When we both stand, I decide that I might not be able to have her, but I can work at actually being her friend. A real one. So I pull my iPod out of my pocket and offer it to her. She stares at it for a second before she takes it hesitantly.
“What's this?”
“A playlist. If we're going to be friends then I'm taking advantage of your good taste in music. Give it a listen and let me know what you like. I’ll grab it next week so wipe it and make me a list.”
I can literally see the thoughts fly out of her head as she blanches. “How do you know I have good taste?”
Fuck.
It’s too easy not to take the opportunity to flirt, even if it goes against my plan to lock that shit up, so I grin at her and suck on my bottom lip, rolling it between my teeth. More freaking out and averting her eyes, my head gets too fucking big about it.
“Well, you like Vanth. I'm assuming your taste must be decent.”
Then I leave, lighter than I have been in days.
Chapter Eight
Harley
The good thing about being a Mounty is how fucking easy it is to find someone who wants to be bribed.
The students from Hillview Academic School are all rich by Mounty standards but fucking nothing like the assholes here at Hannaford. I feel bad about pulling cash out from the account that Avery set up for me to pay the linebacker to take Rory out, but I can’t think of anything else I’d rather spend the money on than fucking destroying that asshole.
Daniel Carmichael Jr. was cut off by his parents back in his junior year for sucking his boyfriend’s dick in the locker room in full view of the security cameras there. Fuck, he could’ve walked three steps further into the showers and never been outed in the first place, but he had something to prove to his high profile lawyer daddy.
Fucking rich kids.
Ash joins me on the walk down there, frowning at his phone the whole time while he tries to track Morrison down.
“Should I be worried about the two of you breaking up?”
I shouldn’t sound so smug but the pouting that Ash is doing over this is completely fucking pathetic. He’s always been cold and a little standoffish, even with me and Avery, but the icy cold fucking attitude on him these days is next level.
“Joey and his little parade of ass-licking dickheads are worse than ever and Blaise said he was walking Avery over here when he was done studying. If you weren’t so busy chasing after the Mounty, you’d know this.”
I shrug and walk down to the locker rooms, ignoring the look he gives me even as he follows me without hesitation. “She was studying with Lips. I haven’t seen Joey or his dumbass friends get past her once. Fuck, I’d trust her with Lips more than I would with Morrison these days. He’s still too wrapped up in obeying his daddy, and he pulls his punches.”
That gets his full attention. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Just because he’s not eager to bury people like you are doesn’t mean he won’t get the job done.”
I scoff but I keep my mouth shut because, well, I’m only really poking at him to rile him up.
I know what Morrison did for him.
Daniel takes the money with a grin and a wink, eyeing us both like we’re dinner, and Ash sneers at him before stomping off. I’m a little less of an asshole about not being interested, because I need the guy to do the job right, but I make my point nonetheless.
I buy hotdogs from the cart on the way past, scoffing at the sneer on my cousin's face at the sight of them. Of course the caviar-eating asshole wouldn't like anything that wasn't served on fine china or that wasn't cooked by his sister just the way he likes it.
Typical.
We get back up to the bleachers and into some decent seats just as the others arrive. All three of them. Together.
Lips looks like she wants to jump out of her own fucking skin to get away from us all, Avery is a blank slate—which is a huge red flag, and Morrison has never looked so fucking guilty in the entire time I’ve known the asshole.
Ash clearly thinks so too.
Lips scurries over to sit next to me and as much as I’d like to think that she’s finally warming up to me, it’s definitely a strategic move to get the hell away from Ash and Blaise.
Avery watches her and then her eyes flick between the rest of us before she sighs and snaps, “Morrison let Annabelle drool all over his neck in the library while he stood there like an idiot instead of shoving the skank-bitch off and telling her to find some other neanderthal to trick into fatherhood. His inability to tell her to fuck off is going to fill my planner up, and he's going to owe me more than he's worth by the end of the year."
Ash smirks at him and Morrison bites back immediately. I ignore them, handing Lips a hotdog and enjoying the shock on her face as she takes it. There's something so fucking Mounty about her getting choked up at being given food that my chest aches with the memories of that fucking hellhole of a city.
How do I convince Avery to keep her the hell away from there next year for summer break? How can I talk her into coming up the coast with me so we can spend the time together, safe and fed and happy. Fuck, it isn't even about getting to have her there with me. I've watched all of the girls I grew up around end up on street corners. The only reason my cousins didn't end up there is because my uncles wouldn't let it happen. Not that they'd feed them properly or give a shit about them, nope, it's all about the family name and reputation.
They haven't figured out yet that the name O'Cronin is a fucking embarrassment.
It only takes a minute before Morrison distracts Ash with random stats about the players, and they ease up a little on their cutthroat banter.
“We’re not going to have to sit through the whole thing, are we?” Avery whines, cringing at Lips and I as we eat the hotdogs.
Her words catch Ash's attention again and he throws us both a filthy look, pissed beyond all measure that Lips parked her ass right next to me. I don't know why he's so fucking worried about her, even without her obvious protection of Avery, she's still not going to change our family dynamic all that much.
Lips frowns at Morrison lighting up a blunt and I nudge her gently to distract her. “Relax. No one here gives a shit, Mounty.”
She shrugs and looks out over the crowd. She looks... worried. Sad. Anxious? Fuck, unless there's a fucking blush over her cheeks she's impossible to read, and even then she never acts the way I expect when she's looking fucking ravenous at one of us.
I could fucking kill Joey for starting that stupid fucking bet.
I don't know if that's the reason that she never follows through or if there really is a slum drug lord in the Bay that owns her, but none of that stops me from wanting to fucking gut anything that's getting in the way.
I don't want to face the idea that maybe, just maybe, she has no fucking interest in any of us and all of the blushing is... something random that happens to her.
Fuck.
Avery starts bitching me out again, just fucking going to town on me over being forced to sit in these stands with rowdy football fans, but Ash takes the opportunity to fawn over his sister again for a minute. I've never seen the two of them go this long without figuring their shit out. They're like magnets, always finding a way back to each other no matter how much they bicker and fight over useless bullshit, and it's fucking jarring to see them like this.