Chapter 5
Scarlett
I wake to a crash from downstairs.
Wearing only my underwear and a tank top, I drag the nightstand drawer open and grip the gun that Bohnes gifted me. A hand flies out from underneath the bed and snags my ankle, inked white fingers against my bronze skin.
My entire body goes up in goose bumps and all the hair on the back of my neck stands on end.
Shit, I’m in love with a boogeyman.
“It’s Alexis,” Bohnes murmurs, and then Basti yawns and Nisha curses and his hand disappears beneath the bed again. There’s a pause as my friends both sit up and give me a look. They can hear the screaming from downstairs, too.
“Where are my fucking cigarettes?!” Alexis is on a rampage. I took her cigarettes. Me. A bitch who disrespects me in my own home doesn’t get cigarettes.
“What do you want to do, Queen?” Nisha asks, already resigned to some sort of confrontation.
“I was going to make some coffee.” I put my hands on my hips, still holding the gun. “After I put on pants.”
“You’ll need some backup.” Basti crawls out of the sheets as I stick the gun back in the drawer and drag my sweatpants from last night on. “Nisha, you want your coffee hot, sweet, and cheap?”
All three of us process the reference to Lemon in an instant. That’s what Nisha used to say, when Lemon was still alive.
“I’ll have a cup, too,” Bohnes adds with a little hiss. “Black, like my heart.”
Basti jumps and lets out an embarrassing scream, but Nisha scowls.
“He been under there the whole time?” she asks, and I shrug. He is my Nightmare.
“The mayor sent four assassins after me yesterday. Seems sort of smart to keep him around?” I shrug and then head for the bedroom door, opening it and hurrying down the stairs to find Alexis waiting for me.
“Give me my cigarettes,” she demands, and I laugh. Running my fingers through my hair, I give her a dismissive once-over. I wet my lips and get right up in her face.
This is a Prescott power struggle as much as it’s anything else.
“Take them from me.” I’m calm when I say it. So calm. An endless ocean of calm.
“Girls, don’t fight over stupid things—especially not boys or smokes.
” Aunt Anita sidles past us, running late for work.
She can’t fuck up now, not right after she got that new promotion.
I never did get her a cake. “Stay safe today. This neighborhood is a madhouse recently. A friend of mine told me that the mob was in town.” Anita shivers, snatches her coat, and then disappears out the door.
Alexis and I are still staring at each other. She’s bruised and swollen from last night. I really beat the shit out of her. It should’ve been a worse beating.
“You’re so confident today,” she tells me, finally stepping back. I turn away to head toward the kitchen and Basti scurries to catch up. We’ll make our coffee and fight over the good cereal bowl like it’s any other morning. “Were you this confident when you were shoving Lemon’s body in a lake?”
Basti gasps. If I don’t intervene, he will. I can’t leave him with that responsibility.
I steal the keys to Alexis’ Ford from the glass bowl on the side table.
“You can forget about using the van today. Leave the house and don’t come back until it gets dark.” I point at the door, ready to enforce this rule with violence if needed. We keep staring at each other. With a huff, she retreats, leaving only after slamming the door behind her.
“She knows about that, too?” Basti asks, surprised. He murmurs something in Spanish, following faithfully behind me and into the kitchen. “Where is she getting her intel from? Ash-pen?”
“We talked about it here,” I say with a small laugh, realizing that my grandmother left us a full fresh pot of coffee.
There’s a bowl of sugar cubes and some generic non-dairy creamer set out beside the coffeemaker.
“We weren’t careful of Alexis, Basti.” I put my hands on the counter and lean over, head hanging down.
Don’t wallow over your mistakes. Learn from them. I’m doing things differently with Alexis than I did with Lemon.
I stand up and start prepping coffees to take upstairs.
Nisha is waiting for us when we get back. She sees the extra cup for Bohnes in my hand and rolls her eyes. I move over to the right side of the bed and then squat down, setting the steaming mug on the floor and then pushing it under. He grabs it and makes it disappear without a single sound.
I find my way back to bed with Nisha and Basti, the three of us sitting in a row and sipping.
We forgot the cereal.
“What’s the plan with Aspen?” Nisha asks, careful to use the correct name. Just because we saw Alexis leave doesn’t mean that we should talk freely here either.
“We’ll wait for him to contact us,” I say, taking another sip of my coffee and smirking.
That dumbass idiot. This villain routine isn’t going to last. I’ll be waiting impatiently for it to end.
There’s a sound from the garage, like the door is being opened.
“Your sister—” Bohnes starts, but I’m already running.
I get downstairs just in time to see that she’s raising a hammer over the windshield of my car.
I tackle her from behind and we fall into the Devil together.
Basti and Nisha are forced to watch with apathy from the doorway as I beat my own sister into a bloody pulp. It’s a scrappy fight. She gets me good enough, giving me a bloody nose and claw marks down my right cheek. Bohnes is there to witness the entire thing, but he doesn’t interfere.
The fight ends with me dragging Alexis outside and throwing her in the grass.
“If I see you again, I will murder you.” I kick a cluster of loose, brown grass at her. The clod hits her in the face and she chokes on dirt. I retrieve the hammer from the garage and then proceed to take it to the windows of Alexis’ car as she screams at me from the dead front lawn.
Nobody comes to help her. Nobody would dare.
I wasn’t gifted my reputation. I fucking earned it. However many times I need to prove that, I’ll do it.
Is this what my week is going to look like? I think wearily, and I know that it is.
I finish destroying all the windows on the Ford Econoline shitbox that my mom bought for Lexi. That’ll be fun, explaining to her what happened when she gets home from work. Oh, and Grandma. Especially Grandma.
Basti, Nisha, and I head back in the house and refresh our coffee. This time, we don’t forget the cereal. Without asking, without even thinking about it, I make a bowl of cereal for Bohnes in the best bowl and then I push it under the bed.
His laughter is priceless.
Yep, I’m in love with a boogeyman with an ego problem.
I should tell him that.
The school week drags hard for me.
Widow acts like I’m not wearing sexy panties and bending over for him in the library. Marie is hunkered down, avoiding the mayor’s men that keep watch over the school. Bohnes is busy in the background doing all of his usual things. Ash never calls or texts.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. By Thursday, I’m getting tired of coming home to another issue with Alexis.
She went through my room again. She’s wearing my clothes. She’s waiting for me when I come in the front door.
Thursday is when it surges and escalates.
I’m just trying to get through to Friday so I can race. Either I impress this Hollywood guy or I advance in the Stars and Stripes Vintage Classic prelims. That’s where I’m at right now. Ash will come around. That’ll change how we handle this Alexis thing.
The radio is on when I unlock the front door and Widow and I set foot in the house after school.
“It’s confession night over here at KMZI 66.6. My name is Milicent and I’m your host for the evening. We want to hear all about lovers’ quarrels tonight. Let’s stir some dark magic in the air. Okay, phone lines are open.”
I ignore the station and head up the stairs, Widow trailing behind me. He beat the fuck out of a guy’s van today for looking at me funny. But he didn’t put out. I wonder to myself what these dummies are planning.
“Can we talk?” I ask plainly, turning around at the top of the stairs. Hands on my hips. He hesitates on the stairs, one hand gripping the banister.
“Sure,” he gripes, always full of piss and vinegar. Widow eyes me suspiciously as I turn and move into my room ahead of him.
I can just barely hear the next part of the broadcast.
“Scarlett Force is a fraud.”
It’s Alexis’ voice, coming from the radio.
Alexis is on KMZI 66.6. Alexis is talking smack about me on my favorite show.
Widow and I lock eyes before I race over to the radio on my side table and flick it on, frowning as it crackles to life.
Widow moves up to stand behind me, a little too close, the heat of him like an unfulfilled promise.
“Scarlett Force? The race car driver?” Milicent pauses to let the remaining implications go unspoken.
Scarlett Force, the current Queen of Prescott High.
Scarlett Force, leader of the Crimson Crew.
Like I said, I have a reputation. “This is a romance hotline not a place for run-of-the-mill Prescott rumours.”
I use my phone to look up the number for the station. Widow watches silently over my shoulder, putting one hand on my right arm. A comforting touch. Something casual.
I slap him off and turn to look over my shoulder, the pair of us glaring daggers at one another.
He hasn’t touched me all week. There’s somethin’ for the good ol’ romance hotline.
“Scarlett is sleeping with Lemon’s fiancé. That counts as romance, right? So much for hos over bros.” Lexi scoffs as my blood goes from fiery hot to ice cold. It’s like she wants me to kill her. It’s like she’s trying to die.
“Lemon…the missing girl? Lucy Bree Hall?” Milicent pauses to mull that statement over. “You’re saying that Scarlett Force, the champion of the Prescott neighborhood, is sleeping with the mayor’s son?” Milicent lets out a whistle as I grit my teeth and cling to my self-control like it’s a life raft.