Chapter 5 #2
“Exactly what you’re thinking,” I teased, tilting my head to silently ask for a kiss.
“I thought what you and Skeet had with me was special. How dare you,” he joked, kissing me before nuzzling into my neck.
“It totally is, baby,” I smiled, glancing at Lukas. “We had fun, right?”
“My brain dies when he’s there. He’s intimidating,” he grumbled.
“You’re not falling for Rory’s monster, are you?” Caden teased, and I shot him a warning glance. Giving Lukas shit was one thing, but it was another to do it in a classroom with other people listening.
“Oh, yeah. I bent him right over,” Lukas deadpanned, thankfully not flipping out.
Tyler hooted with laughter, and I couldn't help the small smile tugging at my lips.
“Sure you did,” I said slowly, making him scowl.
“I totally could.”
“Does Skeet know you want to bend him over?” Caden grinned, the guys all laughing as they teased Lukas, who was starting to look frazzled.
“Guys, this isn’t something we need to discuss. Stop making up scenarios,” I huffed, giving Lukas’ hand a squeeze.
“I’m a top, you know?” he muttered under his breath, and I chuckled.
“I know, but you can be both.”
He gave Jensen a nervous glance, and I wondered if he was thinking about something they’d done in the past or if he was trying to imagine new things to try.
The teacher appeared and everyone sat in their seats, giving me something to focus on for a while.
History was the same, and none of the teachers seemed surprised to see the new students in their classes, so at least I knew the guys had done it the proper way.
The cafeteria was packed when we wandered in for lunch, and I took some turkey salad sandwiches and a coke before sitting at our usual table. The guys piled up their trays and joined me, Caden’s hand resting on my thigh as we ate.
“I heard you’re so scared of sitting in class alone that you convinced the guys to sit in with you,” Claire laughed as she flounced in our direction, Mandy and some other girls with her.
“Scared of what? The only person I’ve had problems with is dead, remember?” I said dryly, her eyes narrowing.
“Ready to admit it was you?”
“I didn’t kill your arm candy, Davidson.”
“You might not have done it yourself, but you definitely got one of the Psychos to do it.”
“Jesus Christ, make her stop. She’s a broken record,” I groaned, picking up my sandwich and taking a bite.
“What about Slash? He had a hard-on for you too, right?” she continued, my chewing slowing as I eyed her.
“You need a new information specialist. Yours sucks at facts.”
“Really? My source says you two were screwing. Did Skeet find out and kill him? Were the news reports fake?” she asked with a sarcastic gasp.
I ignored her, finishing my sandwich and pissing her off with my silence.
“You’re not even going to deny it?”
“Did you hear that rumor or did you make it up?” I asked flatly, a grin spreading across her face.
“Heard it, actually.”
“Thanks.”
She blinked at me, confusion hitting her. “Thanks?”
“I’ll be sure to let Skeet know. He’ll probably stop by to ask you some questions and get to the bottom of it.”
He wouldn’t, we all knew she was making it up, but she didn’t know I was full of shit.
“You’re sending him after me now?” she exclaimed loudly, trying to cause a scene.
“You’re dramatic, you know that? I said he’d ask you questions,” I said with a shrug, looking over at Tyler. “I think Josie’s home this weekend. We should throw our party at yours.”
“I’m fine with that,” he replied, knowing I was ending my conversation with Claire to piss her off.
“Invite only. You guys keep letting the trash blow in,” I sighed, hearing Claire huff.
“How dare you!”
I looked at her with a frown, tapping my fingers on the table. “What? I never said I was talking about you. Do you identify as trash now?”
She let out an annoyed screech and stalked off with her girls chasing after her, and Caden chuckled.
“It’s a shame you have such a good moral compass. You would’ve fit right in with us at the start of high school. You’re good bully material.”
I scoffed, giving him the stink eye. “That’s not the compliment you think it is.”
“Sure it is,” he winked, hauling me onto his lap.
I didn’t fight it, enjoying his touch as we continued eating, listening to him and Tyler banter about which new music releases were the best.
It was nice just having a laugh, some of the tension leaving my body from the stress of the last few days.
Caden
I’d been coiled tight for what felt like forever, but it all faded once I had Rory on my lap. She’d become a part of me, and not having her in my bed was driving me insane.
It felt like every night she was in my bed, she’d sneak out or something would happen.
Thankfully, she put up with me touching her throughout the rest of the day, needing to keep a hand on her at all times as if to stop her from escaping.
We were in the gym avoiding the basketball game from our PE class, and I didn’t realize I’d zoned out until Tyler gave me a nudge and dropped down beside me on the weight bench.
“You good?” he asked quietly, his eyes on Rory, where she was beating up the punching bag in the corner with a pair of boxing gloves.
“Yeah. She needs an outlet or she’s going to explode,” I muttered, sweat coating her brow as she swung her fist at the bag.
“That’s easy. Fuck her,” he shrugged.
“She needs to hit something that might hit her back. She obviously can’t fight at the Shed, I’d bet money on them canceling fights right now even if she could go there.
I tried to find her somewhere safe to fight, but there’s nothing around that’s not connected to other crews or possible enemies of the Psychos.
That’s the last thing she needs right now. ”
“She’s friends with some of the girls from the Shed. She can hang out with them and still fight,” Jensen suggested as he appeared beside me, grabbing a bottle of water and downing half of it.
“Do you really want your house filled with possible problem teens who might steal the—” Tyler shut up when I cut him a dirty look.
“I don’t think Rory would be friends with people she couldn’t trust. The gym at home is more than big enough to use a section for fighting.”
“Yeah, but your mom will freak out if she thinks Rory’s hosting fights. Not to mention the floor would get stained with blood. Those girls are brutal,” Tyler sighed, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands.
“We’ll figure it out. Might be good to show her that we accept her friends. Invite them to Saturday’s party,” I said slowly, thinking out loud.
Lukas snorted, lying down on the floor in front of us to catch his breath. He’d been running on the treadmill for over an hour now.
“Might want to let them warm up to us first. They won’t trust our nice offer and they’ll think you just want to brag about our fancy houses. I know that girl Rory calls Mule is from the Heights. Not sure about any of the others.”
“You hung around the Heights with Rory as kids, right? Did you go to any of their parties?” Tyler asked curiously.
“A couple just before we stopped talking. Cheap beer, lots of weed, usually in abandoned houses. I saw one girl exchange a blow job on a stained mattress for a joint once. She must have been around ten years old,” he said and wrinkled his nose.
“Just tell Rory to invite the girls since they’re her friends.
If we do it, we look like we’re just trying to look good by helping those less fortunate or something,” Jensen grunted, Rory’s arms dropping to her sides as she stopped taking her mood out on the bag.
She glanced over, frowning when she noticed us all watching her.
“What?” she asked, walking towards us.
She held her hands out for me to undo the gloves, sliding them off her hands and dropping them to the floor.
“Who are you friends with at the Shed? Apart from Mule,” I asked, her eyebrow raising.
“Why?”
“Just thought maybe since you can’t hang out at the Shed right now, you might like to have some of the girls over. You could invite them to the party at Ty’s on Saturday,” I offered, making her wince.
“You want them to mingle with the blue bloods of Ashburn Valley? It’s asking for trouble. I don’t even know if they’d want to step foot in any of your houses.”
“Ask them. They’re your friends, Rory. You should be able to invite them over to hang out. We can convert the corner of the gym at home to a training cage too.”
Her face softened, uncertainty crossing her eyes. “You’d be cool with that?”
“It’s your house too, baby,” I promised, making her sigh.
“I can ask.”
“If you’re worried, invite Mule over to hang out at home on her own or something. You guys can check out the gym and decide how you want the training area to be done,” I encouraged, making her nod.
“Okay. Thanks. I’ll see if she wants to come over today,” she grinned before wandering over to her bag to grab her phone, texting rapidly.
We all headed to the showers to rinse off the sweat, and I slipped into the girls’ bathroom with my clean uniform in hand since the other students were all still in class, finding Rory getting ready to step into a stall.
She rolled her eyes but motioned for me to join her, and I made sure our things were hanging inside the stall to avoid being stolen, before locking it and stripping my sweaty clothes off.
I stepped under the spray behind Rory, her body instantly leaning back into mine. I pressed my forehead to the back of her head and just held her.
“Why do you think the Soldiers want me?” she mumbled, and I turned her in my arms to look at her.
“Revenge on Max, maybe?”
“What if he sold me again? He sold me to your dad to make me disappear, so it’s not too far-fetched to think he’d sell me again, right?” she asked softly, wearing her broken heart on her sleeve.
“Do you think we could cut them a deal? I’ll pay them whatever they want if they’ll leave you alone,” I promised, making her wince.
“They’d just extort you. They’d accept it, then keep coming back to threaten me and get more out of you.
Don’t make a move without talking to Skeet.
Please. This isn’t something simple you can just make go away with money.
Besides, Josie would notice if lots of money started being transferred and she’d question it.
Cops snooping around would get a bunch of us killed. ”
I hated that she was right.
I cupped her cheek, leaning down to place my forehead on hers as I closed my eyes.
“If they hurt you—”
“We’re going to make them pay for what they did to Slash,” she said, cutting me off. “They won’t get the chance to hurt me.”
I sighed, wrapping my arms around her and drawing her against my chest, letting the water rain down over us as we just stood there in silence for a while.
I helped her wash her hair once we pulled apart, just needing to keep touching her. As much as I wanted to sink inside her, it felt like the wrong time.
We’d just gotten dried and dressed when the bathroom door opened and chatter filled the room, so I grabbed our things and unlocked the shower stall to step out. The chatter died down when the girls started noticing me, and Claire scoffed as Rory moved into view too.
“Seriously? You can’t even shower alone?”
“Eat shit,” I bit out, grabbing Rory’s elbow to tug her towards the door.
“Don’t push me, Caden. I could destroy you,” she spat, making me halt as I turned to face her.
“I highly doubt that. Feel free to try though,” I said in a low voice, satisfaction rolling through me as her eyes widened a fraction.
Claire’s family might have been a big deal in the hotel world, but they were piss ants compared to mine. None of her connections would go up against the Holloway name, we were bigger than all of them.
Besides, the Davidsons were friends with Mom, so they wouldn’t allow their daughter to fuck up their business relationships.
Rory got tired of our stand-off and left the room, giving me no choice but to follow her if I wanted to keep her in my sights.
The guys were waiting outside the door, giving me an annoyed look for what they assumed we’d been doing. Usually, I would’ve been doing everything in my power to get Rory naked in there, so I totally understood their annoyance.
“Let’s all head to mine. Rory, did you want to go with Luke?” I asked, and Jensen gently tugged her against him.
“Can I go with him? You can drive the Camaro back for me,” he offered, Rory’s eyes flicking to Lukas’ to make sure he was okay with it. When he nodded, she relaxed.
“Sure. Stay close to us though, okay? No pulling over to talk today,” she warned, both of them agreeing before we all headed outside to the parking lot together.
Jensen handed Rory his keys and headed off with Lukas, leaving Tyler to climb into the back of the Camaro while Rory and I got in the front.
“So, what did you guys get up to last night?” Tyler grinned as he leaned between the seats, smacking a kiss on Rory’s cheek as she started the car.
“Seat belt,” she ordered, turning her head to kiss him quickly. “And it’s none of your business.”
“Aw, c’mon. Give me something,” he whined as he sat back to do as he was told.
“They rocked my world. Skeet likes being the boss, and Lukas likes guidance. Use your imagination,” she said dryly, intriguing me.
“Luke let Skeet boss him around?” I asked, a little surprised.
“Yes. It was hot,” she smirked, putting the car in reverse to back out of the parking space.
“I’d let Skeet tell me what to do to you. Does he get all growly about it?” Tyler asked as he bounced in his seat.
“You’ll find out when you fuck me with him one day,” she said in a low tone that made my cock hard. As much as I liked being in charge in the bedroom, sometimes the idea of being watched and told what to do was appealing.
Sometimes, I wanted to punch Skeeter for it.