Lips startles at the sight of the Beaumonts in the backseat and darts around the car to Avery, chuckling when Floss opens the door to her straight away and sliding right in.
The moment I get in the back and shut the door, Morrison takes off, as eager as I am to get the hell out of the slums.
The girls start whispering amongst themselves and I use an arm to help Ash prop Joey up so the cunt doesn’t choke on his own tongue.
I wish the fuck he would though.
“Where should I drop you off, Mounty? Feel free to tip me for my services,” drawls Morrison. I hear Avery snort at whatever face the Mounty has pulled and for some fucking reason that only pisses me off more.
“She’s coming back to the hotel with us,” I say.
Ash turns on me with a scathing look and snaps, “Why?”
“Thank you, Lips, for finding my coked-up brother and getting him out of danger before he got himself stabbed by an angry Mounty girl for not keeping his hands to himself,” Lips says, the sarcasm dripping from every word.
Ash doesn’t know the meaning of backing down. “Thank you, Mounty, for traipsing around the docks dressed like a slut and tripping over Joey. Do all your clients pay you in large bags of dirty money? Is your puss really that good?”
“Ash, shut your mouth.” Avery turns in her seat to glare at him.
I ignore Ash’s shitty mood completely and lean forward in my seat until I can get half a look at her jammed into the seat with Floss. There’s more important shit to know than the fucking money.
I can figure that shit out later and when it comes to the Bay, there’s more than a dozen reasons she could be getting paid and each one more dubious than the last.
“Who was the guy with your bags?”
“Luca. He's… he works for the same guy your uncle does. We’ve known each other forever.”
Like I give a fuck about who he works for. “Have you fucked him?”
Her eyes narrow at me. “How is that any of your business?”
Blaise tips his head back and laughs, a total fucking cover-up because I know he’s just as fucked for her as I am. “How many of those Mounty guys have you fucked?”
“Why do either of you care?” Avery says in her most dangerously sweet tone and there’s absolutely fucking nothing I can say back to that.
Not in this car with the rest of them, and certainly not while Lips still looks at me like I’m the biggest fucking asshole she’s ever seen.
This year is going to be a fucking nightmare.
Chapter Two
Blaise
I know before I open my eyes that sophomore year at Hannaford Prep is going to be a fucking nightmare.
The beds are the same, the layout is the same, fuck, even the sounds in the halls outside our room are the same; the problem is that the three guys in this room are completely fucking different than last year.
Ash might kill Harley before we graduate.
He might even kill me and that’s not something I ever thought I’d say.
“I don’t fucking care what it takes, we need her out and away from Avery.”
I would roll my eyes but I’m too busy pretending to be asleep so I don’t get dragged into this argument again. I’m so fucking sick of it.
Arbour isn’t sick of it though, nope, he’s fired up and ready to throw down with his cousin over his girl. “For fuck’s sake, Ash, use your brain! Do you really think Aves would betray you? Because we both know she’s too fucking smart to be lured into a friendship by some Mounty trash. You need to get over yourself and make peace with her.”
Ah fuck, now I’m definitely not getting involved.
The room goes quiet, the deadly kind where Ash is working out a full and detailed body disposal plan, and when he finally answers his cousin, his tone is dripping in acid. “You are blinded by your own fucking obsession with her, you know as well as I do what happens at the docks in Mounts Bay. Avery isn’t going to get caught up in that shit, not when we’ve spent this long keeping her out of Joey and Senior’s way.”
There’s a pause and then the door slams and Harley sighs. “You can quit pretending to be asleep now, asshole.”
I scoff at him, struggling to sit up and stretch out. “Why the hell would I get involved in your bullshit? I don’t give a fuck about the Mounty.”
Harley’s eyes narrow at me, still a little bloodshot from his morning training down at the pool. I swear I’m the only one with a reasonable respect for sleep around here. He stares at me for a second longer, fuck knows what he’s looking for, and then he starts packing his bag full of all of his genius-level textbooks.
Fuck that.
I grab a shower and get ready, hating every second of putting the uniform on. It’s like a fucking mask, any little piece of myself that could possibly show through is hidden away behind the rich asshole blazer. I fucking hate it, but that only makes it worse.
Poor little rich kid.
Sad and privileged with Daddy’s money but not his love.
I could fucking choke.
When I get out of the bathroom, Harley is waiting and he scoffs at the state of me, mumbling under his breath at the rumpled look I’ve got. Like I give a fuck about dress codes or what the faculty thinks of me.
We head down to the dining hall together and when I text Ash to meet us there for food, he blows me off, too busy following Avery around and arguing with her. He’s going to end up with a fucking stomach ulcer or an embolism at this rate.
I grab a tray, distracted by the sub-par menu for breakfast so I almost miss Harley’s obsessive stalker-like action on the Mounty. Fuck, it’s full-blown stalker really. He’s fucking panting after her and I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before I’m coming back to our room to find him fucking her on Ash’s bed as a giant ‘fuck you’ to his cousin.
Fuck.
I don’t wanna think about that.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“I’m getting to the bottom of some shit, if you’re worried about what Ash thinks then now is the time to leave,” Harley says, filling his plate up with protein in every form.
I do the same, running on autopilot while I call him out on his shit. “So you’re still trying to pretend you’re only interested in what’s going on with Avery? Right. Totally logical, Arbour, I definitely believe you.”
His jaw clenches so hard I think he’s going to break his teeth, but at least he doesn’t hit me for once.
He’s getting fucking jacked.
“In or out, decide now because I’m going,” he says, and I shrug at him as I follow him over to where the Mounty is sitting.
No other students are sitting anywhere close to her, wary of both her reputation and her poverty because half of these airheaded rich kids think it’s contagious. She looks so different in her uniform, still thinner than last year but she already looks less… wary. Like Avery’s friendship has eased something in her and softened her up a bit from the sharp and jumpy Mounty she was last year.
The second she looks up at us both that calmness disappears and she’s back to being the same old sharp-tongued Mounty, constantly tearing us down without any fear of what we’ll do about it.
No wonder Harley is obsessed.