Page 23

Alex

I get Dallas back to school in time to walk out the front door and meet Christy, blissfully unaware that she never even went to class. I’m still torqued up from running into Luca at my house, and the thought of going back there makes me want to eat glass.

And the thought of him standing so close to Dallas makes me want to make him eat glass.

I don’t remember the last time I actually spoke to Luca. Maybe not since the last time we stood in the middle of the living room and had it out in that exact same spot. How appropriate.

Now, I’m on my phone with Aiden trying to get the official story about what happened to Colson.

“Col’s already back home. Scott busted him out as soon as he heard Wells dragged him out of class. He chewed their asses out while he was there from what I hear. Those goons didn’t even let Col make a call.”

“Then how did Scott know he was there?”

“You’re gonna love this,” Aiden chuckles, “Syd was in class with Col, saw Wells basically assault him in front of everyone, and texted Scott right there.” Aiden lets out a sigh. “What a fucking girl scout…”

“You know she loved sticking it to Wells, though.”

“I’ll stick my knife in him and his brother if they come within 50 feet of her again.”

I don’t doubt it for a second.

“They charged him, though,” Aiden continues.

“With what? ”

“Stalking and trespassing,” he snickers.

Aiden’s laughing, but I know Colson’s going to school on scholarship and an arrest, not to mention a conviction, could destroy all of that. It also makes me wonder if Grandaddy Tate’s done or if it’s only a matter of time before the hammer comes down on the rest of us.

“Have they gone after anyone else?” I ask.

“What do you mean?”

Is he daft?

“ My dad’s not here to make deals and wipe my criminal record,” I snap.

There’s a long pause, so long that I wonder if Aiden ended the call.

“It’s going to be fine, Alex,” he finally says, his tone much more serious. “I promise.”

Aiden’s never lied to me, and he’s always come through, no matter what, but even he can’t foresee the fallout from all of this. I just need to survive the next week and make it out of this town before anyone decides to come for me, too.

It’s Monday, and I usually run on Mondays. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—running. Tuesday and Thursday—weights. But it doesn’t seem like enough. I’m already at school and wearing sweats, so I decide to head inside and add weights to my schedule in an effort to quell the overwhelming anxiety. Lifting heavy shit always helps clear my head.

It seems to work, because after three sets each of squats, bench press, and skull crushers, the endorphins have taken the edge off the feeling of impending doom.

As I’m leaving the gym and heading to the back lot, someone calls my name from the other end of the vestibule.

“Alex!” a voice echoes behind me.

The lights have already been turned out for the day, but I recognize the source immediately and turn around to see a short, round woman with shoulder-length blonde hair in her signature pants suit, power-walking down the corridor.

“Mrs. G,” I call back with a grin.

“Thank goodness,” she huffs, “are you busy right now?”

“No,” I shrug, “just heading home.”

“In that case, can you give Miss Harrington a ride?”

What?

“Um,” I clench my jaw as the feeling of impending doom returns.

“Apparently, she missed her ride and her phone is dead,” Mrs. G continues.

The fuck it is.

“I’d do it myself, but I’m about to go into a committee meeting and I can’t have a student stranded here. You’re good friends with her, right?”

I glance over Mrs. G’s shoulder and catch sight of Jordy’s familiar silhouette lingering near the front doors.

If I’m such a good friend, why didn’t she ask me herself?

Apparently, that doesn’t seem odd to anyone else, but I don’t say that part out loud. There are only a few days left until graduation and I should tell both of them to fuck off, but I can’t do that. Mrs. G’s always had my back and if I decide to sound like a prick and say no even though I just told her I’m not doing jack shit right now, I’ll have to tell her why.

Keep it together for four more days.

“Yeah,” I clip, “it’s fine.” But I’m about to internally combust.

Mrs. G breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Alex, I really appreciate it,” she says, giving my arm a squeeze.

Not waiting, I turn and continue toward the doors, listening as the new set of footsteps get closer and closer. I shove the doors open, still not turning around as they follow me outside and across the paved lot.

Get in, shut the fuck up, and don’t even look at me , I mumble to myself like a prayer.

I climb in my SUV and shove the key in the ignition, my jaw tightening as Jordy’s legs appear right where Dallas’s were just an hour ago. Throwing my SUV into reverse, I whip out of the parking space and gun the engine to the exit.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Jordy’s house is on the opposite end of town. Granted, it’s a small town, but having to go out of my way to do this only intensifies my irritation. I try to focus on my breathing and the road ahead, crossing Main Street, passing the theatre, and turning down the next county road toward the older section of neighborhoods.

“Alex?”

I ignore her, surprised she waited this long to say something.

“Alex.”

Silence.

“ Alex. ”

Silence.

Suddenly, the wheel jerks to the right and I swerve off the road into the gravel, throwing a cloud of dust into the air. Jordy's black lacquered fingernails curl around the wheel, gripping it with white knuckles.

“ YO, WHAT THE FUCK? ” I roar, grabbing the wheel and swerving back over the center line as I overcorrect.

I finally straighten out, but pull off the road again, skidding to a stop on a level section of grass next to a post and rail fence. I throw the vehicle into park and spin around with a loathsome glare.

“What the fuck is your problem?” I yell across the console. “Are you trying to kill me now?”

“I'm trying to talk to you, Alex!” Jordy shouts back, her jaw trembling with anger. “Like I have been for the entire year!”

“What?” I bark. “What do you want from me?”

Jordy takes a breath and turns in her seat. “For you to listen, for just one minute.”

I shouldn’t have said yes. This was a mistake. A giant fucking mistake.

“You have 10 seconds to say what you need to say.”

I shouldn’t even give her that, but I also want her to leave me the hell alone. And, clearly, avoiding her for the better part of a year hasn’t done the trick.

Jordy’s face relaxes with a mixture of surprise and relief. “Do you remember the first night I stayed at your house last summer?”

I look away, to the line of river birches across the road. “What about it?”

“You took me home after we all went tubing down the creek and I didn’t know whose car was parked in front of my house because my mom had some guy over. You wouldn’t let me go in. You told me I was staying with you instead.”

I remember, and that was my introduction to Jordy’s toxic relationship with Lori.

“The next day, I didn’t want to leave,” Jordy continues, “and when I went home, my mom started screaming at me for staying out and threatened to kick me out if I didn’t follow her rules. And I told her maybe I’d leave on my own, because you told me I could come back if I ever needed to.”

“Yeah,” I deadpan, recalling things I said before I knew any better.

“Another time, she called the cops on me and told them I stole her car— my car—so they would find me.”

I shake my head bitterly, my eyes still transfixed on the trees across the road.

“I told you my mom is insane,” Jordy mutters in response.

“That’s an understatement.”

“I have to get out of here, Alex. I can’t stay here with her. You know how she is. It’ll only get worse.”

“Yeah, I know how she is,” I sigh, “always playing games, trying to find the next best thing while she bleeds everyone dry. Just like you.”

“We’re good together, Alex,” Jordy says softly. “You were happy when it was just you and me. I know you remember and I know you still want it, too. Because if you didn’t care, you wouldn’t still be so angry. And I—” she pauses, taking a deep breath. “ I love you, Alex. ”

My eyes dart across the console.

“I never wanted to leave you. But I do want to leave here, and go wherever you go and do everything with you—just you and me.”

“You think we can just go back to the way things used to be?” I murmur, ruminating on her words. “Like nothing ever happened?”

“You must think so,” Jordy smiles.

I let out a bitter scoff and look away again. “How’s that?”

There’s only silence, and then I flinch as something blocks my field of view. I’m so focused on dissociating that I don’t see Jordy until she slides into my lap. The back of my head hits the headrest, my face now mere inches from hers. It’s impossible to escape her bright blue eyes boring into mine.

“Because,” she murmurs, running her hand up the side of my neck, “that was longer than 10 seconds.”

●●●

“Stay, leave—I don’t care what you do. I’m done. I’m going to bed.”

I’m tired and I’m done talking about a relationship that’s not really a relationship. Especially after Lori’s convinced Jordy to do whatever it takes to keep me shackled to her.

The joke’s on her, though. If I was the kind of trust fund kid Lori thinks I am, I’d probably be going to school with Colson and Mason for another four years instead of enlisting in the military. My brothers and I only found out about them after my dad died. Luca blew through his, doing whatever the hell he’s been doing and Adrian jokes that it’s the “Fuck-This” money; enough to walk away from a shitty job and start over if you need to, but not enough to retire on.

Either way, the only one who will ever touch mine is me.

Without another word, I disappear into the bathroom to decompress, leaving Jordy standing in the middle of my room. And by the time I finish brushing my teeth, she’s gone.

I’m relieved to finally be alone again, but I wake up a short time later, my mouth parched from drinking too much tonight. My water bottle’s still in my vehicle, so I roll out of bed and stagger down the hall to the bathroom. After chugging a liter of water out of the faucet, I trudge back out into the hallway, but pause when I hear a faint noise coming from the living room.

Adrian’s door is closed, so my first thought is that it’s Luca. That, or it’s someone robbing our house. Then again, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

I shuffle down the hallway, trying to make out the muffled noises. Peeking around the corner, I scan the great room and zero in on a figure near the front window, only a silhouette cast by the motion sensor light outside.

In my foggy state, I don’t know what I’m seeing. But then I recognize Luca’s profile, and he’s got some girl on the sofa adjacent to the front window. His jeans are hanging loose and he’s thrusting so hard that he slips out, muttering a curse. But then she reaches down and grabs his dick, guiding it back to her cunt so he can slam back into her.

He grabs her thighs and pins them back, driving into her hard and fast. “You like that, fucking whore?” he growls through clenched teeth.

I wasn’t drunk enough to vomit from the alcohol, but this might do the trick.

Deciding that I don’t actually want to bear witness to this, I turn to retreat back down the hall when another noise draws my attention.

“Come inside me!” the girl gasps in a whisper.

I freeze, mid-step, and my stomach drops.

Slowly, I turn back around and step out from the dark hallway. As my eyes adjust to the dark, I recognize the familiar wisps of bright blonde hair brushing back and forth over the sofa and the distinctive shade of radioactive peach nail polish on her toes as her feet bounce through the air. All I can taste is acid in my mouth while I listen to their muted noises assault my eardrums. And then everything starts to make sense.

Jordy’s never been on birth control and Luca doesn’t give a shit about it either way because I just saw his bare dick go inside her. She doesn’t care who the father is, as long as their last name is Barrera.

I glance at the China cabinet to my right and reach across the hutch to grab the neck of whatever bottle is closest. I reel back and hurl the handle of rum at the wall above the sofa, detonating it with a resounding crash and spraying liquor and shards of glass everywhere.

Jordy lets out a scream and Luca stumbles off the sofa, whipping around to see where the bottle came from. As soon as he sees me, he casts me a hateful glare before stalking over to the stone fireplace and grabbing the poker from the hearth. Keeping one eye on his hand, I start backing up, staying light on my feet. Luca’s slightly bigger, but I’m faster, and I’m hoping whatever drugs he may or may not have in his system will give me the upper hand. As soon as I see his shoulder twitch, I duck and go straight for his torso as the poker misses me and punches through the wall.

Jordy’s screams ricochet across the vaulted ceiling as I slam into Luca and knock him off his feet. We’re a cyclone of destruction, punctuated by grunts and curses as we thrash across the floor, beating and clawing at each other. But one wrong move and he catches my arm, flipping me onto my stomach. I’m pinned under his entire weight, and a few seconds later, I feel something around my neck.

The jingle of the buckle against my back is unmistakable.

Luca jerks my head off the floor, his fist at the back of my neck as he squeezes the belt tighter. I can’t breathe, and the more I thrash and try to grab for him, the more he digs the strap into my flesh. I can feel my pulse throbbing in my skull as my vision starts to blur. Tears sting my eyes as I strain to push off the floor, my muscles burning before I’m slammed back down each time.

I wish my dad was here…and my mom…

But I’m not ready to see them again. Not yet.

Suddenly, air rushes into my lungs as the belt goes slack and the weight suddenly lifts off my back. I roll over, gasping for breath, just in time to see Adrian throw Luca onto the sofa and come down on top of him. Adrian grabs the front of his shirt, reels back, and lands three blows to the side of Luca’s face.

Tossing his hair out of his eyes, Adrian steps back, leaving Luca groaning in pain as he searches the room for me.

He rushes over and hoists me to my feet. “Talk to me!” he barks, grabbing my face to examine me. “What the hell is going on?”

I open my mouth, blinking rapidly and trying to get my bearings, but I don’t get a word out before I hear a click behind Adrian. He glances over his shoulder and then slowly turns around, coming face to face with the barrel of a gun.

Everything stops, and there’s only silence as both of us stare at Luca, holding a 9mm to Adrian’s forehead. He squares his shoulders, nudging me further behind him.

“You gonna shoot me?” Adrian sneers. “Then Alex? You gonna murder your whole family tonight?”

“Luca, please, stop,” Jordy whimpers from somewhere behind him.

“SHUT UP!” Adrian roars, silencing her idiotic wails. “Come on, bro,” he turns back to Luca, “big man…you gonna pull the trigger or what?”

For a moment I’m positive that I’m about to feel my brother’s brains splatter all over my face. That is, if the bullet doesn’t go straight through him and kill me, too. But I don’t. Instead, Luca looks Adrian up and down with contempt and then lowers the gun. Then he turns and swaggers across the living room toward the front door.

He pauses in front of Jordy, still cowering at the end of the sofa, and nods to the door. “We can finish this outside if you want,” he taunts menacingly.

As if he already knows what I’m thinking, Adrian’s hand flies up and grabs my bicep to keep me from lunging at him again, and he doesn’t let go until Luca is gone, slamming the door behind him.

“Go to bed,” Adrian commands. “Get some rest.”

I don’t know what else to do, my mind reeling from what just happened, so I head for the hallway. Then Adrian turns to Jordy, taking in her disheveled state as she tries to adjust her twisted clothes.

“And you,” he seethes through clenched teeth, “get the fuck out of my house, and don’t come near my family ever again.”

●●●

I’ve been in this position many times before; Jordy straddling my waist in the driver’s seat of my Lexus surrounded by nothing but vast expanses of farmland. I don’t know how much time passes while I stare up at her, feeling like I’m standing outside of my body, watching that night play out like a movie.

But it’s the sensation of Jordy’s fingertips massaging the back of my neck that finally draws me back, and I’m hit with an eerie sense of déjà vu. I study her face, gazing back at me with the same longing I saw that one night in Leland Wiltshire’s pole building, when she was so desperate for my attention.

Time with Jordy is cyclical, and we’re back to where we started. Desperation begets control, and control begets power. And that’s why I’m going to do what I’m about to do. After what happened, she’ll do anything I want, and that’s what I see in those eyes that drew me in the first time. She’s figured out what she needs to do, and she’s locked in.

Like a fucking snake.

A smile tugs at my cheeks. “Did you spend the last 10 months rehearsing that or did you just throw it together on the way out here?”

Jordy’s smile fades. “We’ve all made mistakes, Alex.”

“No, I didn’t make any mistakes,” I lean in, getting in her face, “and grabbing my brother’s dick and putting it back inside you wasn’t a mistake.”

She averts her eyes, the veins popping in her neck as I recall her transgressions.

For the record, I don’t give a fuck about Jordy. I don’t like people thinking they’re entitled to what’s mine and I’m not about to be tricked into becoming anyone’s meal ticket.

“Listen closely, Jor,” I murmur, “ I don’t want you. ”

I enunciate slowly so maybe she’ll get it through her thick skull.

“Quit trying to make this happen.”

She clenches her jaw, her eyes darkening with each word as I speak hatred and malice to her.

“You sad…pathetic… desperate little girl.”

Baring her teeth, Jordy reels back and smacks me across the jaw so hard that it throws my head to the side. In an instant, my shoulder tenses and I raise my hand, ready to strike back.

But then I see it; the subtle flash behind her eyes that betrays her for a fraction of a second—the one identical characteristic that she and her mother share. She steels herself, ready to absorb the hell I’m about to unleash. She almost looks excited about it. And in that instant, the realization hits like a freight train.

I know what she’s doing.

She’ll take the hit, but I’m the one that’ll pay for it one way or another.

Slowly, I lower my arm and steady my breathing. Then I reach behind her and wrap my arm around her waist. For a moment she thinks I've changed my mind, but then I reach up and twist my dash cam around to point at the driver's side.

I grab the handle and throw the door open, lifting Jordy out of the vehicle with me, and take a few strides into the gravel. I set her down, still in frame, and then, without a word, I turn on my heel and return to the vehicle. She gapes at me as I grab her bag from the passenger seat and toss it at her feet before climbing back inside and slamming the door behind me.

Unlike her, the camera won’t lie. And I’m not leaving her in the middle of nowhere; her neighborhood is visible from the top of this hill. But this conversation is over. I know Jordy’s not finished. She’s never finished. And if I’ve learned anything about her, it’s that she’ll go to great lengths to get what she wants, even if it means torching everything in her path.

But the next time she comes at me with some insidious plan to ruin my life, she’d better be prepared to pay dearly for it.