“Thorn. I’m confused about your presence in this class.” Mr. Roberts ignored how my pseudo-hero had called him out.
“Take your child to work day,” Thorn said. “Homecoming. Internship. Take your pick.”
The man let out a sigh that carried the weight of a middle-aged man realizing he’d made some shitty life decisions. “Lacey?” Mr. Roberts said. “Do you have anything more to add?”
I shook my head, not even bothering to lift my gaze. For the rest of class, I’d just pretend I was somewhere else. I was good at that.
“Don’t let them put you down.”
Great. Colton. I didn’t need to look over to see he’d taken up the other seat in the dead zone on the other side of me.
These guys were a piece of work. Ignoring him like I had Thorn and Mr. Roberts, I kept my gaze on my pen and counted the seconds until the end of class. The second the bell sounded, I was up, out of my chair, and the first one out the door.
One of the things that might surprise people about me was that I was a decent student. Not to brag, but if my teachers hadn’t been assholes afraid of Colton and Thorn’s parents, I’d probably be valedictorian.
Maybe not.
But top ten. Definitely.
The problem was that while I might ace tests where the answers were black and white, anything that was subjective—essays, projects—earned me a low B or high C. Sometimes, like with Mr. Roberts, I got more of the grade he believed my personality deserved than my actual work.
One day, I’d be in a city where it was cold, and there were so many people, no one would notice me. They wouldn’t know about my father running out of town after his meth lab exploded and killed the deputy sheriff, or that my cousin stole packages from people’s front porches. I’d just be a nameless, faceless pedestrian going about my business, not bothering anyone.
“Lacey!”
These guys couldn’t be serious. Like I’d done before, I ignored them. I had a useless study hall to sit through.
“Lacey, will you wait? For fuck’s sake.”
If I’d been the one to say that in the hall, every single teacher in this school would have poked their heads up like prairie dogs. But these guys could light fireworks and pull the alarm in front of the principal, and everyone would chuckle at their antics.
I was thoroughly fed up with them. It never mattered to them if they missed class, but I was under a microscope, and despite what people thought about me, I needed to graduate with as good of a GPA as I could manage under the circumstances. I had plans for my life, and I wasn’t about to let them fuck those up.
Again.
“What do you want?” I stood in the hall, feeling the gazes of everyone in the hallway as they walked by whispering. Yes, I knew what they were thinking. Thorn and Colton were back. I’d driven them away, according to local opinion, and now they were back. Soon, I’d be held responsible for whatever went wrong here. “What’s wrong?” I stared at the two of them. They wanted to talk. Fine, we’d talk. “What do you need to discuss with me that is so important?”
They looked at each other and then back at me. Thorn swallowed. “I realize this was weird. I realize it isn’t normal that we came to the school and did this, showed up in your classroom.”
“You think?” I put my hands on my hips. “So what is it?”
“Excuse me!” The principal’s voice boomed down the hallway. I guessed someone let him know I was up to no good again. “What is going on here?”
Thorn winced. “Come with us. We have to talk. Let’s get out of here.”
“Cut class? Listen, Mr. Dropout, I can’t do that. They’ll call Gran, and there will be hell to pay.” I could practically feel the slap. “I have to go to class. You two can stay here,” I addressed both of them now. “And deal with whatever you want.”
Colton grabbed my arm. “Please, Lacey. We need to talk to you. Now.”
I wanted to argue. This was ridiculous. I didn’t cut class. But there was something in their eyes that could only be called desperation. They’d gotten out of here. If they were back and in some kind of trouble, that only talking to me could solve, then I needed to help them. If for no other reason than they were human beings. Maybe the universe would cut me some kind of deal in the future and offer me a big old break.
“You three,” the principal was really yelling now. Mr. Hancock was nothing if not nasty.
I made a decision. “Okay. You want to talk? We’ll talk. Let’s get out of here.”
Colton grabbed my hand, which seemed strange considering I didn’t know him as well as Thorn, but I didn’t object as he pulled me down the hallway and out the backdoor where the smokers always went to light up between classes.
We ran hard, the voice of the principal chasing us out the door.
I don’t think my heart slowed down until Colton pulled his car to the side of the road, stopping next to the Albertsons Market. This time of day, Main Street was busy. “Somebody say something.”
I sat in the front seat next to Colton. Thorn was in the back. I had to take off my seatbelt to see both of them.
“What do you remember about the last night we were here?” It was Thorn who spoke, his beautiful eyes imploring me to understand. Argh! Why did he and Colton have to be so handsome? There was enough testosterone in this car to choke on.
I rubbed the back of my neck and waited. “Going to make me bring up the kissing again? I think we all know what happened.”
A muscle ticked in Thorn’s jaw. “What else? Not the kissing. That was
wonderful.”
Wonderful? “Not much. Most of that day is sort of a blur. Just the kissing, and then the eruption that happened after.”
Colton leaned his head against the back of the seat rest. He almost looked pained. “I was really hoping it hadn’t taken your entire memory of it.”
“What does that mean?” So much for being calm. My heart raced.
“The monster,” Thorn spoke quietly. “Do you remember anything about that?”
Six
“Fuck my life.” I’d skipped class for this. Glancing around the fancy car, I looked for the camera. When I didn’t see it, I grabbed the handle to get out, but the locks slid into place. “Let me out,” I said through clenched teeth and unlocked the door. As soon as I had, they locked again. “Fuck you, Colton. Let me out.”
“Lacey, please. I know it’s crazy. And we don’t deserve your time, or trust, but your life is in danger, and we need you to believe us.”
All of the rage and hurt I’d felt when they disappeared and left me in front of the firing squad filled my heart and overflowed. “Believe you?” I laughed bitterly. “Trust you? That’s fucking rich coming from you. You two are the single worst things to ever happen to me in what has so far been a fantastically shitty life.” I slammed my palm against the window. “Now let me the fuck out.”
“We didn’t want to leave!” Thorn cried. Nearly draped over the backseat to get to me, he touched my cheek. In the old days, that move made goosebumps break out over my skin. He always followed it up by running his thumb over my cheekbone. It was the softest, sweetest touch I’d ever received, and it broke my heart when he did it now. Because now, I was smarter. Now, I knew it meant nothing.
Thorn’s gaze suddenly went to the window, and he dropped his hand. Glancing over my shoulder to see what had him sitting back, I froze.
The guy outside lifted his hand in a wave that was meant to be casual. This time, when I tried to open the door, Colton let me. I slid from the seat and stood next to Aaron. “Hi,” I said.
“You okay?” he asked, glaring through the open door.
Behind me, a door opened and shut. “We’re fine,” Colton said. “Lacey is perfectly safe with us.”
Aaron lifted one eyebrow. “How about you let Lacey answer?”
“Aaron!” Boots pounded over the pavement as Oliver ran toward us. He held a bag of groceries in one hand, but he still managed to look intimidating as he came to stan
d next to his brother. The two of them were a sight. Tall and broad-shouldered, their long, dark hair flowing around those shoulders when the wind picked up. I swallowed hard and checked myself before I could get too googley-eyed about them. Pretty faces had been my downfall before.
“I thought you had school,” Oliver said to me. Coming from any other person, the statement would have been judgmental, but he seemed merely curious.
“I do,” I answered. “I was stupid though, and thought these guys would have something to say that was worth hearing. Instead, it’s more bullshit, and I’m the idiot for falling for it.” Bitterness dripped off of every word. “Monsters?” Backing away, I hitched my backpack up onto my shoulder. “Just leave me alone. I have enough to deal with, okay?”
I was tired and felt so, so stupid. The safest—and best thing—I could do for myself was to walk away.
“Lacey!” Aaron called. “We’ll bring you home!”
“We can bring her home,” Thorn retorted.
I rolled my eyes. Like I was going to let that happen. A car rolled to a stop in front of me. I recognized the car as my Gran’s, but it wasn’t her inside. It was my cousin’s girlfriend, Maura. “Want a ride?”
For some reason, I hesitated. I needed to get away, but I didn’t want to get into the car. “Yes,” I said and opened the door, checking before I slid inside that Christopher wasn’t there. He wasn’t. It was just her, looking more bright-eyed and clear-skinned than I’d ever seen her. “Thank you.”
She pulled out of the parking lot, gaze going to the rearview mirror. “What’s all that about?”
“I fell for a practical joke,” I said, “but it wasn’t funny.”
“Those boys are trouble,” Maura said as she sped along the main highway through town. “Colton and Thorn. Rich boys like that never get caught, be careful around them.”
Leaning my head on my hand, I sighed. “I know.”
A warm hand landed on top of my knee, squeezing lightly, and I glanced at her. “You deserve better than what this town has done to you,” she said. Her gaze was piercing, like she could see right through me. I shifted uncomfortably in the seat. Until today, our interactions were limited to “hi” and “bye.” She didn’t know me well enough to say that, though I supposed she could make that assumption based on what she knew about my family. She probably even experienced some of the same isolation as a result of being my cousin’s girlfriend.
“Thanks,” I replied. I thought she’d move her hand, but she didn’t. Instead, she rubbed gently along my thigh.
“You’re special, Lacey. Remember that when those boys come to you telling stories they want you to believe. They’re users and runners.”
Users and runners. It sucked, but she was right. I crossed my legs to dislodge her hand, and she put it back on the steering wheel, sending me an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay.” I looked out the window. Was my cousin’s girlfriend bisexual? Did she think I might want to join Christopher and her in some ménage, girl-on-girl action that was also a first-cousin-love kind of a thing? I shuddered. Christopher was a walking STD, and on top of that, he was a shitty person. I hated the thought. No. No. No.
Maybe she’d gotten the idea when I pushed her hand away. Love was love was love. But I had no interest in my cousin, or anyone who’d ever been with my cousin. Gross. Yuck.
But she wasn’t wrong. Thorn and Colton were runners and users. They’d used me and abandoned me here. Now they were here talking about monsters? What a disaster today had proven to be.
A tap on my window caught my attention, and I pushed back from the desk where I pretended to study to find Aaron standing there. I smiled at him. What was he doing there? I flipped off the tiny contact alarm attached to the frame and opened the window. “Are you crazy? My gran is home.”
He indicated with his chin to the inside of the house. “I’d like to come in. That okay?”
I looked over my shoulder. “If you’re quiet.”
His smile was huge. “I am so good at quiet, you’ll never believe it.”
I moved out of the way, and he climbed in. This was the benefit of a one-story home. Not that I’d ever had anyone climb through my window before. For that matter, I’d never climbed out of it. I closed the window, turning around to see him staring at my wall with big eyes. I’d covered them with my own drawings since Gran didn’t approve of posters of any kind. My own artwork she mostly ignored.
I liked landscapes. Trees. Flowers. I liked the details of those. But every once in a while, I was compelled to draw eyes. A pair of them staring at me in the desert. Deep, profound, dark eyes. Mean. Angry. Frightening. Yet intriguing sometimes. A psychologist would have a field day with me. Whose eyes were they? Mine?
“Did you do these?” He spoke in a whisper. “They’re really good.”
“Thanks.” My cheeks heated. “What are you doing here?”
He turned, a big smile on his face. With his hair pulled back, Aaron’s long face and high cheekbones were prominent. “I missed you.”
What? His words took my breath away. We’d hung out once, and he missed me? I wasn’t sure that anyone had ever missed me before in my whole life. “It was nice seeing you today. You saved me from a hellish conversation.”
“Want to tell me about it? I just had this feeling when I saw you that you weren’t happy.” He looked at the bed. “Okay if I sit?”
“Sure.” I’d even changed the sheets earlier. He kicked off his shoes and sprawled on the bed.
I cleared my throat. “I don’t really want to talk about it. I just kind of want to sit here tonight and not think.”
I wasn’t sure what made me do what I did next. I lay down next to him so we were side-by-side.
He smiled at me. “When it’s quiet like this, I can hear the coyotes.”
He was right. In the distance came the short yips and barks of the coyotes. I often mistook them for neighborhood dogs, until they became too loud to ignore. I imagined them right outside our neighborhood, where the landscaping met the desert, dancing and nipping at each other.
I’d seen a few of them dead in the road on the way to school, and it always made me sad. The can was good for that, too. Kept me distracted and focused on things other than the shit hole I lived in.
“There’s a coyote family that will peek out around sunset,” Aaron said. He lifted his arm and eyed me. I eyed him right back, but he just smiled, waiting. After a moment, I scooted closer and rested my head on his chest. His arm went around my shoulders, and I let out a breath.
At once, every bit of tension in my body dissipated. “A family?” I asked.
“Mmhmm.” His voice rumbled in his chest. “A mom and dad, their litter, and a helper.”
“What’s a helper?” I asked. I probably should have known more about coyotes given where I lived, but despite hearing them at night, I’d rarely seen any live ones. “How did you see them?”
“The sky is big here,” he said. “We like to sit at night and watch the stars come out.”
Was he serious? “You do this with your family?”
“Yeah,” he said. “My sister more than Oliver. Ollie is usually working, or training.”
“Training for vet school?” I asked.
He hesitated for just a moment. “Yes, but also physical training.”
Aaron’s chest was hard beneath my ear. “Do you train, too?” I asked.
“Yeah, but I’m not at the same level as Ollie. And I’m not sure I’m as dedicated as he tends to be. He has a lot of focus. I get distracted.” I laughed, and he squeezed my shoulders. “You’re feeling better.”
I was. Everything about Aaron felt honest and sincere. I second-guessed myself though, and doubted my instincts. But he’d never given me any indication that he had ulterior motives. And I was sick of everyone thinking the worst about me—and so tired of expecting the worst from everyone around me.
“I left school today with two guys,” I said, going for broke.
“I used to think one of them was my friend, but it turned out I was a big joke to them. I trusted them, and they shattered that trust. Then today, I stupidly—”
“It’s never stupid to trust people,” Aaron said. His fingers threaded through my hair, pulling the strands away before letting them drop back into place. “Humans are built to trust.”
“Well, it bit me in the ass.” The looks. The whispers. The worsening of an already bad reputation.
“So, you were brave today and took a chance, but it didn’t work out the way you hoped.”
That about summed it up. “It was humiliating.” I blew out a breath and shook my head, dislodging Aaron’s hand. “Monsters. Can we not talk about it anymore?”
“Of course,” he said quietly. “Monsters?”
I wasn’t quite ready to get into that. A little deflection was in order. He still hadn’t told me what a coyote helper was. I opened my mouth to ask, when Gran’s footsteps stomped down the hall.
Uh oh. That was her angry walk, and her angry walk was usually due to being rip-roaring drunk. “Get in the closet. Fast. Or under the bed. But whatever you hear, whatever you see, do not come out. That’ll only make it worse. Please trust me on that.”
I jumped up, heading for the door. I’d stop her from slamming it open and give him time to get somewhere. I should have told him to run, but I didn’t want him to go. When this humiliation was over, it would be nice to have a friend here to let it pass with.
My grandmother’s inflamed, angry face stared back at me. She had two inches on me. Like it or not, I was short for our family. I didn’t hear a thing and hoped Aaron had listened to me, so I let Gran in the room. I turned around slowly, glad to see no sign of Aaron anywhere.
“You left school with those boys.”
I’d known this was going to catch up to me. There was no point in lying, even though she always assumed that I did. “Yes. I did. They said they needed to talk, and I went with them.”
Eyes in the Darkness (The Coveted) Page 4
