Page 78 of Boys Who Taint (Spine Ridge University #5)

Aspen

“Twenty missing people. All working for the Rivera family,” Agent Foley says, noting down the information. “And none of you have seen a thing?”

“Nope,” my mom says, smiling stupidly.

“The families haven’t reported them missing,” he adds.

That’s what happens when your parents pay the families that work for them fortunes to keep them quiet in case their loved ones die for us.

“Is that a question for us?” Felix asks, annoyed.

“Just an observation.” Foley sternly glances at him.

“Maybe they didn’t have great family connections,” I muse.

Foley raises his brow. “I doubt that.”

Having him visit the family home sure is awkward. I wonder how many times my mom and dads have had to entertain him with lies while their kids started killing everything around them. Must’ve been tough dealing with that, and it makes me very thankful to know they’ve got our backs.

“I’m especially concerned by the fact that the road up to Spine Ridge U suddenly seemed to have gotten a deep chemical cleanse overnight. You wouldn’t happen to have seen anything, Felix?”

“No.”

“Interesting …” Foley pens more things down.

“Anything else you need, Agent?” Mom asks, grinding her teeth.

He clicks his pen a couple of times and then clears his throat. “No. I have all the information I need. Thank you, have a good day.”

Felix shuts the door behind him, and my dad whispers into my ear, “Almost let the door hit him on the way out.”

I chuckle to myself.

“How many times do we have to keep doing this?” Felix grumbles as he flops down on the couch.

“As many times as it takes,” Mom replies, folding her arms. “We gotta protect them. At all cost.”

“You know, one of these days that fucker is going to get something on us,” Felix says. “And it’s not going to be easy to get out of it.”

Mom sighs. “We’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

Levi

When I’m finally out of the hospital, the drive back to campus almost feels like a rebirth. The road up to the mountain got cleaned thoroughly, and all the bodies strewn around the ground have disappeared despite the bloodied mess Apollo and Sunny left when they killed them all to protect me.

Apparently, Penelope’s men are good at making sure no one knows they exist too. Guess it helps that Aspen’s grandfather was part of a vigilante group who stole from the mob, and that her mom was able to take over his businesses.

I’m just glad I don’t have to pick the entrails off the ground myself. Though I’m sure she would’ve loved to have seen me do just that as a form of punishment.

The unfortunate part is that all those men did have families, and even though my mom does know someone higher up the police chain, our families will be under greater surveillance. We can only kill so many people unchecked.

But worrying about prison time for one of us isn’t going to fix anything, and it’s not my problem to deal with. That’s what we’ve got family for.

I’m just glad my parents let me ride with Apollo back to Spine Ridge University. Dad had to convince Mom to let me go with him, just to get my bike.

I breathe out a sigh and open the garage door of the Phantom Society. I pat down my sweet motorcycle and whisper, “I missed you.”

“Should I be jealous?” Aspen winks playfully.

I’m glad we were able to smuggle her aboard our car.

Not sure her parents are happy about it though, but we’ll worry about that once we get to their house.

“I don’t mind sharing,” I reply, winking back, before I hand her the extra helmet. “Hop on.”

I rev the engine as she jumps on and wraps her arms around me.

“See you tonight?” Grey says, lifting her helmet briefly to plant a sultry kiss on her lips. “Don’t be late.”

“I’ll make it hurt if you are,” Apollo says with a grin, and he slaps her on her ass so hard she yelps and squeezes my abs so hard I groan because it’s where I got shot.

“Be gentle,” she mutters.

“Not even thinking about it,” Apollo replies, chuckling. “I love your sounds too much.”

“Keep that energy for later,” I say. “We’ll need all the distraction we can get after dealing with our parents. Cya.”

I race off before they can keep us waiting any longer. Mom and Dad are probably already outside near the Caruso home, and I really do not want to keep them waiting.

With her arms tightly wrapped around my body, I sway from left to right down the mountain slope, feeling renewed. Reborn.

I came so close to death that I could almost taste the afterlife, but it was her devotion that kept me grounded, kept me near to where her heart and mine had entwined, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Her hand snakes around my belly, slowly sliding down as she settles her chin on my shoulder, her fingers splaying near my bulge, which twitches against the fabric of my pants.

Goddammit.

She’s making me hard as a rock.

I race even harder to try to get to the location fast enough before I burst out of my pants.

When we’re finally near the street her parents live on, she takes her hand off my package, and I groan in both frustration and pent-up desire.

She giggles in my ear and hops off, so I park my bike, grab her wrist, and spin her back to me, pinning her to the bike.

“Be careful where you put your hands, Firefly …” I tip up her chin. “Or I will fuck you on my bike on the way back home.”

She grins and leans in, pressing a kiss right beneath my ear. “Please …”

Oh, fuck me.

My eyes nearly roll into the back of my head.

She casually saunters off toward the house, while I’m left adjusting my pants to hide the massive boner before anyone sees.

Aspen goes inside first. I figured it’d be more appropriate if she said hi to her parents first without me. My parents, as well as Nathan and Milo, my mom’s other lovers, approach me. I clear my throat and greet them. “Got here safely, as promised.”

Mom narrows her eyes at me. “Did I just see Aspen jump off your bike?”

“No,” I say, smiling.

She rolls her eyes, but Milo places a hand on her shoulder. “Give him a break, Lana.”

“He’s been through enough,” dad adds.

“I can’t fucking wait for this conversation,” Mom mumbles.

Nathan beckons everyone. “C’mon, let’s go.”

We all walk to the front door, and Dad rings the doorbell.

After a while, the door opens up with Alistair King, Penelope’s third lover, standing in the doorway. “Come in.”

We walk inside, but it’s already awkward as hell.

“Hey, is that a new painting?” Milo asks, looking at the expensive paintings on the walls like he hasn’t been here before, when things were still amicable.

“You noticed.” Alistair grins. “You like it?”

“It’s brilliant,” he replies.

“Thanks, my daughter made it, so it’s extra special to me.”

“Nice,” I say. “I didn’t know Melody could paint that well.”

Mom elbows me to stay quiet and keep a low profile, but I’m done hiding. They can either accept me back as a human or they can fuck off and let me be.

We walk into the living room, where Felix, Dylan, and Penelope are all sitting on the big couch, with Aspen already sitting on one of the lavish white leather chairs in front of the fire place.

When they all look up at me, I swallow back the lump in my throat.

Her mother glances at a couch opposite of them and says, “Sit.”

It feels like toxic air is slowly filling the room, but everyone still sits down like she said. I park myself in the white leather seat next to Aspen and watch how her mom’s face twitches at the sight of us being so close together.

But I’m done fucking pretending she doesn’t mean the world to me.

“So … how’s everyone doing?” Milo mutters, chuckling afterward. “This is—”

“Awkward,” Dylan mutters.

“I was going to say nice, but that’ll do,” Milo replies.

“It’s only awkward if you make it awkward,” my dad says, raising his brow.

“Wow, you wanna start again?” Dylan retorts, clutching the couch.

“No,” Felix growls at him, and he settles back down again. “We’re gonna talk about this like actual fucking grown-ups.”

Almost sounds like a threat.

“Talk about what? That my daughter fell in love with the guy who caused her sister’s death?” Dylan retorts.

“I was there,” Felix growls back. “You don’t have to tell me.” He glances at Aspen. “But your daughter deserves to make her own choice.”

“I already made mine,” she says, and she reaches out for my hand. “I want to be with him. And I am not going to let you get in the way of that, no matter how much you hate him.”

“No one hates anyone,” Alistair says. “They’re just … confused.”

“Conflicted is more like it,” my dad says.

Felix glances at his hand and the obvious scar left by Nathan’s knife. “We haven’t gotten this close to killing each other in a long time.”

“We all wanted to protect our children,” Lana says.

Felix’s eyes home in on her. “You nearly shot Aspen and Silas.”

“And I thought Aspen and Silas were going to kill Levi,” she responds. “He was in danger, and I acted accordingly.”

“I wasn’t,” Aspen says.

“But Lana didn’t know that,” Nathan says.

“You were about to kill Levi too,” Lana says as she looks at Penelope. “So that doesn’t make any of you better than us.”

“Fine, I was. I won’t lie.” Aspen’s mom leans back in the couch and shrugs.

“So we can admit that we’re all vicious killers here,” Alistair says. “Good. We’ve got common ground.”

“I’m not,” Milo muses, but Nathan knees him to keep him quiet.

It’s quiet for some time. Awfully quiet, until my mother finally sighs. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m sorry about everything. About trying to kill Aspen.” She glances at her. “About shooting at everyone. And I’m sorry your daughter died.” She pauses. “I am sorry.”

Aspen’s mom sucks in a breath, tears welling up in her eyes. “She’s my daughter. And your son took her away from me.”

I sink to my knees in front of her. “I’m sorry. I am so sorry for bringing her there, for making that pact, for letting her jump without me. I am sorry she’s gone. It should’ve been me.”