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I shook my head, shaking myself free of my useless thoughts. Envy and greed would get me absolutely nowhere. I thought that had been a lesson I'd learned long ago, but here I was lusting over driving a car I had no business wanting to get behind the wheel of. Couldn't I just be thankful for what I had? Why did I now strive for more?
I shook off my thoughts as I hit the button on the key fob again. This time I paid attention to the vehicles in the garage so I wouldn't have to hit the button a third time.
The tail lights on a black Suburban parked in the farthest corner of the garage that I had never seen before flashed when I hit the button. That was new and I didn't understand why he needed so many different vehicles in the garage when he was the only person who lived here now.
I held the keys in my hand as I headed toward the Suburban, no longer giving a crap what vehicle it was that had bleeped to life for me. It didn't really matter what I drove at this point, just so long as I had a means to escape the madness going on in the house next door. I needed an escape, and Marcus Cole had given me one. Wishing that escape had come in the form of his Mercedes made me an ungrateful brat when the vehicle didn't matter just so long as it got me where I needed to go.
And where exactly was it that I needed to go?
Absolutely nowhere, just so long as I wasn't forced to stay here anymore.
There were too many people in my life these days who wanted to keep tabs on me, keep me in their line of sight at all times. And as much as I loved them for caring, it was beginning to drive me toward the brink of insanity and sometimes made it harder for me to breathe.
I climbed into the Suburban, having had to use the base board to be able to haul my butt on to the driver’s seat, and tossed the folders onto the passenger seat. I closed the door and buckled up.
I was sticking the key in the ignition when the front passenger side door swung open, causing me to scream and flinch into my door.
Tyson held the door open as he leaned in, grinning at me.
"Hey, girl," he said cheerfully. "You going somewhere?"
I glared at him as I pressed a palm to my chest, covering my racing heart. It didn't help slow it down in the slightest.
"You scared the shit out of me, Ty," I responded breathlessly. "What the heck are you even doing in here?"
I hadn't heard the door open and I'd heard absolutely nothing coming from the garage. The place had been as quiet as a tomb until I'd pressed on the button on the key fob. How had he even gotten in here?
"You should just be glad your new BFF's aren't here instead of me," he said as he climbed into the big SUV and closed the door behind him, sitting down on top of the folders like he hadn’t even noticed them there. "They're restless and going stir crazy over there, now that your dad’s shine has seemed to wear off and he seems just like a normal guy to them again."
I frowned at him.
"Rainisjust a normal guy to them," I commented, as I watched him pull the seat belt down and around his body. He clicked it in and sat back in the seat.
He shook his head as he smirked at me. "I don't think you see your dad the same way the rest of us do."
Maybe he had the right of it on that one. I didn't necessarily have Rain up on a pedestal, but that wasn't saying I didn't see him through rose-tinted glasses, because I often times did.
"I don't want to talk about Rain," I muttered angrily. Suddenly, I was angry again and being angry was really starting to piss me off. "I don't want to talk about Trenton and Simon either. In fact, I don't think I want to talk at all. If that's why you're here then perhaps you should just get right back out again and leave me be."
Okay, so maybe I was being a bitch to Tyson for no reason that had anything to do with him, but I just couldn't seem to shake this bad mood I was in and I needed a target to aim my anger and frustration at. It was unfortunate for Tyson that he'd gotten into this ginormous SUV with me with only the two of us in the vehicle together. There was nowhere else for my anger to go, no other outlet to reach out toward.
"Just get out, Tyson," I ordered in a quiet, controlled voice.
"You know," Tyson began in an oddly somber voice that absolutely did not coincide with the smirk on his face, "those two aren't entirely your responsibility. Uncle Quint would have taken them in if you hadn't. You know that, right?"
He wasn't the first person to tell me that, but, at this point, it wasn't something I needed to hear from anyone. I knew Quinton Alexander and I knew the kind of man he was. He was the kind of man who was worth everything. There was no way he'd turn out Trenton and Simon, no fucking way. They'd have a permanent place in his home and he'd eventually give them as good as he gave the rest of our coven, because we were all a messed up group of people who desperately needed each other. They took me on and it hadn't been easy. They'd take the brothers on the same way, not just Quinton, but all of them. Because their past made it so they fit in perfectly with us.
They were damaged goods and that made them the perfect fit for our coven.
I sighed heavily and repeated, "Just get out, Tyson."
I did not want to talk about the people I'd brought into our lives without asking. I did not want to talk about much of anything.
I wanted to escape. Escape my new version of reality. Escape the people who loved me. Escape my own life. Escape pretty much everything.
"I'm not getting out, Ariel," Tyson countered, sounding tired.
"Fine, whatever," I grumbled under my breath. If he wasn't going to get out then I wasn't going to waste any more time arguing with him about it.
