“It’s kind of one of our rules.” Jax shoves up the sleeves of his hoodie. “We don’t bring anyone else into our group.”
“We kind of have trust issues,” Hunter tells me without a drop of humor in his tone.
He’s being completely serious, and it makes me wonder why. Why don’t they befriend anyone else?
What I really want to know, though, is why they decided to befriend me. I could ask them, but I think I’ve acted like a weirdo enough for the morning.
“Jesus, look at the line,” Zay remarks as he steers into the parking lot of a drive-thru diner.
It looks old-school with a marquee and neon signs in the windows. These types of places usually have pretty good food, at least from what I can remember from back in the day when my parents were alive and I went out to eat all the time. Zay is right, though; the line of cars to the drive-thru goes almost all the way back into the entrance of the parking lot.
Zay pulls the car up to the end of the line but doesn’t put the car in park yet. “Maybe we should pick someplace else.”
“No way,” Hunter tells him. “This is our first time getting breakfast with pretty Raven, and this is the best place in town.”
“It’s fine if we go someplace else,” I chime in. “I’m not even that hungry.” A total lie. I can’t afford breakfast, but I’m not about to go back to that conversation with them.
Hunter gives me a suspicious look, as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking. “Is that the real reason?”
“Yeah,” I reply without missing a beat.
He sighs then looks at Jax. Jax looks back at him, and they exchange an unreadable look. Then Hunter looks at Zay, who looks at him.
Um … What in the world is happening? Are they talking telepathically or something?
Then Zay subtly nods and puts the car in park while Hunter twists all the way in the seat to look at me.
“We want to make you a deal, okay?” he says. “And I want you to really think about it before you answer. Can you do that for me, pretty Raven?”
That is the second time he’s called me that in one minute, and I want to comment on it, but his question has me sort of weirded out.
I slowly nod, confusion whirling through me. “Okay.”
He smiles softly at me as he rests his arms on the back of the seat. “So, here’s the thing. Clearly, you’re a little low on cash, right?”
I nod.
“And we’re not, so we’re thinking, since you’re going to be helping us gather information on your uncle and aunt, instead of you just doing it as a favor for us, you can let us pay you with cash when you need it and new phones, breakfast, lunch, dinner—whatever you need while you’re working for us, we’ll get it for you. You know, like a job … sort of.” He gives a short pause. “How does that sound?”
Deep down, in the unguarded parts of me, it sounds nice. But in the outside shell of me, I feel unsettled about the idea of relying on someone at all. I have to rely on my aunt and uncle for things I wish I didn’t, and with every single thing they do for me, they make a point to show how big of a deal it is. I hate that feeling—being in debt to someone, of not being able to take care of myself, of being a burden to someone.
“It’s not sort of like a job.” Zay rotates around in the seat and looks directly at me. “It is a job. You get money and things in exchange for working for us. And it’s not going to be easy work.”
Jax presses him with a firm look. “Don’t scare her, man.”
Zay doesn’t even so much as glance at him, the corners of his lips kicking up into a slight smirk. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t scare that easily.”
I throw his smirk right back at him. “If you’re referring to your tizzy tantrum of seating arrangements yesterday, then no, I wasn’t scared.”
His gaze burrows into me. “See? I’m right. And it’s a good thing, too, considering our line of work can get intense.” He rotates back around in the seat as the line moves.
“So, I guess we’re eating here then,” Jax says as Zay drives forward with the line as it moves.
“As long as Hunter gets us all out of detention,” Zay replies as he stops with the line.
“You know I’m good for that.” Hunter fiddles with the leather band on his wrist. “But we need to make sure this one’s on board.” He looks at me. So do Zay and Hunter.
It’s kind of a lot to take in, all three of them looking at me. And I know they’re not just asking me if I’m good to be a little late for school. They want to know if I accept their job offer. I want to. Boy, do I want to. I’ve wanted to work and earn money for a very long time. I just don’t want this to be a favor to me.
“You promise you’ll make me work my butt off?” I double-check. “I have to feel like I’m earning my keep or it’s going to bother me.”
Hunter grins deviously. “I can definitely make sure you work your pretty ass off.”
Zay nudges him in the side. “Easy with the flirting.”
I’d probably be a bit embarrassed by his innuendo—I think that’s what it was anyway—but I’m good at hiding that particular emotion.
Hunter gives him an innocent look. “I wasn’t flirting. I was just answering her question.”
“You’re always flirting,” Jax mutters from beside me while staring out the window.
Hunter flicks a look in his direction, but Jax remains focused on the window.
“So, do we have a deal?” Zay interrupts, meeting my gaze in the rearview mirror.
I hesitate. Do I do it? Do I accept this job and just cross my fingers that they won’t act like I owe them afterward? I’m not sure.
Then, as if fate decided to bitch-smack me in the face, I receive a text message, and it reminds me of the one I received earlier that I never checked, you know, the one that got this whole conversation about money started.
I quickly glance at it, wondering if it’s Harlow. Nope. One message is from my aunt and another is from Dixie May.
Aunt: You’ll be locked out of the house when you get home. I have to go to the city for the day, and I’m not going to just leave the door unlocked just because you need a place to stay. I won’t be home until late, and Dixie May will be home at about seven or so because she has cheerleader tryouts. You’ll have to hang out on the front porch until someone can let you in.
Me: Can’t you just leave me a key underneath the mat?
Aunt: Like I’m going to just let you be inside our house by yourself. You’ll probably steal everything.
Her words throw me off a bit. Does she know about the drugs I stole from my uncle? Because I always assumed she wasn’t even aware he was stealing them.
Not knowing what else to do, I reply with a: Fine. Then I move on to the next message.
Dixie May: You must think you’re so special, but I promise you I’m going to get you back for embarrassing me in front of those guys this morning. Just you wait. I’m going to get you when you least expect it.
Jokes on her since I always expect that from her.
“Raven?”
Hunter’s questioning tone brings my attention back to him.
He’s looking at me expectantly, and I’m not sure why.
I pull an apologetic face. “Um … Sorry, I wasn’t listening. What did you say?”
His brows crease, his gaze flitting from the phone in my hand to me. “I asked if you were in or not.”
Oh. Yeah. Right. The job offer.
After reading those texts, I want to now more than ever. I want to end having to rely on that family so, so much. And these guys, they seem nice enough. At least nicer than my aunt, uncle, and bratty cousin. So, crossing my fingers that I won’t regret this decision, I nod. “Yeah, I’m in.”
4
Raven
Even though the guys are buying me breakfast, I keep my food items to a bare minimum, not wanting to take advantage of the situation. I order French toast; that’s it. But then Hunter orders an extra coffee, and Jax orders an extra h
ash brown, and then they both try to give me the extras.
“Dudes, seriously?” I set the box with my French toast down on my lap. “Again?”
“Yes, again.” Hunter urges me to take the extra coffee he’s holding. “If you’d just order a full meal, I wouldn’t have to get extras.”
“Did you ever think that maybe I just wanted French toast?” I ask as Zay pulls out of the parking lot and onto the road. He has a breakfast sandwich in one hand and is steering the car with his other. “And to be honest, I’m not even used to eating this much food.”
I didn’t really mean anything by what I said, but apparently, they take it as me not getting enough food in general. At least, that’s what I’m assuming from the look of pity that crosses both Hunter’s and Jax’s expressions.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” I stress. “I get enough food.” To be honest, I do spend a lot of time feeling hungry.
Hunter sighs. “Just take the coffee, pretty Raven, or it’ll go to waste.”
Now I’m the one to sigh but take the coffee from him anyway. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” His smile broadens. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
I hesitate then shake my head, even though it kind of was.
“Good. And now it’ll be easier to accept Jax’s extra hash brown,” Hunter tells me then looks at Jax.
I turn to Jax and take the hash brown he’s holding out to me. “Thanks.”
He smiles then opens the box that’s on his lap, causing the wonderful scent of cinnamon-y French toast to waft through the air.
I open my own box of food and breathe in the scent. “That smells so good.”
“I wasn’t kidding when I said it’s the best French toast you’ll ever have,” Jax tells me as he opens the container with the syrup in it. Then he douses his French toast and hands it to me.
“I don’t know.” I pour syrup onto my French toast. “My dad made some really good French toast.”
As soon as I say the words aloud, I pause. It’s a little out of character for me to speak about my dad so openly, and I’m not sure if Jax or Zay know my parents are dead. How much do they know about me? I mean, they’re spies or something like that, so if they wanted to, they could find out a lot about me.
Crap, what if they know my entire story? Then again, if they did, they probably wouldn’t be here with me, so …
I focus on taking a bite of my French toast and, holy motherships, it’s like the best distraction ever.
“Oh my God,” I moan as the deliciousness engulfs my tastebuds.
No one really says anything, but they all look at me.
I glance at the three of them with my brows furrowed. “What?”
Jax rubs his lips together, his gaze flicking from my mouth to my eyes.
Thinking I must have syrup on my face, I grab a napkin and wipe at it, but it doesn’t seem like anything is on it.
Jax clears his throat while scratching his jawline. “I take it from that moan that you like it?”
I nod, more puzzlement webbing through me. “Yeah, it’s yummy. Definitely one of the best I’ve ever had.”
Smiling, he stuffs a bite of his French toast into his mouth, but I do catch him trading a quick look with Hunter.
For the next few minutes, everyone remains quiet as we eat our breakfast while making the drive to school. When Zay finishes his and tosses the wrapper into the bag, he breaks the silence to get into business-y stuff.
“So, what I’m thinking is,” he starts as he turns onto a road that leads to the school, “Raven can find out a time when the house will be empty, and then she can let us inside so we can do a little bit of snooping around. Maybe set up a few cameras.”
“You’re gonna set up cameras in my house?” I ask as I cut into the French toast.
Zay casts a glance over his shoulder at me. “You gotta problem with that?”
I shrug. “That all depends. I mean, there’s not going to be any in my room or the bathroom, right?”
Zay grumbles, “No. We’re not perverts.”
I crinkle my nose. “I didn’t really mean it that way, but I guess it does sort of sound like I’m implying that, doesn’t it?”
He looks at me again with a drop of surprise in his eyes, like he didn’t quite expect me to not argue. “Yeah, it did.” He redirects his attention to the window. “And to answer your question, we’re just going to put them in the living room and kitchen. That way, we don’t risk seeing anything we don’t want to see.”
“Good idea,” I state this lightly, but the truth is that I more than agree with him. I couldn’t imagine one of them seeing what my uncle did to me last night. “And if you want to get into the house without anyone being home, today is probably the perfect day since my aunt is going to be gone all day ’cause she’s going into the city to do some shopping. And my uncle has to work. Although, the house will be locked, so I’m not sure how we can get in.”
Hunter and Zay trade an amused look while Jax presses back a smile.
“What’s so funny?” I ask then stuff another bite of French toast into my mouth.
“Nothing,” Hunter says, but gives me this smile, like he thinks I’m amusingly clueless. “It’s just cute that you think that’s a problem for us.”
My suspicious gaze glides across the three of them. “So, you guys want to break in?”
“Well, technically, we won’t be breaking in since you’ll be with us and you live there.” Hunter takes a sip of his coffee then licks a drop off his pierced lip. “And we won’t really break anything. We’ll just pick the lock.”
I snort a laugh and nearly choke on my French toast. “I hate to break it to you, dude, but if my aunt or uncle caught me going into the house while they were gone and had locked me out, they’ll have me arrested,” I say between coughs.
Hunter arches a questioning brow. “By your uncle?”
I nod. “Yep. He’s not a fan of mine.”
“We assumed so since you agreed to help us so easily,” Zay says as he pulls into the school parking lot.
It’s fairly empty since school has already started, but there are a few lollygaggers hanging out near their cars. One group in particular draws my attention, because they sort of remind me of Zay, Jax, and Hunter—all decked out in dark clothes and standing around a massive SUV with tinted windows. There are five guys total, and three girls with them.
“Who are they?” I wonder as Zay parks just across from them.
“Who?” Hunter asks then shoves nearly half a hash brown into his mouth.
I point at the group of people who are all staring at Zay’s car now. “The fancy Goth people all staring in this direction.”
Zay shoves the shifter into park and silences the engine. “That would be one of our many enemies.”
“Oh.” I guess that makes sense, seeing as how they’re all glaring at Zay’s car now.
Hunter’s eyes glitter with amusement. “You don’t seem very surprised we have a lot of enemies.”
“Well, considering what Katy told me about you guys, I’m not,” I tell him. “Plus, with how big of a douchebag Zay was to me yesterday about sitting in his seat, I kind of assumed he probably makes a lot more enemies than friends.”
Zay throws me an unimpressed look as he removes the keys from the ignition. “You know, usually when people talk to me like you do, I teach them a lesson.”
I smirk at him. “Yeah, but I doubt you’re going to since you want my help.”
He stares at me with a somewhat curious look, like he’s not sure what to do with me, while dragging his teeth along his bottom lip.
“You know what I think?” he finally says but doesn’t wait for me to answer. “I think you’re going to cause a lot of trouble for us.”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” I inform him. “I can handle myself.”
He rolls his eyes.
“I can,” I insist, kind of getting annoyed that he seems to doubt me. “I’ve taken ca
re of myself for a very long time.” Ever since my parents died. I resist the urge to swallow hard at that thought and keep up my badass attitude. “Do you know how many times I’ve gotten in trouble for kicking someone’s ass?”
“Probably a lot. And I’m not doubting that you used to be able to take care of yourself.” Zay looks me directly in the eyes. “However, you weren’t in Honeyton then.” With that, he turns around, shoves open the door, and gets out.
“What does Honeyton have to do with anything?” I ask, starting to collect my trash and stuff it into the bag my food came in.
Hunter begins balling up the wrappers to the three breakfast sandwiches he ate. “Honeyton is … well, it’s not like your average town.”
My brows knit. “What do you mean by that exactly?”
He hesitates, and I get this churning feeling in my stomach, but I’m not even sure why.
“Because Honeyton is way more dangerous than any other town in the country,” Jax says as he grabs the bags of trash. “And people here are …”
“Wealthy and power hungry,” Hunter finishes for him. “Which makes for a bad combination. And the low population and isolation of the town only makes it more dangerous, because it allows these people to do what they want and get away with it. It’s part of the reason why these people are having us look into your uncle, so they know what kind of person he is and if he can be bought off.”
“Yeah, you said something like that yesterday, but I guess I just didn’t realize the whole town was corrupt.”
“Not the entire town,” Jax mumbles as he stuffs his phone into his pocket. “But a lot of it.”
My head is spinning in confusion.
Hunter must read it all over my face because he adds, “You don’t need to be scared. You’re safe with us, pretty Raven.” He smiles at me, but it looks a bit forced. Then he shoves open the door, climbs out, and flips the seat forward to let me out. Zay does the same on the driver’s side, scooting the seat forward to let Jax out.
I climb out and sling the handle of my backpack onto my shoulder while holding the bag of trash in my other hand. Hunter takes the trash from me and tosses into a nearby trash can. Then he returns to my side and nods for me to follow him toward the school.
The Rules of Being Friends (A Pact Between the Forgotten Series Book 2) Page 3
