A Perfect Mess

by Zoe Dawson

  Chapter Thirteen

  Aubree

  After my horrible crying jag, all of it came pouring out of me like a river of pain. I told my momma everything that had happened between Booker and me since I’d come back to Suttontowne. Up to and including the night I told him about watching him from behind the bleachers. But I kept Wild Magnolia Road a secret.

  “I’m so ashamed that I did nothing. I didn’t even speak to him or thank him. I just let him think Langston was right.”

  “Oh, Aubree. Always taking the whole world on your shoulders. You were sixteen years old. That’s so young, and you should try to cut yourself some slack. I’m sure after Booker has had time to think about it, he’ll give you a chance to explain. You’re not perfect, honey. No one is.”

  My phone chimed, and I almost ignored it because I didn’t want to get another one of those text messages. I should tell my aunt about that mess, but the repercussions were just too huge to deal with right now. And Booker hadn’t given me permission to tell anyone. We were in it together.

  But if it was from him, I didn’t want to miss it.

  Can we talk?

  I gasped. It was from him. I immediately thought Boone must have told him about my reaction at the front door and he was feeling sorry for me. I almost texted back no, but it was more important to explain everything.

  I texted him back. Yes.

  I waited and got a response. Meet me in front of your house. I’ll be in the Mustang.

  At first I thought the last statement was odd. Why would he tell me he’d be in the Mustang? I would see that when he pulled up. But I dismissed it.

  “Is that Booker?”

  “Yes. He wants to talk.”

  She smiled. “See? I told you he’d come around.”

  I nodded, but my stomach was tied up in knots. I didn’t want to lose him.

  I went into the bathroom and splashed water on my face, trying to fix my red and swollen eyes. I brushed out my hair and almost pulled it back in a ponytail, but decided to leave it unbound. It was time I loosened up, in more ways than one.

  Ten minutes later I heard a car pull up outside and my momma pushed back the curtains. “Mustang outside.”

  “I’ll see you later,” I said.

  When I left the house, thunder rumbled ominously in the distance. I looked back and my momma peered out. She waved. Wait until I tell Booker. I waved back. I wondered how he would react. I stepped toward the car, but he didn’t get out to open my door. He always opened my door for me. I frowned, ready to give him a hard time. When I reached the car, I pulled open the door, the words on my lips, but I froze.

  Daniel Langston sat in the driver’s seat. I jerked back, but he said, “Get in the car or you’ll never see Booker again.”

  His eyes chilled me, and not because they were empty or cold, but because they were exactly the opposite. His determination to find out about Damien was absolute, and I could tell he was willing to do anything to get answers. My heart rose into my throat and I panicked for Booker’s safety. My voice tightened to a high pitch. “Where is he?”

  “Get in the car, Aubree! Now! I’m not bluffing,” he said through gritted teeth, a man on the verge of exploding.

  I looked back at the house, but he pulled out a gun and pointed it at me. “Don’t do it. You can’t outrun a bullet, and if by some miracle you do, you will seal Booker’s fate.”

  It was no contest. Booker and I were in this together. We would either come out of it okay, or we’d die together, because this time, I wasn’t hiding or running away. But I didn’t plan to die tonight, either, because now I knew how much I had to live for. I got inside and closed the door. The curtains were closed when I looked towards the house. My hope died.

  “Where’s Booker? What have you done to him?” I whispered, using my anger and hate as shields to beat back the terror.

  “Don’t worry. This little party wouldn’t be complete without him.” Daniel said as he put the car in gear.

  He pulled out of my driveway, panic fluttering inside me like the frantic beats of a terrified bird. “You know something, Daniel? I thought maybe you would have learned something after your brother’s disappearance. Maybe that pushing people too hard and indulging your own selfishness and fear at the expense of others was wrong and would always be wrong. But I see that you’re reverting back to your base instincts, like an animal who doesn’t know any better.”

  He backhanded me across the face, splitting my lip, and I tasted blood. But it was worth the pain that made my eyes water.

  He snorted with disgust. “You’re in no position to lecture me, Aubree. Little Miss Perfect. Little Miss Pure. Well, I know differently. You and your white trash, smug bastard boyfriend are going to get what you deserve.”

  I licked away the blood and glared at him. “Calling him all those names only labels him according to your weak and twisted standards. Like those words can ever change my mind about Booker. You have no idea what we deserve. You’ve never treated anyone with the respect they are due, except out of fear, because that’s all you know.”

  When we turned onto Wild Magnolia Road, my stomach flipped over and my heart stalled.

  “Whatever, Aubree. It doesn’t matter anymore. I want answers.” He shoved me so hard my shoulder slammed into the door, sending pain jarring through me and down my arm. He leaned over me and opened the car door. “Get out. But if you run, it’ll all be over.”

  I turned to him. “You used his phone. Where is he?!” I yelled, rubbing at the stinging pain still cascading down my arm. He got out and headed toward the back of the car. “Oh, God,” I whispered, jumping out of the seat so quickly I tripped and fell. I got back on my feet and hurried to the rear of the car.

  Coming closer, thunder rolled and lightning flashed behind a bank of clouds, the momentary arc revealing the wild Magnolias, heavy with huge, waxy white flowers, looming over the lane. He popped the trunk.

  “Booker!” I screamed when I saw him lying limp at the bottom of the trunk, the side of his face running with blood. Thoughts flashed back through my mind like a kaleidoscope of terror. In that one elongated moment, I stood there staring at his still body in the dark—was he dead? Had I lost him? The agonizing pain from that thought paralyzed me.

  “Fucking Outlaw.”

  His words released me, and the power of my love for Booker galvanized me. No matter what happened, I couldn’t let Daniel disrespect him, not anymore. I turned on him like a madwoman, clawing at his face, going for his eyes. His hands came up and he backhanded me across the face and I fell into the dirt, my cheek stinging with pain.

  I didn’t stay down. I surged up from the ground like a woman who had nothing to lose. I punched him in the jaw and his head snapped back. He grabbed me by my shirtfront and shook me, then tossed me back into the dirt.

  “You’re a monster,” I cried, my voice sharp and trembling.

  “Shut the fuck up. He isn’t dead…yet.”

  I looked up at him, holding my throbbing cheek, my breath hitching at the sinister cast of his features in the dim glow of the trunk light and the intermittent flashes of lightning.

  I watched Langston with a sick sense of dread, and a strange, lethargic numbness tried to drag me down. But I fought against it. No! I wasn’t going to retreat. I would experience it all, no matter how bad it was.

  “I’m not leaving here until I get some answers about my brother, Aubree. And you’re going to give them to me,” he said, smiling ever so faintly, his intense, golden eyes on mine, unblinking. He reached down and hauled me to my feet. “Scream again or attack me again and he will die.”

  He turned back to the car. “I tried to give you a chance to talk to me. On the street and through text.” He looked at me again with that determined, hot gaze that cut through me, leaving in its wake nothing but ashes.

  I wanted to scream, but he’d warned me that he would kill Booker. I couldn’t take the chance.

  Langston looked at me, as if he had expected s
ome response to his statement.

  “What? Nothing to say now?” he mocked. “Not even a simple fuck you?”

  My gaze went immediately to Booker. I wasn’t certain he was breathing, and didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious. He was utterly motionless. Blood, sticky and brilliant red, matted his hair and glazed his temple and cheek, but I couldn’t tell whether or not he was still bleeding. Dead men didn’t bleed. I stared at his chest looking for the faintest sign of movement.

  With a sigh, Langston hauled Booker out of the trunk and maneuvered him into a fireman’s lift. Without a word to me, he started walking, and I didn’t have to guess where he was going. He crossed the lane and I was close on his heels.

  When he let Booker fall, I caught him against me. But his dead weight was too much and I fell to the ground with him, doing my best to protect his head. We were butted up against one of the Magnolias, and my skin crawled with the memory of Damien’s hot breath on my face and his big body pinning me down.

  I touched Booker’s face and his skin was warm. My hand slipped down to his neck and I felt a strong and steady pulse. Thank God. My chest swelled with the love I had for him. How cruel it would be to discover something so beautiful and to lose it now, when it was so new.

  “Isn’t that touching?” Langston sneered.

  The numbness began to fade and fear took its place. Tears rose to burn the backs of my eyes. I would have given anything for the comfort of Booker’s arms. But Booker couldn’t come to my rescue this time. I loved him, and this time it was my turn to fight for him. I glared at Langston.

  He squatted down. “Now that we’re all situated, why don’t you tell me what happened to my brother?”

  I met his scary eyes steadily. Don’t show fear. It gives him power. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve created all this mayhem for nothing.”

  “Defiant little bitch,” he said, straightening slowly. A fire lit in his clear gold eyes, glowing bright as he came toward me.

  “If you don’t tell me, Aubree, I will kill Booker. Then I’ll go and finish the job on your aunt.”

  I shuddered, trembling with anger. “You hurt my aunt!”

  “I wanted answers, but you were all cozy and safe at Tulane. I kept expecting you to come home, but you didn’t. I went to your aunt’s house to get some answers, but she stonewalled me, too. I was so angry when she slammed the door in my face. I burst through it and caught her on the stairs. I grabbed her to make her tell me, but she fought me and she fell. At first I was so frustrated when I thought I had killed her, but when I saw she was breathing, I knew if your aunt was hurt, you’d come running, and that would give me my opportunity to get some answers.”

  “What makes you think something happened here?”

  He smiled slyly. The look of it chilled my blood. “Because he called me.”

  I shouldn’t be shocked, but I was. How could they have been so cold and calculating about rape? “You knew what he was planning?”

  “Not exactly. My brother always had a hard-on for you. So, when he told me that he was going to teach a Goody-Two-Shoes a lesson, I guessed. It was our nickname for you.”

  “Why did you drag Booker here, then, if you believe it was me Damien was after?”

  “Your knight in shining armor?” he scoffed. “I have a hard time believing he wasn’t involved somehow. But he was the bait, and now he’s the leverage.”

  “And what if I don’t have any answers for you, Daniel? Are you going to kill us?”

  He rose and paced away, the gun swinging at his side, clasped tightly in his hand. I could see his finger was on the trigger. “Nobody cared about my brother. My father isn’t going to do anything to find him. He just wrote him off like trash and turned to me to mold me in his image. I’ve never been able to stand up to the old man. So it’s up to me to get justice. You have to pay for what you did to my brother.”

  “What I did to him? Langston, you are so delusional. He attacked me. He was going to rape me, and you knew about it. And you did nothing.”

  “He’d always wanted you. Although I think it was more that Booker wanted you and he hated Booker.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he stood up to us. He never backed down. He, like you, was always challenging us in high school.”

  The first flurry of rain hit, the drops making a soothing patter against the Magnolia leaves. “How do you know he just didn’t skip town and start over in a new place?”

  “A twin knows when the other twin is no longer breathing. I know my brother’s dead.”

  “I killed him.”

  I looked down, startled. Booker’s eyes were open, and he met my gaze instead of Langston’s. There was so much I wanted to say to him.

  He set his jaw and his gaze went to Daniel Langston. If looks could kill, Daniel would have dropped dead on the spot.

  “He’s only saying that to protect me. I killed your brother. It was in self-defense. He had a knife and he was trying to rape me.” I held my breath, waiting for Daniel’s reaction, praying he would believe me, almost certain he wouldn’t. Needing him to believe me. God, the need was terrifying, and it had little to do with Langston. I had wronged Booker and it was now my turn to protect him.

  Langston blew out a breath. His face crumpled in pain. I guess it was one thing to suspect, but another to know that death had taken a loved one. There was no doubt Daniel had loved his brother. They were a twin force, not only against external threats, but against their father. Now he’d had to handle that on his own, and it had taken its toll on him. Damien had been the driving force behind the twosome, and Daniel was flailing and acting on impulse. He was in the same boat as the rest of us. Transitioning from being told what to do, what path to take, and now suddenly having to make decisions that would affect the rest of his life.

  I saw the urge to do violence in his face. I’d seen it there plenty of times in the past. “No!” I shouted as he stalked over and kicked Booker in the ribs. Booker grunted in pain, his eyes closing against the assault.

  “Stop it!” I said, throwing my body over Booker. Daniel swore under his breath as he backed off and paced in the road, his chest heaving.

  Booker strained to rise and I helped him into a sitting position. “You are out of your fucking mind, Langston.”

  “Maybe. But I’m still not done, Outlaw.”

  It started to rain in earnest as Booker said, “Yeah, you’re a big man, waving your gun around, terrorizing an innocent girl. You had to ambush me, because you were too much of a coward to face me full-on like a man.”

  “Booker, don’t,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at me, and he must have seen something in my eyes that calmed his anger.

  “I’m sorry, Aubree. I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have been so dismissive of Langston.”

  He was lashing out at Daniel because he was terrified for me and feeling guilty. “This isn’t your fault, Booker. Just don’t antagonize him.”

  “Where’s my brother’s body? What did you do with him? I’m going to see to it that both of you go to jail for this.”

  “We won’t go to jail. He attacked Aubree. I saw it happen. She’ll say the same thing, Langston. It was self-defense. You should worry about yourself at this point. Kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. Federal crimes.”

  Fear and frustration blossomed in his eyes. “But you covered it up. Hid it. That’s against the law. It won’t matter. This town will crucify you, Outlaw. You and your white trash family.”

  “Shut up!” I screamed. “Shut up about Booker’s family! You Neanderthal! Booker is more man than you and your brother combined! You got pleasure out of inflicting pain because you had no power at home. You don’t have any power over us. You just think you do.”

  “Aubree,” Booker said quietly. “What happened to not antagonizing him?”

  “I couldn’t stand it. I knew this would happen.”

  “Let Aubree go and I’ll tell you where y
our brother is buried.”

  “Booker, no.”

  “I’m not letting her go. I’m not letting either one of you go. If I can’t get justice for Damien through the courts, then I’ll just have to get it my way. I don’t need both of you.”

  The gun swung in my direction and my breath caught in my throat.

  The rain came down harder. Lightning shattered the black of the sky, and the clouds ripped open, drenching us.

  Howling in rage, Booker staggered to his feet and charged Langston, who reacted by swinging the gun towards him.

  At that range he couldn’t miss. Mindless with fear and determined to do something this time instead of standing by helplessly, I grabbed a rock and threw it with all my might at Langston. It glanced off the arm holding the gun and the shot went wide.

  Booker slammed into him, the gun skittering away into the dark. But Booker was at a disadvantage. He’d been hit in the head and been unconscious for quite some time. Langston, on the other hand, was fresh and unharmed.

  “Run, Aubree, run!”

  But I had no intention of abandoning Booker again. We’d been in this together last summer when Damien died and he helped me to bury the body. We were in this together until the end. Whatever it was.

  They disappeared into the darkness and away from the glow of the Mustang’s headlights. I had to do something! I had to find the gun.

  #

  Booker

  I struggled to keep Langston pinned beneath me, but my strength came in erratic bursts, and my faulty sense of balance made it hard to determine which way was up. I could tell I had a concussion at the very least. Ignoring the pain that screamed through my head and bit into my side, I slammed my fist into his face, rage briefly overcoming my disorientation.

  Langston writhed beneath me, twisting, heaving upward. I used my fists, battering at him, but he struck back, viciously slamming his fist into the injured side of my head. The pain sent me rolling, plummeting toward unconsciousness like a falling star sputtering and falling into black, black depth of the night sky.