He had him there.
Bry crossed his arms and Mom came out of the kitchen with a plate full of cookies. Well, thank God for that.
We dug in.
After three cookies, Bry commented, “Aren't we supposed to get going to Jade's?”
Oh crap! Yeah!
“Hang on, I gotta brush the teeth again.”
Jonesy gave me a speculative look. “What's with all the big-time hygiene fetish, Hart?”
“Girlfriend,” Tiff and Mom said at the same time.
Bry barked out a laugh and Tiff's eyes narrowed. “I wouldn't talk, Bry. What about Barbie?”
He returned her glare. “That's not her name, ya squirrel, so shut-up.”
“Hey!” Mom said.
We all turned to her while I was mid-stroke on my teeth. “No shut-up talk allowed,” she glowered at us, hands on hips.
The Wellers looked chastised. “Sorry,” Bry mumbled, looking at me like, wow, dude, is this the word-maze you live in?
Welcome to my world.
It's not like Mom had five other kids to distract her or something. No-oh. She had plenty of time to concern herself over phrasing.
Teeth finally cleaned we took off down the stairs, piling into Bry's car and Jonesy said, “We pick up Soph next, I don't want Alex sitting on my lap.”
“You just like her butt, Jones,” Tiff said uncharitably.
Jonesy winked. “I do like booty and she has a fine one,” he expounded. “But,” he said, holding up a finger, “I don't want a dude on my lap.”
“Homo-phobe-much,” Tiff said.
Jonesy shrugged like, ya caught me.
We swung into Sophie's driveway and she was saying something to her mom who didn't look a thing like her. She was dark like Jonesy. Sophie turned, waving to us. Her smile slipped a little as she surveyed us all packed in there like sardines. Thankfully, her mom had gone back inside and maybe didn't notice the restraint harness issue.
There weren't enough.
“Where am I going to sit?” she asked.
Jonesy waggled his eyebrows and she sighed but, it seemed like she was faking it. I was just wondering when these two were going to proclaim their couple-dom. Jonesy spent most his time denying he liked Sophie and watching her butt constantly, and she spent a lot of time making him feel stupid, which was futile because Jonesy had enough self-esteem for the universe. She'd never put out his self-love fire.
She succumbed to his charms, sitting on his lap and he made a big groan about how heavy she was and Sophie elbowed him and they grinned like the idiots they were. Brother.
Alex was last and his neighborhood was right next to Jade's and Brett's. It was a little bit better off and didn't have that distinctive, ghetto-vibe but it was still questionable.
He was already waiting outside in his polo shirt, glasses sliding all over his face, and glaringly white tennis shoes.
A fashion disaster. But damn, was he strong.
He shoe-horned himself in between the Weller siblings and being as he was about one hundred pounds, they managed.
“So tell me,” Bry said.
I threw my elbows over the middle of the front seat, which took some doing, with the Jonesy-Sophie sandwich on one side and John's bony parts digging into mine.
“I wanted to see Jade and with school and the police thing...”
“Yeah, tell us about that,” Jonesy said.
“We're not supposed to, numb-nuts,” Tiff said.
“Hey,” he mumbled behind Sophie's hair. “Stop busting my balls over this, I wanna know details.” He blew a chunk of her hair out of the way and shot Tiff the, get screwed look.
She turned around in a huff with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Anyway,” I said slowly, giving them The Look, “she said Brett, Carson and a bunch of their friends were at Brett's and she thought it'd be bad if I came over.”
“Probably got that right,” John said in his sure way.
“They're ass-hats, it's their plan to make people miserable,” Jonesy said.
I leaned back and he turned around, Tiff had dropped her arms and was listening. “Carson Hamilton? Are you kidding? He was bad before he could torch-the-world but now...wow.”
“He still needs an accelerant, right?” John said.
Alex nodded. “But a jerk like that... Hell, he'll do anything to get what he needs.”
“Hate to break it to you guys but their little posse has expanded,” Bry said.
Silence filled the car.
“Who?” I asked.
Bry shifted in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable. “Spit it out, Bry,” Tiff said.
I looked over at Jonesy who had his arm around Sophie and she leaned back against him. Kinda cozy.
“Christi’s brother, for one,” Bry continued.
Tiff slapped her forehead.
Who was that?
Tiff elaborated, “Barbie.”
Oh her, that figures. She was a bitch on wheels so her brother must be terrific, or whatever the counterpart was to that. Huh.
“Who's she?” Sophie asked reasonably.
“She's a chick my brother digs that has the same IQ as Mick’s hamster,” Tiff said, smacking her wad of gum.
“Who's Mick?” John asked, trying to keep the cast of characters straight. It had a way of unraveling.
“My little brother, Michael,” Bry said.
“That kid I saw today?” I asked.
“No, it's another one,” Tiff answered.
Geez.
Jonesy waved this away. “Who cares about the girl? What does her brother have to do with anything? Who gives a ripe, hairy rat's ass?”
A grin slowly unfolded on Tiff's face and Alex shook his head, saying, “You've got a way with words, Jones, I'll give ya that.”
Jonesy smiled. He knew it.
Bry dropped the bomb, “He's a fire-starter too and he's older.”
“More control. More finesse,” John said.
“Yeah,” Alex agreed with resignation.
“This can't be good,” I said. “And I don't like those ass-clowns being around Jade.”
Jonesy looked at me. “Don't worry, Brett won't let anything happen to her.”
I whipped my head around to him and I heard John sigh.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked him, my heart speeding.
Jonesy shrugged. “Just what I've been hearing around.” He twirled a finger in the air and Sophie avoided my eyes.
“Sophie,” I all but yelled, and she flinched, Jonesy narrowing his eyes at me. “What's going on?”
“Well, she didn't want to cause trouble...” she began.
I could practically feel my blood start to boil. I was gonna maim him if he'd done something to Jade.
She saw my expression and shrank back from me some, and Jonesy said, “Cool it, Hart. It's not Sophie, dude, it's Brett. Keep your focus.”
Right.
I mentally told myself to calm down.
It sure wasn't working.
She continued, “He's been trying to see her lately.”
“When?” I barked out and Jonesy gave me a warning glare.
“Sorry...” I said. “When?”
“Just since your Gramps' house.”
Oh nice, the middle finger parade and screech-out-of-there episode.
“What does any of that have to do with Jade?”
Sophie shook her head. “We don't know exactly but she just tells him she thinks it's better if they don't talk.”
But it was in her eyes.
“What else?” I said tersely.
“He's been hanging around her bedroom window.”
Eff-me.
“Dude, he's some kinda perverted stalker-type,” Jonesy said helpfully.
Yeah, that.
“Maybe he's just trying to apologize,” Alex said.
We all looked at him.
“Or maybe not,” he said.
Brett was definitely not the apologetic type.
“
So, to recap this dandy little disaster,” John began and I raised an eyebrow at his words, “we have Brett stalking Jade, your brainless girlfriend's older brother has taken Carson the Corrupt under his wing and he is a how-many-points-fire-starter?”
Bry held up five fingers.
Perfect.
“Any more good news, Bro?” Tiff asked caustically.
He was quiet for a minute and that made me nervous-as-hell.
“Yeah, it looks like Carson's got a girlfriend.”
God...who'd go out with him?
“No accounting for taste,” Alex said.
No shit.
Bry pulled up to Jade's place and we sat in the sweltering, cramped car when he expounded, “She's AFTD.”
Oh, just beautiful. Tiff turned around and looked at me, staring at each other we thought about that group of kids, growing larger. And the disquiet of having one of our own on their side.
Who was it? I thought as I exited the car, the door squealing on its hinges and hanging at a crooked angle.
Just then, Jade bounded out the front door, the glare of the sun blinding us like bleached bones off its whiteness, twilight beginning to encroach, shrouding the bushes that clung to the foundation.
She looked into my face and knew in about three and half seconds something was terribly wrong.
Part of it was that we had a new threat and she hadn't told me about it.
CHAPTER 9
Jade slowed as she drew closer, her face searching mine. “What?” she asked.
My arms were crossed over my chest and I had a fleeting thought that a fight with my girlfriends was not on my to-do list but I needed a little damn help when it came to protecting her. Jade not telling me about Brett wasn't helping.
She was hard to be mad at though. I eyed her up, digging on how awesome she looked in her tight green T and bright white zippered hoodie. My anger wavered. Then I thought about what the potential of Brett was and it solidified again.
“Sophie told me about Brett.” I said simply, my anger at her dishonesty-by-omission making my body stiff. The others stood around the car, awkwardly trying to look anywhere but at us.
“Oh Caleb,” she said, approaching me. I stepped back. If she touched me, I was toast. She hesitated and dropped the hand that had been reaching out for me. “I didn't want to say anything. It's no big deal.”
No big deal.
“It is a big deal. Brett is seriously effed-up and just wants someone to be sympathetic. It doesn't need to be you.”
“I don't want to be mean and I do feel bad for him,” she said, her eyes pleading with me.
My heart twisted.
I hoped she wasn't touching him to get the Brett-intel. 'Cuz I wasn't down with that. How could she feel bad after what went down last year?
She stuffed her hands in her pockets. “Please, Caleb, it's just not in me to treat him bad. He hasn't tried to hurt me.”
Yet.
Suddenly, we heard scuffling and raised voices and turned at the same moment.
Through the portal of the open gate I could see my friends facing off with Carson and Brett who stood at the edge of Jade's fence perimeter. Two guys flanked the ass-clowns, Ceci (from my AFTD class) and Barbie were also there.
I looked at Bry and could see from his face he was battling emotion. Here was his hot (bitchy with a capital “B”) girlfriend who had showed up in the battle zone with her brother.
Things were not looking up.
Jade and I looked at each other, our unfinished business lingering between us uneasily, and walked out of the gate together.
I was immediately struck by how much older the other two guys were. Juniors? I didn't know for sure but I was damn glad that I had gone to Judo practice even when I wanted to do everything else instead. Last year made me realize a few things: I wouldn't always have the dead at my back, that my friends, and Jade needed me to be more.
More than just a puppet master of the dead.
Bry, the Js and Alex moved up behind me and the girls behind them.
A silence filled the void of the moment, the lot of us guys taking the measure of one another, the older two guys looking over Bry the longest.
The one on Carson's right said, “Why are you slummin', Weller? Gotta hang out with the kiddies?”
Barbie (okay Christi, I thought reluctantly), glared at him and said, “Don't jump his crap, Brody. He's with his sister, right baby?”
Baby?
I could feel Tiff's eye roll, no paranormal assistance needed. Sophie snickered and Christi narrowed her eyes.
This was going well.
Bry swallowed, here was the time when you spoke plainly. “Yeah, Christi, Tiff is here but these guys are still my dudes.” He shrugged.
I could have hugged him. But I didn't. I stood, legs spread apart, my arms crossed on my chest, saying nothing.
Jade broke the uneasy silence, “I told you, Brett, that Caleb and I are going to see each other. We're the same, we're both paranormals, it makes sense. Ya know, us being together.”
Brett's intense brown eyes looked her over possessively and it fired up every guy instinct I had and ones I didn't. He acted like he was the one dating Jade, not me. He needed an attitude adjustment for sure.
I was so volunteering.
Little known fact: guys always do a mental scan on another guy. The question is always the same: could I take him if I needed? Am I the fiercest dog in the fight?
I didn't know.
I was checkin' out Brody and if Barbie was tall, he was much taller, over six feet, even a little taller than Bry. The other guy just screamed bad news; he was shorter but built like Jonesy. He had the physical potential. Strong and fast. I didn't like it.
The Js didn't either and Alex looked positively green.
Alex! He was like, kick-ass strong! But, I guess he wasn't wanting to give it all away yet. Geez.
“It's never gonna make sense, Jade. He's bad for you...with all his frickin' undead creepers. You need to be around someone that's a mundane. That's where the balance is at,” Brett said in a way that told me he was repeating himself.
Huh. I didn't like Brett making any kind of remote sense and Jade listening to any of it either. Tiff huffed at the comment about the undead. I was insulted too. Like he was “all that” because he was a mundane. But he was eying my girl and she was Empath so he used that excuse when it worked for his arguments. Great.
“Let Jade think for herself. You don't need to be doing any convincing,” I said.
“Yeah, man, that's über-uncool. Ya know she's dating Caleb. Stop lurking around in dark corners trying to make moves,” Jonesy said.
John and Alex nodded.
Carson said, “It's a free country, assholes, he can be and talk to whoever he wants, you chumps can't do shit about it.”
Bry turned to Brody. “You guys are older, let Brett, Caleb and Jade figure it out. And,” he looked at them, “you're hanging around them why? They're freshman.”
Good point, as Brody had been the one to call us “kiddies.”
Brody and his pal shuffled around, finally the other dude said, “There aren't a lot of Fire-starters. We're a tight group...you feel me?”
Bry didn't, saying, “What does that matter? You can see what kind of guy he is, Diego? He started every piece of crap circumstance with Hart last year, said he'd be neutral this year. Yet, here he is, stirring up the shit again. He just loves the smell, like a fly to sewage.”
Yeah, that.
Carson's hands balled into fists and Ceci backed away from him, looking at me, fear standing in her eyes. My face asked her the question: why? But that was the age-old thing, nice girls dug bad dudes. It defied wisdom but happened anyway.
Carson gave her a look and she cowed away from him. It made me sick. His face swung back to mine.
Bry was staring at Christi but she was standing by her brother.
Nice loyalty too.
“Listen...” Jade began, her hands twirling about h
er nervously. “Brett, I wanted to try and help you a little because, I know that stuff is bad at your place.”
Brett gave her an ugly look and I could feel my blood percolate. “You don't need to explain why you're nice Jade, he doesn't appreciate it,” I said.
“Yeah he does, a little too much,” Jonesy said and Sophie nodded.
See, I was on to something.
“Yeah, I do, Caleb,” Jade said, moving away from me a little.
Huh, this was a disturbing development.
Brett stepped forward to meet her and that's when my resolve broke, I simply couldn't let her be that close to him. He was entirely too familiar with violence as the answer and I didn't want Jade in the path of it.
Brett's eyes flicked to mine then landed on her. “But, we can't be friends the way you want. I love him,” she said with quiet intensity.
“You think you do,” Brett clarified, saying it to her and looking at me.
She shook her head. “No, I do. He makes me feel more like... more like... what I'm supposed to be. That's a good thing right? When someone else can make you feel complete?”
“Listen, I hate to break up this love-fest, and I know you girls are all romantic fools...” Diego began, “but I'm pullin' the boredom card. Carson, you said he was gonna come over here, get this girl,” he looked at Jade. “Jane? Julie...?”
“Jade, dip-shit,” I said.
“Watch your mouth, kiddo,” he said, that look in his eyes. You know the one: shut up or suffer.
“Make me.”
Bry looked at me. “Caleb...”
“Nah, Caleb's right. These dudes come over here, peeing in corners, and we're just supposed to swallow their crap. I don't think so,” Jonesy said.
The girls looked at each other nervously, even Barbie looked at Bry. Even in her very small, Pooh-sized brain she was seeing the potential for things to go wild.
I could feel it in the air; it had a swollen silence that buzzed with life.
Maybe things would have shut down then because Diego was deliberating on how he could save face and put me in my place without a brawl.
But violence is its own beast and finds its way through a willing host.
Brett reached out and grabbed Jade, hauling her up against him. He was so fast about it she couldn't even respond and he latched his mouth onto hers, cranking her head back while he did it, his hand fisted in her hair while she struggled against him.
The Death Series, Books 1-3: Death Whispers, Death Speaks and Death Inception (The Death Series, Volume 1) Page 47
