Page 54 of Boys Who Taint (Spine Ridge University #5)

Apollo

Hours later

It’s by chance that I gaze out the window and watch an angry redhead light some fireworks and throw them into an open window.

My eyes widen, and I dart downstairs, yelling, “Shit, shit, shit!”

I run toward the kitchen that’s already set half ablaze and snatch the fire extinguisher off the wall, blasting the fire out with the powdery white stuff.

But then another piece of lit fireworks is shoved in through the open door.

“Eat shit and die!” Aspen squeals.

My God.

An explosion follows, and I’m thrown back against the wall.

“What’s happening?” Levi bursts into the kitchen and snatches the fire extinguisher out of my hands. “Oh shit.”

Grey comes rushing down the stairs and, upon entering the kitchen, begins coughing like crazy. “Fuck.”

“Help us,” I yell.

He swiftly grabs a bucket from under the sink and begins to fill it with water to pour all over the fires spread around the room. Meanwhile, Levi tries to douse the fire, but another piece of fireworks props up near the front door and the window in the common room.

“She’s trying to roast us alive,” I mutter as I crawl to my feet. “Take care of this.”

“What?!” Levi screams. “Who is she ?”

“Aspen!” I yell back, and both of their eyes widen.

Right as I open the door, she sprays a can and lights it on fire. “Burn, baby, burn!”

Jesus Christ.

I sidestep and grasp the door to keep her out, but she’s got her foot inside, and I don’t want to hurt her even though she’s clearly intent on harming us. I guess we deserve it after everything we’ve done.

Still, I can’t let her destroy my house, my life.

“Stop this, Freckles. You’re better than this,” I try to reason with her.

“Bullshit! Y’all wanna see me lose my shit? Here you fucking go!” she shrieks, blasting me with more fire.

And damn, is it hot, and I don’t just mean the fucking fire.

I can barely hold on to the door.

She kicks it in and tries to aim the fire on the old carpets on the wall and all the beautiful tapestries, so I do a triple kick and knock both the canister and the lighter from her hands.

“Aspen?” Grey mutters in shock as he walks into the hallway.

“Stay away, Grey!” I yell. “For your own safety. Just douse the flames.”

Levi exits the kitchen too, coughing wildly. “I put it out, but there’s lots of damage and—”

Laying eyes on her immediately makes him shut up, and he’s not the only one.

Several Phantoms have come down to witness the wreckage, stopped only by the violent rage following her around like an aura of destruction.

I have never seen her this violent, this unhinged.

And my God, am I in love.

She pulls out a knife and aims it at my neck, leaving me with only a split second to grab her wrist. My heart just started to beat in my throat for the very first time in my life. I got this close to losing it.

Damn, what a fucking fiery vixen.

“Freckles, I love your ferocity, but could you tone it down just a little? You’re making me think you actually want me dead,” I say.

“Maybe I fucking do,” she hisses, trying to punch me with her free hand, but I grab that too.

“You can’t win this, but I love the effort you put in. It gets me all hot and bothered,” I reply.

“Fuck you,” she hisses, trying to free herself as I spin her around and wrap my arms around her.

“I love a good feisty girl. It gets me going,” I say as I lock her in tight between both arms.

“I don’t care!”

“You don’t? After all we did in my room? That hurts my feelings. I thought you enjoyed all the kinky shit, Freckles.”

She growls but stops fighting me once she lays eyes on Levi.

“Aspen …” he mutters, completely out of it.

“I have her under control. Are the fires out?” I ask him.

“Yeah. The rest of the Phantoms are throwing all the fireworks out. Was she on her own?” He looks baffled that she did all this.

“I should’ve waited until the middle of the night,” she growls back. “Until you were all asleep and I could’ve burned this whole place down without a fucking blip.”

“You bring any more?” I ask her, keeping her locked in place. “Tell me, or I won’t let you go.”

“That’s all I fucking had.”

I take in a deep breath. Guess we’ll have to see to know for sure.

“I trust you.”

“I don’t trust you,” she hisses back.

Still, I release her and push her away so she doesn’t try anything on me.

She bolts down the steps and gets as far away as possible from us before turning around to scream, “Fuck you all!”

“Yeah? Fuck you right back,” Levi retorts.

I try to shush him as she sticks her middle fingers in the air and waltzes off to her car. She races off, barely staying on the road as she takes a few inches of grass off the campus while speeding out the gates.

“Why did you let her go? Fucking hell,” Grey growls before he stomps his way back up the stairs.

“You think you want her anywhere near you right now?” I yell back. “Goddammit …” I mutter, closing the door. “She was this close to actually killing us.”

“Yeah, well maybe we should’ve just let her.” Levi throws his hoodie back over his head and walks out the door.

“Hey, where are you going?” I ask him.

“I’m done.”

“Done with what?”

“Nothing.”

I don’t even know what that means.

“Fine. Go be depressed as usual,” I say, swatting the air because I’m done too. “I’ll deal with the mess that firecracker left.”

I know she liked what we did in my bedroom, which is why it’s so tough to watch her turn on me. But I have this lingering feeling that all this might not be about me, but about them .

Aspen

I drive until I can no longer stand it, until I can’t even reason with myself any longer, until my mind ceases to exist. Tears roll down my cheeks, clouding my vision, clouding my judgment, as I park my car at the nearest seedy-looking joint near the outskirts of town and walk inside.

I’m drowning. Losing myself in the hatred, and all I want is to let it all go.

So I hop on a stool near the bar and signal the bartender. “Whiskey on the rocks.”

“No mix?”

“Do I look like I need a mix right now?” I growl back. “Give it to me straight.”

He judges me with his eyes, but without saying another word, and he slides the whiskey to me.

I down it all in one go, then slam the glass down. “Another one.”

“Damn, girl,” the man beside me says, but I ignore him. “You must’ve had one hell of a day.”

“Hell doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

Even when I tried to burn it all to the ground … even when I tried to end it all … they managed to stop me. Even when I try my best to be my worst possible self, somehow, someway, they still break through.

I’ve had it.

I chug down the next drink and hit the bartender for another.

“So tell me, what kind of hell?” the man beside me says.

“Nothing.”

“Let me guess … a break-up?”

“If you count wanting to kill your boyfriends a break-up,” I reply in a stone-cold voice. “Then sure.”

“ Kill as in actually killing him? Shit.”

“Yup,” I say, as I take the next one and take a breath before downing it.

Finally, I’m feeling the buzz, the lightheadedness, the complete absence of emotions that’ve been threatening to swallow me whole.

Bliss.

Pure bliss.

And at this point, I don’t even care what I do, or where I am.

As long as I can stay right here, in my disastrous mess with that country music blasting in the background to wish all my sorrows away.

“Lemme guess, you failed,” the man says.

I snort. “Are you a psychic?”

“No … just someone who’s very, very interested,” he says, putting down his drink. “Tell you what, if you meet me out front, near the abandoned playground, I might be willing to help you out.”

I pause, feeling woozy all of a sudden, but I still feel like I have to listen.

“For a price.”

Of course, it’s always for a price.

“No thanks,” I say. “I’ve had enough of shady deals.”

I hop off the stool and try to make sense of my environment, but the whole place is beginning to spin around, and I don’t like it one bit. Maybe I drank too much, but goddamn, did it feel good to just let go for once.

My footsteps are wobbly as I make my way out of the grimy bar and head back out to the streets, but in the blurry mess, I can’t even find my damn car, and when I fumble for my keys, they drop from my pocket.

“Shit.”

I bend over to pick them up, when suddenly someone’s hands wrap around my waist.

“Hey!” I scream.

“Let’s go, chick, you’re in no condition to drive. Lemme take you.”

“Get your hands off me,” I shout, pushing the guy away.

His breath smells like alcohol, like the same liquor I smelled in that bar, and when I glance over my shoulder, I can clearly make out the features of the man who was just sitting beside me.

“C’mon, darling, I won’t hurt you. I’ll take you home. Just tell me where you live.”

“Over my dead body,” I retort, trying to maintain balance, while he drags me along.

Another car drives up toward us, stopping near the side of the road, and my heart rate shoots up when several men step out.

“I have some friends who’d like to talk to you, though,” the man says.

He whisks me to the side of the building, a dead-end filled with trash bins and rats scattering about, and all the hair on the back of my neck rises.

I try to turn, but he blocks my way, and I can’t move past because my strength is waning fast from the poison I chugged that’s meddling with my brain.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

“Come now, don’t be shy, we just want to have a chat,” another guy says as he walks closer.

I step backward, bumping into a trash bin, and I nearly fall from the loss of balance.

I shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have come here to lose myself, when all I wanted to do was die, not end up in the hands of some muggers or worse …

“Please, just let me leave.”

Another one enters the scene, laughing, as he strokes his beard. “No, I don’t think we can do that. You see, I distinctly remember seeing a redhead just like yourself, butchering one of our own.”

My eyes widen, and I take another step back.

“Yeah, that’s right, on the parking lot nearby,” one lanky guy says. “With some white-haired guy.”

Oh fuck no.

The bearded man flashes a knife. “And I think we deserve payment for that.”

I backpedal a few more times, but in my drunken sway, I bump into a trash can and fall over backward on top of it. The men laugh, and while they’re distracted, I pull a knife from my pocket; the only one I have left to defend myself with.

“Stay back!” I scream as they come closer.

The first guy who sat next to me in the bar pulls out an even longer knife. “I think we’re going to have some good fun with you.”

When one is close, I swipe at his legs, cutting through his jeans, and I know I hit him, judging from the scream.

“Fuck! Grab her!”

The lanky one jumps at me and grabs my wrist, knocking my hand to the ground.

“Get off!” I scream, kicking and punching wildly.

The guy’s grin blurs so much it looks like it blends into the moon up above. And as more of them hover over me, the tears begin to stain my eyes.

Suddenly, the bearded one groans and grabs his own stomach as blood slowly begins to pour out onto the asphalt. I stare as the knife protruding his belly is pulled back, and he falls over like a sack of potatoes.

“What the f—”

The lanky one finally gets off me, and I crawl away from them … From the dark figure looming over the alley, the ghost-like mask shining brightly under the single streetlight, with red eyes reminding me of hell itself.

Ghost.