Level Up: Violent Circle: Book Five

by Shade, S. M.

  “Yes. As long as it’s under an ounce, he’ll be released in the morning with a notice to appear.” Wes argues with the cops the whole time he’s put into the car.

  “What about me?”

  “You can go.” Officer Green chuckles, glancing at the remains of my truck, then around at the chaotic mess of cop cars complete with a barking K9. “It’s really not been your day has it?”

  Sasha pulls in and parks a good distance away. I send her a quick text to stay in her car. After getting permission to speak to Wes, and assuring him he’d be out in the morning, I finally head over to her.

  What a long, weird, unforgettable day.

  “What the hell happened?” Sasha demands as soon as I get in her car.

  “Something set the alarm off and they thought we were robbing the place.”

  “Oh my god.” She pulls out of the lot and heads towards the diner, one of the few places open this late at night. “Are you okay?”

  Chuckling, I lean back in the seat. “I’m good. First time I’ve ever had guns pointed at me, though. Zero out of ten, do not recommend.”

  “The same night your truck explodes. Your luck is terrible.” She pauses for a moment, then exclaims, “And you quit your job!”

  The concerned glance she gives me as she parks at the diner gives me a warm feeling. She’s worried about me. We’re hanging out and sleeping together again, but nothing has really been resolved. We just sort of let it blow over and ignored the fact we both got jealous. I’m probably setting myself up to get burned badly, but I can’t help it. In the long run, I have every intention of making this girl mine.

  I grab her hand as we head inside, and we sit across from one another in the small booth. The diner is brightly lit. Music plays and a wonderful smell hangs in the air. It’s not a bad atmosphere to be in after being run up on in the dark by cops and dogs.

  “You’re worried about me,” I announce after the waitress brings our food.

  “You lost your job and truck in the same night, Trey. And you don’t seem particularly concerned. Your whole laid back, who gives a shit attitude is fine most of the time, but sometimes, you have to care.”

  “Just because I don’t get worked up or stressed easily doesn’t mean I’m not paying attention or solving problems.”

  She takes a sip of her drink and pops a french fry in her mouth. “I wish I could be like that. I stress out easily. Worry and overthink everything.”

  “I try to follow the rule of threes when something goes wrong. Whatever it is that’s so terrible, will it matter in three weeks, three months, or three years? Usually the answer is no, especially when it comes to the years, so why drive yourself crazy over it? Most problems are temporary.”

  Her expression is thoughtful. “That’s not a bad way to look at it.”

  “And will my truck or job matter in three weeks, months, or years? No. Because I’ll shop for a new truck tomorrow. Jezebel was on her last legs anyway. And I didn’t need the job anymore. I was already thinking of quitting, just looking for the right time.”

  “Is this where you tell me you’re actually a billionaire masquerading as a broke college student for some reality show?” she teases.

  “Not exactly.” She listens as I explain how big Cluck Chuckers has become and how it has changed my future plans.

  Her eyes are wide when I finish. “Trey, that’s amazing. I’m so proud of you.”

  Those words. Words I’ve never heard before. She has no idea how much they affect me, and I have to swallow hard before I reply, “Thank you.”

  Her next announcement shocks me even more. “I told Becca you were going with me to my parents.”

  “Wow.”

  She shrugs. “I didn’t want you to have to come up with some lie when it isn’t anyone’s business anyway.”

  “There’s no way she didn’t badger you for more details.”

  Grinning, she nods, and sips her drink. “I just told her the truth. We’re hanging out and having fun.”

  “And that I have a magic tongue that made you give me a nickname?”

  “Trey! No!”

  “That’s Big Ol’ Sexy to you, lady.”

  She giggles, shaking her head at me. Well, we’re no longer hiding. I suppose that’s a step in the right direction.

  My phone vibrates with a text from Denton and I hold it up for Sasha to see.

  Denton: I just had the ten year old from down the street knock on my door to tell me there was a naked doll in my car so thanks for that.

  * * *

  I throw a glance back at my shiny new truck parked in the driveway as we walk up the front porch steps. It’s not brand new, but close, and it’s such a relief not to have to wonder if it’ll start every time I turn the key.

  Sasha pauses before opening the front door and takes a deep breath, like she’s about to face a dragon, not her parents. “Just remember, it’s easier to let their weird shit go right over your head, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Come on. It’ll be fine.”

  I follow her inside, and we barely step through the door before she’s tackled with a hug from a woman who looks so much like her, it’s almost creepy. It’s like I’m looking at the future Sasha.

  “There you are! I was worried!”

  “We made it in record time, Mom.” Sasha squeezes her back before extricating herself.

  “Well, I hope you didn’t speed.”

  Sasha’s eyes try to roll out of her head. “No, we didn’t speed. We’re way too drunk to drive fast.”

  “Still a smartass,” her mom replies, shaking her head. “And you must be Trey. Sasha told me she was bringing a boyfriend.”

  “He’s not my—”

  “Trey Bryant. It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Baker.”

  “It’s Ms. Bell now. I may have to live with the jackass, but I don’t have to keep his name. You can call me Holly.”

  Sasha lays her face in her palm behind her mother.

  “Holly,” I agree with a smile.

  “Where’s Dad?” Sasha takes off her coat, and I follow suit, hanging them in the foyer.

  “Upstairs. This is my part of the house, you know. He has to use the back door.”

  “You’re still doing that?”

  “Oh yes, and it’s working wonderfully! I have the front of the house, he has the upstairs, and we share the kitchen. Front yard is mine. Back yard is his.”

  A very excited chocolate lab bounds into the living room as we’re led in. Sasha drops to the floor to pet him, and giggles at his frantic licks and tail wags. “And what about Hershey here? Do you have a custody agreement?” she taunts. I can’t blame her. They have literally divided the house. It’s like a bad sitcom. I’m surprised there isn’t tape down the middle of the room.

  “He goes where he wants. And we have decided to lift the restrictions for today, you know, for your sake.”

  “That should be fun,” Sasha says under her breath, getting to her feet. “Where’s Tina?”

  “She should be home anytime. I told her you’re in charge while we’re gone.”

  We’ve just gotten settled in the living room when footsteps on the stairs draw my attention and a man pops his head through the doorway. “Did I hear my doodlebug?”

  A smile breaks across his face as Sasha hugs him. “Hey Dad, how are you?”

  “Good, good,” he replies absently, his gaze on me. “Introduce me to your friend.”

  “This is Trey Bryant. Trey, this is my dad, Howie Baker.”

  We exchange the usual pleasantries, and considering the situation, I’m surprised at the lack of animosity in the air as Sasha’s mom looks on. We all sit and talk, getting to know each other a little, before Sasha says she’s going to show me where we’re staying, which is apparently in her father’s part of the house.

  The stairs creak a little as we ascend. “This is my old bedroom, but they updated it to make a guest room,” she explains, opening the door to the second room in the hallway.


  “Lead the way, doodlebug.”

  I grin at the glare tossed over her shoulder, and her lips twitch, despite her best effort to look mad. “You aren’t going to draw a line down the middle of the room and keep me on my side, are you?”

  Groaning, she drops onto the bed and throws her arm over her eyes. “Isn’t that the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard? They’re completely ridiculous. Mom accuses me of not being sympathetic to what she’s going through, and she’s right. I mean, if they were taking a break, separating, getting a divorce, or whatever, I could understand. But this…” She waves her hand around.

  I stretch out beside her, running my finger down her arm. “Maybe it’s just a midlife crisis sort of thing? And they’ll go back to normal.”

  She scoffs. “No, they’ve always been crazy. The last time I visited was because Mom called me all worked up that they were going to get a divorce. By the time I left, they were sleeping together again. Now this nonsense.”

  Curious eyes peek up at me. “What are your parents like?”

  “Controlling,” I reply without thinking.

  She rolls onto her side, propping her head on her hand. “Really? They don’t ever come around.”

  I brush a stray hair off her forehead. “That’s because I crossed them. Instead of going to engineering school, I went for video game design.” I hope she can’t see the bitterness that creeps into my smile. “So, all those years of raising me to be someone were wasted.”

  She blinks and sits up with a start. “Did they say that?”

  “My father did. Mom didn’t disagree. She never does.”

  The expression on her face makes me regret the oversharing. Why did I tell her that? “It’s fine. And wasn’t unexpected. I knew what I was doing when I left.”

  The walls reverberate as a door slams downstairs, and Sasha’s mom shouts. “Tina’s home! We’re going to get moving!”

  I see where Sasha gets the habit of shouting through the house instead of finding the person she wants to talk to. “Come on, let’s go see what she wants so they’ll leave. Then we can take Tina out for dinner.”

  “What’s your sister like?”

  Sasha throws an amused glance at me while we make our way back to down the hall. “You’ll see.”

  “Sasha!” A mass of wild turquoise hair obscures the face of the rail thin girl who darts across the room and tackles Sasha. “I’m so excited! We get to spend all week together!”

  Laughing, Sasha hugs her, then sets her back on her feet. “I missed you too, Squish.”

  Her mother whips out a piece of paper. “Here are the rules for the week. Tina can have a friend over, but absolutely no boys in the house while I’m gone.” She gives Tina a look. “That includes James.”

  “Fine,” Tina grumbles.

  “And no alcohol or parties.”

  Her father steps in the room, carrying a suitcase. “The curfew is still ten. Make sure your sister knows where you are and how to get ahold of you.”

  Sasha hooks an arm around Tina’s shoulders. “We’ll be fine. I promise she won’t be pregnant or drunk when you get back.”

  Both parents give her an exasperated look. After a few goodbyes and last minute reminders to lock the doors and windows at night, they leave for their separate holidays.

  Tina looks at Sasha. “How much of that are you actually going to enforce?”

  We all lounge around the living room. “First, who is James?”

  “My boyfriend.”

  “Since when?”

  “Last month.” Tina whips out her phone and shows Sasha a picture.

  “He’s cute! How old is he?”

  “Sixteen. Mom doesn’t like him.”

  “Mom doesn’t like anybody.”

  Tina grins at her. “True. So, can he come over?”

  They both turn to look at me when I laugh. “No brothers or sisters, huh?” Tina says.

  “Nope, he doesn’t get it.” Sasha stretches her legs over my lap and regards Tina. “He can crash on the couch if he stays overnight. I won’t ask if you’re sleeping with him, but no pregnancies on my watch. Or STD’s.”

  Tina squeals and snatches her phone, typing away.

  “Do you want to go out for pizza before you invite him?”

  “Sure. Is it okay if I have a couple friends over tomorrow? We’ll be in the basement the whole time, I swear.”

  “As long as nobody is drinking or getting knocked up,” Sasha agrees.

  “I’m going to change clothes before we go!” she exclaims, darting from the room.

  “Is she always so…energetic?” I ask, and Sasha chuckles.

  “You haven’t seen anything yet. Drama queen from hell.”

  I run my hand up her leg. “Can’t imagine what that’s like.”

  She moves to straddle my legs, sitting on my lap. “I am not dramatic! You take that back!”

  “You threaten to kick me in the nuts at least once a day.”

  “You deserve it.”

  Instead of arguing, I press a soft kiss on her bottom lip. “I hope your sister sleeps heavy because once we’re alone, I’m going to lick you until you beg me to stop.” My murmured words throw heat into her gaze.

  “You like doing that, don’t you?”

  “Getting you all worked up when you can’t do anything about it? It amuses me.”

  She grins as I tweak her nipple. “No, I mean licking me.”

  “I love it. I should just quit school and do it twenty-four seven.” My hand slips between her legs, cupping her.

  Her forehead falls to mine. “I’m in.”

  “Sasha!” We both jump at the shrill scream from upstairs. “There’s a spider!”

  Good god, you would’ve thought she saw a dismembered body, not the tiny spider I find when we go up to her room. She watches in terror as I scoop it up and leave the room. I let it go in their front yard and when I return, they’re going through her closet, talking about clothes. I hadn’t really looked around after she stopped my heart with that shriek, but now I can’t stop staring.

  Every inch of her walls are covered in posters and pictures of a bunch of Asian kids. “Who are they? Middle school boy band?” I remark, looking around.

  “Oh boy,” Sasha mutters, covering her face with her palm.

  Tina steps out of the closet, dragging her jaw. “What? They aren’t middle school boys!” I swear, dogs must be in pain all throughout the neighborhood at the pitch of her voice. “That is BTS!”

  Now I’m afraid to ask and set off another smoke detector alarm of a response, so I turn to Sasha and whisper. “Who are BTS?”

  Chuckling, Sasha shakes her head and gestures to Tina.

  “They are the best Korean pop band to ever live!” Tina exclaims.

  Holding up my hands, I take a step back. “Okay, okay, sorry. I don’t know anything about Korean pop.”

  It takes me about twenty minutes to regret those words. While we get ready to leave, throughout the car ride, and as we wait for our food at the pizza place, she regales me with everything BTS.

  She continues after the waitress delivers our food. Scrolling through her phone, she brings up a picture. “This is Taehyung.” She sighs, and I swear I’m waiting for little cartoon hearts to float out of her eyes as she admires the picture. “He’s so beautiful and talented. He has it all. Sometimes he’s all cute and adorable, and others he’s sexy.”

  “Mmm hmm,” I reply through a mouthful of pizza.

  “And he’s such a good person too! Always humble, and BTS has a Unicef campaign called the Love Myself Campaign to End Violence. He’s amazing! Oh, I want to meet him, but if I did, I’d die. I’d just die!” She lays her head back on the edge of her chair.

  “Okay, you’re not dramatic,” I whisper to Sasha.

  Tina doesn’t catch it because she’s staring at a group of kids who just entered. “Uh, Sasha, would you mind if I…”

  “Go join your friends,” Sasha laughs. When we get ready to leave
the restaurant, Sasha visits their table for a few moments.

  “She’s going to the movies with them.” Her smile is salacious. “We have the house to ourselves for the next few hours.”

  Chapter Nine

  Sasha

  “Thank you!” my sister squeals, jumping up and down. My parents are too strict. They always have been. The least I can do while I’m here is let her have some fun. It’s New Year’s Eve, and she wants to have a little party. My parents would blow their top over boys spending the night but trying to keep teenagers apart at this age is ridiculous.

  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not letting them sleep in the same beds or anything, but I’m also not banning the boys from the sleepover.

  “Two rules,” I tell her. “The boys sleep in the basement, and the girls in your room. And no alcohol or drugs. I’m not cleaning up a bunch of teenage puke.”

  Trey grins at me after she rushes off. “A house full of teenagers?”

  “They’ll spend all night down in the basement. It always used to kill me when I was young that they built this amazing place to hang out, but I could never have more than one friend over at a time.”

  “I like how they set it up. Gives me ideas for my future man cave. Except more video games in place of the pool table.”

  “Probably skip the air hockey table too since you suck at it.”

  Trey pokes his fingers into my ribs, tickling me. “Does the no alcohol rule apply to us?”

  “Hell no. If we have to listen to teenage girls giggle all night, I’ll need wine. We can hit the liquor store while we’re out. I have to take Tina to get some snacks and stuff for tonight.”

  We spend the next couple of hours helping Tina get ready for her party. When her guests show up, we retreat to the living room with our drinks and search through streaming sites for a movie to watch. Laughter and conversation occasionally float up from the basement, but it’s not out of control or anything.

  Around ten, I walk downstairs to check on them, and they’re all gathered around one of the gaming systems playing some dancing game while the others video it. They don’t even notice me as I watch them for a few moments, then creep back upstairs.