“What do you want to do now?” Emma asked.
“I just want to find Wes,” I said. “Stay close to him.”
“So, does that mean you two are back together?” Charlotte asked.
“No.”
“But you fucked him, right?” Emma asked.
“How’d you know that?” I asked.
“He took you home last night, Aira. If he didn’t get it last night, it was probably this morning. You’re a bitch, but you’re not stupid. I respect that.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “I enjoyed myself.”
“Speaking of enjoying,” Charlotte said. “I need to go find Flynn.”
“I need to go find Ryker,” Kailey said.
“I need to go find someone with no name and a big-”
“We get it,” I cut off Emma.
“I need to get my surfboards and go home,” Nova said.
“Why?” I asked. “Come with us. We’ll go hang out on the beach. Drinks and a fire. Keep it low key.”
“Do you ever actually do low key?” Nova asked.
“Only when I’m with Wes,” I said with a laugh.
Nova sighed. “Wow, you really are screwed then.”
I just kept laughing.
But inside, I was ready to explode.
Chapter 15
Aira
“See, we’re actually pretty simple people here,” Walker said as he flipped the lid open on a pizza box.
“Oh, trust me, we all know how simple you are,” Emma said.
We all started to laugh.
“Too bad you blew it with my cousin,” Walker said. “But you still have a chance with me.”
“Is that your best pickup line?” Emma asked.
“Maybe.”
“Try again.”
“Hey, I’m not looking for love,” Walker said.
“Just a quick handy behind the rocks over there,” Ryker said.
Emma rolled her eyes. “Luckily you were born with two hands then, Walker.”
“And I love them both so much,” Walker said.
He made fists and kissed both of his hands.
“That’s gross,” Kailey said. “And he just touched the pizza box.”
“She’s right,” Wes said. “Get the hell away from the food.”
“What?” Walker asked. “I didn’t do that today.”
“Yet,” Charlotte said.
“You offering?” Walker asked.
“Bro,” Flynn said. He stepped in front of Charlotte. “Are you kidding?”
“Hey, just because he’s my cousin doesn’t mean shit to me,” Wes said. “He gets mouthy, you take him out.”
I sat on a log with a drink balanced between my legs.
It was still light out but we had already built a fire.
Leo walked by me and paused. He looked down.
“Hey,” I said, looking up at him.
“You good?”
“Not sure.”
“Everyone is looking out for you,” he said. “Whatever this is, it’ll be gone soon.”
“Thanks, Leo.”
He winked.
Leo skipped the food and went for a drink.
It was interesting this time on the beach because the tension between Kailey and Ryker wasn’t there anymore. They were casual, exchanging flirty glances, but not actually talking. What a strange thing to see.
“Did you end up finding Ryland?” I heard Leo ask Wes.
Wes looked back at me.
I hurried to stand up. “You went after Ryland?”
“I’ve been talking to people,” Wes said.
“Who else?” I asked.
Everyone slowly started to clear out, giving me and Wes space. The only thing between us was the fire.
“I told you I was going to figure this out,” he said.
“What did you do?”
“What I had to do.”
“Piss off more people? So they come after me again?”
“Oh, shit,” Walker said. “Maybe you two-”
“Shut up, Walker,” I snapped.
“Aira, come with me,” Kailey said.
“No,” I said. “When were you going to tell me who you talked to?”
“What the hell does it matter?” Wes asked.
I grabbed my drink and walked away.
When Kailey reached for my arm I shook her away.
I turned. “Don’t fucking follow me.”
My hair whipped into my face.
I hurried to turn back and moved my hair out of my face.
Now my heart was slamming inside my chest again.
I went down to the water and stopped where the waves could barely touch.
The water looked so peaceful. Even though it wasn’t. No matter where I went in this town, it felt like it was closing in on me. Sucking me in deeper. Messing with me.
“I told you what I was going to do.”
Every muscle in my body tightened. “Wes…”
“I found Ryland. He was with Mika.”
“He what?”
I turned.
I hated that Wes looked the way he did. His forever messy hair that always looked so good. The way he smoked his cigarette made something so bad look so good. The way his voice made my heart race.
“Yeah,” Wes said. “He was a mess too. Hungover. But something else. He pulled a knife on me.”
“A knife…”
“A knife. He never did that before. So I don’t know what’s up with him. But I made my warning very clear to both of them. Same thing to West.”
“You talked to your father too?”
“Aira, I’m not letting this go,” he said. “This ends now. And it ends for good.”
“And us?”
“What about us?”
“What are we supposed to be?” I asked.
“Whatever you want and need.”
“Ryland pulled a knife on you?”
“Yes. He was strung out, darling. He looked like hell. Mika said he showed up to her house after the party and threw up all night. I knocked him down and when he got back up, he took out a knife.”
I hugged myself and shivered.
I didn’t like that at all.
Wes stepped toward me and gently touched my arms.
It would have been so easy to fall into his strong chest right then.
Instead, I looked into his eyes.
What are we, Wes?
“Hey, Wes…” a voice called out.
I looked over his shoulder and felt my lip slowly curl.
He turned his head.
I shook away his arms.
“Looks like your sister is looking for you,” I said.
“Aira… don’t…”
“What? That’s what she is, right? That’s what you always say. You swear that you and Noelle are just close friends.”
Wes looked at me again, an anger in his eyes I never thought I’d see.
“I told her to come so I could ask her if she’s the one messing with you.”
* * *
I kept my distance from the bitch.
And I’m sorry, but that’s all Noelle was to me.
Standing at the fire, one earbud in her ear, sipping on something, talking to Wes. I totally understood how she felt with what happened with Ryland. And, sure, Wes felt guilty for not doing more about the situation.
But whatever.
She was clearly in love with Wes and a girl like that would probably do anything to get with him.
And it drove me crazy.
It ate inside me worse than anything I could ever feel.
“Why don’t you just go drop the bitch?” Emma asked.
My little group was now tucked down at the water.
That left Wes, Leo, Flynn, Walker, Ryker, and Noelle up near the fire.
“I’d pay to see it,” Charlotte said.
“I’m jealous,” I said. “And I don’t like that feeling.”
“She’s honestly harmless,” Kailey said. “As much as
you can hate me for saying that. She clings to Wes because he’s the only one she trusts. You know what happened with Ryland…”
“I get it,” I said.
My mind flashed images of Jacob.
I wondered if that was the same thing that happened with Ryland and Noelle.
But it wasn’t my problem.
Not my damn problem at all.
“To be fair, he is doing this for you,” Charlotte said.
“Well, that makes it all better,” I called out. I threw my drink into the air and walked away. I looked back at Charlotte. “You know, I hope Flynn is using you for your chest.”
“Wow,” Charlotte said. “That’s good to know.”
“She didn’t mean that,” Kailey said. “And you didn’t mean what you just said, Char.”
“I’m out of here,” I said. “I’ll walk home. I can’t take much more of this.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Nova said.
She ran toward me and grabbed my hand.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Me too,” Kailey said.
I shook my head. “No. I’m not dividing any more people. I can’t take much more of this.”
“Learn to deal with it then,” Emma said.
She started to walk toward me too.
And then came Charlotte.
“We’re in this together,” Kailey said.
“Even if we say stupid stuff,” Charlotte said.
“Or do stupid stuff,” Emma added.
I swallowed hard. “Fine. So we’re all just going to walk away from this?”
“If that’s what you want,” Nova said.
“Let’s go then,” I said.
I led the way along the beach and we walked a little bit of a distance away from the fire.
Wes took notice but didn’t do anything as we walked toward Jett’s property.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Wes talking to Noelle.
Now it was mostly dark outside.
The only light was the firelight that bounced off Wes’s face.
“Come on,” Charlotte said. “I can slip us something to drink at my place. We’ll do our thing. It’ll be better.”
There was a narrow walkway that was made of old, crooked wood that took us to Jett’s backyard. I looked at the pool and the lights were set to the color purple. The same color that Wes made it that night…
I stopped and bit at my thumb nail.
“What’s wrong?” Nova asked.
I looked at her and swallowed a ball of emotion.
“I’m really in love with him,” I said. “With Wes. And I just want this to end. To know the truth. To make it all go away.”
Nova touched my shoulder. She slowly shook her head. “That’s not how it works though. You know that.”
“I know. But something has to…”
The words trailed off my lips. There were no words. Nothing we all didn’t know. Nothing we all didn’t understand.
I opened my mouth to attempt again to finish the sentence when I heard a loud pop sound. It sounded like glass shattering.
Then I heard someone scream.
It sounded like Charlotte.
Nova and I grabbed for each other’s hands at the same time and started to run.
As we came araound the right side of the large rounded driveway, I saw Kailey and Emma holding Charlotte as she covered her mouth.
There was glass all around her.
From a window in one of Jett’s big trucks.
Emma looked back at me. Her face was white with fear but had anger across it too.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The window exploded,” Charlotte said. She was shaking. “I thought… I thought someone shot at me…”
She started to cry.
Kailey hugged her. “Get Flynn.”
I turned my head and the guys were already there.
“What the fuck was that?” Wes growled.
“Someone broke a window,” I said.
He ran right to me and grabbed my hand.
Flynn rushed to Charlotte and scooped her up.
Leo went to the truck and climbed up the step bar on the side and looked through the broken window.
“There’s a brick,” he called out. “With the word cunt scratched into it.”
I looked up at Wes.
“I thought I saw someone,” Emma said.
Wes darted away from me. “Who? Who did you see?”
“I don’t know. We were just walking. We were talking… and then there was this sound…”
“Who did you see?”
Emma pointed down the driveway. “I thought I saw someone running. Maybe?”
“Let’s go,” Wes ordered.
He took off and was followed by everyone.
Flynn, Leo, Walker, and Ryker.
I put a hand over my mouth as I stepped toward Charlotte. I touched her arm and she fell into me. She kept crying. She was scared half to death. Which I understood.
“I want to find out who did this,” Emma said. “I’m shoving my baseball bat up their ass.”
“Hey, Aira,” Kailey said. “I guess this checks Noelle off the list then.”
I casually glanced back and saw Noelle standing a good distance away. Still one earbud in her ear.
“Whatever,” I whispered. “She can come down here if she wants. But I’m not done with her yet.”
“This is crazy,” Nova said.
“Beyond crazy,” Emma said. She was starting to pace. She was ready for a fight.
Charlotte finally took a deep breath and broke away. She wiped her eyes. “Do I look like shit now?”
“No,” I said. “You look perfect.”
“I hate crying in front of Flynn.”
“The first time she did was when she saw the size of his dick,” Kailey said to me.
“Bitch,” Charlotte said. She cried and laughed at the same time.
I stepped toward the truck.
There was no way to get around the broken glass.
I realized both windows were broken.
Whoever did this managed to break the passenger window and the driver’s window. The brick must have hit the driver’s side and fell back into the truck. Which was probably a good thing. The brick could have hit someone in the head.
Me. It was supposed to be for me.
I reached for the door when I heard Wes’s commanding voice.
“We’ll fucking find who it is,” he said.
He was running toward me.
“Nothing?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “It’s dark. They could have had a car or just took off to hide. Can’t do anything about it right now.”
“Wes…”
He wrapped his arms around me.
I was terrified now.
Really terrified.
“It’s okay,” Wes said.
“You’re lying to make me feel better,” I said as I smelled his shirt.
Sweat. Smoke. Cologne. Wes.
Wes didn’t respond to me.
But he didn’t let me go either.
Chapter 16
Wes
“I’m going to spend the night with her,” Nova said as we stood on the deck.
Julia kept peaking from the window, probably wondering what the hell everyone was doing there. It wasn’t quite a mob scene but we weren’t there smiling looking for a party either.
“I’ll stay too,” Emma offered.
That eased me a little.
Emma was a crazy bad ass.
She’d knife someone before they could touch Aira. Even if they were having a little spat over something that involved me. What I felt like doing was shaking Aira a little and telling her that there was a party and both Emma and I had a few drinks and fooled around a little. Yeah, did it happen one more time after that? Sure. But there was no third time. And there was no comparison to what Aira did to me. Or made me feel.
“We’ll all stay,” Charlotte said. “Sleepover.”
<
br /> “Pillow fight in your panties?” Walker asked.
“Boys,” Nova said, shaking her head.
“Hey,” I said. “If it were me, you’d all be naked and a pillow fight would be the last thing on my mind.”
Nova looked at Emma. Together, they both said, “Boys.”
Aira came out of the house and approached with a forced grin.
“Everyone is staying with you, darling,” I said. “Me and the guys are going for a little run.”
“You’re going after someone,” Aira said. “Who?”
“Why don’t we go inside?” Kailey asked. “We’ll get something to eat and drink.”
“And we’ll go get ready, bro,” Leo said.
The deck cleared off in seconds and it was just me and Aira.
I reached for her face and stroked her cheek softly.
“Please don’t do anything stupid,” she whispered.
“I’m just going to talk to someone. That’s all.”
“I know your version of talking.”
“Just stay here with your friends. And with Julia. Whoever this is they probably won’t do anything around Julia.”
“Why not?”
“Because she would be smart enough to call the cops.”
“Should we be smart enough to call the cops, Wes?”
I stroked her cheek again. “No, darling. This ends with my hands. So I know it’ll end for good.”
I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers.
She tasted as if the picture of the ocean on a clear blue day had a flavor. Something sweet, a touch of salt, and everything so real that I knew putting my life on the line to keep her safe was worth it.
I smoked a cigarette on my walk to my ride.
I pointed to my cousins. “You two stay here. Stay out of sight but keep your eyes open.”
“No fun for us?” Walker asked.
“You have a hand. And I’m sure Ryker will have Kailey later.”
“I’ll break some windows with her,” Ryker said.
“Don’t know what that means but don’t use that as a joke. Jett is going to be pissed about his truck.”
“Where are we going, Wes?” Leo asked.
“Just taking a little ride. A little north of here.”
Leo and Flynn looked at each other.
I could see the worry in their eyes.
* * *
Rolling up on BFH was a risk in itself. But to crash the football players nightly practice of shirtless, sweating tackling was something else. This was almost a religious thing for them. To tackle each other into the ground, their bodies slithering against each other, trying to impress the girls who sat in the stands hoping for a glimpse from their star quarterback.
HIDDEN CREEK DARKNESS: a hidden creek high novel Page 14
