Vicious Hate (Westbrook Blues Book 2)

by Thandiwe Mpofu

  “Are you sure. I mean, it looks like they are about to kill each other.” I can hear Spider respond.

  “Trust me, this isn’t new.”

  The need to rip Emmett’s throat isn’t new. The need to beat the shit out of him isn’t new. Hell, we have gone at it before but the threat is different.

  “But. . .”

  “Don’t worry, if there is a murder, I know just where to hide the bodies.” Noah tries to be charming. I know he hates doing this to Spider but what’s about to be said right now, is for our ears only.

  As soon as the door shuts after Spider, I launch for Emmett.

  I grab his fucking shirt and smash him into the fridge behind him but he is a big motherfucker, he uses the momentum I created against me, switching places and then immediately punching me.

  I don’t feel the pain at all, fisting my fist I take the next hit, jabbing him in the throat. As he starts chocking I swing and punch his right temple.

  I can hear a distant roar, things start crashing, glass breaks somewhere but I don’t care. My ears are ringing. My vision is blurred, getting increasingly hazy from Emmett’s powerful hits. But all pain, the disorientation and the gushing of blood goes unnoticed seems to be going through my head because all I can hear still is my mother’s words from earlier.

  “Does Astraea know that she will marry Syrus’ son soon?”

  As Emmett’s powerful punch makes my head swivel right, I also hear Emmett’s words.

  She loved me first!

  And by God, I think he might be right about that.

  My baby might actually love him.

  But above all that, realization dawns on me like a fucking explosion of an oil rig.

  “You fucking knew, you asshole!” I realize that the distant roar is actually me. Noah tries to pull us apart, wedging himself in between us.

  “Assholes, stop it. I swear the entire party can hear your loud ass.” Noah shouts, pushing me in a corner.

  “You fucking knew about the marriage contract, didn’t you?” I accuse Emmett over Noah’s shoulder.

  He doesn’t bother denying it. He doesn’t even care at all about what’s happening right now.

  “He didn’t know, King. Right, Em?” Noah shouts in my face, then he turns back to look at Emmett for confirmation only to be met by gloomy silence.

  “Right, Em?” Noah tries again but the conviction is gone.

  “Damn you, Em!” Noah raises up his hands in obvious exasperation. “I knew you had secrets, things that you keep from us whenever you disappear to God knows where but this. . .” Noah’s voice is filled with disbelief.

  “Don’t act so fucking surprised Noah. You knew this would happen.”

  “I thought you would both grow out of it. For years you two would pine over her like fucking dogs. As her best friend, I fucking think she deserves better than either one of you.”

  “That’s not up to you now is it? It’s up to his highness, Alexander King the fourth.” Emmett mocks, spitting out blood. But the real damage, the real fight? That’s about to go down. This time, it’s not for sport or relieving the demons, it’s to let them out to destroy and devour each other to death.

  In my mind all I see is the smiles that Star would give Emmett. Whenever he is in the room, her entire face brightens like she has just been hit by the sun. Her smiles are more radiant, her entire body relaxes.

  He fucking makes her happy.

  I’ve watched it all. And I think for the first time, the risk of losing her is so great that this time, I don’t think she will choose me. Not when she has the opposite, tense reactions when she is with me.

  But I’ll be damned.

  I remove my shirt, rip the fabric into two thin strips, just as Noah lets out a tense breathe. He knows what’s about to happen, so does Emmett as he takes off his own shirt, ripping it into two.

  “The hell you’re doing this! You think she’s going to be fine with this?” Noah starts, watching us like we are fools but Emmett and I get each other. For Astraea, it’s all or nothing.

  We ignore Noah.

  “Seriously, not when there a huge crowd out there. Too many witnesses.”

  After the night we just had, what better way to relieve stress than kill your best friend, your brother, who has always had a crush on your girl?

  We toss each other the other half of the ripped shirts. Then we proceed to wrap them around our knuckles. On my left hand, his shirt and on my right, mine.

  “Over my dead body will she ever be yours.” I grit out, feeling like the devil in that moment. I’ so serious about this. Not if I still have breath, will Emmett have

  “The golf course then.”

  ♥

  By the time the rest of the party goers, people from our high school and probably some kids from the valley surround Emmett and I, blood is dripping from my nose, my temple and the fabric wrapped around my knuckles is also soaked in blood. Whose it belongs to, I don’t know.

  “You are a fool.” Emmett grits out for my ears only just as we hear a shrill cry from the crowd.

  “You are hurting her. She deserves better.”

  “Are you any better?” I taunt, knowing that he has a secret of his own that I’m still not aware of, but whatever it is, it’s bad and he’s been keeping it since I’ve known him.

  We go toe to toe. Emmett might be big, the best linebacker we have, hell college recruiters come out to watch him play, but he is also quick on his feet. It’s not fat on him, it’s muscle, and he is cut just right, making him capable of playing any sport, including basketball.

  Hell, he could be the quarterback if he wanted to be, he was just that lithe and agile, but so was I. Hell, we fucking train together and fight asshole after asshole down at the pit in Springs where I also have a business out there that no one from Westbrook, my father included, knows about.

  I put my fists up as I watch Emmett taking two measured steps closer to me about to aim his punches, because the guy is strategic as fuck. I faint left but he anticipates that, checking me right where I thought I would escape, gaining momentum to punch him right in the nose.

  “Oh my God!” A shrill gasp comes from somewhere to my left, her voice carrying over to us above the chants and ‘ouch’ chorus from the crowd that seems to be leaving off of this shit.

  “Stop it!” She screams again, but the roar of the crowd almost deafens her voice.

  We never do this. We never fight in public. I know these low lives are all wondering why two close friends are fighting as ruthlessly as we are, but they all just need to look at the girl that’s in the corner of my eye. They’ll, get all the fucking answers they need.

  Astraea was a tragedy, much like shootings stars. She’s going to end the world, with my miserable self in it if I let her.

  I duck Emmett’s next punch and rear back with my own to his cheek. Astraea screams in horror along with the rest of the crowd but I watch in grim satisfaction as he spits out blood, his larger body staggering back with the force of my blow. But I haven’t done enough. . .

  Just as quickly as I moved, Emmett gives me a double jab in the ribs, then tackles me to the ground, and we struggle there, him punching me repeatedly until we switch positions as I straddle him, and then begin reigning down punch after anger driven punch.

  “Fucking hell Noah, can’t you see they are going to kill each other.” She shouts but I tune her out, shaking away the blistering pain from the hit I just took. I start bouncing on the balls of my feet, knowing damn well that I have a concussion already.

  “Stop them! They are going to kill each other!”

  Both of us might need to go to the E.R but I won’t stop before one of us leaves in a body bag.

  “How does it fucking feel?” Emmett taunts, now straddling me and we fight in the dirt, growling like wounded, feral and vicious animals ready to spill blood.

  “How does it feel to know that you don’t really have her. That you can’t get all the girls you fucking want you empty, pathetic
excuse of a human?” He growls so loud but I’m the only one who can hear his words.

  I start laughing then. It’s vicious, it’s malicious and nasty in nature. As if. . .

  “I have the entire world at my feet.”

  “And her? You have her at your feet? Does she know you regard her with such asshole disrespect?” Emmett taunts as we jump to our feet again, starting to circle each other.

  “Does she know how dark and vicious you are?” He goes on, knowing where all my weak spots lie like he has studied all of them for a long time and in a way, he has.

  “I’m going to destroy you.” I seethe, vowing to do just that. In this very moment everything has just changed. This night has changed the dynamics between us. He knows it, I know it. The entire crowd around us knows it but who feels it more intensely? She does. I can feel her shocked eyes on my back.

  Emmett doesn’t cower, he doesn’t blink, he isn’t scared, in fact the shithead actually smiles.

  “Not after you learn what it feels like being out of control and watching someone take everything from your entitled ass. Because we all know, you don’t deserve her.”

  The talking was done for me as I growl and launch for him, prepared to finish him right then and there.

  But before I can put him in his place, a pair of arms wrap around me, lifts me up and then throws me in the other direction, away from Emmett, effectively stopping me from launching myself at the asshole who can so easily take her away from me.

  Emmett starts laughing then, taunting, evil and directed at me. I start for him again but Spider restricts my movements again

  “Get off me, Spider.” I roar, as someone else pulls Emmett away.

  “People are recording this shit. The cops have been called and your girl is hysterical right now, she might give herself a heart attack.” Spider speaks in my ear, pointing out to the multiple iphones that are recording everything.

  “She loves me!” Emmett shouts. “Ask yourself if she feels that way about you, asshole!”

  The seeds of doubt had already been planted.

  I look over to where Star is hunched over, watching me with tears streaming down her face, accusation marring her features mixed with bitter disbelief. I’m about to walk over to her, wrap her up in my arms and take her to my room, but it’s in that moment that the sinking feeling of devastation claws its way in my insides, rattling everything up, making me sick.

  Emmett’s words hold a kind of truth that I knew all along, hoping against blind and dumb hope that it wasn’t true, that it couldn’t be possible.

  But there’s something about truth that is devastating, that locks you up in a rusty, clawed and razor sharpened cage.

  The truth wasn’t fair.

  Truth didn’t care.

  But truth was liberating.

  And the truth is right in front of me now.

  As if in slow motion, just to make life a bit more cruel than it already was tonight, I watch as my Star turns away from me and just as quickly as if she rehearsed the move of breaking my heart and soul in one go, I watch as she runs over to Emmett.

  She runs over to him when that should have been me.

  She chose him.

  She runs over to him, checking if he is alright.

  I watch helplessly as she chooses him. Over me. Again.

  Yeah, Astraea was a tragedy, much like shooting stars. I should have known better than to wish on a fucking dying star.

  I hate her.

  “It’s not what you think.” Spider speaks in my ear but I shake him off.

  “Get these low lives out of my estates before I do it myself.” I breathe out, my mind waging a war against my soul and I already know who loses this shit. And it’s not me. . .

  I turn to leave, my feet feeling heavy with the weight of the truth on my shoulders, my bleeding nose, my bruised face, my destroyed heart.

  She might just love Emmett after all.

  Nine years ago

  “What do you think is going on in there?” Noah questions for what seems to be the millionth time. Can he shut up already?

  We are snooping around the Easton’s estate, trying to get a glimpse of what’s going on in there and he’s making it real hard to be quiet and careful.

  “Keep your voice down, shithead or we’ll get caught.” George whispers behind me as I move forward, making sure that I don’t step hard on the dry leaves on the ground or else the crunching will make noises, alerting the residents of this mansion that we are out here. And we don’t want any attention to us. Or worse still, being caught by Syrus Easton, Emmett’s father, snooping around like thief around his property.

  “You do know we are going to get caught right?” Noah complains. I know it’s because he doesn’t want to be here right now, choosing instead to play video games with Star but she isn’t in her home as well.

  We don’t really know where she is but the twisting of my gut and the raised hairs at the back of my neck tells me that she is close by. If she is in there with Emmett, then that means Emmett is winning her affection and her time. Again.

  I have to put a stop to that shit, before it gets out of hand.

  “Stop complaining Noah. We’ll just check what’s going on and then we go back.” George whispers back just as I notice one of the large windows over looking one of the lower level rooms in Emmett’s mansion.

  “Why couldn’t we have just used the front door?” Noah questions again. I swear, I’m about to cut off his tongue, the guy talks too much.

  “Because we tried that and Mr. Easton had us sent away.” George quickly answers, rolling his eyes. I think he is also feeling exasperated by Noah at this point but I get his questions.

  He wasn’t there when we decided to venture out here. Actually, we had to drag him out here with us because he is after all, smaller than all of us and he is able to talk himself out of anything if ever the need arises. In a word, Noah was a useful kind of pain in the behind.

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?” George questions, looking over at me. I look up at the window above our heads and then back at him and Noah, trying to think of a plan.

  “Okay, so we saw that lady. . .”

  “Marie.” George supplies the name of the woman who we’ve been seeing going in to the Easton’s estate for a good two weeks now. The same two weeks that we haven’t seen Emmett. Something is wrong here.

  But whenever we try to visit or call, he is either not in or his scary looking and stern father turns us away. Syrus Easton doesn’t really care much about us, but they are keeping a secret. My father sent me to check it out but I won’t tell the boys that. We are here just to check on one of our own.

  Not that I was ever going to report back the actual findings that we come across here to my father. I already had a made up tale that I had prepared to report back to my father, for when I go back home at the end of the night and he is in his usual fit, ready to teach me a lesson.

  I flex my back at the thought. The lash marks from last week are fading but I’ll take whatever punishment he thinks he’s doling out to me right now after I had Larry chased out of this town with his tail tucked between his legs, his pants at his ankles and reputation and life is worthless shambles. But I know I’m not done, when I get older, I’m going to kill him.

  “Yes, Marie. We need to find out who she is or at the very least we need to try and talk to her.” I whisper.

  “Can’t we just wait at the main gates for when she leaves?” Noah questions with a duh look on his face. George shakes his head at that as I answer Noah.

  “We can’t do that because she arrives here and leaves with an escorted guard. I think it’s because they want her to keep quiet.” I bet they made her sign an NDA.

  “So what makes you think she will talk to us?” He questions.

  I look pointedly at him then, just as George does. We stare at Noah who looks between us dumbfounded until he catches up and a smile lights up his face.

  “Oh hell yeah! I’ve been meaning to
charm an unsuspecting lady all week.”

  “You did that to that new seventh grade temp teacher on Monday.” George points out, shaking his head with a smile on his face, then they bump fists.

  “She’s a beauty. Besides, she looked nervous with her second hand, thrift store clothes.” Noah smirks. “But I have to let her down easy though, it’s never going to work between me and that June bug.”

  I snort and George tries to stifle a chuckle.

  “She is hot” George whistles and I roll my eyes. These two are impossible when it comes to the opposite sex.

  “Really Noah, what do you know about second hand, thrift store clothing?” I question him, eyebrow raised. I stand up now, crouching trying to stick to the wall as much as possible as I peek in through the window.

  My eyes widen as soon as I take a peek through the window. I think I’m seeing things.

  “I know everything, after being dragged by Baby blue to the thrift store in town after school.” Noah complains with a shudder, then turns to look at George. “Your sister is a bleeding heart.”

  “Hmm, that’s why she took your sad, angry self in under her wing. Besides, something tells me that she is close by.”

  “Guys. . .” I start, my voice hoarse, trying to get the bickering idiots attention, but they keep quarreling.

  “Guys!” I almost shout.

  “What?” Noah whisper yells but ass soon as he notices the way my face is probably slack with shock, he shuts up. George bypasses Noah and comes to my left and then peeks in through the window.

  “Oh my god.” Noah breathes, having just seen what we’re looking at.

  The room we are staring in looks like some type of make-shift hospital room. We each have spent our fair share in an emergency room to know what that shit looks like and this is the real deal. We all know what it looks like, what it smells and all that unpleasant shit.

  But this, this is something else altogether.

  There’s a hospital bed in the center of the room, there are machines at the back of it, against the wall and beside the bed but there isn’t a patient in the room. The machines look like they are switched off but the room looks like it was recently occupied, judging by the mess in it.