Chapter 5 #3
“We’ll be proper mates then?” he says with this stupidly posh accent.
Ash smiles beneath his face mask and the movement shifts his face.
Light hits his eyes, showing me that they’re actually brown.
Not shark eyes. Just the eyes of a guy my age with a backstory as fucked up as my own.
He slept with Scarlett before I did. Technically, I’m the other man.
For him. For Bohnes. I really screwed up with Bohnes.
I’ll make it right, I swear to God.
“Proper…mates. Sure.” I turn back to the stack of books that Ash has collected, licking my lips and tasting Scarlett again.
That bitch. She knew exactly what she was doing.
My jeans are like a prison, a cage of denim torture for my cock.
I bottle that feeling up for later. “Some of these I liked, some I hated. A few I haven’t read.
Not sure if you want my opinion or not.” I shrug a shoulder.
Ash pulls his mask down, revealing parted lips.
“You chose Scarlett, so your taste can’t be all that bad.” He splays the stack out like a deck of cards, letting me see all the covers at once.
I point at them, talking about shit I honestly wouldn’t with any other guy.
“Smutty as fuck. Basically this whole book is sex.” I look up at Ash again, unsure what to think. Is this okay, talking to him about sex? I’m edgy again, tense. We have sex with the same person at the same time. You’re being dumb, Adrian. “But it’s good. Lots of…group stuff.”
“New positions, new ideas. Hai. I like that,” Ash replies with a happy sigh, sliding that book from the others and starting a new stack. I assume that’s his to-be-read pile?
This continues on for the rest of the period and Ash takes all but one of my suggestions to read or not read. I tell him that one of the titles has questionable consent in it. Like, dubious sexual encounters. He’s super down for it, even if I’d rather swallow a slug whole than read that.
Whatever floats his boat.
We find Scarlett outside at the end of the period, surrounded by girls and fawning. She’s way too goddamn flirtatious with them for my liking. Ash stands beside me, holding a giant stack of books and peering at her with open curiosity.
“Didn’t you pull Scarlett away from her own birthday party to bitch about this exact shit?” I ask him, but he only casts me an entirely unapologetic facial expression.
“No. Because of you. Well, all of you.” He gestures at Bohnes, sitting on the hood of the Devil—parked in Scarlett’s exact space. My car has been moved. Fuck. I check my pockets for my keys and sigh. Goddamn it.
Alexei is down there on the sidewalk as well—with a very healthy bubble of space around his besuited elegance.
Stupid mob prick. He’s got worshippers now singing his praises, calling him Marie and telling him what a good deal the lack of prenup was.
A golddigger’s dream, as the students at Prescott High have been calling him.
“She’s flirting with those girls,” I remind Ash, and he nods, mouth pinching. Yeah, he hates it, too. Good. Maybe we can team up on Scarlett and put this shit to bed permanently.
Ash holds his books against his chest the way he held that stuffed frog this morning, like he’s a poisonous caterpillar with a cracked cocoon, oozing the fuzzy moth he could become.
“Hey,” I start, tearing my gaze from Scarlett to look over at Ash. He peers back at me, mask on his face, hood up. “You want to ride with me to Treasure’s?”
“I…” Ash seems at a loss for words. But then he smiles again.
His black-pit eyes go brown for a second time that day.
“Azasu, Adrian. I’d like that.” He looks down at his shoes, a pair of fancy sneakers he borrowed from Alexei.
“If it ever comes down to it, between keeping Scarlett safe and letting me go, I know you’d make the right choice. ”
Hm.
If he’d said that to me a week ago, I’d have agreed wholeheartedly. Today is…I have a weird pit in my stomach.
Silence follows his statement, a heartbeat too long.
“Hey, we jettin’ or what?” Scarlett asks, appearing on the steps like she knows we’re talking shit. I shoulda told Ash fuck no, we’ve got him. Nothing is happening to him because we won’t let it. Feels like the moment’s passed though.
“We jettin’,” I reply with a smirk, giving Ash a sly look.
Part of being King is keeping the Queen on her toes.
“But Ash doesn’t need a ride. He’s getting one with me.
” I step forward and snatch my keys from between Scarlett’s tits before she can stop me.
“Nice hiding spot, by the way.” I lift them up with a little jingle, slipping my other hand in my jeans.
“You’re riding with Widow instead of me?” Scarlett is aghast, staring at Ash like she’s seen a ghost.
Gives me the chance I need to draw my hand out and rub pre-cum on her lips this time. She nearly bites my fingers off, but it’s too late. I’m strolling down the steps, swinging the keys around in a circle on my finger.
“Widow, you son of a bitch…” she growls out as Ash comes down the steps after me. Bohnes watches the pair of us pass by with a wink. Alexei gives us a companionable nod, letting us break his three-foot rule as we pass by.
The five of us pile into four cars and take off for Treasure’s place.
And that’s how we end up killing ten people at the barbershop.