Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
The school staff decide that the students need motivation going into the last couple of weeks of classes before winter break, so the class rankings are posted on every door. Our first class for the day is history, and I do a double-take when I see that the second spot, under me, is Ash. Not Harley.
Oh fuck.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Harley snarls, and the look Ash gives him is total arrogant asshole.
Do I stand between them or just let them fight it out? Stupid question, I get the hell out of there and zone them the fuck out. When Harley finally takes his seat, I smile at him only to have him glare back at me.
Fuck.
“Maybe if you hadn’t spent half the semester with the cougar and a little more time studying with the Mounty, you’d be getting those marks too.
What are you going to do now you can’t coast on the favoritism from that panting bitch?
You’re fucked,” Ash drawls from his seat in front of us, and the smug tone only makes Harley’s rage spread.
I decide to turn away and let them battle it out amongst themselves.
Harley spends the rest of the class furiously writing notes and snarling questions at our teacher like that alone will raise his mark the fraction it needs to reclaim the second spot.
We make it through history in one piece only to find that Ash is beating Harley by the tiniest of margins in every. Damn. Class.
Harley wouldn’t take the news well at the best of times, but Ash makes it his personal mission to mock his cousin mercilessly until I’m sure I’m going to be helping Avery clean intestines off the walls by dinnertime.
Blaise enjoys the show just a little too much. He’s practically bouncing with glee by the time we get back to our room and when I drop onto the couch next to him, he pulls me into his lap.
“Wanna fuck on the couch and see if that distracts them?” he murmurs, but it’s loud enough that Avery hears and throws him a dirty look.
“No fucking on the furniture, Morrison, or I’ll burn all of your guitars.”
He pouts at her and she snarls at him as she shoves Harley toward the bathroom to cool off. I abandon Blaise and his wandering fingers, too much of a temptation, and I convince Ash to walk me through my share portfolio. I hope it’ll distract him enough to leave Harley alone.
He relents, but only if I’ll sit in his lap. Avery side-eyes the fuck out of him but I don’t care. It’s easy enough to learn and seeing my profits makes me wriggle with excitement.
“Now, now, Mounty. Avery’s already on the warpath. I don’t need to die just because you got overexcited over your money and want to fuck me at the table,” he says, and I blush furiously.
“Who said I want to fuck you?” I whisper, eyeing Avery’s back as she fusses over the stove. I don’t know what she’s making, only that it smells incredible. Her new obsession is cooking her way through cookbooks and I for one am not complaining.
“Other than your hard nipples, and your thighs? If I touched you right now, I think I’d find you dripping.”
Oh, Lord have mercy on my poor soul.
Yes, yes he would find me dripping. Even more so now he’s whispering dirty things to me again. I try to move away from his lap but he slaps my thigh and tells me to focus on the laptop screen or he’ll have to spank me, loud enough that the entire damn room hears him.
Avery’s death glare at him only makes my blush deepen.
I would have never thought I’d be up for being spanked but holy god damn. I think I could be convinced.
We’re all seated in chemistry together when there’s a bang outside and the building rumbles.
A few girls squeal and dive under their desks, but the teacher stands and locks the classroom door, calling for us all to stay calm.
My phone buzzes in my pocket at the same time Harley’s does. He gives me a look and Avery turns in her chair with an eyebrow raised. Great. Another mass text, what the fuck now?
Every damn student forgets about the lockdown and checks their phones to see what the hell has just been sent out.
It’s a video from Joey.
My heart stutters in my chest for a second when I see the entrance of Hannaford on Harley’s phone screen but then it video pans down to the staff parking lot and the cars there.
Harley’s Mustang and Blaise’s Maserati.
I start to pray he trashes the fucking Maserati and leaves the ‘Stang the fuck alone. Blaise could not give less of a fuck about his car, but I can’t bear for Harley to see another version of his dad’s car destroyed.
Joey doesn’t just trash the ‘Stang.
He fucking blows it up.
I should’ve known by all the noise, but I’m still shocked to see the video.
Ash groans and Blaise starts cursing Joey out in new and thought-provoking ways.
Harley doesn’t say a word, he just stops the video and slides his phone back into his pocket, before getting back to his chemistry notes.
I chew my lip for a second and then grab his hand under the desk, rubbing his knuckles with my thumb like he does for me when my world starts to fucking implode.
He nods at me without looking up and something in me breaks a little.
I meet Ash’s eyes over his shoulder and tilt my head. Joey is escalating, and I vote we kill the psycho fucker now too.
When the school admin finally lets us out and cancels classes for the rest of the day, while the police and fire department clean up the mess, we all go back to our room so Avery can rage clean and drown herself in coffee.
I keep a hold of Harley’s hand the whole way up there, trying to ignore the fearful stares from the other students. Everyone knows whose car just got bombed.
“He’s fucking pathetic. He knows he can’t take any of us in a fair fight so he’s going after shit he thinks will hurt.
Well, fuck him. The car is important, but it’s just a fucking car.
Ash and Avery mean more to me. He’s just proving how fucking weak he is,” he murmurs, and I wonder if he’s explaining it to me or trying to convince himself.
I squeeze his hand and smile up at him, trying to lighten the mood. “Remember you’re fucking loaded now and you can get it fixed. Or buy a new one.”
He scoffs at me. “I don’t want a new one. Morrison bought me this one, and it doesn’t matter that I’ve paid him back; he did it because he’s family and we do that shit for each other. Fuck Joey and his pissy attitude.”
Be still my fucking heart.
Blaise turns and bats his eyelashes at us both to be a dick, and Harley snarks back at him. I can take a deep breath again, but my chest still fucking hurts.
Joey knows that the only way to truly hurt his siblings is to hurt our family and that makes him a fucking danger.
When we get back into our room, my phone buzzes again and I find a text from Diarmuid.
I can hunt the Beaumont down for you. Will that prove my loyalty? He’ll be dead by sunrise.
I show Avery and she stares at me for a second, running the risk analysis in her head for the hundredth time. Finally, she sighs and shakes her head.
Joey lives to die by my hand another day.