“She hates you,” he growls, speaking through his teeth. “Always has, always will. You have no fucking idea who you’re up against here, Kat.”
“I think I’ll take my chances,” she says, shoving his chest to push him down on the couch.
“Then you’re a dead girl walking,” he taunts her, wincing when she presses the ball of her foot into his knee and twists it, adding a little pressure. “Fuck.”
She laughs at him for real this time, leaning over him to press her gun to the edge of his temple. “God, you’re even more pathetic than I remember.”
He snarls like a dog and opens his mouth to say something else, but he doesn’t get the chance before she squeezes the trigger, looking him dead in the eye while she puts a bullet through his skull. The video cuts off and Callie stares at the screen with a scarily blank expression on her face, stepping closer to pull the laptop to the edge of the desk. She bends over to rewind it to the beginning and I cringe, looking at Damon to check his reaction. He shakes his head and waves me off, wordlessly telling me to let her do her thing. I nod and risk another glance at Levi, frowning when I catch him staring at her ass with a cocky little tip to his lip. Jealously courses through me and I shove his ass back, grinding my teeth when he drops his eyes to hide a grin, knowing he’s been caught. I glare at him and walk over to the pussy in the corner, grabbing him by the arm when he tries another run for the fire escape. I shake my head at him and pull him back in, tossing his ass to the carpet again.
“I said stay.”
“Fuck, man, what do you even want from me?” he snaps, bravely hopping to his feet to level with me. “I told you I don’t fucking know where he wen–”
I pull my fist back and punch him in the mouth, cocking my head when he grunts and falls back against the wall.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
He’s pissed me off and he knows it, which is why he keeps his mouth shut tight, but unfortunately for him, it’s too fucking late for that.
I make him wait while I smoke the last couple hits of my joint, then I flick my roach out through the window and grab his neck to punch him again.
Again and again and again.
“Wren.”
I ignore that and carry on hitting him, craving the release it offers me, but then Levi locks his arms around my waist and pulls my back to his chest, trapping me against his body. “Enough.”
“Fuck you.”
He laughs lightly at that, leaning over me to speak in my ear. “You really wanna have this conversation again?”
I groan before I can stop it, tipping my head back on his shoulder when I feel his hard cock pressed up against my ass.
“Fuck, Lev,” I plead, unsure what I’m begging for, but then I remember. “He hurt Callie.”
“I know, baby,” he says softly, dipping his head to kiss the pulsing vein in my neck. “But I’m not about to stand here and watch you kill him for it.”
I blink and look down at the guy on the floor, and it’s only now I realize he’s already out cold.
Shit.
The asshole behind me finally loosens his grip on my waist and I shove his ass back, ignoring the four pairs of curious eyes on us while I follow them out towards the exit. Levi falls in line beside me and I fight to keep my heart in check, doing my best to not look directly at him when I catch him adjusting his cock behind his zipper. Callie faces forward again and slides the flash drive into the back pocket of her jeans, and that’s when I spot the black chunk of metal peeking out of her waistband at the bottom of her spine.
He wasn’t staring at her ass.
He was staring at her fucking gun.
“You want him so fuckin’ bad.”
I glare at that, reaching over to snatch my joint from Kai’s mouth. “Shut the fuck up.”
He grins and I lock my jaw, cutting my eyes back to his when I feel him watching me.
“What?”
“You didn’t deny it,” he shrugs, sighing when my glare deepens. “You know no one’s about to judge you, right?”
“It’s not about that, Kai,” I mutter, leaning my forearms on the railing to look at the lights of the city below us.
“What is it then?” he asks quietly, dropping his eyes to my hands, and it’s only now I realize I’m brushing my thumb over the tattoo on my wrist. “What are you so afraid of?”
I link my fingers together and keep my mouth shut, knowing the answer but refusing to admit it out loud.
Him.
I’m afraid of him.
Kai starts to speak again, but then my bedroom door opens and I turn to look over my shoulder, rolling my eyes when Freya walks inside dressed in a tiny pair of black shorts and a cropped tank.
“Damn. She looks hot.”
I raise a brow at that, eyeing him. “You wanna take her off my hands for the night?”
“You think she’d believe me if I told her I was you?”
“Probably, yeah.”
He laughs quietly and snatches my roach to toss it in the dirt, tilting his head for me to follow him inside. I do and she jumps a little bit, frowning when she realizes we’re coming right for her. She opens her mouth to say something, but we don’t give her the chance before Kai grabs one arm and I grab the other, lifting her off her feet to carry her out.
“What are you doing?” she snaps, frantically kicking her legs out in a pathetic attempt to escape.
We ignore her and drag her ass back to her own room, tossing her down on the bed where she belongs. I move for the door and look at Kai, hiding a grin when he reaches into the nightstand and tosses her the hot pink vibrator he bought her at the store this morning.
“Knock yourself out, little pixie,” he winks, sliding his tongue back and forth between his teeth while he follows me out to the hall.
She jumps off the bed like she’s about to argue and I shut the door in her face, quickly taking my new key out from the pocket of my sweats to lock her inside.
“Wren!” she screams, banging her fist against the wood, but we just grin, proud of ourselves for installing a lock that actually works.
It took us a couple hours and a few YouTube videos to get it done, but that’s besides the point.
“You can’t be serious!” she shouts, still banging like a lunatic. “You’re really gonna keep me locked up in here like a prisoner?”
“There’s always another way out if you’re that desperate to leave.” Kai jokes, smirking when she growls and curses us to hell and back.
We both laugh like assholes and I follow him back to my bedroom, tossing her room key into the drawer of my nightstand for safe keeping.
“You know she’s gonna start comin’ back at you if you keep denying her like this,” he informs me, dropping down on my bed with his arm folded beneath his head. “Maybe I should fuck her as you, keep her off your ass for a bit.”
“You do that,” I mutter, rolling my eyes when he cocks his head like he’s actually considering it.
He wouldn’t fuck her if his life depended on it, and even if he did, I wouldn’t give a shit.
She means nothing to me.
If he were to pretend to be me to fuck around with Levi, though..
I shake that off and force the thought away, lying down beside him to stare at the ceiling a while. I don’t like where my head just went, but even still, it’s right fucking there and it’s refusing to be ignored.
I’d fucking kill him.
Chapter Fourteen
Levi
“I’m tired.”
I roll my eyes at that, hiding a grin when Rachel slides her eyes to Ryan’s, frowning. “Are you ever not tired?”
“Nope,” I answer for him, falling in line beside them to walk down to the beach by the pier. “It’s his thing.”
“Huh,” she muses, shrugging. “I thought fucking was his thing.”
“Aww,” Ryan teases, wrapping his arm around her neck to kiss her forehead. “You jealous, baby?”
“Fuck off.”
He smirks and I laugh lightly, moving my eyes over the crowd gathered around the bonfire. I spot Wren and Kai leaning back against the makeshift bar and walk over, tipping my chin when Wren’s eyes hit mine.
“Sup.”
“Sup,” he says back, uncapping the bottle of Jack in his hand to pour himself a shot.
I shake my head at him and lean over to grab a beer from the cooler, not missing the way he’s barely said three words to me since we went to the dorms the other day. It’s awkward as shit between us lately, but I don’t care. I crave his presence the same way my lungs crave air, and as hard as it is to be around him without being able to touch him the way I want, I’ll take him any way I can get him.
Callie appears in my peripheral with Damon beside her and I glance over without thinking, pulling my brows in when I catch her eyeing me right back like she’s checking me over for damage.
What..?
“The fuck is that?”
I frown and look at Rachel, following her line of sight to watch Freya walking over with her old best friend at her side. Madison glares, still hating Rachel for fucking her ex–boyfriend a little over a year ago, but no one’s looking at her. We’re all looking at Freya, not one of us missing the big ass grin on her face to match the big ass rock on her left hand.
No..
“We’re getting married.”
“The fuck you are.”
Several heads turn my way and I shut my mouth, only just realizing I said that out loud. Callie winces and the boys tense beside me, but I don’t take my eyes off Freya. She cocks her head at me and moves for Wren like she’s about to put her hands on what’s mine, and then I lose my shit, grabbing her neck to yank her into me instead. She screams and I glare, spinning her to pin her ass back to the bar.
“What the fuck do you have on hi–”
Wren grabs me before I can finish and shoves my ass back, quickly necking his drink before he drags me back up to the parking lot, not stopping until we’re alone and hidden in the shadows.
“Are you outta your fuckin’ mind?”
“Get the fuck off me,” I growl, struggling against his grip on me to try to get to her, but he won’t let me go.
“Goddamnit, Lev,” he grits out, wrapping his hand around my throat to pin me back against the side of my car. “Calm the fuck down.”
My pulse throbs beneath his fingertips but I force myself to do as I’m told, recklessly snatching his face to pull him into me.
Mine.
Our heavy breathing mixes together for I don’t know how long and fuck, he tastes like whiskey and smoke and bad, bad decisions that’ll get my ass beat, and I can’t help but crave more.
“You need to stop.”
“Stop what?”
“You know what.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“Lev,” he pleads, looking torn between desperation and fear. “I’m not gay.”
“I don’t need you to be gay, Wren,” I say quietly, raking my hand through his hair to keep him right where I want him. “I don’t even want you to be gay.”
That has him frowning, confused. “What?”
“I like that it’s just me,” I explain, slowly sliding my tongue over his bottom lip. “It makes you mine.”
He groans and tightens his grip on my throat. “Fuck, man, you’re acting crazy.”
“You make me crazy,” I point out, smirking when I feel his hard cock against mine. “I make you crazy, too.”
He glares, mean and bad and sexy as fuck.
He thinks I piss him off, which is true, I’ll give him that, but he’s only half right. His body pisses him off, his reaction to me pisses him off, and the harder he tries to fight it, the more he wants me.
Me.
Not her.
It’s me and him and he fucking knows it, he just won’t admit it yet.
“Don’t marry her, Wren,” I whisper, ignoring the way my heart cracks in two at the thought. “I don’t care what you did, just tell me what it is and I’ll fix it.”
“There’s nothing for you to fix,” he whispers back, dropping his eyes to avoid mine. “I love her, man.”
“Don’t fucking say that to me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry,” I laugh, pulling his hair to force him to look at me. “For loving her or for lying about it?”
He glances off and I shake my head at him, shoving his ass back to prepare myself for what comes next.
I’m not an idiot.
I just touched his girl for all to see, and if he doesn’t do something about it right here and now, his cover’s blown.
He hesitates so I shove him again, pissed at myself more than him for getting us into this twisted mess.
I never should have touched him.
His brows dip like he heard me and I step closer, pretending I don’t see the clear flash of pain in his eyes because if he wanted me to take it away, he’d let me.
“Do it.”
“Lev..”
“Fucking do it, Wren!” I shout, crowding his space to set him off. “Do it now or I’ll go over there and shove my tongue so far down her throat she’ll choke on i–”
He pulls his fist back and punches me between the eyes, rushing me a second later to pin me down on the hood of my car.
“You won’t fucking touch her,” he grits out, leaning over me to speak over my lips. “Ever.”
I blink the spots from my vision and look up at him, laughing lightly when I catch the fire in his eyes.
It’s jealousy, but it’s not for her.
Just as I think it, he releases me with a shove and backs away from me, turning around to walk back down to the party without a second glance. I groan and force myself up to sit, resting my elbows on my knees while I watch him grab Freya’s arm to drag her off towards the Palace in the distance. My head hurts and my face throbs like a motherfucker, but I’m more than used to it by now, plus it’s nothing compared to the pain of watching the two of them together like that.
He’s supposed to be mine.
“He’s just scared, you know?”
I frown at that, looking left to find Callie leaning back against the wall a couple car lengths away with two beers dangling from her fingers.
How long have I been sitting here?
She tosses me one for my face, I’m guessing, and I catch it, only hesitating a beat before I crack it open and swallow it down. She raises a brow but I ignore it, looking off to the lit up pier in the distance.
She thinks she knows something about me and my life, probably because her daddy used to use her as a punching bag the same way mine does me, but what she doesn’t know is that my situation might be a shit show gone wrong, but it’s a fucking dream compared to the one she came from. My father’s a raging psychopath but hers was a sick bastard with a tendency to fuck his own daughter. I saw first hand what Jason O’Conner did to that girl, and the motherfucker’s only lucky Katherine killed him the way she did before Callie and I got our hands on him.
“Scared of what?” I finally ask, already knowing the answer.
“Being broken again.”
I nod and wipe the blood from my nose with my thumb, sliding off the hood of my car to walk around to the driver’s side. “I’d never break him, Callie.”
It’s him who’s gonna break me.
Chapter Fifteen
Wren
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“What?” she asks, wincing when I tighten my grip on her to drag her down the hall. “Why are you so mad?”
“Don’t play with me,” I growl, shoving her bedroom door open to push her inside. “What the fuck was that?”
“They were gonna find out sooner or later, Wren,” she rolls her eyes, playing it off like I’m the crazy one. “What’s wrong with sooner?”
I glare and snatch her left hand to take a look at the engagement ring on her finger, frowning when I realize the diamond’s not a fake. “Where’d you even get this?
”
She doesn’t answer so I lift my eyes to look at her, grinding my teeth when I catch her staring at my now swollen knuckles with a cocky ass grin on her face. I twist her hand in my grip and back her up against the wall by the door, leaning over her to crowd her space.
“I said where’d you get it?”
“I bought it.”
“With what?” I laugh, throwing her hand away. “Magic fuckin’ beans?
“No,” she narrows her eyes, taking something out from the ass pocket of her shorts. “I used your credit card.”
This bitch.
I snatch it from her and move to leave, ignoring her screams while I pull the door shut to lock her inside. I unlock the double doors across the hall and walk through the den my father decided to let us keep, grabbing my headphones and a bottle of whiskey from the bar. I make my way out to the balcony and drop down on the concrete, twisting the cap off the bottle to swallow a shot. I Think I’m Okay by Machine Gun Kelly plays through my ears and I drop my head back against the glass behind me, unable to stop the way my mind wanders to Levi while I stare at the lit up pier in the distance.
I hurt him just now, twice, and I fucking hate myself for it.
Fuck, I miss my Mom.
She’d kick my ass for the mess I’ve made of my life if she could see me now, but I’d take that over this a million times over if I could.
That familiar ache in my chest quickly intensifies to unbearable so I roll myself a joint and light it up, ignoring the silent tears rolling over my face while I numb the pain the easiest way I know how.
There’s always another way, a better way, but I just punched it, so this’ll have to do.
Movement to my left catches my eye and I look that way, dropping my head just as quick when my brothers and Callie walk outside just to freeze where they stand.
Fuck.
Damon and Kai move to sit down either side of me and Callie crouches down in front of me, taking my face in her hands to pull my eyes up to hers.
Reckless at Westbrook High (The Kingston Brothers #2) Page 10
