by Chloe Walsh
Then I woke up late this morning and started my day by having a huge altercation with Ellie over my guitar – which had resulted in her creepy father intervening and threatening me to, and I quote, stay on my side of the fence.
The fact that Ellie fully admitted to trashing Martin – and slashing my tires – made both my blood boil and my cheeks flame. Noah had been telling me the truth which meant I bashed him with a guitar for no reason.
He was right, I was a judgmental bitch…
I'd stupidly left my car keys in Hope's bedroom and had to powerwalk my ass to school in the pouring rain – which resulted in missing my first class. Thankfully, I made it to my second class before most of my classmates and scooted inside, pleased when I saw a friendly face at the back of the class.
Layton.
"Hey, can I sit with you?" I asked with a smile.
"Hey." Layton looked at me before quickly looking away. "Sure," he mumbled.
What's up his ass?
"So…did you have a nice weekend?" I asked more out of discomfort than curiosity.
Layton shook his head slowly before clearing his throat roughly. "Nothing worth mentioning."
"You're awfully quiet," I stated evenly.
"I'm a little tired," he replied, not meeting my eyes.
"Do you want me to move seats?" I asked him straight out. "Is that the problem? You don't want me to sit with you?"
"No," Layton replied loudly and a little too squeaky before clearing his throat again. "You can sit wherever you want, Teagan. It's a free country."
"Right…" I folded my hands and stared at his beautiful face. "So…how's life? Are you looking forward to Christmas – it's right around the corner…"
"Teagan, can I give you a little advice?" Layton didn’t wait for me to respond. "Keep your distance from Messina." Sighing heavily, he added, "You're a nice girl and he's…" Layton paused and ran his hand over his shaved head. "You're playing with fire," he mumbled. "And you know how that saying goes."
I shook my head and rose my brows in confusion. "Layton, what the hell are you talking about?"
Layton didn’t answer me.
Instead he turned his head and stared out the window, purposefully ignoring me.
A group of Ellie's friends walked into class and stopped dead when they saw me. All eyes locked on me and one even went so far as to point at me.
I rose my brows and stared back at them defiantly, but inside I was having a huge case of the WTF's. What the hell was going on around here? Had I somehow become the school leper?
"There's a photo of you online…. You know, the one with you twerking all over a very sweaty, half-naked Noah."
Amy's voice drifted into my mind and I scoffed loudly to myself. So I was being treated like a disease because of the whole twerking business… Fabulous.
"That's her," one of the girls hissed to her friend as they passed by my seat.
"You have no class," one of the girls spat before sitting at the desk behind me.
"I hope you're happy with yourself," muttered another – Reese, I recognized. Her eyes were bloodshot. "You're destroying everything."
"Come on, come on, get seated, everybody. We have a lot to get covered this morning," Mr. Trammel, the biology teacher called out as he rambled into class.
I opened my text book and tried to focus on what Mr. Trammel was saying and not on what the rest of the class were whispering.
****
Biology and every class after that passed painfully slowly and by the time I made it to the cafeteria for lunch. I was exhausted and tossing around the pros and cons of homeschooling.
"What the hell is happening in this place?" Hope growled as she dropped her lunch tray on the table before digging my car keys out of her jeans pocket and taking a seat beside me. "People have been acting strange as hell," she muttered with a sigh as she handed me the keys.
"Cheers."
"No probs." Tearing off the lid, Hope dug into her yoghurt with a vengeance. "Thank god it's…" she stopped mid-sentence to lick the yoghurt from her spoon. "…almost home-time. I need a break from this crap."
"Thank god," I said, relieved, as I stirred my coffee aimlessly. "I thought I was the only one being treated like a piranha."
"Jealousy is an ugly trait," Ash offered in a supportive tone before sliding her phone towards me. "On the bright side, Amy was right. Your ass is amazing."
"Good to know," I muttered with a heavy sigh.
Placing my elbows on the table, I rested my forehead against my palm before picking up Ash's phone, holding it away from my body like it was a poisonous snake. "Do I really want to see this?"
I didn’t wait for the girls to answer.
Raising the screen to my face, my eyebrows shot up in surprise. "How the hell can anyone tell this is me?" I asked, feeling acutely relieved that my face was hidden. "This was taken from behind us. All you can see is my ass and the back of my legs." I mentally patted myself on the back for keeping my body tight and trim – and for having the good sense to shave. "You would've had to be there to know it's actually me."
"Maybe so, but it's not hard to put two and two together," Ash goaded with a chuckle. "Noah's not a blonde man – aside from you…and look at how his eyes are glued to your butt, Teegs."
Fair enough it was pretty obvious that the guy in the picture was Noah. You could easily make out the side of his face as he…cupped my butt cheek? Hang on… "What do you mean aside from me?"
A male arm swooped over my shoulder and grabbed the phone before letting out a whistle. "Messina looks like he wants to take a bite out of you." Cam handed me back the phone before sliding into the seat beside me. "Do wolves eat p…"
"Shut up, you little pervert," Hope warned him before slamming her spoon on the table in frustration. "Oh for the love of all that's holy…" she grumbled before jerking out of her chair and marching over to where a group of girls were blatantly staring and pointing at us. Of course Ellie Dennis was one of those girls. Reese was another. All four girls seemed to grow nervous as Hope approached. "Gotta problem, girls?" Hope asked, eyebrow raised.
"Not with you," Ellie replied, cutting a dark look my way.
Hope noticed the evils I was receiving. "You see that girl over there." She pointed to me before looking back at Ellie. "She's my friend. If you've got a problem with her, then I've got a problem with you. You got it?"
"Have you seen the state my brother is in?" Ellie demanded. Shoving her chair back she stood up and stepped right up in Hope's personal space. It looked quite comical really considering Hope had a good four inches on her. "Because of her," Ellie spat, pointing her finger at me.
"What exactly are you accusing me of, Ellie?" I demanded as I jerked out of my seat and stalked over to where Hope and Ellie were standing. "Because of me." I glared at her. "I have nothing to do with your brother."
"Exactly," Ellie hissed. "You are nothing to my brother, so stay the hell out of his way and stop making problems for him."
Actually I said 'nothing to do' and not 'nothing to' but Ellie looked so pissed I didn’t bother correcting her. Both statements were true.
"Listen to me carefully, bitch," Ellie growled as she stepped closer and wrapped her hand around my wrist. "I'm only going to tell you this once." Her green eyes burned into mine. "Noah has a lot of people depending on him, a lot riding on him staying focused and doing what needs to be done." Her nails bit into my skin. "Stay away from him or you're going to get him hurt."
Tightening her grasp on my wrist Ellie tugged me so hard I stumbled forward. "And stay away from the Ring of Fire," she whispered in my ear. "I knew you were going to cause trouble for us the minute I laid eyes on you," she added, her tone laced with disgust. "Stay. Away. From. Noah."
"If you don’t take your scabby little hand off my friend you're the one who's going to get hurt," Hope warned her menacingly.
Ellie dropped my wrist and stepped back slowly. "Take my advice, Teagan," she warned, eyes locked on me.
"I'm really not interested in taking advice from the school Barbie," I said in a bored tone even though I was feeling a little rattled. "I enjoy thinking for myself."
I waited for the queen bitch to sit back down before I left the cafeteria.
Thankfully Hope didn’t follow me, I think she realized I needed space. I was in a foul mood, tired, and seriously pissed off with Ellie for making a fool out of me and with Noah for being the root of all my problems.
"Hey beautiful."
I groaned internally when I reached the parking lot and was faced with Hope's baby brother.
"Hey Colt," I muttered, not making eye contact, hoping he'd get the hint that I wasn’t feeling particularly sociable right now.
"How's your day going?" he asked as I walked past him.
Reluctantly I stopped and turned around to face him, pulling the hood of my coat up to protect my hair from the rain. "You know," I said dryly. "A little of ass and a lot of hole."
Colt chuckled and then ran a hand through his soaking wet hair. "Well," he mused. "Don't let the assholes drag you down to their mundane level."
I pursed my lips and grimaced. "Right about now, Colt, I'm striving for normal. Mundane is sounding pretty damn appealing."
"Don’t strive for normal, beautiful," he said with a full dimpled smile. "Reach for yourself."
I shook my head in amusement. "Reach for myself?"
"Yeah." Colt grinned as he continued to walk backwards. "The best part about reaching for the best part of you is that it's completely attainable because it's already inside of you." He winked at my confused expression. "You already have the key, Beautiful. Find the lock inside of you it fits. And the best part of it all is you're the only one with a key, therefore no one can take the best of you from you. It's yours. For Keeps."
What the…
I stood in the pouring rain, watching Colton as he strolled into the school building, feeling totally confused and surprisingly uplifted.
Yeah, Colton Carter was a strange guy.
****
Noah
"Four grand, Messina," Mortico Gonzalez rasped down the line. "Consider it a little side earner."
"Are you for real?" I growled as I stalked around my living room like a madman with my phone welded to my ear.
After the beating JD and his henchmen gave me at the weekend I hadn’t even considered taking another fight for at least a couple of weeks. Shit, I hadn’t been able to get out of bed until yesterday with the pain in my head. But with George away on business…Shit, what Gonzalez was offering me was fucking insane, but he'd planted the seed of hope in my mind.
Four thousand dollars would go a long way come graduation – if Logan's idea went to plan.
Gonzalez chuckled. "Absolutely, kid. Money's yours – take out Cortez and I'll throw in a little sweetener for your troubles."
"What kind of sweetener?"
"Your debt to Lucius for the paint-job?" Gonzalez mused. "Consider it paid."
My brows rose in surprise. "That's over three…"
"Grand," Gonzalez offered. "You're worth every penny, kid. Now, do we have a deal?"
Gonzalez's offer was complete bullshit, but it was bullshit I couldn’t afford to turn down. "I don’t have a ride to get up there," I told him as I stared out the bay window. I couldn’t ask Tommy or Low. They'd been seen with me before. It was far too risky. If anyone got wind of the fact that I was doing a job for George's nemesis I – and anyone with me – would be a dead man…
"You're a resourceful kid," Gonzalez told me. "Find a way."
If JD found out I was doing side work for his father's opposition he'd kill me with his bare hands, but like I said Gonzalez's bullshit was too good to refuse.
My eyes fell on Teagan as she stalked up her driveway soaked to the skin and then to her cherry-red civic and suddenly I heard myself saying, "I'll be there."
****
Teagan
Uncle Max had left for work by the time I skulked back to the house.
Last night's dinner plates were exactly where we'd left them – on the coffee table – so after finishing my homework I set to work on straightening the house up before heading upstairs for a shower.
After showering and dressing in a t-shirt and pajama shorts I spent a few moments ogling my plane ticket home that Max had left on my night stand – pretty little shamrock – before sending Hope a text to let her know I'd managed to crack question three in our Trig homework. She didn’t respond to my text, and I presumed she was on the phone to the wonderful Jordan.
The rest of the evening dragged painfully on and by nine o clock I was bored stiff. There was only so many times a person could recite the thirty-two counties before turning slightly suicidal, so with nothing better to do I decided to terrorize myself with some horror movies.
I was pretty sure the storm was picking up outside and I wanted to be sound asleep before it got any worse.
As I lay curled up on my couch in my pajamas, watching Friday the 13th on my laptop, I closed my eyes and tried to empty my mind from all thoughts of my infamous ass jiggling. It was surprisingly easy and within minutes I was dozing off…
It could have been minutes later or hours when the sound of a door banging startled me from my sleep. A hand covered my mouth, stopping me from screaming out.
"Payback's a bitch," a male voice whispered in my ear seconds before I was dragged off the couch.
****
I heard my laptop crash to the floor but I couldn't see a damn thing. Everything was black. I mean pitch-black dark, but I knew exactly whose shoulder I was tossed over – I knew exactly whose back my face was pressed against.
I could smell him.
"If you broke that, you'll be sorry," I spat as I flayed my legs and struggled furiously to free myself from his clutches. "I know karate." And seven other Chinese words… "Let me go."
"You fight like a bitch, Thorn," Noah taunted as he slapped me hard on the ass. I was in a pair of light cotton pajama-shorts and the slap really stung. "Where are your car keys?"
"Like I'd tell you," I snarled. Don't look at the back of the door. Don't look at the back of the door…"And if you hit me, I'll hit you back," I added before reaching my hand under the waistband of his sweats and digging my nails into his butt-cheek.
"Jesus, you really are a thorn," Noah grunted and for a moment I thought he'd drop me, but then he straightened up and stalked through what I presumed was my hallway, stopping at the front door to remove my keys from the lock. Dammit…
"What happened to the lights?" I asked out of morbid curiosity. "What are you going to do to me?"
"Nature happened," he replied smugly. "And not nearly as much as I want to," he added before dropping me onto the floor. "Thanks for the wheels."
The minute he opened the front door I started to scream the place down.
"Thief," I roared at the top of my lungs, but Noah was too damn fast. He moved like a ninja, getting from my front door to my car within seconds.
"Hey," I screamed as I rushed down my porch steps to where Noah was climbing into the driver's seat of my car and then cranking the engine of my car. The wind was vicious, blowing me backwards, and I was drenched almost instantly from the heavy rainfall.
Now I know fear should have been my strongest emotion, considering I was being car-jacked and standing outside in a storm, but anger was what coursed through my veins.
Lightening forked in the sky above me.
And then I made the stupidest decision of my life.
I got into the car with Noah Messina.
****
Chapter 13
Teagan
"Get out of the car, Teagan," Noah growled as he revved the engine menacingly. "I'm not joking around here. I need to leave."
"I wonder how many years the judge will give you for abduction and grand theft auto," I hissed in a spiteful tone as I fastened my seatbelt. I may have just put myself in a dangerous situation, but I wasn't suicidal. Seatbelts were
a given in any circumstance.
"They'll have to catch me to sentence me," he shot back, casting me a sideways smirk as he took his foot off the clutch and accelerated, slipping into second and then third gear as he tore down Thirteenth Street. "And I'm very fast, Teagan."
Noah Messina looks good behind the wheel of my car, I begrudgingly thought to myself. His dark hair was mussed up in an effortlessly sexy way and the way he absentmindedly ran his tongue over his lower lip as he drove was wickedly distracting.
I folded my arms over my chest and stared defiantly ahead.
"So, what's the plan?" I asked when the silence got the better of me. He'd taken us away from the hill. We were heading into the mountains and I was growing anxious. It pissed me the hell off that he could make me feel anxious. I wasn't afraid of him. I wasn't. "Drop me off in the middle of nowhere? Set fire to my car? Hold me at ransom in some secluded shed?"
Rain beat against the windshield and Noah flicked the wipers on full-speed to clear it. To be honest, I didn’t have a clue how he could drive in these conditions and I was truly surprised we were still in one piece and with four tires on the ground.
Noah laughed softly as he changed gears before taking a sharp corner. I was forced back in my seat from the speed he was driving and I thought I might pee. "You know, for a little girl who's all alone in a car in the middle of nowhere, with a strange and insanely attractive man…"
"Strange is a good word for you," I said, interrupting him. "Also, the word kidnapper comes to mind."
"Oh please," Noah snorted. "I didn't kidnap you. It was your choice to get in. I need to borrow your wheels."
"What?" I turned in my seat to gape at him. "Hang on, let me get this straight. You break into my house in the middle of the night, almost smother me to death with one hand and sexually assault me with the other…" I inhaled a calming breath. "Because you want to borrow my car?"