Nudging my way between two people waiting for drinks, I signaled a bartender and asked for two bottled waters. I uncapped one and handed it to Gianna before drinking my own.
Flynn, the guy from the crew Cece was hanging out with tonight was someone I’d met a few times but didn’t know well. Gianna swore he and Cece were only friends, but I wouldn’t want Gianna dancing with any guy friend like that. Come to think of it, I didn’t want her dancing with any other guy at all.
Gianna hadn’t received any new letters or email from her stalker for the last week. Hopefully, it was some jealous, vindictive girl who posed no real threat. Prepared for the worst case scenario, she hadn’t been left home alone or allowed to go anywhere by herself.
Which had begun to annoy her.
Over Gianna’s shoulder I spotted a familiar face and shouted, “Hey, I want my money back!”
My girlfriend whirled to see who I’d spoken to. I brought an arm around Gianna’s front and pulled her back against me.
Hailey wore a smirk but her eyes were venomous. She jerked her chin to indicate the girl in my arms. “Looks like you got your way as usual, Caleb. And it’s not like you didn’t get your money’s worth.” She licked her bottom lip in implication.
Gianna went stiff in my embrace. I put my lips at her ear. “Shh, princess, I didn’t let her near my dick.”
A guy who appeared at least a decade older than us came up from behind Hailey. “Hey, babe, these friends of yours?” His eyes wandered down Gianna’s body.
Hailey made a disgusted face. “Fuck no, these aren’t friends of mine.” She spun on her feet, grabbing him by the hand to drag him away. The pedophile gave Gianna one last leer before allowing himself to be led away.
Peeking around at her face, I took in Gianna’s grin. “What are you smiling about?”
She bit her bottom lip in an effort to hold it back. “You and Hailey aren’t friends anymore. That makes me incredibly happy.”
“We haven’t been for a long time. Now, where did your little friend get off to?”
The place was packed. It’d take forever to find Cece. “I’ll have to text her,” Gianna said, holding her hand out for her phone.
I pulled it out of the pocket of my black dress pants. “Tell her time is up if she wants a ride home.”
Gianna’s screen glowed as she turned it back on. “It’s only midnight. You have somewhere else to be?”
“Yep, alone with my girl.”
She attempted a stern look. “No more sneaking into my room, Caleb. I want my dad to keep liking you.” Her fingers moved over the screen as she spoke.
I wanted those fingers on my body. “I can’t make any promises. We still have a year more of this crap. I gotta get my fix somehow.”
Out of nowhere, some chick crashed into Gianna, making her fall against me and her cell phone drop to the floor. I caught Gianna before she stumbled to the ground and set her down on the other side of me. Her face displayed shock at being smacked into so rudely.
Ready to tell off the bitch who’d almost hurt her, I picked up the cell phone from the dirty club floor. The chick was trying to get to her feet on wobbly stilettos. Her face was a disaster of tears and dark makeup. I followed her line of sight and saw the guy clenching beefy fists a couple yards away.
That motherfucker had pushed the girl against Gianna.
I helped the chick to her feet. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, wiping her face and making a bigger mess of her makeup.
“Do you know that guy?”
“Mind your fucking business!” he snarled at me.
I ignored him. “He your boyfriend?’
Her head nodded again, her eyes darting fearfully to him.
A hand landed on my arm. “Caleb, I don’t want you getting arrested!” Gianna said, pleading with her eyes.
“Rebecca!” the guy yelled. “Get your ass over here. We’re going home.”
I was about to ask Rebecca if she wanted to go home with her asshole boyfriend. Instead, I took the initiative and lunged at him, cold-cocking him in the jaw before he could defend himself. His big body landed in a heap and I grabbed Gianna’s hand to get out of there before the bouncers showed up to drag us out.
I’d given Rebecca the opportunity to escape him tonight. If she was smart, she’d take it.
As we exited the club into the summer night, I used my shirt to wipe off Gianna’s cell phone and passed it to her. “Text Cece that we’ll wait for her and Flynn in my car.”
“Do you think you’ll get in trouble?” Gianna asked breathlessly. I slowed down, allowing her a break from walking fast in heels.
“Naw, a guy like that will be too embarrassed to have me tracked down to press charges. Besides, video footage will show I was defending you and his girlfriend.”
Cece and Flynn arrived at my car eight minutes after us and piled into the backseat. Cece’s eyes were bright and her cheeks flushed. “Have fun?” I asked.
“Lots. Why are we leaving so early?”
In answer, I started the car and backed out of the parking spot while Gianna explained.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“The saddest thing in life is wasted talent and the choices you make will shape your life forever.”
-Chazz Palminteri
Michael Wright’s heart raced as he and three other inmates approached one of the guards at the youth corrections facility he’d been locked up in for the past two weeks.
After detoxing at a youth rehab center, the judge had sentenced him to juvie for stealing a car and crashing it into a neighbor’s backyard pool. He’d been snowballing out of his mind, but he’d needed it after watching his dad beat on his mom again.
One of the other inmates hid a big ass rock behind his back. Javier distracted the guard by shoving Tobias and screaming that he was a faggot. Tobias was gay, so his anger at the slur didn’t need to be faked.
The fourth boy of their group lifted the rock and bashed it into the back of the guard’s skull. The guard became disoriented, but managed to stay on his feet. Michael was sweating, afraid of the consequences of getting caught. He winced as the rock hit the guard again, finally knocking him out.
Tobias’ grin was maniacal as he watched the attacker unnecessarily hit the guard again with the rock. Javier appeared as sick by the violence as Michael felt. But that could be the withdrawals he was still suffering from. If he didn’t get a hit soon, he’d freak the fuck out.
A chill went through Michael as he took in the blank, deadened look in the eyes of that Josh kid as he continued to bash the guard with the rock. Javier grabbed Josh’s arm. “Whoa, man, are you trying to kill the dude? They’ll throw your ass in a real fucking prison!”
Michael was still only fourteen-years-old so the worst they could do to him was return him here. Josh and Javier were seventeen and could be thrown in adult prison if a judge moved them out of juvenile court.
“We need to get out of here before another guard comes!” Michael hissed. “Now, where the fuck is the fence loose, Tobias?”
Instead of answering, Tobias took off to the far end of the yard while the other three boys ran behind him. A shout went out behind them and Michael knew time was running out. Other guards would be on the chase.
Tobias claimed he’d discovered a weak portion in the chainlink fence the other day. With four of them, they should be able to pull it up. If not, their asses would be thrown in solitary. Michael joined the other three in using all his strength to yank an area of the fence out of the ground.
His sentence was a non-mandatory zero to two years and he’d be up for evaluation every so often, but what if they kept him in here for the full two years? He couldn’t go that long without a fix.
The other three boys had mandatory sentences ranging from one to three years. Josh and Javier would be out in a year, but Tobias was only fifteen and had three years left to serve.
Tobias was the first to slide under the fence. Michael glanced back to see four g
uards gunning for them. A couple other inmates, or residents as the staff liked to call them, stood back to watch the show.
Michael pushed Javier out of the way and crawled under the fence. Tobias had already ditched them, running down the hill. Rumor was Tobias had a thing for pretty boy Josh, but Josh didn’t swing that way. Michael guessed Tobias had gotten over his crush at the prospect of freedom. As Josh slid under the fence, Michael took off down the hill.
The juvie facility was just outside of Denver in a town at the base of the Rocky Mountains. The facility was exclusively for high-risk teenage boys with mental health issues or drug addictions.
Michael didn’t think he was as bad as most of the other kids there. He wasn’t exactly sure what Javier had done to get locked up, but Tobias and Josh were both there for assault. Their treatments were more intense than Michael’s.
Javier caught up with him and Josh a moment later. Tobias was nowhere in sight since he’d disappeared into the trees. Michael wasn’t sure if the guards would be permitted to hunt for them outside the facility property. It wasn’t as if they were real cops.
The whole place was a joke. The inmates all wore navy polo shirts and khaki pants like they were in a fancy private school. Michael had been given two plants his second day in there to care for. They weren’t going to con him into thinking it was a fun place to be and he’d always hated nature.
“Where you heading?” Javier asked him as they hid behind a cabin about a mile from the facility. Sirens blared in the distance and Michael knew cops would be combing the mountain for them.
“My cousin’s house in Aurora,” Michael told him. “Just gotta swipe a car to get there. How about you?”
“Gonna go crash with this girl I know in Colorado Springs.” Javier threw Josh a wary glance. “How about you, Larsen?”
“Excited to see my girlfriend,” he said, a lustful gleam in his eyes. Someone was getting laid. Michael would get that need taken care of after his cousin hooked him up with an A-Bomb. “How about you give me a ride after you steal that car, Mike?” Josh asked.
Michael nodded, like he’d turn down the guy that was crazy enough to almost kill a guard. “No problem.”
They left their spot, keeping hidden behind the abundance of trees in the area until they hit a more populated area. Michael hotwired the old Chevy parked in the back of a bar.
As he worked, he heard Javier ask Josh, “So, is your girlfriend hot?”
Michael couldn’t see Josh’s face, but his voice sounded strange as he said, “She’s perfect.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Do for this life as if you live forever, do for the afterlife as if you die tomorrow.”
-Ali ibn Abi Talib
CALEB
“If you really wanted to welcome me home, you’d let me borrow your girlfriend for the night,” Ian said when Gianna and Cece left the room to grab snacks in the kitchen.
“You’re about to get your ass kicked on your first day out of juvie,” I warned him.
“As if you didn’t deserve it for that picture you sent in Gianna’s care package? What did you write on the back? Oh yeah, all night long.”
“Shut your mouth,” I snapped. “I don’t want Gianna to hear you.”
“Hear what?” Dante asked as he plopped down on the other end of the couch.
“About how Caleb bragged about banging Gigi to torture Ian while he was still locked up,” Taye said from behind me. Crap, I hadn’t known he was standing there.
Dante’s eyebrows rose as he shot me a look. “Are you stupid, man? You won’t be banging anything but your fist if she hears you.”
I scowled, eyeing the doorway to the kitchen. “I’d never disrespect Gianna by giving details.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Ian said, a grin spreading. “You remember that girl, Kalani, who was from the girl’s cell block?”
“The one with tattoos on her hands?” I asked, trying to remember what the rest of her looked like.
“Yeah,” Ian confirmed. “We were able to sneak off a couple times to fuck.”
I reared back in disgust. “Holy shit, man! I can’t believe you’d touch any of those nasty chicks.”
“Desperate times,” he said vaguely.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Cece said as she came into the living room carrying a bowl of chips in one hand and a container of dip in the other.
Gianna walked in after her with plastic cups and soda. “Me too, Ian. I thought Caleb said you had a crush on some girl who wrote you letters.”
“I don’t have crushes,” Ian told her.
“Where the heck are Jared and Gage with the pizza?” Taye complained.
The two of them had left almost an hour ago while we waited at Gianna’s mom’s house. My dad and her mom had taken off for the week to Las Vegas. It wasn’t lost on me that almost a year ago Gianna and I had run off together on a trip to Vegas.
I was prepared for them to come back with the news that they’d remarried. Julie seemed eager, almost desperate, to get my dad in her clutches again. Not that he minded, he never had when it came to her.
Chance was at their dad’s house, leaving her mom’s house empty for Ian’s coming home party. Gianna didn’t know it yet, but Ian had called up a couple girls he sometimes messed around with. They’d be arriving later.
Cece arranged the chips in the center of the coffee table and took a seat across the room from Dante. His eyes lingered on her while she pointedly ignored him. They hadn’t worked things out and Gianna wasn’t sure Cece would give him another chance now that she’d been able to salvage the invitation to the Colorado Ballet Academy. Cece claimed she didn’t have time for a boyfriend since her schedule was full with practices and soon she’d be taking her high school classes online.
I pointed out to Gianna that a baby would’ve been even more time consuming. Gianna had shut down my argument, telling me to let it be. She was right, it was none of our business and they had to figure out their problems themselves.
Jared and Gage arrived with a stack of pizzas each and the guys all followed them into the kitchen. Pushing the vultures out of the way, I placed two pieces of pepperoni onto a paper plate and handed it to my girl.
“Thanks, babe,” she said, awarding me with a beautiful smile.
Ian took an entire pizza box, not bothering with a plate, and sat at the kitchen table. “This is heaven,” he mumbled around a bite. “As soon as my pussy gets here, it’ll be like I was never in juvie.”
Gianna twirled to face him. “You did not invite some skank to my house!”
“Shanks,” he corrected her. “There are two of them. Tag team style.”
“Ew!” Cece complained.
Taye threw his head back laughing. “You gonna take them into her mom’s room?”
“Was planning on using Gianna’s bed,” Ian answered, already on his second slice.
“Your dick isn’t going anywhere near Gianna’s sheets,” I told him, throwing an ice cube at his head.
“Ew!” Cece repeated. “I’m eating!”
Ian retaliated with an ice cube of his own. I dodged the chunk of ice as it whizzed past my head. Why was I friends with him?
“Where’s my cake?” Ian asked after eating his fifth piece of pizza.
“Oh my god!” Gianna yelled. “I forgot it in my Jeep! It’s probably melted in this heat.” She jumped out of her chair, making it scrape against the tile.
“I’ll help you,” I offered, planning on stealing a kiss in private, or a mini-makeout session.
“No, that’s okay. It’s not that heavy. But can you get the ice cream out and start scooping it?”
“Sure, princess.”
“Whipped,” Ian whispered loudly enough for everyone but Gianna to hear as she rushed out the door. Cece went with her, likely to whine about Dante staring at her obsessively.
“You’re the pussy who asked Gianna to get him a cake like it’s your birthday.”
“I want two sco
ops!” he called out after me as I opened the freezer.
I’d prepared eight plates with ice cream on them and the girls still hadn’t returned with the cake. “I’ll go see what’s taking them so long,” Jared said, walking toward the front door.
But a sick feeling hit my gut as my chest tightened. Something was wrong. Charging past him, I threw open the front door and jumped down the porch steps. Cece looked dazed as she sat up from where she’d been sprawled in the driveway near the place Gianna’s Jeep had been parked.
“Cece!” Jared yelled, taking in the cut on her temple.
I grabbed Cece’s shoulders. “Where’s Gianna?”
“Josh,” she mumbled weakly. “I’d only met him a couple times, but it was definitely him.”
“He took Gianna?” I asked. Fear like I hadn’t known since last October built in me.
Dante kneeled down to help her up and she turned her face into his chest. “Yeah.”
I pointed to Gage. “Call 911!” Going back inside the house, I grabbed my phone from the kitchen and dialed her dad. Calling 911 would get us Broomfield Police Department and Josh might take her elsewhere in the city.
“Hello?”
“Chris, it’s Caleb. Josh took Gianna.”
“What do you mean?”
“Josh!” I shouted into the phone. “That fucker somehow got out because he showed up here and took Gianna!”
I heard Chance say something to his dad and Chris snapped, “Go wait for me in the car!” Then to me, he said, “I’m on my way and calling Novak. Did you call the police?”
I was on my way to my car, intent on doing anything proactive. “Gage did. I’m going looking for them, they’re in her Jeep.”
“Wait there for the police!” he said, hanging up.
Ignoring him, I got in my car and Ian was able to jump in right before I peeled off. “Where are we going?”
Toxic Bad Boy Page 21
