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Her hand slips. “Yes?”
“We should have just left him,” River complains, following Priest. Stella looks between the both of us, coming up to my side and hooking her arm in mine.
“I didn’t dress for this kind of vibe.”
“I’ll postpone Bayonet Falls.” I widen my eyes at her, and we all follow Priest. My phone’s vibrating in my pocket but I know that if I take it out now, the questions will start. When I say I can’t breathe without one of them knowing how many breaths I’ve taken a day, I mean it. It’s almost like when you have strict parents, but all it does is make kids disobey—kind of like that. Except we’ve been smart about it for years and they don’t know anything.
Fire crackles through the air, its flames stretching out into the vacant night, as the Milky Way dusts the sky in a decoration of stars and the full moon.
Priest shoves the guy down onto the ground. “Shut the fuck up and you might actually live to see your teammates.” He looks towards War, but I resist the urge to follow his gaze.
War is a ho. All of them are, with the exception of Vaden. Priest is selective with who he sleeps with, in a sense that he usually just hovers around one or two girls and bounces between them both, but War has a collection. Tillie told me he got it from Nate, and you know what? I can totally picture that.
“Why is Emma on War’s lap like she fucking belongs there?” Evie whispers into my ear.
I don’t care enough, nor do I want to give him the satisfaction of me seeing it. Over the years, we’ve all been good girls around the families. We’ve acted as we should in public and kept our messiness behind doors. While the rest of them freely engage in promiscuity and drugs, acting like they own everything.
I’ve hated it.
River has hated it.
Stella doesn’t really care about it.
And if Dad ever finds out the kind of bullshit that they’ve been doing behind these parties and races, I’m pretty sure he’s going to lose it.
Priest is nothing like our dad and a little more like our pop. Mom said it’s what scares Dad the most about him completely taking the gavel.
But I think they’re both wrong. I think he’s more like the first Hayes that founded the EKC. That’s not what should be worrying them yet. They should be more worried that all three of them are like unhinged hyenas, and since they don’t have to play with the big dogs yet, they’re killing time by risking exposure on our own streets, all for shits and giggles.
“Priest?” I glare at my brother through the waves of heat. “Leave him alone.”
War chokes on his laugh, and much to my annoyance, my eyes shift to him just as he’s moving Emma around to straddle his lap. His tatted hands land on her ass cheeks as he leans forward and drags his tongue from the side of her neck, and across her jaw, all while keeping his eyes locked on mine. My stomach explodes into a ball of fire and all the anger that I’ve kept hidden threatens to surface. Years. Years of us all acting like placid little Kings that sit in the shadows of these assholes. He’s never done this, though. The small number of times that we’ve been here, War hasn’t paraded his conquests around in front of me. I don’t know if that was on purpose, or whether this one is for—whatever reason—but now I kind of want to punch him.
Straight in the face. It wouldn’t be my first time.
Pop Smoke starts playing loudly and I move from the spot I’m at to where the wounded boy is, lowering myself down to kneel in front of him. “Let me have a look?”
His brown eyes come to mine. It’s the first time that I’ve realized he’s probably a little older than us. If I do my calculations right, that is not good. “You got anything to numb the pain?”
My focus drops to his lips and my mouth twitches. I reach into the back pocket of my jeans.
Step one, boys. We do drugs. Just like you do.
I flash the ball in front of me and he shuffles up to rest his back against the log, one leg stretching out and the other bent. He rests his other arm on his knee, caging me in between his legs. I can feel the heat of the flames against my back. It does enough to keep me warm, since he ruined my jacket.
“Halen? Back the fuck up.” War’s icy tone sends shivers down my spine.Oh? You did see me here?Bet you fucking do now.
I turn slightly, hiding my smile from behind my shoulder. “How about no?”
Priest empties the rest of his drink in the fire, coming directly for me. He leans down to snatch the bag from my fingers, but I close it in my palm.
“Priest, I’m the same fucking age as you. Fuck you and go sit down.”
He glares down at me. “I’m taking you home.”
“No. You’re not. Because I’m not fourteen anymore—none of us are—and since we’ve spent the better half of our lives partying in towns away from Riverside just to make you lot comfortable, I’m telling you right now—” I pause, hating that I’m sitting so low and he’s towering over me. He’s tall enough as it is without me being in this position, but I kind of like the way I’m resting against the wounded puppy. I’m almost sure he’s allowing me to do it.Who is he and why does he have balls bigger than every other boy in this town?
“What?” he snarls, turning over his shoulder slightly until he finds River and Stella. I know I’ve got him, because there arerules, and as ruthless as the Kings are, we follow our rules. One of them just so happens to be keeping our family drama out of the public eye. All it takes is the right person to see a crack in our perfectly constructed castle and they’ll slither in and try to demolish the foundation.
