I ignore the part of me that is also, maybe, just a little bit interested in watching her.
This shit is too messy for me to get involved.
“Seriously. I’m not dealing with either of you this fucking early in the morning unless it’s a life or death situation. Is someone bleeding?”
Harley snorts at her and offers her a glass of juice, which she stares at like it’s poison and shakes her head. “I’d rather not start my week off with the runs, thanks, asshole.”
I glance between them both while Harley roars with laughter, the type he doesn’t do around anyone but his family, and if I wasn’t so caught up on her words I’d be fucking worried about it, but there’s something going on between the two of them. There has to be, what the fuck else would her words mean?
Dammit. Am I jealous of Arbour right now because that’s just fucking stupid, getting involved with the Mounty is the worst possible option.
Doesn’t stop me from wanting to kill him for the smug grin on his face when he drawls at me, “Don’t ask, man. We had a great winter break last year. I like to think that was when we became friends.”
She doesn’t take that well, pointing a knife at him and snapping, “We are not friends. I’m Avery’s friend and you two are firmly Team Ash.”
Team Ash?
Since when were there teams? This shit is getting out of hand. The moment I start looking at her, curiously trying to figure out what her deal is, she blushes and starts mumbling at her plate. I shove some food into my mouth but barely taste a thing.
I’m sure Harley sees the blush just as well as I do, the only hint that she was once a fan of my music and can’t quite let that shit go, and I refuse to look at the seething jealousy I know is happening in Harley’s direction.
He might see just how fucking smug I am about it.
I think Harley is about to start a fucking war with me, here and now, over that blush when the doors to the dining hall open and Joey saunters in with his little crowd of simpering assholes to distract us all.
Thank fuck.
“Look, it’s only a matter of time before Aves wears Ash down and then we’ll all be one big happy fucking family. So stop fighting it. We’re friends by association,” says Harley.
“Fuck off,” the Mounty mumbles with a mouthful of food and though that should be disgusting, it’s kind of cute how much she stuffs in. She’s not looking at either of us while she does it though, her focus entirely on her plate and it makes me want to poke at her, piss her off a little and see how far I can push her.
“God, are you going to be a grumpy ass like Harley all the time? There’s only so much of that shit I can take.”
She stiffens at the sound of my voice, like she’s startled I’m talking to her, and Harley elbows me with a chuckle, as if he’s not pissed at me for daring to speak to her. I laugh back, only because it’s that or call him out on it and there’s enough drama in our lives with Ash being pissed off.
Harley clears his throat and the moment the Mounty looks up at him he catches her eye, pinning her to her seat with the focused intensity that only he can pull off with her.
She squirms under his gaze and fuck if that isn’t distracting, so much that I barely register Harley’s words until I realize he really is here to talk business. “Listen, I’m not Ash. Avery can’t throw pretty words around and fool me. I know exactly what scratches down a cheek fucking mean. I need you to tell me exactly what happened between her and Rory. I’ve spent the whole break fucking stewing on it and I need an answer.”
Her spine snaps straight like she’s been zapped by a couple of thousand volts and she says, her words slow and careful, “If Avery has chosen not to tell you herself then you will never get it out of me. End of story.”
Harley’s eyes narrow at her, filtering all of her words through his bullshit-meter and deciding if she’s legit or just trying to play him.
After a minute he shrugs and says, “Good. I’m glad you’re a decent friend to her. She’s never had one of those. But I need to know if I need to kill Rory. No, not beat him bloody or start a social campaign against him. I need to know if I need to end his life and fucking bury him somewhere. Because if that piece of shit raped my cousin, if he did that to her, I will end his life. I’m not asking for details, just tell me if he has to die.”
Huh.
It’s like I can watch the respect she has for him doubling by the second; the more he talks about protecting his cousin in the most violent ways, the more he reels her in.
Maybe it is a Mounty love story for the ages.
I’m absolutely fine with it.
Ecstatic, and I refuse to admit that I’m mostly cool with it because Ash will tear them apart before they even manage to get anywhere and so that makes it safe to be cool with it.
Safe.
Fuck.
“Fine, no details. If I were ten seconds later than what I was, you would be burying that dickhead. But I got there in time.”
Right.
Rory has to die.
No way that we can let him walk around here with Avery like he didn’t try to fucking rape her. Avery is the closest thing to a sister I’ll ever have and the thought of that shit happening to her has me ready to take a baseball bat to Rory’s head.
Ash is going to lose his goddamn mind.
Harley side-eyes me but I don’t need that to know he’s already plotting it all out in his head as well. Fuck, maybe I’ll leave it to him just to keep him busy and away… from Ash. Because that’s the only thing I need to keep him away from.
I break the awkward silence, the one where we’re all vividly imagining the murder of a peer. “Color me impressed. Rory’s a linebacker, you’re what, five-two? How the hell did you stop him?”
The Mounty snorts at me and drops her silverware onto her plate with the kind of exhaustion that shouldn’t be possible for a high school girl. “I’m a Mounty. I’m a foster kid. I was a child of neglect before that. Last year I was the target of a game that had most of the male population of this school following me around bugging me for sex every day. I’ve had to threaten Harley’s psycho cousin with a knife to the dick. You think I don’t have experience fighting off rapists? Please. Go back to your privileged, gilded fucking towers and leave me the hell alone.”
Well, fuck.
Fuck me.
A baseball bat isn’t going to be enough for Joseph Beaumont Jr. but, fuck, I wish I could beat the life out of the psychotic asshole and one glance at Harley is all I need to know he’s on board with the killing.
Problem is, the twins aren’t on board with it at all. I don’t know why, because Joey clearly doesn’t feel that same protective energy about his siblings, but it’s the way it is.
Doesn’t mean we have to like it.
The Mounty glances over at the door before standing abruptly, a grin on her face as she stalks off to Avery who’s just arrived, the two of them whispering and looking over at us both.
I’ve never seen Avery look so happy, relaxed, and young as when she and Lips are whispering together.
“Joey has to fucking die. You need to get Ash’s head wrapped around that fact because anyone who touches either of them is fucking dead,” Harley snarls at me, and for once I completely agree with him.