“I am. I heard you and Leo got into a fight.”

  “A fight? Really?”

  “That’s what Charlotte said.”

  I pushed from the lockers. “Come on.”

  I grabbed her hand. “Where are we going now?”

  “To kill Flynn for running his mouth.”

  “Wes…”

  She pulled at my arm but I wasn’t having it.

  She forced her hand out of mine but I kept walking.

  She eventually caught up.

  With a hard punch to my arm, she growled, “Boys.”

  “Hardly,” I said.

  “Look at how you all act.”

  “Look at the position we’re put in,” I snapped back at her.

  She shoved at my shoulder. “I hate you sometimes, Weslee Jackson.”

  I stopped dead and grabbed her waist. I lifted her up and kissed her. “And I always love you, darling.”

  She groaned and punched my shoulders. “No more fighting.”

  “We don’t fight,” I said.

  “All we do is fight. And I mean no more fighting with our people.”

  “That will never happen. Not in this town.”

  “Getting a good look at those cuts and bruises, huh?”

  And there was Ryland one more time walking down the hall with his hand around a girl. She was young too. No idea who Ryland was.

  “No, we were just tongue fucking,” Aira said.

  “Vicious,” I whispered to her.

  “You still haven’t learned yet, Aira,” Ryland said. “How many rumors and secrets and people have to get hurt?”

  “Does your new friend know about Mika?” Aira asked. “And all those dirty secrets?”

  “Don’t worry about my secrets,” Ryland said.

  He turned with the girl, who apparently didn’t have a voice.

  “Fucking loser,” I whispered.

  “Definitely,” Aira said. “But something’s off with him.”

  “He looks hungover.”

  “No. It’s something else.”

  “Hey. One fight at a time, darling.”

  “No fights at a time,” she said, looking at me again.

  “Let’s go back to tongue fucking and we’ll talk about that later,” I said.

  “That I can do.”

  We started to kiss again, right there in the middle of the hallway.

  Funny because I was usually the first person out the door of HCH.

  But this time… I would have stayed the entire night just to keep kissing Aira.

  * * *

  “Whoa, look at my boy.”

  West put a wrench down and clapped his hands together.

  Fucking prick just like Ryland.

  “Shit, man, what happened?” Walker asked.

  He and Ryker stopped working.

  I had become a sideshow freak apparently. As though none of them took a punch or got into a fight.

  “Tell me Aira did that,” Ryker said. “You tried to give her the slip from behind, huh?”

  I grabbed the wrench West had put down and threw it at Ryker.

  He collapsed to the ground. “Fuck!”

  “BFH jumped us,” I said. “Me. Leo. Flynn. Separately.”

  “Damn,” Walker said. “Here I thought we have enough problems in this town.”

  “We’re fine,” I said. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Listen to him,” West said. “And get back to work. I have to talk to my son privately.”

  West reached for me and I stepped back.

  “Right,” West said. “Too cool for your old man.”

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “Dusty was here again. Talking about parts. Anyone else you piss off, son?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “What the fuck did I just say? Am I speaking French?”

  “I wonder how you say go fuck yourself in French,” I said.

  “I’ll have to look that one up, Wes,” West said. “You better be careful out there, son. Too many enemies and you can’t figure out where the bullets are coming from.”

  “Is this you giving me fatherly advice?”

  “It’s my job.”

  “No. Sorry, West. You lost that job a long time ago.”

  I went to the office and found Pop hovering over his desk, showing his teeth like a pissed off animal.

  Jett was on the opposite side of the desk, arms crossed.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “You tell me,” Pop said. “What’s with your face?”

  “Just a fight, Pop,” I said.

  “Just a fight?” Jett asked. “You come in looking like that and then Dusty is breaking our balls over stolen parts again.”

  “Where?” I asked. “Here?”

  “He claims he can prove we have some stolen stuff,” Jett said.

  “No way,” I said.

  “I told that miserable prick he can search everything,” Pop said. “Right down to my ass.”

  “Relax, Pop,” I said. “Nobody is going near your ass. I promise you that.”

  “Something needs to be figured out,” Jett said.

  “I can tell you who it is,” I said and I nodded to the door.

  The office was silent.

  I’d bet my life it was West messing around. Trying to set up the shop. Or set up Jett and Pop. Anything to get his hands on the shop and more importantly, the land. All West wanted to do was finish something he started a long time ago. Sell the land for big bucks and cash out.

  I heard the rumble of motorcycles and knew it was Leo and Flynn.

  As I walked toward the front office door, Jett threw an elbow out and hit me to stop me.

  “Prove it,” he whispered to me.

  “He’ll bury himself,” I said. “He’s desperate. Then he’ll take off. Like he always does.”

  Jett nodded. “You sure you’re good with everything?”

  “Just a fight, Jett. Happens all the time.”

  “Yeah, but you’re not the one who usually looks on the wrong end of it.”

  “Are you calling me weak?”

  Jett laughed. “Hot head. Wonder where you get that from?”

  “My mother,” I said.

  Jett laughed harder and nodded. “That’s for sure.”

  I threw my elbow back at Jett and walked out of the office.

  Leo and Flynn sat on their rides in the middle of the lot waiting for me.

  I walked up to Leo and got close enough to talk over his rumbling engine.

  “Still feel like fighting me?” I called out to him.

  “Depends on if you found your balls or not, bro,” Leo said.

  I grinned and backed away.

  There weren’t many people who could say stuff like that to me and get away with it.

  I climbed on my ride, started it, and took off.

  Leo and Flynn were hot on my ass as I cruised my way back to HCH.

  Trust me I wasn’t going to the football field to catch a pass or cheer on the hometown quarterback. I would have rather gone down to the beach with something to drink and watch Aira wiggle her way on a surfboard for a little while before I could steal her away and taste the ocean on her skin.

  I lit up a cigarette and walked toward the field.

  There was Ryder just about to throw to Kyle.

  The ball went up into the air and looked like it was going somewhere Kyle wasn’t. But Kyle then suddenly stopped and cut to the left. He ran, put his hands out, and the ball came down perfectly into his hands. After catching the ball, he put up his right hand, holding the ball. A couple loud mouth girls cried out from the bleachers. They were the ones who loved the football boys but secretly loved guys like me better.

  But I wasn’t here for any of that shit.

  I stuck my fingers into my mouth and whistled.

  Ryder looked at me and gave a nod. He pointed to Kyle and then pointed to me.

  The two of them trotted their way toward me, Leo, and Flynn.

  “Are we fighting them?” Flynn asked.

  “Not today,” I said. “Sadly, I think we have to show our school spirit.”

  “That makes me sick,” Leo said.

  I looked back at him. “Me too, Leo. Me too.”

  “Fuck, man, I heard what happened,” Ryder said.

  He wiped sweat off his forehead with his forearm.

  “We warned you,” Kyle said.

  “That was a nice catch you made,” I said. “You want to make another one?”

  “What?” Kyle asked.

  I stepped toward him. I took a drag of my cigarette and blew the smoke into his face. “You warned me? That’s what you want to say right now? I’ll break your fucking wrists, Kyle. That way you won’t be able to catch a ball or jerk off.”

  “He could ask his mother to do it,” Flynn said.

  Ryder snorted. “She’s too busy with me, man.”

  “Nice,” Flynn said.

  I let the mother thing go. But Flynn was going to need to cut that shit out, and soon.

  “You know what happened,” I said to Ryder.

  “Everyone knows,” Ryder said. “Even BFH is talking. I had Brando texting me.”

  “Texting you,” I said. “You two friends?”

  “Nope,” Ryder said.

  “Hate that fucking guy,” Kyle said.

  “So we have something in common,” I said. “And here’s what we’re going to do about it. The football game. Make it soon. Really soon. Call Brando out on his shit.”

  “You want me to push at them?” Ryder asked.

  “It’s your fight,” Kyle said. “Why does it-”

  I reached out and grabbed Kyle by his sleeveless shirt.

  He grabbed my arms.

  “No reason for this,” Ryder said. “We agree we’re on the same team.”

  “No teams,” I said. I shoved Kyle away. “Just make this happen. Make it happen soon.”

  “What’s your plan, Wes?” Ryder asked.

  I stepped back, standing between Leo and Flynn.

  “We’ll be there to support the team,” I said. “Go HCH.”

  “Rah-rah-rah,” Leo added.

  “Raw?” Flynn asked. “Like the way their mothers like it.”

  “Solid, man,” Ryder said.

  He put a fist out for Flynn to hit.

  Flynn grabbed Ryder’s fist and leaned over it. He hacked up something to spit and left Ryder with a present on the back of his hand.

  “Fuck, man,” Ryder yelled.

  “Better get practicing,” I said. “Make this school and town proud.”

  I turned and walked away.

  “That’s your big plan?” Leo asked.

  “They expect something from us,” I said. “But I don’t think they’ll expect us to show up to a fucking football game.”

  “I’d rather go up there and burn it all down,” Leo said.

  “We all do,” I said. “But there’s enough fires burning or have burned.”

  I got back on my ride and looked to the field. Ryder was face down in his phone, doing what I said to do.

  “Where to now? What are we hitting next?” Flynn called out.

  I couldn’t help myself.

  I looked right at Flynn.

  “Your mom.”

  Chapter 5

  Aira

  My old bedroom was now a closet for Mom.

  And it felt strange calling my room at Julia’s my old bedroom.

  The only reason I went in there was to get more clothes or something I needed for myself to take to Wes’s. Jett didn’t mind that I crashed there most nights. Julia didn’t have a leg to stand on to argue with me over it either.

  I was old enough to do whatever I wanted. And if that was one thing that went right and made me happy, then everyone around me could kiss my ass. Falling asleep in Wes’s arms and waking up to him already awake, smiling at me… that was the only thing that made it all worth it.

  Well, that, and when he went down on me…

  I smiled as the heat rose to my cheeks.

  I stuffed some old notebooks into my bag.

  The bedroom door opened and Mom came in on her phone.

  “Yeah, that’s what I already said,” she said. She held up her pointer finger at me. “It looks like a pattern to me. Now that I look back on it. I mean, I’ll even admit my own guilt. Maybe I played blind ignorance to my husband’s crimes.”

  Crimes?

  That word got my attention.

  “I consider myself a loving and caring wife,” Mom said. “And everything I did was for my daughter.”

  That was good enough for me.

  I walked around Mom.

  She grabbed for my arm and I shook her away.

  I ran through the house to the deck where Wes sat on the railing, smoking.

  “Want to run away with me?” I asked him.

  “Of course,” he said without hesitation.

  That made me love him more.

  I dropped my bag to the deck and went to Wes.

  I hugged him and he kept me close.

  It was a strange position since he was already so much taller than me to begin with. Him sitting on the railing made him even taller. It sort of put me at a certain level with a certain part of his that I certainly liked.

  I bit my lip as wild thoughts floated through my head.

  It was getting dark out but not fast enough. And there were too many people around.

  Ugh.

  That’s why I loved being at Jett’s place.

  A giant house that was hidden and most of the time Jett wasn’t even there.

  “What happened now?” Wes asked.

  I looked up to answer him when the deck door slid open.

  “Aira!” Mom’s voice boomed. “I wasn’t done talking to you.”

  I turned and nestled between Wes’s legs. “I was done hearing.”

  Mom looked at Wes. Then at me. Then at Wes again.

  “Whatever you have to say, say it in front of Wes,” I said.

  “So this is a real thing?” she asked.

  “It’s been for a long time, Stella,” Wes said.

  Mom grinned.

  I seriously was beginning to think that maybe Mom had a little crush on Wes. Anytime he said her name, she would smile and look giddy for a second or two.

  Same thing happened to me too.

  “I’m trying to get to the bottom of everything,” Mom said.

  “And what’s that mean?” I asked. “He started a fire in the house.”

  “With you and I inside of it,” Mom said.

  “I was there,” I said. “I still have nightmares.”

  “Oh, Aira,” Mom said. “Nightmares? I wish I could help.”

  I could drink myself to sleep like you do.

  “I always take good care of her,” Wes said.

  I wanted to groan. Last thing I needed were these kinds of conversations happening in front of my own mother. Especially considering when I came back to Hidden I was… untouched. But Wes ruined that. He ruined everything. Sometimes in a good way. Sometimes in a bad way.

  “I’m trying to expose the truth,” Mom said.

  Those words made me want to get sick.

  Because who did she sound like?

  “What’s the truth?” Wes asked.

  “Well, if you must know,” Mom said, “there were things happening for years. Deals that were wrong. Getting involved with people that were dangerous. Things I should have taken better notice of.”

  “But the money was nice,” I said.

  Mom scowled. “Is that what you think?”

  “Why did we move?” I asked.

  “Your father wanted a bigger house,” Mom said. “We wanted you to go to a better school. And…”

  Her eyes looked at Wes again.

  I laughed. Not happily either. “And yet I came back. I screwed up all your plans, didn’t I? I even screwed up Dad’s plans. He wanted the house to burn. But they saved me and saved some of the house, right?”

  “No, Aira,” Mom said. “He burned what he wanted burned. Files. Documents. Things that would get him into trouble.”

  “He’s already in trouble,” Wes said.

  “A different kind of trouble,” Mom said.

  I shivered.

  Wes slid off the railing, pushing me forward. He kept his arm around me. Always my protector.

  “I want to tell the story,” Mom said. “And you know what? If that gets me publicity then I’ll take it. I’m going to be on my own now. A single mother.”

  “No you’re not,” I said. “I’m on my own too.”

  “This isn’t being on your own, Aira,” Mom said. “I’m sorry, Weslee, but this town isn’t real. This is like an extended vacation.” Mom looked around. “A crappy one at that.”

  “I’m not leaving,” I said. “Maybe ever.”

  Mom just stared. “Your father tried to do other things. Including working with Weslee’s family.”

  “Of course he did,” Wes said. “Everyone wanted a piece of that. Still does.”

  “Maybe if…” Mom shrugged her shoulders.

  “Are you going to blame my family now?” Wes said.

  “Wes, stop,” I said.

  He side stepped and let me go.

  I suddenly felt icy cold.

  “Weslee, I’m not suggesting that,” Mom said.

  “You just did,” he said. “What my family does is their own business.”

  “I think Jack was trying to help. Because of your father. And your uncle.”

  “No,” Wes said. “Uncle East is too dumb to tie his own shoes. And my father? Don’t play that card, Stella. The only thing we have in common here is that my father and Aira’s father are scumbags.”

  “He’s still my husband,” Mom said. “I don’t appreciate Jack being called that.”

  “You’re the one trying to sell his story,” I snapped. “And he tried to kill me. And you!”

  I felt the rush of emotion.

  And in my head I heard the crackling of the fire in the house. The fire chewing at the wood like a kid chomping on potato chips.

  I let out a shaky breath.

  “We’re done talking here,” Mom said. “I have to go prepare for another call.”

  “My father’s a criminal,” I said. “Your husband is a criminal, Mom.”

  “I know,” she said.

  She went back inside.

  Wes spun around, tossed his cigarette away, and cupped my face. “Your mother is crazy.”

 

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