5. Well, shit
Chapter 5
Well, shit
Luca
W e continue eating and I think about the summers we spent at the lake together. Lil and I were never particularly close even though we’re the same age. I was jealous of how much her mom obviously loved her. I pushed her off the dock and into the lake that last year. She threw a fit and grinned when I got grounded from video games for the rest of the week. Dad hardly wanted to do anything anymore, and I was bored out of my mind.
Marco’s phone rings, and Lil’s name shows up on the screen in the dashboard. A genuine smile lights up his face as he hits a button on the steering wheel. “And what are my lovely girls up to tonight?”
Lil’s voice is hurried and panicked as it fills the car. “Daddy, some creeper came out of nowhere and attacked Ari. He hit her and pushed her into a wall and was all over her, and well, he’s on the ground now, but?—”
“Where are you?” Marco growls out, shoving his half-eaten burger into my hands before throwing the car into reverse and flying out of the parking spot. There’s no way we don’t leave a shit ton of rubber on the pavement as he puts it in drive and hits the gas.
“The movie theater, around the back.”
“Are you both okay?” He turns out of the parking lot and speeds down the road.
“Uh, I think Ari needs stitches, but we’re okay. Her hand probably needs iced, too. She nailed him in the nose pretty fucking good,” she says proudly.
“You still have him there, Lil?”
“Yeah.”
“You got a gun on him?”
“Of course,” Lil scoffs like she’s offended by his question. “Ariana’s got him covered, Dad.”
“You tell her if the bastard moves, shoot him.”
“Like again?”
“That’s my girl.” Despite the situation, the man can’t seem to help the wicked grin that breaks his face. “Lil, hang up with me and call your mom. Tell her to get Doc out to the house. We’re heading your way now.”
“Okay. Wait, who’s ‘we?’”
“Me and your cousin Luca.”
Lil groans. “Ugh, not cousin Luca.”
“Can’t wait to see you, too, cuz,” I grumble.
“Fuck,” Lil squeals and the line goes dead.
Marco immediately makes a call to someone named Ford.
“What the hell, Boss? You burned rubber out of Gordie’s and disappeared. I was just about to have Parker track your ass down.”
“Meet us behind the theater. Someone fucked with my girls.” Marco’s voice has gone hard. Lethal.
“What?” Tires squeal through the phone. “Are they okay, Marco?” The guy sounds like he genuinely gives a shit.
“Lil said Ariana needs stitches, but they’re alright.” Ford lets out a relieved sigh, and Marco unclenches one hand from the steering wheel before doing the same to the other.
“God damned bull-headed stubbornly independent?—”
Marco cuts Ford off. “Yeah, yeah, they’re all those things and more. Call Sully, I want him there, too.”
“You got it, Boss.”
A few minutes later, we pull up behind a movie theater. A man is curled up in a ball on the ground, bleeding as my cousin Lil kicks him. I can’t hear what she’s yelling at him, but it’s clear she’s unleashing a verbal beating to go along with the physical one. She’s taller than I expected, kind of willowy, and has a pissed-off, blonde Amazon thing going on. It’s an improvement from the whiny, spoiled brat I remember from when we were kids.
Standing a few feet away is another girl, pointing a gun at the guy on the ground, but she glances up as Marco stops the car. She looks like a tiny warrior goddess or an avenging angel. My jaw clenches, my breath catching in my throat when her eyes meet mine.
Her body makes my mouth water—curvy hips, a soft stomach, thick thighs, and tits just shy of being too big for her petite frame. Midnight black hair hangs in wild waves past her shoulders, with bits of pink peeking out. She’s bleeding from her bottom lip and her forehead, but her hand is steady as she holds the gun. I jump out of the car, my body moving on instinct. I bypass Lil and the man she’s berating, going straight to Ariana like I’m being pulled to her by a magnet. The top of her head doesn’t even reach my shoulders, and I use one finger under her chin to gently tilt her head up so I can get a better look at her injuries in the shitty lighting. I don’t realize I’m about to let loose something that sounds like a growl until it’s out of my mouth. The anger in her storm-cloud gray eyes morphs into amusement.
She breaks our eye contact to look at Marco, and I almost check to make sure I’m not the one being kicked in the gut .
Fuck. I’m fucked. It’s like in movies when the guy sees the girl for the first time, and everything goes all slow motion, and he has hearts in his eyes, and the audience is all ‘awe cute, but that shit never happens in real life,’ except it’s happening to me.
The way Marco fell tits over toes for Mia instantly is the stuff of legends. Mom’s bitched about it my whole life. I never believed it. I’m not sure I believed in love at all. But if this is how Marco felt when he saw Mia for the first time, I get it. It’s not only physical. I can feel my soul, my heart, connecting with hers. This girl means something to me.
And someone fucking hurt her.
Someone who is about to pay for that shit. Well, more than he already is, what with being shot and then kicked repeatedly.
Marco’s voice is more gentle than I remember ever hearing it when he says, “Ariana, we’re here now, sweetheart. You can put your gun away.”
More black SUVs pull up, and guys in suits get out, but they keep their distance.
“I haven’t decided if I want to shoot him again or not yet. He’s not bleeding enough.” Ariana’s voice makes my blood heat and my heart race. I fight back a grin at the spirit and spitfire in this girl. I haven’t felt like grinning much in years, but less than a minute in her presence has me going giddy.
“He will, Ari,” Marco growls. He turns toward my cousin. “Lil, you can stop kicking him.”
“No thanks.”
Marco shakes his head with a shrug and looks back at Ariana. “Tell us what happened.”
She sags a little and lowers the gun before flipping on the safety and stowing it in her purse.
“I walked outside, and he grabbed my ass. I would have shoved his nose into his goddamned brain, but he surprised me and smacked me into the wall pretty fucking hard. He said some shit I bet he wishes he hadn’t now, and I don’t want to repeat, then pushed me up against the wall.” I’m pretty sure I growl again, and her eyes flick my way for a heartbeat before she continues. “Lil yelled and distracted him, so I was able to knee him in the balls, smash his nose, and grab my gun. I shot him in the leg so he couldn’t get away. Then I shot him again and kicked him once or twice.” She shrugs. Marco looks at her, then down at the man on the ground, then back to her.
“Just once or twice, huh?”
She rolls her eyes. “Okay, maybe more. I didn’t count. You know me better than that. But these aren’t exactly great for kicking shitheads,” she waves her hands down to her glittery, blood-splattered shoes, “so Lil took over for a while, and that’s when you showed up.” Talking has made her lip start to bleed more. She prods the split with her tongue and cringes in pain. I fight the urge to take her gun and end the guy right here and now. I’ve never killed anyone before, but I’ve never felt anything like this before. Wanting to protect the other kids at school was one thing, but this was a whole new level.
“Why the back door?” Marco asks.
The girls look at each other for a second, and I swear they have a silent discussion before Lil answers with a sigh. “Don’t tell Mom, okay? The movie was terrible. Seriously, so horrible. Mom would love it.” Marco wrinkles his nose slightly. “Exactly. We needed a cigarette to get the sour fucking taste of it out of our mouths. Don’t look at me like that,” she points a finger at a frowning Marco, “it’s not like we’re the only ones who steal a secret smoke around here from time to time.” She wags her eyebrows a couple of times.
Marco pinches the bridge of his nose. “Put the cigarettes in my car, Lilith.”
Surprisingly, she does as she’s told without a fight. “Strawberry shakes? Yes!” she yells from inside the SUV. She skips over to Ariana and hands her one. Ariana touches her busted lip with her tongue again and eyeballs the plastic cup like she’s trying to figure out if she can drink it with the injury. Rage rushes through me. I really hope Marco plans to kill this fuckstick, and I don’t give a shit what that might say about me.
“We’ll take care of this. You go home. Doc should be there by then to check you over.” Marco kisses the crown of Ariana’s head, then does the same to Lil’s.
“I’m fine, Dad,” Ariana claims. She walks over and kicks the asshole one more time. “ Enculé, ” she mutters while flipping him off before tucking the straw between her lips, opposite the side that’s bleeding. I don’t know what she said, but I get the idea. “Damn, Gordie’s has the best shakes,” she murmurs, her eyes closed. My stomach clenches, and my cock twitches.
Calm the fuck down, dude. Now is so not the time.
“I still want your head looked at. Luca, go with them. Ariana, you’re not driving, so hand the keys over to Lil or Luca.”
She stares silently at Marco for like a full minute. “You’re making me regret having Lil call you, mister.” Her stare turns into an icy glare.
“Ariana.” He glares right back. His tone is one I wouldn’t dare go against, but I get the feeling both girls do, and often. Ariana looks like she’s seriously contemplating it.
“Fine.” She exhales loudly, like this is the worst part of her night. Taking the keys out of her purse, her eyes dart between me and Lil a few times before she tosses them to me.
“Hey!” Lil pouts. “No fair. You don’t even know Luca!”
“No, but I know you, Lil, and I’ve had enough head trauma for one night.”
I almost grin again. But then I look down at the douchebag who hurt her, and my expression hardens.
“The girls will tell you how to get home. Ford will follow you. I’m taking this bastard to the shed,” Marco says quietly as he nods at one of his guys, and they all start to move.
“Save me a piece,” I snarl.
Marco looks at me, and I can’t read his expression. I don’t know what he sees on my face, but after studying me for a few seconds, he nods his head again.
I follow the girls, listening as Lil tries to convince Ariana to let her drive. We walk around the building, the girls side by side with their pinkies linked. I cock my head, taking in the ink on the backs of their upper arms. Black outlines of cute baby chickens holding guns. They’re mirrored, pointing the guns outward and at each other. Or, they would be if Ariana wasn’t almost a foot shorter than Lil. Huh… chicks with guns. I guess it fits.
Lil continues to plead her case and doesn’t give up until they stop next to a sleek black Range Rover Sport. The inside looks like a tornado swept through it. Hoodies, books, and burrito wrappers are everywhere.
When Ariana doesn’t give in, Lil sticks her tongue out at her. “Fine. But I call shotgun.”
“Bitch.” Ariana smiles big but then hisses in pain. I tighten my hand into a fist, the keychain biting into my palm. Ariana’s eyes zero in on my clenched fingers, and she looks up at me curiously with those beautiful gray eyes. Forcing my hand open, I unlock the car and open the back door behind the driver’s seat for her. Glancing down, I notice the keychain is a metal square stamped with ‘DeVilles do it better’ and a black outline version of the grinning devil emoji.
“Thanks, Luca,” Ariana says as she slides in, pushing a mountain of shit out of her way. My name on her lips is my new favorite thing. “When was the last time anyone even sat back here?” she mutters.
Lil climbs into the front passenger seat as I start the engine with the push of a button. My knees are up to my eyeballs, so I adjust the driver’s seat to give myself leg and arm room.
“Oh, it was twenty-two, by the way. You kicked him twenty-two times. Twenty-three if you count that last one,” Lil says.
Ariana settles in and buckles her seat belt. “Why wouldn’t I count the last one?”
Lil lifts a shoulder and looks over it at Ariana. “I don’t know, just giving you your options.”
“How many times did you kick him?”
“Forty-nine.” Lil grins and wags her eyebrows. “But I’m wearing better ass-kicking shoes.”
“True. I should have worn my combat boots. From now on, function over fashion.”
Lil chuckles. “That’ll be the day.”