Abi absorbed all of that with wide eyes, her hold tightening around Ali.
“He’s also in the fight club.Or gang.Whatever this thing is.”Evan offered up the information, eager to be helpful now that the damage was done and the danger was over.Ali flinched at the sound of his voice, and I kept my back to him.If I looked at him, I couldn’t promise I wouldn’t kill him.Even superpowers had their limitations.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”Hayat demanded, glaring from her brother to Ali to Bentley and then to me.“Why didn’t any of you?We could have done something.”
“What?”Bentley asked, his tone cold and hard, calling her out.She and Abi were too focused on their own drama to notice much of anyone else.Which was fine—they should live their lives and not have to worry about anyone else—but she had no leg to stand on in this argument.She had her secrets too.Like that person named Sparks she’d been texting earlier in the week.“What could you have done, Hayat?She was scared.Fuck, she didn’t tell any of us what was going on.He was taunting her with shit for weeks.The only reason we found out was because Evan overheard him threatening her.”
I flicked a glance at my friend, and he gave a half shrug.So that was the story we were going with, not telling anyone about Evan’s true involvement in any of it.Orlackof involvement.He was going to be the fucking saint in all of this.
With everything else going on, it made sense, but it burned that Evan was going to play it off as the white knight.We wouldn’t want to taint the image of everyone’s hero.Bentley and I both knew neither of us would be anything but the antihero to many people in our circle.Might as well continue to let them maintain their illusion that Evan was innocent.
If their definition of innocent meant willful ignorance, he was one hundred percent innocent.
“Let’s go home.We can sort this out there,” Abi suggested.
“If any of the parents sees Sixx like that, he’s toast,” Bentley reasoned.“And I think he needs stitches.His knuckles are dripping blood everywhere.”
I shook out my left hand.It was bleeding steadily, probably because I kept flexing my fingers and reopening the wounds, which made some of them worse.
“He’s right,” Hayat agreed, and the words seemed to taste bitter to her.Admitting that Bentley wasn’t wrong about something went against everything inside her.“But if we take Sixx to the hospital, they will call Ro and Sin.I know you don’t want to go this route, but we are going to have to tell them.”
That sounded like the worst plan in the history of bad plans.Mom was pretty calm when it came to me and blood, but if she found out about the fight club, she’d switch into panic-helicopter Mom in 0.02 seconds flat.
“Not necessarily,” New Girl spoke up again, casually leaning against a truck.She crossed her arms over her chest, tilting her head to one side and then the other, never once taking her eyes off me.“I can help you out of this little predicament you kids have stepped into.”
Ali
Choking on tears and snot,I held on to my sister.After the chaos of the night, I was running on adrenaline only.I was still in shock that we’d made it out of that damn warehouse alive.
“Yeah, okay,” Bentley snorted, as skeptical as the rest of us.“Who the hell are you again?Abi never said.”
I was drawing a blank on the girl who had guided us out of the mayhem inside the warehouse like she ran a freaking army.There was blood on her, not nearly as much as there was on Sixx, but enough to let me know she had gotten up close and personal with a few people.At one point, she’d had a gun, which had mysteriously disappeared after we’d found a safe-ish place to collect ourselves.
“Ah, he’s so cute,” Abi’s new friend giggled, her eyes shifting from Sixx to my cousin.“Being adorable runs in the family, I see.But Daddy would never let me keep this one.”
“Fuck’s sake,” Abi hissed to herself, her fingers biting into me reflexively.From the tension rolling off her, I had to wonder how close she was with the brunette.
“No offense, gorgeous, but I doubt you can be of much assistance.Unless you plan on sucking someone’s cock to get those pictures.Or maybe you can fuck your way through the long list of gang members who run this fine establishment.”Bentley was in prick mode, the factory reset he adopted when he was anxious.I wanted to hug him, promise him we were safe now and there was no need for him to be an asshole.But I wasn’t confident that we were safe.
“Shut up, Bentley,” Abi warned him, and I shot him a pleading look that he didn’t see because he was shifting his gaze from the newcomer to the empty space behind us, keeping a cautious watch for danger.
This girl was giving off some weird vibes, and my sister was not particularly happy to see her.Even as sick as she’d been only minutes before, she was radiating conflicting emotions every other breath.
“You mouthing off isn’t going to do anything but get you a bullet in your head,” Abi bit out.
“I’m not scared of some?—”
“Well, you fucking should be,” Abi exploded as she released me and turned to confront Bentley.I’d seen her pissed off plenty of times; hell, she and Hayat had once been put in handcuffs because of a fight that had involved a skateboard and a boy from Maddie’s high school who was calling her awful names.But this was a different level of anger, laced with so much pain, I felt a pang echo inside my chest.
My fault.
“You all could have gotten hurt tonight.Now we only have one option to fix it.I just hope you’re all prepared to face the consequences of your decisions.”She turned away from Bentley and faced her new friend.Her shoulders straightened, her chin tipped at an angle that I’d always thought was regal.It lasted for all of five seconds before she wrapped her arms around herself, hugging her stomach, suddenly looking vulnerable.“What will it cost for you to make this all go away?”
Startled, I gaped at my sister.There was no way.Bentley was right.This chick couldn’t fix anything.The damage was too severe.I’d put everyone I loved in danger, and now Sixx was going to be abducted by the freaking PCC or whatever gang Lunatic worked for.
“Hmm, let me see.”New Girl said coyly, tapping her finger to her chin.
“Sammy.”Abi was back to using that warning tone, reminding me so much of Mom I wanted to cry.
