Landon’s smile fades and he grasps my wrists, reefing my hands off him.
I snatch at his neck again, twisting the necklace in my fingers. ‘I said, where the fuck did you get this?’
Mirth flashes across his eyes. Fury crackles in my brain, surging through the air between us. A cruel smirk twists his mouth. ‘Family heirloom.’
‘Bullshit!’ I shake him. Anger blisters beneath the weight of holding the silver again, knowing that it’s been within reach all this time. ‘Where thefuckdid you get this?’
Jace lost it that night. In the fight with the ECU students. That means … could Landon really be …
‘Get off me.’ He leans in, his soft voice dripping with venom. ‘Booker Bay trash.’
Those words …
I feel the blood drain from my face, leaving tingling static in its wake.
Erik Lasso?
My hand falls from his collar. A flood of emotions hits me all at once, feelings I’ve kept locked away since that night. Pain, loss, guilt and rage surge through me. It feels like driving out of a dark tunnel only to end up in heavy rain.
I take in Erik’s dyed blond hair, an inch of mousy brown growing at the roots, and those lifeless green eyes. He’s put on some weight, but I guess he does look somewhat the same.
His cruel eyes pin me down. ‘Recognise me yet, skirt?’
He reaches for me, but I rear back and slap him across the face. His head whips to the side and his eyes turn black.I’m leaving here with that necklace.
I ready myself to hit him again, but there’s suddenly a wall in front of me. A tattooed wall in a black t-shirt.
Ryker.
Ryker grabs Erik by his collar and effortlessly throws him against his car before landing a punch in his stomach. ‘You should have stayed away.’
‘I was getting bored. Thought I’d come back and see the prodigy with the Mustang.’ Erik laughs on the heels of a grunt. ‘After all, her brother was so much fun.’
The screams and shouts around us get louder as a crowd quickly surrounds us. Ryker slams Erik’s body against the car again, leaving a dent in the hood. One of Erik’s lackeys heads toward Ryker, then someone in a hockey mask barrels through the crowd to slam the lackey to the ground.Tyler.
Close by, the wannabe pimp watches on with a cane in his hand. I grab the stick from his grasp and turn to where Erik writhes on the hood underneath Ryker’s hold. I swing the dice-engraved cane to Erik’s head, but he jerks out of the way and the cane shatters the Civic’s windshield.
‘You bitch—’
His cries are cut off as Ryker slams Erik’s body down once more.
I raise the cane again but then mid-swing, the weapon is yanked from my hands. I turn to confront a man in a red skull mask, shaking his head.Renny.
‘What the fuck?’ I cry.
‘This isn’t your fight.’
The crowd screams and there’s a sudden frenzy that’s broken up in the circle around the fight. I hear the sound of sirens in the distance.
‘We got five-oh!’ X bellows over the music. ‘Cops! Cops! Cops!’
Everyone scatters, either rushing to their cars parked on the street or running into the night.
‘We gotta haul ass out of here.’ Renny wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me away from the fight.
‘I can’t leave.’ I fight against him as he pushes our way through the throng of people. ‘It’s my carnival.’
‘That’s why you have to leave, so we can buy some time. Right now, the cops are gonna think you pulled one over the mayor to run a race meet.’ Banging doors and booming engines sound in every direction.
