by Doyle, Dawn
He didn’t take his eyes off me as he reached for it and placed it in front of him. He flicked his gaze to the house, then back to me. “You might want to fix your hair,” he said softly.
I smoothed it down, raking my hands through the knotted strands from the wind. “Shit, it’s bad, isn’t it? She’s going to flip.”
He shook his head, still watching me. “Not that, Kinsley.” He swallowed, blinked a couple of times, then picked up his helmet. He shoved it on his head. “Give me your phone,” he demanded, holding out his gloved hand. I didn’t think twice as I handed it over. He took off a glove then worked the keys. “If you ever get into a shitty situation like that again,” he looked up at me with an intense stare, then handed my phone back, “you call me. I don’t care who the fuck you’re with or where you are, you fucking call me, got it?”
I nodded like a bobblehead. “Yeah, okay.”
He leaned toward me, an aggressive move, but I wasn’t scared by him. “Make sure that you do, Kinsley, because if I find out that one of those fuckers has pulled this shit again, I swear to fucking God…” He closed his eyes for a second as his nostrils flared. “He jerked his chin to the house. “Go inside. I bet your mom’s just waiting to tear you a new one.”
Sure enough, the door flew open, and my mom stood there, thunder simmering below the surface, and right then, right there, I was terrified.
Quinn revved his bike and left, disappearing into the night.
I turned and started toward the house. “Please, Mom, can we leave the interrogation until the morning?” I pleaded.
“Oh, if you think that’s all it’ll be, you’re in for a rude awakening, Kinsley Jensen.”
Fuck.
Chapter 6
Quinn
My anger flared the second I’d seen Kinsley on her own, walking, nobody around, down the most deserted road in the entire town of Broken Hollow. Once the movie theater closed up for the night, so did everywhere else, leaving the place a breeding ground for trouble makers and criminals, me included. There weren’t even any bars to go into just to get off the street.
The only reason I was there was that I was on my way back from visiting my mom. The cemetery was on the other side of town, out of the way of people’s lives.
When I saw Kinsley, I had to stop and ask what the hell she was doing there. What Kinsley didn’t know was that she was going in the wrong direction, taking herself further and further away from civilization.
I had to get her the fuck out of there, especially that road, the one that had changed everything.
I understood why she hadn’t called a cab. It was so easy to get blindsided by somebody when distracted. It’d happened to me more times than I could count—I’d eventually stopped when it continued to happen.
I ran my already wrapped hands over my face again, barely able to control the pent up fury that sat like a violent storm under my skin, just waiting to blow the fuck up. I had to get it under control until I got to the circle.
“Let’s go,” Josh said, grabbing his bag. “It’s almost go time, and we haven’t even shown our faces yet.”
“Give me a minute,” I said behind my fingers, my red, fabric-covered hands together in front of my mouth. I breathed in as much as I could, expanding my lungs to full capacity. I let it go, controlling the air as it left my body, trying to get myself focused for the circle. With Kinsley on my mind tonight, I was sure to take it out on whoever was in front of me, giving me the much-needed release I’d been waiting on for the past two weeks.
“I’ll be waiting in the car.” He walked out, leaving me in the hallway of our house to get my shit together.
“Shit.” I grabbed my bag and walked out, locking the door behind me. I had to get to the event that’d been organized, and I didn’t have another minute to spare. I got in Josh’s car and buckled up. “Go.”
He sped through the streets, Broken Hollow disappearing behind us, the houses and streetlights, still open cafes and diners that unsuspecting people sat in, long gone in the distance.
“So, are you gonna tell me what the hell happened?” Josh asked.
He’d given me space when I got home at almost twelve-thirty, earlier than usual when I’d been to see my mom. Riding the streets to clear my head hadn’t been an option the moment I’d sat Kinsley on the back of my bike, her arms around me, crushing me like she was holding on with her life. My head was fucked up more than usual after that, and the blood boiling in my veins hadn’t even cooled to a fucking simmer. On the outside, though, I looked the same pissed off Quinn as ever.
“I gave Kinsley a ride home,” I said, finally. “Phoebe left her alone on Chavene.”
“What?”
I nodded slowly. “Yup. Scared out of her fucking mind,” I continued. “Couldn’t search for a cab company in fear of being distracted.”
“Why the hell did she leave her?” he ground out, his anger showing under his usual calm front.
I shook my head this time. “No fucking clue, but I bet Phoebe knew Kinsley didn’t know the area.”
“Do you think it was something to do with the beach?”
My eyes darted to him. “What about the beach?”
“Well, people kinda thought you were together, and Phoebe’s not exactly the most rational person when it comes to you, so maybe she was warning her away?”
“Do you speak Cosmo now?” I asked, my brows dipping.
He rolled his eyes. “Look, Rachel happened to mention that Phoebe still throws a fit because you don’t reciprocate the obsession she has with you, and now that she thinks there’s a chance you’re getting hot and heavy with the new chick…” He lifted a shoulder and tipped his head to the side.
Not that it mattered. She was still preening for me, regardless. Even her fucking somebody else didn’t stop her.
“Phoebe’s fucking Layton,” I shot back. “I don’t care if it’s to try to make me jealous, which it never will—trust me—I never wanted her in the first place.”
“Try telling that to a deranged psycho chick who thinks you belong together.”
My head fell back, and I massaged my eyes while I could. They were more than likely going to be swollen and too painful to touch after tonight. “God, why can’t she just leave me alone?”
“Why can’t anybody?” Josh asked. “It comes with the territory, unfortunately, Quinn. It’s not just girls that get caught up on a guy, especially ones that do what you do and made a name for themselves in the process. I’ve seen plenty of guys get so messed up over girls that don’t feel the same way that they practically turn into stalkers. Watching them with their boyfriends, trying to muscle in when their guy’s not there… It happens too often.”
He was right, and it was fucking depressing. I couldn’t understand why people just couldn’t let go of someone if they didn’t want them back. Move. The fuck. On. It wasn’t rocket science.
“Whatever, she needs to get a life and grow out of her diapers already.”
***
We arrived at the run-down brick barn on Clover Farm, the only building left standing from the hurricane that tore through the area in the late fifties. There was no roof, no doors or windows, just the bricks, and steel frame. We parked in our usual spot at the rear, a few spaces away from Layton’s RV.
I got out, my feet crunching on the dry dirt under my feet, gravel shifting as I stepped away to close the door.
The door to the RV swung open. “It’s about time you two got here,” Layton said, jumping down the steps and shutting the door behind him. “We have to let the crazies see you’re here before they start getting rowdy. Jeremy’s taken a ton of shit already.” When I didn’t say anything but stared at him, he looked at Josh, who shrugged. “What the fuck did I do now?” he asked with a sigh. “Just tell me instead of giving me the silent treatment before you unload a ton of shit on me.”
“Have you seen Phoebe?” I asked, my tone cool and calm, the complete opposite of the inferno raging inside.
&nb
sp; Layton’s mouth turned down for a second. “No, not since before she went to the movies with the others, why?”
I smiled, Layton’s eyes creeping wider and wider at the same time my lips did. “So, you’ve not spoken to her at all?”
Layton shook his head and swallowed. “Look, I don’t know what this is about, but whatever she’s said or done, I had nothing to do with it, okay?” He held his hands up. “I know she can be a little crazy—”
“An understatement,” Josh spat. “She’s certifiable.”
Layton bowed his head once. “Okay, that might be kinda true, but I swear, I don’t know what’s going on here.”
I pushed past him, glowering down as my shoulder hit him. “Why don’t you be a good little puppy and ask her?”
“What the fuck, Quinn?” he yelled, his hand coming up to rub his shoulder. “I screwed up and apologized for it, yet you’re treating me like I’m a goddamn chump.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “That’s because you are, Layton. You believed her before coming to me—to us, and that”—I jabbed my finger to his shoulder—“makes you a fucking chump.”
“We’re the three musketeers,” Josh cut in, shaking his head. “Nothing gets past us, nothing gets in our way, but now you choose to get your dick wet over loyalty?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Layton protested. “She came to me, I swear. I just took the offer. I didn’t see the harm in fucking a girl who asked me to.”
Josh got up in his face, the first time I’d ever seen him close to losing his shit with Layton, his only cousin and best friend when they were kids. His fist clenched as his other hand lifted, his finger right in Layton’s face. “It doesn’t matter who went to whom, cuz,” he spat. “It’s not even the fact it was her—fuck her all you want. It was the fact you thought we would screw over our own blood.”
Layton’s eyes flicked to me, then to Josh. “Quinn’s not blood, Josh. I am.”
Josh shook his head. “Quinn is my blood, a transfusion that he needed, or have you forgotten?”
Layton gulped. “No,” he mumbled. “I haven’t.”
“Then you better make things right, dickhead, because right now, if I had to choose between the two of you, I’d be accepting that needle every fucking time.” He walked away from Layton, his eyes on him until he reached me. “Let’s go, brother. You’ve got ass to kick and money to make.”
We headed over to the building, light shining above the tops of the brick walls, right where the roof would’ve started if it’d been there. A generator hummed at the side, powering the few lights hanging loosely from the walls inside.
Voices carried from the inside, loud, raucous, and goading whoever was pummeling the shit out of each other already. We should’ve been here before any of the fights started, even just to sit back and watch, but I had other things on my mind.
“He’s a fucking pussy!” I heard being yelled near the entrance. “See? No show.” A cackle came from the same guy, and I zeroed in on the direction it came from, watching as he flung his arm outward to the empty space outside.
I walked right up to the person responsible, eyes leaving him and landing on me, mouths falling open. I tapped Noah on the shoulder, and he turned around, still laughing. The second he recognized me, his face paled, and he shut the fuck up in an instant.
His surprise was quickly replaced with a snarl. “It’s about fucking time you showed up, bitch.”
We stood at eye level, his height rivaling mine. “I’ve been here for a while,” I said, my voice low and level. “I’ve just been enjoying your showmanship.” The need to shove his face through the back of his head was growing by the second, my hands twitching, desperate to smack him the fuck down.
Noah snorted. “Yet, you didn’t come to correct me.” He looked me up and down, his dark eyes taking in the clothes I still wore. “Pussy-ass bitch.” His lip curled up, showing the ten plus years he had on me.
I nodded slowly as I turned my mouth down and my brows up. “Hmm. How eloquent.” I said no more but walked past him, pushing through the bodies to get to the back, with Josh in front of me.
Spectators, seeing it was me, moved out of my way to let me through. My name was called, along with various explicit words, while hands caressed the bare skin on my arms as I made my way through. The words didn’t faze me, it was the fingers that stroked me or gripped my ass as I walked through. I knew the intention was to get me to stop, to turn and see who wanted a piece of me, then telling them to wait for me after, but it’d never happen in this fucking lifetime or the next.
“Jesus, fucking Christ.,” I hissed when a hand cupped my junk and squeezed. I gripped the wrist of the offender and turned to see a tall girl, around the same age as me, her made-up eyes hooded.
She licked her bright-red lips. “Meet me later?” she purred. “I can kiss your boo-boos.” She giggled with her lower lip between her teeth.
I pushed her hand down but kept hold of it so she couldn’t touch my dick again. “Have you been eating tuna? Cos I’ve just got a strong whiff of fish.”
She reared back like she’d been slapped, her nose turned up, and her mouth open. “You’re disgusting!” she spat, clearly getting the point.
I smirked. “Says the girl who grabbed a stranger’s dick and propositioned him. But, hey, who am I to judge?” I released her wrist, and she snatched it back. “Please keep your hands inside the ride at all times,” I said, perusing her slim frame, her tight pink top, and black pants—nothing to get hard over. “And don’t feed the animals—they bite.” I gnashed my teeth at her, and she flinched back. I smiled, remembering when Kinsley had told me to bite her.
Tempting.
“God, you’re fucking crazy,” she said, then turned away. “And an asshole.”
“So I’ve heard.” I smiled, remembering Kinsley shouting it through her window when I’d pissed her off yet again.
Our audience gave no indication that they’d been listening, although they would’ve heard every fucking word.
Josh laughed into his fist, covering his mouth, and it had me turning back to the matter at hand. “You might want to start wearing armor,” he joked, and we pushed through the crowd again. “Me too. I’ve had my ass grabbed more times today than I have all week.”
Once at the back in my sectioned off area, I crouched down to take off my sneakers, ready to get into the circle to fight. I was riled the fuck up over Kinsley and what Phoebe did to her, plus what Layton had done. I clenched my fists and closed my eyes, taking a breath to calm myself. It didn’t work.
“Pussy-ass bitch,” Noah said, yet again.
I rolled my eyes at the same time I rolled my neck. “So you said.”
“Little bitch.”
“Huh, sounds like you heard a new word there, sunshine.” I straightened, then circled my shoulders, loosening the joints. “Don’t overuse it, though, you’ll wear it out. Might have to go back to the dictionary...” I grinned. “Or school.”
His glare was so hard, his eyes narrowed to slits, his bushy brows physically touching in the center. “College kid thinks he knows it all,” he rushed out. “Well, you don’t know jack shit, bitch.”
I snorted loudly. “There you go again with that word, Noah. Seriously, it’s getting lame.”
“Ready!” Josh bellowed, standing on his wooden box, his arms out to the side. “It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for, folks! Get your papers out, cos this is gonna be one helluva night!” He rang the bell in his hand, his arm waving up and down.
Noah roared, spit flying from his mouth, and his round face beet red. I stood my ground, letting him come to me within the white spray-painted circle. It was already spattered with the previous fights’ blood, waiting for a fresh flow to fall and decorate the ground.
He barreled toward me, his fists high, and his mouth open.
Big mistake.
I stepped to the side as he reached me, lifting my hands and sending a fast jab to his jaw. Over the cheers and taunts, h
is jaw clicked, and he dropped to the ground.
He held his face in his hands, blood dripping between his fingers, turning his yellow wraps orange as crimson mixed in with the bright fabric.
“My jaw!” he sputtered, looking at me over his shoulder. I shrugged, then bounced from foot to foot. He pushed his mouth closed, his eyes screwing shut as he did, pain lacing his features.
Slowly standing, he held his hands up again. This time, guarding his face. We hopped in the circle, him watching for an opening, and me checking for signs of weakness.
That’s when I saw it. It was small, but it was there, and that was all I wanted to focus on. My weaknesses had been exploited for too long, and I’d never allow that to happen again. Broken bones, slashed skin, made no difference to me. I’d taken a beating over and over when I was down, broken, bloodied, but I always got up.
Noah threw a punch, I dodged, throwing my hand to push his fist to the side. I knocked it outward, opening him up. My head snapped to the side when a fucking hammer smashed into the side of my cheek, a punch I didn’t fucking see coming.
“Ha, fucking pussy!’ he bellowed as I shook my head to clear it. “Not so fucking tough now, huh?” He snarled, his nose turning up as he spat,” Bitch.”
That repetitive word was getting on my fucking nerves, and if I beat the shit out of him just for that, then so be it.
I lifted my hands again, clenching my fists. I wasn’t going to leave myself open again. Stupid fucking mistake. I was getting cocky, and I had to turn that shit off.
“Quinn. Just cos he’s got the brain of a gnat doesn’t mean he can’t fight smart.” Josh said from the side, his voice directly over my shoulder. “Chin down, eyes up, that’s the way we like to fuck shit up!”
“Don’t worry about me,” I said behind my hands. “Just keep your eyes on the fuckers who came with him.” They were hovering too close to the circle, hands going in their pockets, acting shady as fuck.
Distraction?
Before I could finish my thoughts, a foot slammed into my chest, knocking me backward, my shoulders crashing against the ground with my entire weight on top of them.
