Page 43 of The Trouble with You (Rixon Raiders 1)

“But—”

“Now, Hailee.”

I flinched at the severity in his tone and Flick started pulling me away. “Come on, Hails,” she said shakily. “We should go.”

I glanced back to see Jason and Asher still facing off with the Rixon East guys. Surprised by the sheer relief I felt when they began to follow us.

We reached Asher’s Jeep, parked on the street under the cover of shadows. “Get in,” he said. “It’s unlocked.”

Flick wasted no time jumping inside, but I hesitated, my frantic gaze assessing Jason. “Get in the damn Jeep, Hailee,” he growled when his eyes slid to mine. There was a deep cut in his lip and a dark shadow around his cheek, but it wasn’t his injuries that had my attention. It was his eyes. They were completely black.

Feral.

“But—”

“Get. In. The. Fucking. Jeep.” He gripped the door, waiting for me to slide inside. With a heavy sigh, I climbed in beside Flick, Jason slamming the door shut behind me. She threw me a concerned look but didn’t say anything. The tension as Asher and Jason got in was so thick I could hardly breathe.

“Well, I didn’t expect that,” Asher said as he fired up the engine and pulled onto the road, his eyes sliding to my step-brother. “This could be a problem—”

“Don’t,” Jason cut him off, but I didn’t miss the silent look they shared. I wanted to ask what he meant, why it could be a problem, but something told me I wouldn’t like the answer. Defeated, I sank back against the leather seats, staring out of the window.

The ride back across the river didn’t take long, but it felt like hours. No one spoke. Flick was quiet, her eyes closed, her leg shaking agitatedly. Every now and again, Asher’s eyes met mine in the rear-view mirror, but I couldn’t decipher the expression on his face. And Jason... well he was present physically, but he’d completely checked out. Lost to the anger radiating out of him like a force-field.

He was furious.

And something told me, it had everything to do with me.

The next morning, I lay in bed, not ready to face the aftermath of the night before. When Asher had pulled up outside our house, Jason had ordered me to go inside while the two of them stayed in the Jeep to talk. I only knew because I’d watched them from my window. Something was wrong, but whatever it was, they didn’t feel it necessary to tell me. Assholes.

My cell phone bleeped, and I leaned over to grab it off the nightstand. I had two messages from Toby.

Toby: Did you get home okay? I was worried.

I smiled at that, opening the most recent message.

Toby: Good morning,

just wanted to make sure Ford didn’t kill you on the ride home.

Rolling onto my back, my fingers flew across the screen.

Me: I’m okay thanks. That was pretty crazy. Are things always like that at East parties?

Toby: Nah. Things only get crazy if your brother shows up.

So it wasn’t the first time something like that had happened. Interesting. I stored that snippet of information for another time.

Me: STEP-brother. And trust me, I wish he wasn’t.

Toby: I wondered why you didn’t mention it...

Me: I didn’t know it was important?

It wasn’t exactly an opening line that worked well for me, ‘Hey, I’m Hailee Raine, and by the way, my step-brother is Jason Ford’.

Toby: It’s not. But next time, we should probably avoid an Eagles party…

My heart did an unexpected little somersault at the words ‘next time’.