19. Bay
NINETEEN
bay
I’ve never kept so many things from my dad, and I dare not tell him what happened to me and The Stowaway last night, because it’d only add to what he doesn’t need. Guilt suffocates me as much as the smoke did, and facing Jack when he was called to come down to the docks was close to one of the worse things I’ve had to endure since Dad’s stroke.
Now, apparently, to Emilio, I’m a little pawn to play in his game or suffer the unthinkable consequences.
Not only may I owe the asshole a memory to remember me by when I destroy his legacy, but Jack a brand-new bar. Because the remnants of it are charred wood and pieces of random furniture that lie in a taunting, giant heap of disaster and his income.
When the cops arrived, I lied and stated someone came in wanting to rob the place. When I told the alleged burglars that all the money was in the safe, they burnt the bar down with me in it. I was asked for descriptions, names, times, and what clothing they were wearing. More fibs I had to come up with, because turning Emilio in was a risk in itself.
Jack claimed repeatedly that he was glad I was okay, that it wasn’t my fault when it was. If it wasn’t for me, he’d be opening his bar today like any normal day and continuing on with his life. I’m a mess of nerves, blame, and pure contrition.
I am, really, a piece of shit.
Staying home from school, I lied yet again to Dad and told him it was a teacher-workshop day or some crap. What helps with my story is that Nessa came over to hang out.
We watched old westerns with Dad, played Connect Four, where I let him win every game because I don’t deserve to gain a damn thing, and made him some lunch before he passed out for a nap. I called off the caregiver today to give me some space and Dad a break.
He was happy about that.
Nessa stayed for me while Travis and I ran to the auto store in Newport for a power steering pump that wasn’t available at Tony’s Auto in South Shore. It also gave me a reason to filter through what happened.
Furthermore to explain to someone who wasn’t going to make a huge deal about it.
Or so I thought.
“You need to tell Levi,” Travis insists at my side, holding my bags for me as we stroll down the sidewalk to a bookstore he wanted to check out. “This is starting to get out of hand.”
“I don’t trust the outcome,” I reply evenly. “You know how Levi gets, and he’s going to get himself killed.”
“Yeah, but…Bay, you could’ve died, and I wouldn’t have…”
I glance over my shoulder, watching his lack of eye contact and the subtle sigh escape his lips. “I’m alright, Trav. I’ll figure it out.”
It pains me to see him upset and that I’m the cause. I didn’t think of the long-term of my secret and how it would affect him.
We walk but another few steps, the fall breeze cutting into my skin and sending a slight chill down my body. But when I notice Travis not at my side anymore, I spin around to find him, halted and staring right at me.
“Bay, we need to talk.”
My brows knit as he clenches the handles of the plastic bags so hard his knuckles turn white.
Never in my life did I ever think I was going to see Travis lose his shit.
And we’re not gonna start today.
“C’mon,” I urge lightly. “Let’s head inside this store before it closes. We’ll grab something to eat on the way home and you can bitch my ear off about what to do.”
“I don’t want to bitch at you,” he retorts, his face scrunched up behind his glasses. “I need us to find a solution.”
“And we will. Shit, maybe there’s a book in there that I can read to figure this whole thing out.”
Travis actually rolls his eyes at me, and I smile, trying to give way to this moment because I don’t want him anxious about it.
I do enough of that for the both of us already.
Within minutes, we’re inside an old bookstore that we frequent with an even older man who’s sitting behind the check-out counter, reading his own novel and giving us a slight wave when we enter.
Travis immediately goes to the science fiction section, while I hang back and glaze over the magazine in the front. It’s when I’ve had my fill of celebrity gossip that I step backward and promptly run into another body.
“Shoot, sorry.” Turning, I’m straightaway and surprisingly face to face with no other than Torin and Cairo’s boy, Reeve Stanton. “Fuck.”
He quirks a brow at me. That easy smile enriching that surfer-boy persona with false innocence. Sue me, I looked him up.
Well, Travis gave me the insights on what I needed to know.
It’s not every day that the Forsaken Crew makes the news. They’re low-key and keep their shit on lock. Plus, they’d probably beat the shit out of the journalist that threw them in the news, so I went to the guy who could easily get me the information I needed.
“If you want to,” he replies. “But I’d at least like to buy you dinner first.”
I scoff at his charm that I’m sure melts panties everywhere.
Don’t get me wrong, if I had to choose between the three Forsaken boys that I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting before, I’d pick him each and every single time.
He’s got a cocky mouth, but at least he hasn’t threatened me yet.
“You gonna talk to your boss’s daughter like that?”
He looks to my left and then right before glancing down at himself. “I don’t see my boss anywhere around here.” I start to step to the side to get past him, but he mocks my actions and gets in my way. “You a book nerd, McQueen?”
“Not into girls who read?”
“I’m into anything you are.”
Geezus Christ.
That dark sandy hair is a bit of a mess on top of his head, but he still looks hella good and like hella trouble.
I like his easy smile, but I’m not so naive as to think he’s maybe as savage as the other two. I’m not looking to find out.
“I need to go,” I state evenly, hoping that he just lets me pass by.
“Hot date?”
“Levi is expecting me back soon.”
Reeve stares at me with zero emotion latched to his thoughts. “Right.”
Okay then…
I make another go around his body, but Reeve stops me with his next words. “I think you should give me a go, McQueen. I think I can trump whatever Wallace is giving to you on a daily.”
“No thanks. I don’t date guys who have friends who try to kill me.”
“You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
“No thanks to your buddy,” I clip out through my clenching jaw. “And tell him that the next time he swings by to pay me a visit, I’m just going to allow Levi to beat his ass.”
“Violence isn’t always the answer, baby.”
“Isn’t it, though? You dabble in it all day.”
“We don’t burn girls in buildings if that’s what you’re referring to.” He shoves his hands into the gray joggers he’s wearing. The white tee he’s sporting sketching out his muscles and exhibiting the black tattoos down one bicep and forearm that I noticed the first night we met.
I didn’t give myself a lot of time to study them before.
In fact, I’m attempting to find a way to get him out of here sooner than later so he doesn’t run into Travis. The fewer people to be known around me, the better.
“I wish I could say it was nice running into you, Reevie, but I gotta go. I’ll see…shit, I’ll more than likely see you around.”
“Word of advice before you do, McQueen.” He brings an index finger up to his lips as if deep in thought before he speaks. “You might do well to stay away from all of the Wildes. They have tempers, they nickel and dime every scenario to make sure consequences have been dealt to appease their minds. Don’t run any more shit through The Landings. Go around if you have to.”
Good advice.
If I didn’t already know it.
“Then I guess my asking you if Emilio sent you here to check up on me is stupid.”
“Pretty much,” he replies placidly, deflecting my anger like a pro. “He’s probably drinking a glass of bourbon and jacking off to what he has to do today. Cairo, however, didn’t give the order to burn your place down.”
“So, what am I supposed to do exactly?” I cross my arms over my chest. “Forget this ever happened because I’m overreacting?”
“If you think revenge is in the cards for you against us, you’re going to be pushing a bar you had wished you never would’ve touched.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Promise.” He steps closer to me, and I smell the salt of the ocean sifting off his skin, wanting to soothe away everything that’s happened. However, Reeve’s message isn’t full of sunshine and rainbows. “Fuck off Torin, don’t worry about Cairo, because he’s as interested in you as he is a pile of shit, and me…” He gives a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. “I’m just me. I don’t pussy-foot around. I’ll always give it to you how it is.”
“And I’ll take that like I do my tea…I don’t drink it. Anything coming from you is just empty air with no substance to it.”
“You need air to breathe, baby. And I’m pretty nice to keep you around.”
I mean…
Allowing myself one last examination of the man in front of me, he would be pretty bomb to have around.
If he wasn’t part of the desolate dickheads.
However, let’s get one thing straight, even without that, I think I’d get tired of the cocky, everything is tubular all the time bullshit.
Regardless, during my assessment of him, I can’t help but like all of what’s in front of me.
He’s not huge, but he appears fit. The skin I can find looks like he works out, his sweats hug his hips, and I’m a sucker for a dude in cotton pants that can be classified as easy access and casually not giving a fuck.
“Like what you see, McQueen?”
“Not going to deny it,” I vouch. “However, I’m not open to dating a Forsaken fuck.”
“Never said anything about dating,” he retorts. “You gotta have subject matter before I’ll even consider that.”
“Ah, right. My bad. Well, that leaves me out. We wouldn’t have shit in common and I’m already dating someone so?—”
“I highly doubt that.” He drops his attentive gaze down the length of me in return, taking in my tight blue jeans and black tee that says Boss on it. “I’m already interested, McQueen.”
“Be interested. If you were planning a future with me previously in your head, your buddy isn’t invited to the wedding.”
Reeve’s lips, these really silky-smooth pair that he should have taken away from him, heave into an arrogant smirk. “He’ll live.”
“You good, Bay?” My eyes close on their own, Travis’s worried tone hitting the side of my face like someone just gave me a single blow to the temples.
Straightening my features, I steer my attention to him and force a smile. “Yeah.” I notice the several paperbacks in his hands of all different sizes. “Did you find some good stuff?”
Travis’s interest is already on Reeve. The whole point of getting out of here was for this not to happen. “Some.”
“Cool.” I step up to him, blocking his view of Reeve and subtly ushering him to the counter so we can dip. “Let’s go check out.”
“You’re Reeve Stanton.” My eyes narrow on Travis, surprised that he’d even know who he was unless he’s been around the house to see his dad, the sheriff.
“I am,” Reeve replies then extends a hand. “And you are?”
Travis’s face goes from slightly curious to a downward scowl. “What are you doing here?”
Reeve doesn’t remove his palm, still holding it out for my friend to shake. “Seems to be the question of the afternoon today.”
“Are you trying to finish the job?” Travis accuses, his voice rising a tad like he’s about to lose his entire shit. “You know that she’s protected, right? That you’d fuck up big time if you laid a finger on her.”
“Trav, chill,” I mutter under my breath, seeking to quickly defuse the rising situation. “Let’s go.”
“You lookin’ to make an enemy out of me, kid?” Reeve counters back with a heaved brow. “Because I’m trying to shake your hand, not kill your friend.”
“She’s more than a friend ,” Travis bites out, and his face begins to pinken in rage. “And you screwed up.”
“Wasn’t there.”
“But your boy was.”
“I don’t answer for all the actions of other people,” Reeve retorts with his damn arm still extended. “I’m not God. And even if I was, I’d still tell you that it’d be in your best interest to keep your fuckin’ mouth shut when you’re talking to me.”
“Don’t threaten him,” I leer, maneuvering my attention back to him. “You don’t say anything to my friends.”
Reeve drops his limb and takes a confident, high and mighty step in my direction. “Apparently, you’re more than a friend. Remember when I said I didn’t care if you had a boyfriend…”
“There’s not a chance in hell that it’s going to happen.”
He tsks me like a deplorable child having a fit. “Uh, uh, Bay Bay. Don’t go talkin’ shit when you know you don’t mean it. Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and give me your number? I bet you I’m not as bad as you think I am.”
Travis bumps into me and gets into Reeve’s personal space. “Get away from her. She’s not going to associate herself with a piece of—” I seize Travis’s forearm, interrupting the next words off of his lips because I don’t know Reeve and I don’t want to.
I also don’t choose Travis either.
“We’re leaving,” I command with ire in my voice, pulling Travis out the door with me. “Pay for our books, Reevie. Make yourself useful and do a good deed today.”
“I’m gonna take you out one day, Bay Bay McQueen,” Reeve coos at my back as we begin for the door. “And it’s gonna happen sooner than you think.”
Over my dead body.