Chapter 30 #2
“Are you fucking dense? We’re surrounded, there’s an ongoing bet, and Lips is still being watched,” hisses Ash, but Avery laughs so no one around us can hear him.
Blaise cringes and looks at me apologetically. I take pity on him because, well, I did let him walk me down here with his arm around me and we haven’t exactly talked about what we’re doing and the risks.
“Don’t bother. Lips has no interest in fucking a guy from Hannaford, she’s said it a million times. Find someone who’s actually up for it,” Harley says, loud enough that the students eating around us can hear and start whispering amongst themselves.
I shoot him a thankful look. Avery takes over and starts talking about her dance recital.
When the room empties out a bit and we have a little more privacy I decide to address the elephant in the room, the third… wait, no, fifth wheel in our relationship. Fuck.
“I feel like we should be talking about the dangers of doing this. I mean, we can’t even sit here and have a conversation without my… baggage coming into it.”
Avery clears her throat, kisses my cheek, then walks off with her phone. I was kind of hoping for her support and input but I guess this is technically a relationship conversation.
“We’re not in this for the bet and until you get the Jackal situation under control we’ll just be more… discreet about what's going on. Our only other option is to wait until he’s not a problem anymore, and I don’t want to do that.” Harley crosses his arms and stares across the table at me.
Ash hums under his breath, watching over Avery as she takes a call on the far side of the room. “Is there a plan to get him to back off? Do we have any idea how long it will take?”
I shrug and push my empty plate away. “There is a plan but it’s not underway yet. It hasn’t been my focus. I’ve been working on more pressing issues.”
The guys all share a look and then Ash says, “I think it’s now the most pressing issue.”
I blush but I don’t let myself break eye contact with him. “I understand that it’s important, but there are still other things that need to be dealt with. Joey, Senior, the O’Cronin family, all of them are important to take care of as well.”
Harley shakes his head but Blaise answers for them all, “No, top priority is now dealing with the Jackal. Your life is the one at stake and the other situations are… survivable.”
Only because I’ve been working on them, but I don’t mention it, so instead I nod and try to blink back the tears prickling my eyes.
Avery having my back since we came back from winter break has been a totally foreign concept, even if I have loved every second of it, but this is almost too much for me.
These three have all just agreed that I’m their priority, that my safety trumps every other issue we have going on.
My welfare and safety has never been a priority to anyone other than myself. It’s a terrifying, amazing thing.
Every night until school lets out for summer break, I go to sleep with at least one other person in my bed.
There’s no more kissing because the guys all seem worried about Avery’s self-confessed castration skills, but it helps me settle into being close to them.
I mean, they’re too fucking hot and I can’t think about them agreeing to share me without ruining my panties, but I no longer blush at their mere proximity.
On Thursday there’s an argument over dinner about who has to take the couch and Avery kicks them all out.
I wake in the morning with my face smooshed into Harley’s chest and Avery yelling at him for breaking in.
She rants at him all day until he finally admits he swiped her keys on the way out and then used them to get back in when he knew she’d be asleep. Sneaky little shit.
On Friday, Avery is getting ready for her end-of-year ballet party and tells the guys they have to clean out all of their clothes they’ve left behind.
I’m sitting on my bed and stressing about leaving Hannaford tomorrow.
I don’t know how to be in a relationship at all, and now I’m trying to navigate a secret plural relationship long distance, with a mobster’s son, a murderous billionaire’s son, and a rock star.
I try to be subtle about asking what the hell we’re doing, but I’m not exactly a subtle kind of girl. Harley laughs at my attempts.
“Where are you staying in Mounts Bay? Like I said, I’m taking two weeks to visit Ma and then I’m staying in the Bay. I can get a hotel or stay with you, your choice.”
He’s folding shirts Avery left in a pile on her bed for him and shoving them in a bag while she throws things into her dance bag.
Ash is digging through her closet and Blaise is raiding the fridge for beer.
I take a breath and just dive in. “Look, Avery’s informed me that there's going to be… wooing.”
“What the actual fuck is wooing ?” Harley sounds appropriately disgusted. Blaise roars with laughter, the type that makes him throw his head back and clutch his stomach. It's a good look. He hands Harley a beer and lounges on my bed as he drinks his own.
Ash sounds smug as he calls out, “Avery is secretly eighty years old and thinks that wooing is the current terminology for?—”
“For what, Ash?” Avery cuts in sweetly. He pauses and she knows she's got him trapped. It's hilarious and anxiety inducing. Then he shocks the shit out of us both by smiling at her and just laying it out there. “For starting something important.”
Right. I tug on the front of Blaise’s Vanth shirt to get his attention.
It’s not the one I got back from Harlow for him, but it’s still super rare.
“I really don't care what we’re calling it.
I'm taking this shirt. I'm also taking that black one of Ash’s, and Harley’s gray sweatshirt. I'll give them back after the break.”
Blaise stares at me, stunned, before sitting up to reach over his head with one arm and pull the shirt off in the typical hot guy way. When he hands it to me the fabric is still warm from his skin. I'm getting better at containing my swooning but sweet Lord . Fuck. Me.
No, seriously.
Fuck. Me.
He's all golden skin, colorful tattoos, and toned muscle. I struggle to focus anywhere other than his naked torso. I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen when I literally told him I wanted the shirt from his back, but it sure as shit wasn't this.
“Thank you,” I squeak, and he fucking winks at me before rooting around in his bag to pull on another one.
Avery side-eyes the shit out of me and then she grins. “How long have you wanted that Vanth shirt?”
I shrug. “Oh, you know, all my life. I'm totally lying, he’ll have to pry this from my cold, dead hands. I know at least eight Mounty girls that would gut me for it so I’m going to wear it to the next party I have to go to.”
I see the glimmer in Harley's eyes as he laughs with Avery and, for a second, I'm afraid he's jealous. When he tugs his sweatshirt over my head I instinctively inhale a big lungful of his heady scent. He watches me and the glimmer turns into something predatory. I love it.
Avery waves at us all and then heads out for her party. Ash wanders back over from the closet with an armful of his clothes.
“You're taking our shit so you can smell us while we’re gone? That's horribly sappy, Mounty,” Ash drawls, but he hands over the black shirt I requested and then neatly piles his clothes into a box.
“I'm weird. I wear guys’ shirts and hoodies with booty shorts and skirts. I listen to the same three albums on repeat. I like French toast, coffee, and cherry anything. I don't function on my birthday or Christmas. I can kill a grown man eight different ways with nothing but my bare hands. I’m never going to be normal.”
Ash grabs my chin and stares down at me, the blank mask gone and in its place a smoldering intensity. I can’t look away.
“If you're trying to warn us off, it's not going to work. We've never agreed to anything as quickly as when we agreed to share you. I'm not planning on wooing you, I'm planning on doing whatever I need to do to get to keep you.”
I swallow and he licks his lips.
“I want us to keep you. I don't want you all to myself, I want to share you with my best friends and I want you to love every fucking second of it.”
There isn't a lie in his eyes, only plain truth and desire. I nod and he eases up a little with a smirk.
“I won't get out of bed before the coffee machine is on.
I hate blues music and listen to Vanth as religiously as you do.
I run track because it makes me feel like I'm dying and sometimes I need to feel like that. I miss my mom and I hate my father. My brother is trying to kill me and my father is taking bets on how long it’ll take him to succeed.
Finding Joey standing over Avery's lifeless body broke something in me that I don't think I'll ever be able to fix. I’m a bigger monster than you because I don't give a fuck who you've killed or why you did it. In fact, from here on out, I’m helping you bury the bodies.”
It’s totally ridiculous but I fixate on probably the least important thing he said. “I cannot believe you're a Vanth super fan and you've given me all that shit about it. You're a real piece of work, Beaumont.”
Blaise snickers behind me like it’s some big fucking secret they’ve been keeping from me and Ash smirks as he says, “I told Blaise he should get you to sing on his next album. I'll listen to that on repeat, too.”
My heart stops beating.
That is the best, worst idea ever and you know what? I'm all fucking in.
“I’ll write you a song, Mounty. While you and Arbour are shacked up and loving every second of summer break, I’ll mope around New York with my parents and write you love songs,” Blaise sulks, and Harley throws an empty coat hanger at him. I pass him the iPod and he flashes me a gorgeous grin.
“I’ll video chat you guys. Harley can stay with me and if you can get away to the Bay, you can stay, too.”