Whether Ash likes it or not, the Mounty is family now.
Chapter Three
Ash
I've been thinking about how I'm going to kill her.
Every morning starts the same.
My phone buzzes under my pillow where I'm sure Harley and Blaise won't see the message, and it wakes me up with the same amount of dread every time. It's a ticking time-bomb, a guillotine blade teetering over my sister that I'm doing fucking everything in my power to keep from hurting her.
Father just sent me a new set of boning knives, maybe I'll try them out on her.
I don't trust the Mounty.
Even with Avery vouching for her, I can't let go of the conviction I have that she's lying to us. Fuck, we all know she's lying, but Avery is so sure that the lies are only about her childhood and the way she grew up in Mounts Bay and not about where her loyalties lie.
The problem is that if my sister is wrong, she could die, and that is completely unacceptable to me. I'm not risking that, not for anyone, and certainly not for a piece of Mounty trash that just keeps luring my family in. Harley is infatuated with her, Avery is sleeping soundly in the same fucking room as her, and even Blaise is watching her more now, especially when he thinks no one is paying attention.
Trusting people is what gets you killed.
Every girl my father and brother have raped and murdered, all of them trusted the wrong person at some point. A family member, a boyfriend, a pimp who promised them a warm meal; every last one of them trusted someone and ended up strapped to a table in Senior's playroom.
I can't trust anyone else, and I'm definitely not trusting some girl from the Bay who's full of secrets and lies. There's no other options here except to keep an eye on her and try to get my family to see some sense.
No matter how much they might fight me on it.
When Blaise announces that he's going to go back to the Mounty for tutoring, he makes the decision for me because there's no way I'm leaving the two of them alone for that long. He's too... curious about her. There's something about her that keeps surprising him and drawing him in, and if he fucking falls for her as well, I'm fucked.
Arguing with Harley is bad enough.
When we both arrive at the library, there's a freshman already sitting with her, making eyes at her like she hung the fucking moon, and I immediately decide he has to die.
Blaise eyes him up as well, but goes for casual as he takes a seat and says, “Mounty! Lovely to see you again, though I’m a little disappointed you’re not in your party clothes. Such a shame.”
I barely manage to speak through my clenched teeth at the interloper. “Move. You’re in my seat.”
The freshman smiles at me like some dopey fucking idiot as he switches seats obediently and Blaise chuckles under his breath at the level of malevolence coming off of me. It's going to be a blood-soaked night in the boys’ dorm's fight club.
“Is there a reason you’ve signed up for another year of pointless tutoring?” the Mounty says with a raised eyebrow at me, but I stare at her until she finally huffs and looks away.
It annoys me that she does. She doesn't back down for anyone else, not the dickhead boys chasing her for the bet or my sociopath brother, but if Harley, Blaise, or I stare her down, she always breaks our eye contact.
It's suspicious as fuck.
The freshman's eyes dart between us both and then he breaks the heated silence.
“I’m Lance. Nice to meet you both.”
I immediately forget his name because that is useless information and the only thing I want from the idiot is his blood on my knuckles and his ass never to perch on this seat with the Mounty again.
Problem is, she just keeps on being nice to the little fuck. “This is Blaise Morrison. Don’t insult his music or beat him in choir or he’ll get pissy and you’ll be miserable for the rest of the year. And this is Ash Beaumont.”
He simpers back with a flirty grin, “Ah. A member of the family I should stay away from?”
Blaise smirks between them both, amused at the Mounty's assessment of him.
I don't want to admit that I'm also interested in her take on me.
She sighs and, shuffling Blaise’s papers, replies, “Yes. His older brother is insane and his sister would destroy your will to live without breaking a sweat. Ash, here, could beat the life out of you and then run a marathon for shits and giggles. Or just pay someone else to bury you, he’s richer than god.”
No other student at Hannaford could have come up with a list that good, and I've attended school with most of them since kindergarten.
Suspicious.
We work on all of our homework together, mostly Blaise getting help from the Mounty and the freshman flirting away at her and ignoring her shooting him down politely every time.
Guess he's not any use to her in her plans of fucking us all over.
The moment the hour is up the Mounty starts packing her shit away, eager to get the fuck away from the tension. Blaise is busy frowning at the notes she's given him, looking even more confused than when we first got here, and the freshman pounces on the Mounty like the desperate piece of shit he is.
He jerks his head in Blaise's direction and says, “How do you stay away from them if you’re tutoring him?”
I level a glare at him and it catches Blaise's attention as he slings his bag over his shoulder. Good to know we both agree on pulverizing him the moment we can.
The Mounty shrugs, her tone dismissive as she says, “I don’t. Avery is my best friend and roommate. I tutor Ash even though he hates me. Joey is hell-bent on murdering me. I’m saying you should stay away from them if you want to survive the year.”
“You think you’re tougher than me?” He grins at her and, no. Absolutely not. I'm not having him play the macho bullshit card on her.
I might fucking loathe her but she could break him in half with one arm tied behind her back.
I'd also pay to watch that, but for entirely different reasons than Harley would.
“Have you ever broken the bones in a guy’s hand in half a second one-handed?” I drawl, and when he frowns at me and shakes his head, I smirk and continue, “Then she’s tougher than you.”
He blinks at her, utterly dumbstruck at the little brawler Mounty.
“Are you here to study or to try to get into the Mounty girl’s panties because you should be warned, she only fucks crime lords,” Blaise laughs and she shoves his math workbook into his chest like that will shut him up.
Immediately, the freshman comes to her rescue. “You think you’re cool because your daddy bought your shitty punk band a record deal? Write another pathetic song about your feelings, dickhead, and stay out of my business.”
The Mounty looks fucking horrified and Blaise stiffens, but I burst out laughing, so loud that the students around us stop and stare. “They’re not going to find enough of your corpse left to get an ID by the time we’re done with you.”
“You didn’t want to take my advice at all then?”
The freshman shrugs and murmurs back to her, conspiratorially like they're the best of fucking friends, “Mounties stick together. I don’t like the way they talk to you.”
And I don't give a fuck what he wants.