Page 182 of River of Deceit

Blaze stomps over to me and grips my shirt. “What my dad said doesn’t fucking matter. Iwantedto do this. You wanted to. River wanted to. We all wanted to see Pandora taken down a peg, or ten, and she fucking deserved it, and there’s no fucking reason to feel bad aboutanything.”

“Get your hands off me,” I snarl at him. My hands fist at my sides, and it’s all I can do not to take a swing at him. It’s not a reaction I’ve ever had with him, not something I’d ever have dreamed of having… before Pandora. She’s fucking everything up for me, for us, and I should hate her for it. I shouldn’t be defending her.

“Maybe you’re just mad that you played Blaze’s bitch again,” River taunts me from nearby. He sets his beer bottle down.

I see red. I yank away from Blaze, already on my way to River topunch him in the fucking face, but Blaze grabs my arm and keeps me from reaching him. “I am not his bitch,” I say with as much savagery as I can put into my voice. “But maybe we should talk about how you’re Pandora’s fucking puppy. Following her around even though she took your finger. And she thinks you’re a shit lay.”

River storms toward me, his face twisted up into something that makes him look downright ugly. “I didn’t know she kept it!”

“She made a fool of you,” I taunt him.

She made a fool of all of us, but I don’t say that out loud.

Blaze suddenly pushes me forward at River, and I crash into him. We both stumble and fall onto the couch. I scramble to get off River, ready to defend myself.

“She deserved it,” Blaze howls again. “She used us, she betrayed us, she… she’s a slut, a whore, a bitch, a…” He trails off, clenching his fist. “Why the fuck am I more mad at the fuckers who touched her?”

I take several steps away from River, and while my attention is on Blaze and his words, I’m not letting River out of my sight. “Because she’s ours!” I burst out. “And you know it. No one else should’ve touched her.”

And I want to gouge the eyes out of everyone who saw her in a way that only we should.

“She’s not ours!” River interrupts. “She’s just some whore who will fuck anything with a dick.”

Blaze bursts out laughing. “Is that right? Then you don’t care if Asch and I keep her, right? If you never got to touch her again. If she kicked you to the curb entirely.”

“She’s not going to—” River begins, then grits his teeth.

“Of course she’s ‘going to,’” I snap at him. “She’s not going to want anything to do with any of us.”

Blaze runs his hand through his hair and shakes his head. “Zayden. We blame Zayden. He got the brothers all pumped up. He snitched to my dad. The three of us, we did what we could to mitigate it.” He nods, like this is in any way a reasonable plan, like Pandora would actually believe it. “She couldn’t see who was there.We tell her Zayden was watching, that he was giving silent orders to the others. That he gave Keegan the bottle.”

“So we look like weak little pussies instead?” River points out. “Yeah, that’ll make her forgive us.”

“Well, if I hadn’t been there, they really would have gotten their dicks in her!” Blaze shouts. “Half of them were desperate to do it.”

The idea of them fucking her has me seeing red all over again.

I think I really would fuck them up so hard they’d never go near her again if they had. I wouldn’t have been able to stand by and let it happen. As it was…

“Let’s call Zayden,” Blaze says. “I’ll tell him to meet us. We can tie him up as a gift for Pandora.” He pulls out his phone and makes the call.

I wonder how Blaze’s father will feel when he finds out about this. Zayden’s father works for the Bouchards, and Zayden’s always been a loyal little bootlicker.

It’s a moot point, though. The call goes straight to voicemail.

“Fuck. Does he have class right now?” Blaze looks at his phone again. “Maybe he’s in the greenhouse.”

River shakes his head. “It’s not going to work, anyway.”

“It will!” Blaze sounds desperate now. “But if it doesn’t, so what? We don’t need her forgiveness. I just thought?—”

The doorbell rings.

We all freeze.

Then there’s a harsher knock on the door.

“Hey, fuckfaces! Open up!” Pandora’s voice calls out.