Boys will be boys, indeed. Holden resumed his position of holding my hand and leading me through the darkness.
Chase’s truck was a lifted white diesel with oversized, off-road tires, and he stood Captain Morgan style with his foot on the nerf bar. He’d apparently already fished around in the cooler because he threw us each a beer can as we approached.
Holden glanced at me. “Do you drink?”
I rolled my eyes. “My father is a sailor.”
“Okay,” he said evenly with an easy grin, and he cracked the tab on his can.
“Get in!” Chase practically growled. His anticipation was tangible, but I thought his annoyance was for show. Charlene and Jay were already in the backseat, so Holden and I climbed into the front. I was in the middle, crammed between two of the hottest guys I’d ever seen.
Breathing was suddenly optional.
I cracked open my can and took a few big gulps to try and calm my nerves. I barely had time for my brain to move past the gorgeousness surrounding me before I had the actual act of retaliation to worry about. Who had Holden gotten into it with? And what were they going to do to the poor guy? I certainly wouldn’t want these three on my shit. I took another swig and the can was over half gone.
Chase glanced in the rearview mirror before shifting into first. It was a manual transmission, I knew, because he’d gone through the first three gears faster than I had ever thought possible. Holden draped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in closer. We blew through the stop sign and hit the empty main road with a loud roar of the engine. Chase shifted gears twice more and momentarily calmed the beast.
“So what do you guys wanna do?” he asked loudly over the bass that was pumping aggressively through the cab. Mood music, it worked. Even I was starting to get excited about doing something a little rebellious. Wind poured through the fully opened windows and whipped the music around to every corner.
I was mostly on Holden’s side of the front, so Jay leaned his face through the headrests. “I think we should toss a couple flaming gasoline bottles.”
Chase smacked the wheel, like ‘shucks!’ “I only brought cans tonight!”
“Damn.”
My eyes were wide as I looked up at Holden. “You guys have never done that before, have you?”
“Relax…” Chase muttered.
Holden nodded. “It’s not dangerous. Trust me.”
Right. I was suddenly grateful that Chase hadn’t brought beer bottles. Even if it wasn’t dangerous—which is probably was—it was definitely illegal. Right? Those were the two things Holden had said this adventure wouldn’t be. I finished off my can in one steady stream to try and kill the anxiety.
“Jay, can up!” Chase yelled.
Jay handed me another beer and rested his chin between the two seats once more. “What if we oiled their lake?”
Chase smirked at Holden. “That’s an idea.”
Holden nodded and took a sip of his drink. I cracked open my second can and downed half.
“They’d have their hands full for days trying to clean that mess,” Jay added.
A conflicted frown touched Holden’s brows. “Yeah, but that’s more of his brother’s domain, and that’s not the one I want to piss off at the moment. You know?”
Chase bobbed his head in agreement.
Jay pursed his lips and thought. “In that case, we could spin donuts through their yard and gardens?”
Holden grinned. “We probably should’ve taken more trucks for that one.”
Chase tapped the wheel. “We could still do some significant damage.”
“We could,” Holden agreed with a nod. He glanced out the window. I finished my second can then followed suit, watching as the forestry whooshed by in a blur, illuminated eerily in the sharp glow of the headlights.
Jay was the idea man. “All right, what if we combined aspects of them all?” He was also the beer man; he passed me up a third can and Holden his second.
“That would be epic!” Chase agreed, no further elaboration from Jay required.
He continued anyway. “Spin the donuts, oil the ground, and then light the shit on fire.”
“I love it!” Chase cried maniacally, incidentally accelerating the truck. “What do you think, Holden? It’s your call.”
I was worried. Really worried. This sounded like the worst idea I’d ever heard. We could get in serious trouble. We could catch this kid’s house on fire! Or his neighbors’ houses! Or the woods! People could be seriously hurt, or worse…
The alcohol wasn’t kicking in fast enough. I chugged the third can almost effortlessly, and that was saying something, because I’d never been able to wholly shotgun anything, not even a can of soda. The alcohol burst through my blood like an explosion.
I was about to protest Jay’s latest idea when Holden spoke. “I think tearing up the ground and pouring the oil will be enough. I only want to piss him off, not the whole neighborhood.”
“All right,” Chase agreed, still excited to cause any kind of destruction at all. “We’ll stop here at Ken’s, then.”
Ken’s was the only gas station for fifteen miles in the West Woods. It wasn’t fancy, but it also wasn’t monitored closely by the law. A few underagers smelling of alcohol, purchasing multiple gallons of motor oil wouldn’t turn any heads.
Holden slipped his arm from my shoulders and studied my eyes. The pale blue must’ve popped outlandishly with the pink that would certainly be tinting the white. “Are you okay?”
I grinned stupidly. “I’m great! Now that I know we’re not burning people’s houses down…”
“Oh, Valerie…” He chuckled and kissed the top of my head. “I’ll be right back.” He, Chase, and Jay dropped from the cab and strolled into the store, heading toward the automotive fluids. The truck was still running, and the music was still pulsing heavily through the air.
Charlene’s face replaced Jay’s in between the headrests. “Are you tipsy?” she asked with a giggle. “Because I’m tipsy.”
“I think so,” I declared, laughing so hard I nearly fell into the driver’s seat.
“Oh my god!” she squealed and tried to keep me upright, but her grip was like jello.
We laughed and laughed until my abdominal muscles hurt. I glanced toward the store and the world tipped sideways, rocking back and forth. Holden wavered behind the glass as he stood at the checkout.
A lazy grin opened up across my face. “He is so hot.” There was a part of me, buried deep under the fog of intoxication, that was in shock that I’d uttered those words out loud.
“Which one?” Charlene chimed in as she leaned farther into the front seat to see.
“Good point!” I agreed, as if no better point had ever been made.
I meant Holden, obviously, with his perfectly styled brown hair, flawless features, and muscular frame. His coffee eyes, pouty lips, and that cocky air that hung about him like humidity…it was all melding into a very solid mass of attraction.
But they were all striking in their own right. Chase was classically handsome, with a rugged edge and bright blue eyes; he was obviously the bad boy, always up for anything. Jay, too, with his highlighted fauxhawk, handsome baby face, and laidback demeanor. I knew, even while drunk, to keep those observations to myself.
The guys hopped back into the cab. Chase cranked the music even louder, then threw the truck into reverse. When he kicked it into first and peeled out of the lot, Charlene let out a cry of excitement, and surprisingly, the boys howled, too. Even I found myself shouting like a warrior around a vengeful pyre. We probably sounded like a pack of un-medicated maniacs.
I didn’t know if it was the inebriation, the rebellion, the freedom, or the company, but I felt absolutely exhilarated—for, like, the first time in my entire life. Ever.
Chase hung a right and we were once again barreling down the winding back roads of the Allegheny Mountains. He hadn’t been drinking, thankfully, but his driving suggested otherwise. We took the turns so fast I th
ought we might flip, the hills so quick I experienced zero-g, and the valleys so hard I was jarred by the impact. Even so, we never wrecked, and with each near miss that we came out on top of, my faith in his abilities increased. I let myself relax and just enjoy the ride.
Chase braked hard, and he whipped the diesel onto a dirt road I would’ve easily missed. “Oil up,” he said to Holden and Jay; they immediately uncapped their jugs and began peeling at the protective seals. Then, he turned the music low.
Holden lifted himself up onto the window ledge and grasped the roof for balance; Jay hung out the back window on the same side. We watched the woods as the trees breezed by, waiting for the houses to come into view.
Big houses, I realized with a low whistle. I had never even known they were out here. They all lined the left-hand side of the road, and beyond them a big lake glittered in the moonlight; dense forestry rested silently to the right.
Chase hung his head out the window to whisper to Holden. “Last house in the line, right?”
“Yep,” he agreed quietly.
Each home possessed a unique special feature, be it a luxurious garden, a pond and fountain, an elaborate fire ring with tiki torches, or a gazebo full of wind chimes—they were all exceptional. As the final house crept up into view, boasting the most beautiful gardens I’d ever seen, I suddenly realized why the guys had chosen to destroy them. This might be more than payback, though; the gardens were just that nice.
We parked and listened. No one breathed around the homesteads. It was like a ghost town.
Chase poked his head back in the truck and nudged me. “You might wanna shotgun another beer, Valerie. Shit’s about to get real fun. In fact”—he leaned around into the back and opened the cooler—“I think we should all chug a beer. Call it a ritual.”
Holden slid back onto the seat as Chase passed out cans. He looked genuinely excited for the first time since declaring this war. “To the crew?” Holden asked, holding up his can. With his other hand, he laced his fingers through mine.
“To the crew!” Everyone agreed, even me, because I actually felt like a part of the group.
Then the bitter fuzziness was pouring down my throat. I swallowed as quickly as I could and concentrated fiercely on controlling my gag reflex. Chase was done first, of course, and I was done last—but hey, I was just glad I finished at all…
“Whoo!” Chase cried. “Another?”
“Not me,” I said. I subconsciously leaned my body into Holden’s chest, and he ran his fingers though my silky blonde hair.
From the back, I heard Charlene mutter, “Me either.”
“Guys only, then,” Chase decided executively as Jay passed their cans forward. “Ready?”
Holden adjusted his body under my drunken deadweight and raised the can to his busted lips. I watched his Adam’s apple bob with each gulp, felt his chest rise and fall with each breath. When he finished, he crushed the can and let it drop to the floor. “Damn. That was awful.”
Chase smirked. “You’re out of practice, bro.”
“No, you just bought shitty beer.” Holden shook his head, and I didn’t know if he was trying to demonstrate his disapproval or if the alcohol was finally hitting his bloodstream. “Let’s kick it.”
That’s all the word Chase needed. He thrust the stick back into gear and gunned it onto the perfectly manicured front lawn. Holden jacked the volume back up, kissed the top of my head again, and climbed back up onto the window ledge. He cried out loudly, and soon we all were. It was addicting to feel so wild and reckless.
Chase spun muddy circles as Holden and Jay doused the earth in motor oil. It didn’t take long before the yard was completely ruined. They moved on, toward the garden that rested along the left-hand side of the house.
Holden dropped back inside the cab just long enough to swap his empty jug with a new one. He grinned at me then ducked out the window once more. It didn’t matter; the song blaring from the speakers was drawing a response out of my body. It was actually the exact same song that the band had played before the game. I rolled my hips and swayed my shoulders, seductively moving to the beat.
Chase grinned wide and shook his head at me as he cut the truck sharply to the left. He took out tall flowers, short flowers, and climbing vines, smearing them into the ground with his hefty tires. To add insult to injury, Holden and Jay were further poisoning the mess with each glug of their jugs.
There was a big deck out back, blocking the way. We had to go back around, past the front, to reach the garden on the right-hand side. This one had little stone pathways, a vined arbor, and a couple of benches.
Holden and Chase exchanged glances.
“Haul my ass around for the next few days?” Chase asked. Read: I’m about to seriously damage my truck and it’ll need to be in the body shop for a bit.
“I’d love to,” Holden agreed.
Chase took a deep breath and gunned it toward the arbor. I braced my arms against the dash, but at the last second before impact, he pulled the e-brake and we whipped the wooden archway with the tail of the truck. Metal crunched along the bed, but the arbor fell to the ground with a thud. The benches met identical fates, and after that, the guys devastated the greenery even worse than the first time.
After the deed had been done, Chase threw the truck into park and climbed out his own window. “Any parting words?”
I leaned against Holden’s legs and looked up to catch his reaction.
He grinned down at me, then found Chase’s eyes across the roof. “Sure.” He contentedly assessed the damage before shouting, “Do not screw with a member of this crew!”
“Don’t screw with the crew!” the rest of us echoed riotously.
Charlene and I giggled like groupies, and the boys jumped back into their seats. Chase kicked up rocks and dust as he peeled out, then darted down the narrow road.
Holden slouched lazily against the passenger door, and I slid up to his chest so that we were eye to eye and nearly horizontal on the seat. “Thank you. For bringing me, I mean. I’ve never felt so…”
“Alive?” he asked, as if he knew the feeling well.
“Yeah!” I was in an awe-induced stupor—well, that was the subsidiary level of awareness. The first was something along the lines of ‘plastered’. I had to have been slurring up a streak. “It’s like…I felt like I belonged with you guys tonight, you know?” He nodded pleasingly. He seemed perfectly sober. “And…I’ve never felt that before. Like, ever! And it’s just…amazing!” Holden grinned wide, stretching those pouty lips. “And…” I couldn’t stop staring at them. “I really want you to kiss me right now.”
He leaned forward and slowly kissed my right cheek.
A certain heat was swirling in the center of my being, and it was beginning to spread to my limbs. “That’s not what I meant…”
“Sorry,” he apologized smoothly. He kissed my left cheek, instead, his lips grazing my skin ever so softly.
The heat was becoming an all-consuming ache. I shook my head breathlessly. “Third time’s the charm?”
He smirked and trailed a finger from the bottom of my neck up to my chin. His eyes studied my awaiting lips for long enough to make me lick them. Then he tipped my chin into the air and planted feather-light kisses from my collarbone up to my earlobe.
He said, “I really want to kiss you, too.” Then he pulled away, just far enough to look into my longing eyes. “But our first kiss isn’t going to be a drunken make-out session, okay?” He stared deeper, until I felt he was looking inside of me. “You’re going to want to be coherent for our first kiss. I promise you that.” Then he kissed my chin.
I was absolutely melting for this boy. I could barely see through the heat-shimmer lacing across my skin. I certainly couldn’t breathe through it.
Why did alcohol always turn people into sex-charged nymphomaniacs? Not that I wanted to ‘bang’ him, as Loren would put it…not that I didn’t, either…but, that wasn’t exactly the point—though I wasn’t sure
what it actually was any more. I guessed all alcohol ever did was loosen your inhibitions, open your mind to the desires that you usually dusted under the rug or locked up with a key.
The truck pulled into Aunt Marge’s little driveway around midnight. I hoped to God she was asleep, and that she hadn’t worried about where I was. I’d completely forgot to mention that I was staying for the game, but even that excuse wouldn’t have covered my absence for the last few hours.
Holden hopped out and helped me down from the cab. Actually, he mostly caught me as I slid from the seat, giggling uncontrollably. He shushed me through his own laughter and walked me to the front porch.
“You’ll be okay?” he asked, hands on my waist, thumbs brushing my hipbones. I nodded, and he pulled me into a tighter embrace. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” I whispered into his neck. He smelled so good with that spicy sea breeze…
He pulled away and kissed my right hand. “I already can’t wait.”
As he strode back toward the truck, I was unexpectedly overcome with an intense curiosity. “Holden?”
“Yeah?” He spun on his heel.
“Whose house did we trash, anyway?”
His returning grin was so sexy it was absolutely criminal. “Cade Landston.”
Chapter Thirteen
I woke up late and barely had enough time to get showered before Sienna texted me. They had arrived.
I threw on a pair of distressed jean shorts and a tight white tank top, paired it with solid white flats, then pulled up my long blonde hair. After pocketing my phone, I stepped lightly into the kitchen.
There was a note on the countertop from Aunt Marge. She’d been at an environmental convention since the day before, and would still be there until tomorrow. Talk about a bullet dodged…
The walk to the East End was not nearly as thoughtless as I had hoped. Usually walking helped, but not that day. I had a lot on my mind.
We’d trashed Cade’s house last night, but there was more to it than that. Holden had wanted revenge. That meant Cade was the one who’d punched him in the face. How the hell had that happened? One minute Cade’s telling me about Loren and warning me to leave him alone. Then the next, he’s sneaking into the locker room and fighting with Holden. It didn’t make sense.
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