Her Challengers: A high school bully romance (Bad Boys of Jameson High Book 1)

by Taylor Blaine

  I didn’t look at her, but kept my gaze focused on the dark road ahead of me. “We got it confirmed. She died on the mat after you left.”

  It was my responsibility to know what happened when and who was involved. This wasn’t hard to know since I’d watched the entire event.

  Gray lifted her arm and rested the elbow on the arm rest of her door. She sniffed. “I can’t believe I killed her. I…” She shook her head and leaned forward, bracing both elbows on her knees and leaning her face forward into her hands. “I’m going to be sick. I…” She clawed at the door handle, trying to escape.

  “Wait, just a minute. We’re going sixty.” I shifted down as fast as I could and pulled over to the shoulder of the nearly empty highway.

  Gray leapt out of her door, falling to her knees in the gravel and leaning forward. Her braid fell across her shoulder and she dry-heaved, over and over.

  I turned off the truck and climbed from the car, giving her enough time to catch her breath. When I reached her, I crouched beside her and rubbed her back, comfortable touching her after dressing her in the locker room. It felt natural to touch her, like she was an extension of me.

  “Hey, you’re going to be okay. I saw the fight. You’re strong, Asher, but you’re not kill-a-person-bigger-than-you strong. She was off-kilter from the start. Something wasn’t right.” I wasn’t making things up to be consoling. There had been something wrong with the Russian girl from the start, I just couldn’t put my finger on what.

  She fell backward onto her butt and I followed suit, loosely looping my arms around my knees as I watched her. I wasn’t sure what Gray’s breaking point was, but everyone had them. Wasn’t that why Gunner’s dad had killed himself? He’d snapped when he came home and his brothers hadn’t. It was one of the reasons we were always so careful to check in with each other, always so careful to make sure no one had so much stress they felt they couldn’t handle life.

  We’d been unfair to Gray when we’d worked to stress her out, make her believe she was all alone. I’d carry that shame with me the rest of my life.

  She copied my pose and then looked at me, her eyes wide and devastated. “Why are you being nice to me?”

  The question could have flattened me, but I’d expected it for quite a while. I sighed, staring off into the trees bordering the ditch just past the shoulder where we sat. “I’m not.”

  “You are and I can’t figure out why.” Gray pressed, dropping her leg closest to me and turning more fully my way.

  Her gaze worked like a magnet on my own and I finally looked at her, trying not to see her pain and raw open emotional wounds. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through as she had to face the fact that another girl died in front of her that night.

  Turning my face from her, I stared up at the cloudy night sky. The chill in the air wasn’t obtrusive – yet. “Everyone needs to know their place, Gray. Some people just fit like a peg. Others… If they don’t fit, can’t stay. You’re one that won’t be able to stay. That’s just the way it is.” The thought of her leaving pissed me off, but it was the only way my world could go forward.

  If I didn’t have a business that was shoring up the economy of Jameson and providing relief like my dad and uncles needed but never got, then I would consider doing what I wanted and keep her. But that was just the start of it.

  “I don’t understand that. Why do I have to have a place? Why can’t you just like me for who I am? What is with all these ridiculous rules?” At least her sadness was slowly being molded into anger.

  Anger I could work with. Anger I could use to pull her out of her melancholic state. The last thing she needed was to dwell on the events of that night. We didn’t even have all of the details yet. There was no point in focusing on what happened in the ring.

  “It’s not something to be mad about, Gray. Just suck it up and don’t settle in. You’ll find where you’re supposed to be sooner or later.” I smiled tightly at her, keeping my lips closed as I used my hands to push myself off the ground. I reached out a hand to help her up but she was already standing on her own.

  One of the things I respected about Gray was her innate need to be independent. It was also one of the reasons she wouldn’t fit in at Jameson.

  We got into the truck and I started it up, pulling onto the highway in silence. When we were only ten minutes away from Declin Gray’s murmur pulled me from my thoughts. “What if I don’t want to leave? What if… I mean, what if I want to chase down this thing between us?”

  I glanced sharply at her, my breath catching as I realized she felt it too – this undeniable pull toward each other that hurt almost as much as it warmed my blood.

  The realization that she felt it, too, only made it worse. I shifted into fourth and stared forward, breathing out of my nose to keep myself from saying something I couldn’t back up.

  As she waited in the silence, a sudden slapping filled the air. We only had four minutes until we were to Declin.

  Gray jerked her head around, staring out the rear window like the answers would be there. “What is that?”

  “We have a flat.” I ignored her question. Why focus on that when we had to make it to Declin with the flat? There was nothing else to be done about any of it.

  She wasn’t going to be welcome at Jameson. I couldn’t allow it, but I also couldn’t see her going anywhere else at that point. She didn’t push her question, didn’t push the unveiling of her statement about the pull between us.

  But that meant that if she felt the things I was feeling, then she’d been aware of my hands on her as I’d dressed her. The fact that she was more than aware of me only heightened my desire for her, spiraling the heat in my lap into the discomfort range.

  Slap-slap-slap. The tire was one in back, but it was loud enough to fill the small truck.

  One-minute left and I could see headlights away off, marking the junction of Declin. Looked like Gunner and Brock had made some calls and our people were right where we needed them to be.

  I shot one last glance at Gray. She had no idea what was going to be asked of her, but if she could suck it up, she’d be in a better position than the one she was in now.

  All I had to do was let her go.

  ***

  Gray

  I didn’t remember a spare tire from my first inspection of the truck. The flat tire had broken my nerve to ask Stryker any more about what he thought about what was between us. I wasn’t stupid. There was something there – even as he acted like he hated me, even as he’d set the town on me – there was something there.

  And a part of me hated him for it.

  The truck limped the last few hundred yards into the gravel-covered parking lot. Over-grown grass sprouted up in the beams of the headlights as cars spread out in a wide circle facing inward.

  I was too raw to be around people. Too much had happened and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do or what I was supposed to be thinking or feeling.

  My hands shook as I reached to unbuckle my seatbelt. I suddenly didn’t care about my flat tire or the fact that Stryker had basically told me I wouldn’t be allowed to stay in Jameson.

  He didn’t know me. He didn’t know what my dreams were or had been. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to fight again after that night. Death wasn’t something that made me giddy about my future.

  Stryker parked the truck on the perimeter of the vehicle circle and I couldn’t bring myself to open the door.

  As if waiting for our arrival, the black truck pulled in beside us and I leaned my forehead on the glass of my window. I didn’t want to talk to Gunner or Brock and see the condemnation in their eyes that was sure to be there.

  I closed my eyes, intent on blocking everything out, but in my mind’s eye I could see Sonya and her eyes as the light faded from them. Snapping my eyes open, I blinked at the reflection of other lights in the shiny paint of the black truck.

  Knuckles rapped on the glass beside my head and I jerked back, ready to scream and shout at whoev
er dared bug me. My railings died in my throat as I recognized Sara standing outside my door. I blinked back threatening tears and mouthed her name. She motioned to me to join her. I’d forgotten Stryker told his cousins to pick her up.

  How could I forget something so important to my mental well-being? Maybe because I’d been wrapped up in trying to define the tug between Stryker and me. No, it wasn’t a tug and I knew it. It was more like an electrical current that got stronger and stronger the closer we got to each other.

  As soon as I was out of my truck, I threw my arms around Sara’s shoulders and I shook my head, muttering, “What are we going to do?”

  She held me as I held her, each of us wrapped up in our painful dramas and still leaning on the other for support and to offer it.

  After a minute we pulled back and I wrinkled my nose. “Did he get you?” Her uncle would never stop. We had to do something, but I wasn’t sure what.

  My question freed the sob she’d been suppressing and she shook her head. “It was close. He had me pinned on the bed when my mom walked in. I…” She blinked back more tears and then studied me. “Do you think you could kill him for me?” She arched an eyebrow and then dryly asked, “Too soon?”

  I huffed a sort of chuckle that I needed. I wiped at the damp skin under my eyes. “I don’t know what happened. I tried a new move where I stepped on her foot, you know? I’ve seen other fighters use it so many times…” I looked over her shoulder into the dark trees on the other side of the east running highway. “I don’t understand how she died. I swear I didn’t hit any harder than I normally do. It was even difficult to do that since I had to extend my footing and lost some of my pivot power, you know?”

  Sara didn’t know, but she would listen and be my sounding board like she’d been so many other times in the past. “Honestly, none of it makes sense. She died on the canvas, Sara. It was…” I couldn’t finish my own sentence.

  As Sara had been fighting off her uncle’s rape attempts, I’d killed someone. No one could say drama didn’t follow us like mosquitos.

  “Can we just go to your house?” Sara looked at the cars around us. I didn’t recognize any of them either.

  I shrugged. “If you want to walk? My truck has a flat. I have to ask Stryker what I should do.”

  Asking Stryker anything had already been turning into a cluster. I couldn’t get a straight answer out of him to save my life.

  What if he didn’t feel the same things I was feeling? Was it possible for attraction to be one-sided?

  Blaze had seemed to be attracted to me, even though I’d merely tolerated his advances and pushed him away when he pushed too close. Stryker… I couldn’t help feeling like the leader of the cousins didn’t even need to push and I’d probably jump him. I just needed him to show some interest.

  Gunner, Brock, and Stryker stood off to the side, keeping an eye on Sara and me while they talked, their heads bent together.

  What would they do if I just walked off down the highway? I wouldn’t even care which way I went. I could just start walking. No one would be the wiser.

  Stryker nodded at Gunner, folding his arms across his chest as Gunner and Brock approached Sara and me. Stryker didn’t move as he stood his ground and stared.

  I held his gaze a moment longer than I should have. I could accept the challenge in his eyes. Could he accept the promises in mine?

  Sara leaned toward me, speaking out of the corner of her mouth. “By the way, these guys you sent to get me? How are you still a virgin?”

  As the heat increased between Stryker’s eyes and mine, I had the distinct feeling that virginity was a long-lost concept for me.

  At least as far as Stryker was concerned. I just had to get past his surly side and get over the events of the night.

  Something I hoped a strong drink would cure.

  Gunner shook his head as they stopped close to us. There was definitely too much somberness in his expression for me to process. Was there something worse he had to tell me?

  Was there anything worse than killing someone?

  Chapter 23

  Gray

  I couldn’t bring myself to drink from the cup in my hand. It didn’t seem fair that I stood there in the crowd gathering at Declin and someone like Sonya Ivanovs was dead. Because of me.

  I blinked at Gunner, gripping the cup Brock had shoved into my hands and I took a deep breath. “Okay, lay it out there for me. Why do you look like I feel?”

  Gunner hadn’t worn his ever-present hat that night and he reached up, running his fingers through his hair as he looked around the crowd, anywhere but at me.

  My life had changed that night, not his. Not Stryker’s. No one’s but mine. With my free hand I reached up and snapped my fingers in front of Gunner’s face, bringing his attention back to me. I thrusted my chin forward, overwhelmed at the ferocity inside me. “Tell me. Quit stalling and just spit it out.”

  He swallowed and glanced once more over his shoulder at Stryker who had moved closer to the small group I stood in made up of Sara, Gunner, Brock, and myself. I followed Gunner’s gaze, furious as Stryker nodded, giving his permission for Gunner to speak. My nostrils flared as I realized he really did have control.

  “The thing is, we heard on the scanner that the police are looking for Alex Asher with your description.” He shot another wary glance at Stryker and continued without a needed nod. “While we’re dealing with that, you need to know that you don’t have a spare tire either and we have to leave your truck here until it can get towed. We think sometime in the morning.”

  I blinked at him, utterly still besides my eyelids. What was he talking about? How could he even put the two subjects into the same moment – my flat tire and the fact that I was wanted by the police?

  “I don’t understand. Should I be more upset about the police or the tire?” I couldn’t have been more confused, if I tried. Where did I focus my attention and my worry? Where did I put my energy?

  Sara leaned over, wrapping her arm around my shoulders and ducking her head closer to mine so the boys couldn’t hear her speak. “I think there’s a reason they shoved that alcohol into your hand.”

  I glanced at her, slightly squeezing the plastic cup in my fingers, reveling in the subtle cracking sound. “I don’t want to drink.” I murmured back, almost nervous to admit it.

  She shrugged. “Then don’t. You know?”

  And for the first time, I really did get it. If I didn’t want to do something, I shouldn’t have to do it. That seemed to be the problem though. I was constantly forced into doing things I didn’t want to do because my choices were taken away from me – losing my mom, moving from Timbercreek, being alone at Jameson. The list could keep going and I realized I wasn’t alone in that either. Sara was subjected to her own lack of control. We had no control over anything and nowhere to turn.

  “Just hold onto the cup so they don’t keep trying to give you more.” She rolled her eyes but kept her arm around me.

  I nodded, taking a deep breath. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I’d killed my opponent. I didn’t even want to think about her name or her large eyes as she’d taken my measure.

  I’m not sure I wanted to be the last thing someone saw before they died. The sudden truth of that hit me. I was the last thing that poor girl saw before she passed from this life. My shoulders slumped forward and I dropped my cup. The shaking I’d thought I’d left in the car hit me hard. I trembled as I tried to make it somewhere I could sit down.

  Sara moved with me, alarmed as she tried to help me.

  My rear finally hit the quasi-stable guard rail that had been set up eons ago and I rested there with the wild grass reaching toward the stars around my calves and shins.

  The trembling spread up from my limbs, centering somewhere between my shoulder blades and sending shivers all over my body. Maybe I was going into shock? I’d always heard people warn against it, but I’d never actually seen it at work or would even know what the signs we
re if they hit me upside the head.

  Brock, Gunner, and Stryker moved with us. Stryker dropped into a crouch beside me, staring up into my face as if he could surmise whatever was wrong with me and then order it to stop.

  It hit me that they seemed rather calm for the situation. I shifted my eyes from staring at the dark ground and to Stryker’s face. “What aren’t you telling me?” Gunner had been the one to tell me so far, but Stryker knew all of it. That’s why they kept asking him for permission, checking with him to see how far they could go. “I mean, why not just tell me everything? What can be worse than killing a girl, having the cops after me, and now a flat tire that can’t be fixed so I have to leave my car behind?” Seriously, what more could there be?

  Stryker’s gaze didn’t shift anywhere else. He stared at me, his hands hanging loosely between his knees and he balanced on the balls of his feet. Why had I never noticed the angles of his face and the way he looked more like a man than a teenager? Why was it okay for him to be so devastatingly handsome while he was such a prick in other situations? Why was it okay for him to shift around in the persona he gave off and go from jerk to rescuer in the space of moments?

  It wasn’t fair or okay and the fact that he was doing it only intensified the frustration inside me.

  In the silence as I waited for Stryker to explain, the noises of the growing party became more pronounced. A group of girls giggled to the side while another kid did some kind of a chug challenge with another boy. The end of a cigarette glowed, giving away the position of another small group of people by the end of a truck on the other side of the lot. The party was cohesive while still feeling private, something I didn’t mind in the least.

  “What we’re not telling you is the fact that Sonya Ivanovs was the dom’s daughter. She was what is known as the princess of the Russian mafia. Her brother entered her into the fight and now he’s out for blood since you killed her.” Stryker’s emotionless voice actually kept me calm, keeping the hysteria from rising up. He continued as if there could possibly be more. “The concern isn’t that he’s after you, exactly. We can protect you. The issue is that you used your dad’s name. They’ll go after him first. We can’t protect your dad, Gray.”