Three Divisions: Crescentwood 1

by R. A. Smyth

  Taking one of the tracking devices, I dig out an envelope from my desk and place the device inside it. Googling a random PO box halfway across the country, I write the address on the front of the envelope and arrange with Thomas for the envelope to be sent express delivery.

  That should keep the boys busy for the rest of the day, I think, laughing to myself.

  If only I could handle Preston and Barrett as easily.

  Chapter 32

  AIDEN

  “Sophie is staying at home for the day.” I tell Ty, having just gotten off the phone with Oliver. Can’t say I blame the girl after what happened. She was pale as a ghost when we dropped her off at her house yesterday afternoon.

  Things have been weird since I fucked Sophie. They were strange enough before that night. Ever since she climbed into the back of our car after that party, Ty and I have both been a little obsessed with her. She’s not like anyone I’ve ever known. There’s a fire in her, a fierceness. Most others who had been through what she has would have crumbled in on themselves, but it has only made her stronger, and I have a feeling I only know the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Sophie Montgomery has had to survive.

  The last few weeks following her around while she spent time with that group of girls from her school and that fuckwit boy who was hanging all over her, drove me fucking mad. I wanted to break his fucking hands every time he touched her. Every time I watched that douchebag pull her into his lap or fucking kiss her, I wanted to put a bullet through him. Breathe in his pain, watch him scream and writhe around in agony while the blood spurted from him. Fuck yeah, that would feel so good.

  I may not be as drawn to violence as the rest of the Beasts, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel fucking satisfying to think of destroying someone that way.

  Now we have this situation with Preston and Barrett to deal with. If I ever get my hands on those fuckers for what they did to her, they won’t fucking walk straight for a week. I would have taken care of them yesterday if Sophie hadn’t been my primary priority, but I needed to get her out of there before anything else happened.

  “Good, she deserves an easy day,” Ty replies, sprawled out half-asleep on the sofa in my room at the Beasts motel. Neither of us slept much last night, sitting up half the night trying to formulate a game plan. We are getting more and more involved with Sophie, and it’s going to become a problem with the club soon, if we aren’t careful. We need to work out what we want to do. We never wanted to be part of club life and now, more than ever, we feel the need to get out.

  “What are we going to do with those motherfuckers?” He asks, clearly as annoyed about yesterday as I am.

  We spend the next few hours bouncing ideas back and forth, trying to find something appropriate that won’t piss Sophie off. She clearly has some sort of feelings for the two idiots, although I can’t for the life of me work out why. That takes straight-up murdering them off the table. Unfortunately.

  We are still discussing ideas when my phone goes off with an alert. Looking at the screen, there is a notification telling me Sophie has left her property. Strange. Oliver hasn’t text to say he’s taking her anywhere. Perhaps she just needed to go for a walk, clear her head. I know she loves wandering alone along the trails in the area.

  Wanting to give her some space, I ignore the notification and return my attention to whatever Ty is saying as he gets up off the sofa and grabs us two beers from the mini-fridge in my room.

  “I’m just saying, we should scare them like they scared her. Show them who they are messing with, so they know what we’re capable of. We can’t have them going after her again.” He says, sitting back down and passing me a beer.

  “I totally agree with you, man.”

  “That car we saw was pretty sweet, would be a shame if someone took it for a ride and just so happened to crash it; or I’m sure we could find a chop-shop around here, earn ourselves some cash.”

  Nodding in agreement while I tip my head back and take a sip of my beer, I’m thinking over his ideas when my phone goes off with yet another notification, this time telling me Sophie is more than ten miles outside of Crescentwood. There is no way she could have gone that far that quickly.

  “What’s wrong?” Ty asks seriously, leaning forward on the edge of his seat, ready to jump into action if needed, clearly seeing the confused look on my face as I stare at the little blue dot on my maps, moving further and further away from us.

  I turn my phone around so he can see the screen. “It’s Sophie, it looks like she’s driving somewhere but I haven’t heard anything from Oliver. You don’t think those assholes have done something?”

  “Like what?”

  Shrugging, “I dunno. They could have convinced her to leave her house somehow and…”

  “And what?”

  “I don’t fucking know. I just know I don’t trust them and why else would she leave the house without Oliver knowing. It’s not like she has any other friends here.”

  “What if it’s Kirk? What if he found out she knows about him and he’s done something to her?”

  Shit, I hadn’t even thought of that, but fuck that would be way worse than dealing with dumb and dumber.

  Jumping out of my seat, Ty right behind me, I quickly grab the car keys and the two of us practically fly out the door in our haste to get to her as quickly as possible.

  Once I’m behind the wheel of the car, I hand my phone over to Ty so he can keep an eye on where she’s going and give me directions. Gunning the engine, causing the wheels to spin and kicking up dust and dirt, we speed out of the parking lot of the motel and head down the road, doing double the speed limit in our angst to get to her in time.

  So many thoughts are going through my head, of what could be happening to her. It’s one thing to think those assholes from yesterday are up to something, – and if it is one or both of them, I am going to murder them, regardless of what Sophie has to say about it – but if it’s her father, we are totally screwed. We wouldn’t be able to help her without giving ourselves away. We would be putting our lives on the line to save her. Yet, that thought only makes me push down harder on the accelerator, wanting to get to her faster.

  Careening around the tight corners of the mountain roads, I’m pushing the car to its limit while Ty fires out directions.

  “How far away are we now?” I demand after we have been driving for ten minutes and there is still no sign of any other cars on the road.

  “We are a few miles away; nearly there though. Just keep on this road, they should be just up ahead.” Ty replies, leaning forward to open the glove box and removing the gun I keep there, checking it’s loaded.

  We keep on the road for another few miles, slowly closing the distance between ourselves and Sophie. Not long now, Sophie, we’re almost there. Just hold on. Finally, we spot a van up ahead. As we come up behind it though, I can make out a logo on the back of it indicating it’s a parcel delivery van.

  Looking to Ty, I see he is equally as confused as I am. “Man, the tracker says she’s in there,” he says, totally bewildered.

  “Let's find out what’s going on,” I say as I once again gun the engine and overtake the van to get in front of it.

  Looking in the rearview mirror, I can see someone dressed in a uniform sitting behind the wheel, singing along to the radio like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

  What the fuck is going on here?

  Speeding up the road a bit further, I suddenly turn the wheel, causing the car to swing to the left and spin out, blocking off the whole road. Then the two of us just sit and watch as the van gets closer, the driver’s eyes wide as he tries to stop the van in time.

  Reaching over to the glovebox, I pull out two black, full head-covering masks and give one to Ty who pulls it on over his head without question. I don’t know what’s going on here but it's best we keep our identities a secret as long as we can.

  The van screeches to a halt as we climb out of the car and Ty walks round to m
y side as I withdraw my own weapon from the back of my jeans and unlock the safety.

  We stalk towards the van, emanating danger and violence with every step. We may not want to be part of the club, but we were raised in it, it’s still a part of us, and we can be as brutal as the rest of them when threatened.

  By the time I pull the door of the van open, keeping my gun pointed at the driver, he looks like he’s about to piss himself, sitting there shaking from head to toe, with his hands in the air.

  “P…P…Please don’t k…k…kill me.” He stammers out, practically crying.

  Ignoring him, I give Ty a chin lift, indicating for him to check the back of the van while I stay with the driver.

  Ty takes off out of sight round the back of the van and I hear him opening the back doors before getting in and raking around.

  “T…Take whatever you want. Please. Just don’t h…hurt me.” The driver continues to splutter out.

  “Anything?” I ask Ty, continuing to ignore the man on the other end of my gun.

  “She’s not here, man,” he shouts back.

  “Did you pick up a package from the Montgomery residence in Crescentwood?” I demand, finally addressing the driver as I turn my attention to him.

  “Y...Yes. An envelope.”

  An envelope?

  Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I pull up the app that contains the map for the tracking device. An added feature of these devices, which I thought I’d never actually use, is that you can ping its location and the device will emit a loud beeping noise.

  Doing just that, I get Ty to follow the noise, hearing him shuffling around amongst the packages in the back of the van.

  After several long minutes of searching, while I still keep my gun pointed at the driver, repeatedly pinging the tracking device so Ty can follow the sound, he shouts out, “Got it!”

  Climbing out of the van and closing it up behind himself, Ty walks over to me, handing me an envelope addressed to some PO Box in South Dakota.

  This keeps getting weirder and weirder.

  Since Sophie isn’t here, there is no need for us to hang around. Backing away from the driver, I lower my gun, keeping it in my hand along with the envelope, until we are safely back in the car.

  Starting the engine, I turn the car around in the road and head back towards Crescentwood.

  “What do you think this is?” Ty asks, looking over the envelope I handed to him when we got into the car.

  “I dunno man, open it and find out,” I say, not wanting to wait until we get back to the motel before reading it.

  Tearing it open, Ty lifts out a folded piece of paper along with the flat disc of the tracking device. Unfolding the page, he reads it for a second before bursting out laughing.

  “That conniving little minx,” He chuckles, shaking his head at whatever the letter says.

  “What the hell does it say?” I’m on edge, the adrenaline from the panic I felt is starting to fade, but I’m pissed that I have no idea what’s going on. Handing it over to me, the letter only has one word written on it, Suckers, with a heart symbol beside it.

  That wily little witch.

  I’m going to get her back for this, and it’s going to be so much fun. Just thinking about the dirty things I’m going to do to her as payback has a grin tugging at the side of my mouth, as I chuckle along with Ty at the genius of her plan.

  Chapter 33

  SOPHIE

  After my day off yesterday, I’m feeling much more rested and I’m ready to face the shitheads at CWP. I have no idea what to expect today. Will Preston have proclaimed a ceasefire? It’s also possible nothing will have changed. Just because they decided I’m not in collusion with my father, and agreed to work on the same side, doesn’t mean things will necessarily be any different at school.

  I guess there’s only one way to find out.

  Pulling open the front door of the school, my palms are slick with sweat and my heart is beating a mile a minute. I can’t help but remember what happened the last time I stepped foot into this school. God, please just let me have one easy day without anyone causing me any issues. Please.

  Stepping into the hallway and scanning my eyes over the students present, what meets me is the same scene that is probably happening in every school across America right now. Students laugh and catch up with their friends, lockers bang shut, girls fix their make up while boys horse around, and couples make out against whatever available surface they can find.

  The best part, no one looks my way as I walk down the hall towards my locker. There are no insults thrown my way, no dirty looks. Nothing. I’m just another unknown face amongst the sea of students. It feels fucking fantastic!

  For the first time ever, I hang around my locker until the bell goes, instead of hurrying straight to class in an attempt to avoid the insults and rubbish thrown at me by the one-percenters and their loyal followers.

  Of course, just because students aren’t treating me like trash, doesn’t mean any of them were seeking me out.

  While I’m killing time at my locker, sorting out my books, Barrett comes up to me, leaning against the locker beside my own. I’m reminded of the first day I met him, when he approached me in a similar manner, with the same easy-going attitude and dirty grin on his face.

  “Hey,” he says casually, like we’re friends or something, “I was worried when you didn’t show up yesterday. Everything ok?”

  “Oh, you were worried, were you?” I snap back, not falling for his charm this time and not willing to just forgive him so easily. “After everything you and Preston have done since I arrived, you were suddenly worried now? Surely the fact I wasn’t here, and the possibility that perhaps my father and I had skipped town, is exactly what you’ve wanted since I showed up here?” I fire back, pissed as all hell at him right now.

  He has the good grace to look thoroughly chastised by what I’m saying, but it’s still not enough.

  Giving me an awkward grimace, he says, “I know what we did was wrong, but can’t you understand now why we did what we did?”

  “Yeah, I do understand, but that doesn’t make what you did okay, Barrett.”

  He nods in agreement, “I know, I can only apologise and promise that from here on out the bullying, the games, all of it will stop. I’d really like it if we could just put it behind us and move forward.”

  Sighing, I shake my head, refusing his offer. “It’s not that easy for me Barrett. You hurt me, even more so than Preston did. Preston was at least consistent in his assholeness, but you sought me out, you kissed me, you…” stumbling over my words and lowering my voice, “you did more than just kiss me, you made me think you cared about me, all while treating me like shit.” I admonish, annoyed at myself for being so stupid thinking he could possibly feel anything for me.

  “So, no Barrett, I’m sorry, but I can’t just forget and move on.” Keeping my voice low so none of the other students that are still milling around in the hallway can hear us, I assure him, “I’ll work with you and Preston with regards to Charles and my father, but that’s it. We aren’t friends. We aren’t anything.”

  Having said my piece, I walk off before he has the chance to say anything further. So much for an easy day. I feel like I just tore out and stomped all over a part of myself, which is ridiculous. You can’t lose something you never had, and I know I never had anything real with Barrett.

  Thankfully, he keeps his distance from me the rest of the day, not attempting to approach me or push me to change my mind. I at least appreciate him giving me the space I need.

  Other than the run-in with Barrett this morning, the rest of the day at school has been, dare I say, peaceful. While I miss the companionship I had when I was eating lunch with Alexis and her friends, I can’t deny it’s been nice to just be left alone.

  The final bell of the day rings and students scurry out of the classroom, keen to head home and enjoy their free time before we have to return in the morning.

  On my way ou
t to meet Oliver, I stop by my locker to swap out a few of my books. As I open my locker door, a folded piece of paper falls out and floats down the floor, landing at my feet.

  I instantly freeze. In all the madness recently, I had completely forgotten about the notes.

  Bending down to pick it up, I open it and begin reading.

  We need to meet. Tonight. I’ll pick you up at 8 pm. Don’t be late. P

  Breathing out a sigh of relief that it’s not another creepy psycho note, my heart rate starts to return to normal.

  Geez, even in paper form Preston is a demanding dick.

  Having no doubt who the note is from, I tear it up before chucking it in the waste paper basket in the hall and heading out to my waiting ride. I knew this meeting was coming and I need to find out what they know.

  ◆◆◆

  “Afternoon, Miss, how was school today?” Thomas greets me as I enter the mansion.

  “Same old, same old”

  “Your father requested your presence once you returned.”

  Assuming he has found out about my skipping school the other day, I figure there is no point in putting off the inevitable and head down the hall to his office, not even needing to ask Thomas where my father is. I’m pretty sure he never leaves the damn place.

  I knock on his door and wait for him to tell me to enter before turning the handle and walking into the room.

  “Sophie, have a seat,” He commands, gesturing to one of the armchairs sitting opposite his desk.

  I make my way over and carefully fold myself into the chair, all of my senses on high alert.

  Once I’m situated opposite him, he drops the pen he was writing with and steeples his fingers, looking down at me with haughty arrogance