Bitch shouldn’t have been so fuckin’ dumb.
I pull the hood from her head and she squeals, but then her eyes adjust to the light and she blinks, visibly relaxing when she sees it’s us. I cock my head at that, barely managing to hide my amusement because if she thinks we’re here to save her, she’s dead fucking wrong.
“Is he gone?” she chokes out, dipping her head to wipe her tears with her shoulder.
I ignore her and look at Ross, shaking my head at him when I catch him sliding his eyes over Callie and her form. “Get the fuck outta here before you get your ass beat.”
He raises a brow and tilts his head to light a cigarette, still looking at her. “Alright but damn, pretty girl, you might be worth i–”
Damon shoves his ass back and he hides a grin, backing away from us with his hands raised in mock surrender. I grab Freya’s waist to pull her out of the trunk and Ross tosses me her phone, throwing a wave over his shoulder while he moves for the driver’s side door. He leaves and the five of us move to surround her on all sides, leaving Callie standing toe to toe with her considering she’s the only one of us willing to hit a girl. Freya looks between us and swallows, pulling on the rope wrapped around her wrists when she catches the look on Callie’s face. Fresh tears leak from her eyes and she tries to make a run for it, but then Callie snatches her throat and shoves her back against Kai’s chest, leaning over her to crowd her space.
“What did you tell her?”
“Nothing,” she chokes out, sobbing so hard she’s struggling to breathe. “Callie, please don’t hurt me. I swear to god I didn’t tell her anyt–”
“You swear to god?”
All the color drains from Freya’s face and I tense, looking over my shoulder to find my cousin leaning back against the side of Wren’s car with his hood pulled over his head and his arms crossed over his chest.
Fuck.
“You’re a little snitch and a little liar, huh, Freya?” he teases, laughing to himself when she dips her head to hide behind Callie.
Logan stands on his right with another guy I know is Roman and Demi stands on his left, smirking at me like the evil little bitch she is. “Bad Levi.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Callie bites out, releasing her grip on Freya’s throat to face them fully.
Demi cocks her head at her and I look at Zane, quickly moving to block his path when he pushes himself off the car and steps towards Callie. I honestly don’t know whether he’s after her or Freya, but I’m not about to take that chance either way.
He’s not getting her.
The boys fall in line beside me to form a solid line in front of her and Zane sighs like he’s short for time, moving his eyes across the four of us. “You’re really gonna make me do this the hard way?”
We stay where we stand and he rolls his eyes at us, shocking the shit out of me when he pulls his fist back and punches me directly between the eyes.
Hard.
My head hits the gravel and I black out, coming back a little while later to the sound of Freya’s hysterical screams filling my ears. I grind my teeth together and blink my eyes open, giving myself exactly three seconds to breathe while I fight the temptation to throttle her for getting us all killed.
Fucking figures I’m about to be thrown off a cliff by my own flesh and blood, but that’s my fucked up family for you.
At least Killian can’t kill me now.
Someone shakes me a little bit and I groan at the pain racking through my skull, finding Callie kneeling beside me with her hands on my chest and her eyes on my face, her dark brows pulled in at the center like she’s searching for something.
Or someone.
“What did you just say?”
I ignore that and force myself up to sit, muttering a curse when I spot Wren pinning Zane to the hood of his Lamborghini with his hands wrapped around his throat. Damon’s throwing down with Logan a few feet away and Kai’s doing the same with Roman, not one of them noticing when Demi steals Zane’s knife from the pocket of his hoodie and moves towards Wren like she’s about to fucking stab him. My heart leaps into my throat and I scramble to my feet, but before I can even think about stopping her, Callie grabs her by the scruff of her hoodie and shoves her ass back, pulling her fist back to punch her square in the nose.
Fuck.
Her ass hits the floor and every one of us stops to look her way – even Freya shuts her mouth because fuck, Demi Adams is not the girl to fuck with like that, but it seems Callie doesn’t give a shit, consequences be damned. Demi wipes the blood from her nose and drops her jaw, hitting Callie with a look that says bitch, you did not just do that to me. Callie smirks and Demi moves like she’s about to rush her, but then Callie straddles her waist and smashes her head back against the gravel. She punches her again and Demi gives back as good as she gets, pulling Callie’s head back by her hair to press Zane’s knife to her neck. The boys step forward as one and I do the same, locking my jaw when Zane cuts his eyes to mine, his warning clear.
Don’t touch her.
“Fuck, Callie, don’t move,” Wren rushes out, clearly terrified she’s about to slit her own throat the same way Donovan did two years ago.
She laughs lightly at that, grinning like a crazy person despite her current situation. “Relax, ganja man. I’m not stupid.”
“You sure?” Demi teases, leaning up to get in her face. “You look kinda stupid.”
“Bitch, shut the fuck up.”
“Make me, whore.”
Callie glares and pulls her gun out from the waistband of her jeans, distracting her long enough to snatch her wrist and twist it to the side. She hits her again and Demi sits up to hit her right back, but then Zane growls and smacks his fist against the hood of Wren’s car.
“Enough!”
Demi’s body goes limp at the sound of his voice and she drops to the floor like a sack of bricks, lying flat on her back with her arms spread out either side of her. Callie cocks her head at that, looking down at her with a mixture of confusion and amusement.
“She’s an obedient little thing, isn’t she?”
Demi ignores her and keeps her eyes on Zane’s, smirking like the devil she is when he steps closer and crouches down beside her, leaning his elbows on his knees. “Gimme the fuckin’ knife.”
She does as she’s told and slaps the palm of his hand with the pointy end, laughing to herself when it cuts him.
“Fuck, bitch,” he hisses, lifting his hand to his mouth to suck the blood away.
Callie raises a brow at them and Damon snatches her waist, pulling her off Demi’s lap to set her down on her feet. He takes her face in his hands to inspect the damage there and I look at Wren, locking my jaw when I spot the bruises on his face and the blood pouring from the nasty cut beneath his left eye.
“You alright, Lev?” he asks, stepping closer to bounce his eyes between mine. “You went down hard, man.”
I nod and slide my arms around his waist, carefully dropping my forehead on his. “You rushed him?”
“He punched you.”
I laugh lightly at that, tilting my head to speak over his lips. “You punch me all the time.”
“But you’re mine,” he informs me, wrapping his hand around my throat to keep me still. “I can do whatever the fuck I want with you.”
I smirk and he smirks back, leaning in further to take my mouth with his.
“Well I’ll be damned.”
I sigh heavily and look at Zane, rolling my eyes when he stares at me with his head cocked to the side and his knife in his hand. He points it at Wren and raises a cocky ass brow, laughing at me when I say nothing.
“Dude, are you crazy? He’s gonna kill you.”
My chest tightens with dread and Wren tenses against me, probably thinking he’s talking about my dad.
He’s not talking about my dad.
Zane grins like he’s enjoying himself and backs away from us, sliding his knife back into the pocket of his hoodie. “Let’s go, boys.�
�
“Um.. hello,” Demi throws her hands out, narrowing her eyes on the side of his face when she’s ignored. “You said you were gonna kill them.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Cause’ my cousin’s got a boyfriend and I wanna see how it all plays out,” he says simply, sliding his eyes over the six of us while Demi and his boys fall in line beside him. “Bring me that tape by this time tomorrow or I’ll kill you all.”
I scrub a hand over my mouth and he winks at me, laughing again when he catches the tick in my jaw.
Fuck, I hate him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Levi
Wren sits me down on the hood of his car and moves in to stand between my legs, gently tipping my head back to clean the blood from my face with the vodka he bought just now. We’re parked across the street from some gas station a couple miles from the highway, cleaning ourselves up out here because we can’t go back to the Palace covered in blood without raising questions we can’t answer.
I’m tired as shit and my head’s still throbbing like a motherfucker, and Freya’s not helping considering she won’t stop fucking crying.
“I’m sorry!” she cries again, screaming when Callie wraps her hand around her neck to shove her head back against the side of Damon’s car.
“You’re sorry?” she laughs, squeezing her throat to get in her face. “You almost got us all killed just now and you’re fucking sorry?”
“Callie, stop,” she chokes, desperately digging her nails into her wrist. “I can’t breathe.”
“Breathing’s the least of your fuckin’ problems right now, you stupid little girl,” she grits out, not letting up despite the fact Freya’s quickly turning blue. “I’m gonna ask you one more time and it better be the last fuckin’ time. Why did you go to see Katherine?”
“She called me a couple weeks ago after word got out about me and Wren getting engaged,” she rasps, still struggling against Callie’s hold. “She said she wanted me to go visit her and I told her to stop calling me and leave me alone, but then I couldn’t keep Wren away from Levi and I was desperate.”
“Desperate for what?”
She keeps her mouth shut and Callie glares, slamming her head back against the glass.
“I needed to get pregnant!” she rushes out, squeezing her eyes shut when Wren turns his head to look at her.
“You what?”
“It was the only thing I could think of to keep you,” she whispers, so quiet I can barely hear her. “Katherine said if I told her the truth about me and you and everything that was going on out here, she’d get me this drug that would make you hot for me, flunazepam or something like tha–”
“Flunitrazepam,” Callie cuts her off, pulling her gun out to point it at Freya’s temple. “That’s fucking Rohypnol, you dumb bitch. You were gonna rape him to get his kid inside you? What the fuck is the matter with you?!”
Freya screams again and I grind my teeth so hard I’m sure they’re about to crack, fisting the hem of Wren’s shirt to pull him into me. He sits down between my legs and Callie loses her shit, pulling her arm back to smack the side of Freya’s head with her gun.
“I’m gonna fucking kill y–”
Damon pulls her ass back and spins her to face him, quickly snatching her throat to pull her eyes up to his. “Baby, we need her awake.”
She glares but forces herself still, backing away from him to shove her gun back into the waistband of her jeans. “Fuck this.”
“Where’re you goin’?” Kai calls, frowning when she turns to walk away from us.
“To go buy somethin’ stronger than vodka.”
Damon watches her leave and Kai turns to face Freya, cocking his head when she sobs and wraps her arms around herself. She looks at Wren like she’s begging him to save her but he shakes his head, leaning back on my chest to light a joint.
“You brought this on yourself, Frey,” he mutters, blowing his smoke up to the sky. “What happens to you is not my fuckin’ problem.”
With that, Damon and Kai step forward as one and she cries some more, squealing when Kai wraps her hair around his fist to pull her head back on his shoulder. She inhales a deep breath and holds it there, shaking like a fucking leaf when Damon moves in to sandwich her between them.
“Damon, please don’t hurt m–”
“Gimme a fuckin’ name,” he grits out, leaning over her to crowd her space. “Now.”
Thick tears roll down her cheeks and she slides her eyes to mine, staring at me with something that looks a lot like pity. “Killian Matthews.”
Wren’s joint stills half way to his mouth and I close my eyes, wrapping my arms around his waist to drop my forehead on his shoulder.
Fuck.
“He found me in New York when you were in Cancun and convinced me to come home with him,” she explains, still fucking crying. “I thought it was a good idea at first, you know? I’d get Wren back and everything would go back to the way it was before, but then I couldn’t keep him away from you and your dad lost his fucking mind, told me I needed to find a way to lock him down or he’d kill me.”
My stomach bottoms out and I lift my head to look at her. “He knows about me and Wren?”
She nods, chewing the inside of her cheek. “He told me he’s had his security team following your every move since you were born. He knows everything about you.”
“That’s how he got the tape of us burying the body,” I guess, bouncing my eyes between the air in front of me while I fight to think.
He’s known about us this whole time..
Then why..?
Callie.
I’m still alive because I’m supposed to marry Callie.
Just as I think it, the sound of a gunshot rings out in the distance and my head snaps that way, my body acting on pure instinct alone before my mind has the chance to catch up. The four of us leave Freya on the side of the road and haul ass for the gas station across the street, rushing through the main entrance to find my father standing over the cashier’s body dressed in a black on black suit with a gun pointed at the hole in his face.
Fucking hell.
Callie’s standing just a couple feet away from him with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a few candy bars in the other, looking down at the dead guy with her jaw on the floor.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” she snaps, moving a couple steps to the left like she’s attempting to keep his attention on her and away from us.
She knows him well enough to assume she needs to protect us from the psychotic fucker she calls Louis, but she has no idea who he is or what he’s really capable of, especially not when it comes to her.
“No loose ends, remember?” he replies calmly, unbothered by the fact she just disrespected him in front of us and half a dozen of his men.
I’d get a black eye for that.
“Speaking of loose ends..” he muses, pointing at the street through the shop window. “Why is the Thorne girl running away from me?”
“Not sure, boss,” the bald guy beside him answers, straightening his spine when he scowls at him.
“Go get her, you fucking idiot.”
He moves to do as he’s told and Callie frowns, looking at Killian. “Wait, you’re the one working with Freya?” she asks, pulling her head back when he nods. “I don’t get it. What do you get out of blackmailing her ex–boyfriend into marrying her?”
He laughs at that, shaking his head at her like she said something adorable. “I don’t give a damn who Wren Kingston marries, sweetheart, just as long as it isn’t my fucking son.”
“Your son?” she echoes. “Who the fuck is your–”
The evil bastard cocks his head at me and she follows his line of sight, dropping her jaw when it hits her.
“You gotta be kidding me,” she whispers, laughing to herself when she catches the guilt on my face, but she doesn’t find me funny. “You’ve known who I am this whole time, hav
en’t you?”
I keep my mouth shut and she scoffs, uncapping the bottle in her hand to swallow a big ass mouthful. Wren’s eyes burn two holes through the side of my head and Damon looks from Killian to Callie, carefully reaching out for her hand to pull her away from him.
“Baby, do you know him?”
“He’s my boss.”
“Your old boss,” Killian corrects her. “You quit despite the fact I offered to pay you double, remember?”
She fails to hide a glare and he smirks, tipping his chin at the suited men surrounding him.
“All four, boss?”
“Just the brothers. Don’t touch Callie or Levi.”
Fuck.
They move to get behind the boys beside me and Callie panics, quickly pulling her gun out from behind her back like she’s about to start putting bullets in their kneecaps. Killian raises a brow and casually lifts his gun to Damon’s head, holding his hand out in front of her with the patience of a saint while he waits for her to make her choice. He’ll kill her husband without blinking and she knows it, which is why she admits defeat and hands him the gun, locking her jaw when he winks at her.
“That’s my girl.”
Fuck, I think I’m gonna puke.
His men finish cuffing the boys’ hands behind their backs and Kai rolls his eyes, looking down at the one searching his jeans for weapons. “Bitch, I’m not fuckin’ packin’. That’s my dick.”
He pays him no attention so Kai kicks him hard in the shin, laughing when he grunts and doubles over.
“You little shit.”
“I think we’ve already established I’m not little,” he teases, smirking when he scowls and ties a black rag around his head to gag him with it. “Kinky fucker.”
He does the same with Wren and Damon and Callie watches with her brows dipped in confusion, probably wondering why they’re not restraining her as well. She moves to follow them through the store without having to be told and I walk behind her, but then Killian snatches my arm and pulls me into him, digging his nails into my flesh while he leans over to speak in my ear.
“You’re either with me or against me,” he says quietly, his threatening tone leaving no room for argument. “If you want your little friend to make it through the night, I suggest you fall in line and stay there.”
Reckless at Westbrook High (The Kingston Brothers #2) Page 19