“Are you that stupid?” Something banged on a locker. If I had to guess, it was Bellamy’s fist.
“Jesus Christ! We hooked up. Once. When I was shitfaced. And you just…” Silence fell over the hall. “Leave her the fuck alone, Nikki.”
I had to wonder who they were talking about, and what exactly Nikki had done to piss him off so much, because he sounded livid. I waited until a few more minutes of silence passed before I hooked a left down the hall, then exited the school, heading into the half-deserted parking lot
I joined Nora and Diane, huddled against Nora’s car in their cheerleader outfits.
Diane’s gaze tracked Bellamy and Hendrix as they crossed the lot. “What is it about them getting arrested that makes them so much hotter?”
“Speak for yourself.” Nora opened her car door and tossed her gym bag inside. “I had to give up my bed for his little brother. Bellamy was supposed to take care of him, and he got arrested.” Disdain leaked through her voice. “For dealing drugs. Again.”
Diane’s brows pulled together. “That’s random. Why didn’t his mom watch him?”
“She works like three jobs or something. His dad’s a drunk. Bullshit. Bullshit...”
A lump formed in my throat. I glanced across the parking lot at Bellamy, who was standing behind Wolf’s truck. All tattoos and attitude. He didn’t look like the kind of guy who would watch a kid.
“Bellamy looks after his little brother?” I asked.
Nora shrugged. “The kid’s with him more than not.”
A horrible sensation dug into my chest. Guilt. Oh, screw him. He was the asshole in this situation. Not me. I tried to maintain that, even as I pictured his life with a deadbeat dad, a mom who was never there, and a little brother who relied on him. I didn’t want to feel bad for him, but more than that, I didn’t want to actually be the spoiled bitch I knew he thought I was. Maybe I had taken it too far. I did tend to go big or go home, but unlike at Black Mountain, the consequences for a kid in Dayton were immediate and long-term. Bellamy wasn’t some trust-fund guy whose daddy would bail him out of a criminal record. It still didn’t excuse him breaking into my damn house, but... he said I’d fucked with his family – a kid- and that made me feel like the crappiest person in the world right now.
“Oh. Shit…”
I followed Nora’s gaze across the lot. Bellamy stood behind an old Camaro; bat raised. He swung at the back windshield and it shattered before he rounded the car, smashing out every window, then knocking the side mirrors off.
“Wonder what Nikki did to piss him off?” Diane said.
Nikki ran up, screaming, and he cast a cold stare in her direction. Hendrix met up with Bellamy halfway through the lot.
My pulse ticked up when they stopped at my car. Bellamy loosely swung the bat at his side, and I remembered all too well what he’d done with that bat the last time he’d had it. My thighs pressed together. I was definitely sick. Broken. “See you guys later,” I said, then started toward my TT. This couldn’t be good.
“Nice car.” Bellamy kicked his shoe up onto my front tire, all tight shirt and ripped jeans over taught muscles. Like a psycho.
“Don’t you dare,” I said, eyeing the bat.
“I’m not doing anything, baby girl.” He held up his hands, shifting away from the car.
I stood there for a moment, weighing my options. Like a rabbit caught in the sights of a predator, I didn’t know what to do. Run and risk him taking chase, or freeze and hope he left me the hell alone. He watched me like a hawk as I opened my car door, and if the small smirk on his face was anything to go by, he was doing something alright.
I eased behind the wheel and cranked the engine. I hated that my hands were shaking, because I knew what he wanted was for me to be scared. So instead of gunning it out of there the way I wanted to, I took my time and changed the radio station, then I lowered the roof to my car. Of course, he was still standing there.
“I told you to leave me alone.”
He leaned over, folding his arms across my window ledge. “Well, I would. But unfortunately for you, the word around school is, you got me arrested. I’d really hoped that would stay between us, but…”
Three guesses where this was going. Nowhere good, that was for sure.
“You started this. Then you broke into my house and destroyed it.”
He swiped a hand over his mouth on an amused laugh. “Yeah, but the problem is. They don’t know that.” He jerked his chin toward the people in the parking lot staring.
I had no idea what he was going to do, and as that slow smirk cut across his face, I snapped. “Screw you, Bellamy.”
A low hiss sounded over the purr of the engine. Hendrix’s reflection popped up in my rearview mirror.
I’d forgotten about him, and realized how monumentally stupid that was when he flipped a knife in his hand, and the tire pressure sensors flashed on my dashboard.
“You did not…” I said through gritted teeth.
Bellamy leaned into my car, placing his lips close to my ear. “You gonna lie to me again?”
“You really are a psycho. You know that, right?”
“And you really are getting off easy…”
Easy? This guy had to be joking. “You slashed my tires and broke into and vandalized my house within twenty-four hours. That’s a felony and a misdemeanor. You fucking nut job!”
All he did was smile. And that smile was devastating—because I was evidently a nut job, too. I gripped the steering wheel, trying to focus on something, anything but how hot he looked and how crazy I was.
“You know, I was sane before I met you.”
“That makes two of us,” he said. Bullshit.
My car rocked, tearing my attention from Bellamy.
“Been saving this all day.” Hendrix clambered onto my trunk, immediately whipping out his dick.
“What the hell—” But the rest of that sentence was lost when a stream of piss splattered over my passenger seat. I grabbed the handle to throw open my car door, but Bellamy’s massive frame blocked my exit.
“Let me out, right now, Bellamy!”
Piss ricocheted off the leather, droplets splashing my arm. Bellamy just smirked at me, refusing to move. My temper skyrocketed. With a growl, I shoved to my feet, climbing over my seat and onto the trunk. I snatched Hendrix by the ankle. “Get off my car!” I yanked hard enough that he lost balance and toppled off the car on a scream.
Good, I hoped that hurt. With any luck, he’d get road rash on his junk.
“The hell, man!” Hendrix shot up, holding his head, dick still out. A trickle of blood fell down his temple. “She just cracked my skull.” Hendrix rounded the back, still clutching his head when he stopped beside Bellamy. “And that is the reason I wanted to set her car on fire!”
Set my car on fire. Oh, that was taking this too far. I slid off the trunk, not even caring that my dress had ridden up around my waist. Then I jabbed Hendrix in the chest. “I hope you get a concussion. Not like you had any brain cells to lose anyway.”
Both guys stared at me like I’d just grown two heads with horns.
I stormed off across the parking lot, taking out my phone so I could call someone to come pick up my poor car.