton, so she won’t see the truth in my eyes. I know she has to be pissed at me, but I can’t help it right now. It’s the one time I’ve been thankful that we don’t have a class together.
“Dude, w
hen are we going to know something?” Bodhi’s been throwing grapes in the air and catching them in his mouth, and I glance over at him.
“Be patient. He said he would text with more information.” I twirl a pen in my fingers as I stare up at the ceiling, feeling as impatient as Bodie.
Corbin is lying on his bed, probably texting Landry, acting as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.
My phone chimes with an incoming text message, and I all but leap across the space between my chair and the desk to grab it. I furrow my brow when I see that it’s only Trixie texting, and I let out a deep sigh. I swipe my finger to check the message, and as soon as I read the words, my heart starts to race. I glance up with what I’m sure is a look of panic on my face.
“What’s going on?” Corbin asks, sitting up as he lowers his phone.
“I don’t know. I got a message from Trixie, saying Peyton needed us,” I say, still looking at the message.
Bodhi glances up at that, a strange look on his face, but I don’t have time for his theatrics where Trixie is concerned. Their drama is going to have to wait.
Trixie would only be messaging me—or any of us—for something important. I quickly text her back, asking what’s going on and where she is, and then I stare at the screen, wishing those three dots would show up. My foot is tapping the floor, and when nothing happens, I stand abruptly. I run one hand through my hair, making it stand on end.
“I hate this shit,” I say to no one in particular.
“Has she said anything back?” Bodie asks, sealing up his bag of grapes and sticking them in our mini fridge.
“Not yet. Still waiting. Do either of you know where Trixie or Peyton might be?” I look between both guys, and they shake their heads.
Finally, my phone chimes again, and I swipe.
Trixie: Outside the girls’ dorm. Come quick.
“They’re outside the girls’ dorm. Let’s go,” I say as I extend my head toward the door before striding over and flinging it open.