Blowback (15 page)

We hurried to the bathroom, the mecca for high school girls, while we waited on buses to arrive to take us home. I usually saw Jet outside while I waited, but getting gussied up seemed more important to the cause that day. While Sophie quickly contoured my face, lined my eyes, and swooped mascara onto my lashes, I ran my fingers through my hair to try and poof it up a little. I fantasized about going outside and having him walk straight up to me to claim me with a kiss for the whole school to see. Then everyone would know for sure I belonged to Jet Flanagan and he belonged to me. A bit overkill? Yeah, sure. Everyone knew we were together already anyway, but it didn’t stop me from wanting a public display of affection.

Imagine my disappointment when I emerged from the building and he was nowhere to be found. I’d gotten myself fixed up for nothing, but there was still hope for later.

* * *

“Earth to Evie,” Sophie exclaimed, snapping her fingers and yanking me back to reality.

“Sorry. I zoned out for a second.”

“Someone just tapped on the door.”

“Oh,” I said and stood up. “That must be my
date
.”

I opened the door to see the man better known as Big standing there. He’d opted for dark jeans, boots, and a T-shirt. His long hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. We definitely looked the part of a tough, badass couple going to an illegal underground fight, but I wondered how many people we’d have to fool and if I could really pull it off.

“What name are you going by tonight?” he asked, walking past me without so much as a hello. He stopped in his tracks as he looked over Sophie’s body from head to toe. “Didn’t know you had company. I’m Big,” he said, holding out his hand to her.

“Sophie,” she said and smiled politely at him. “And I remember you from school.”

“My last name isn’t Adams anymore, so I think I’m good sticking with Payne, but I don’t know what first name to use. Maybe Ellie?”

“You could pull off being an Ellie, but it’s a little close to Evie, don’t you think? Maybe you could be a Lilly.”

“Lilly Payne… Hm. I think I like it,” I said with a smile. “Thank you, by the way, for doing this.”

“No problem. Just stick close to me and you’ll be okay. Just remember, you don’t know a thing about Jet. You’ve never met him before. You never had your little high school lovey-dovey fest with him. Nothing. You’re mine tonight. You only have eyes for me, got it?”

“Sounds like you’ll have a fabulous time,” Sophie quipped.

“You want to come along, too, sweetie? I can handle both of you,” he said, stepping closer to Sophie and peering down at her.

“Oh, that’s the kind of reputation you have? Two
bitches
at one time?”

The corner of his mouth turned up as he nodded.

“Yeah, no thanks,” she said. “I’m out. I’ve got to get back home and check on Alex. Keep me posted.” She hugged me and kissed me on the cheek, whispering, “Be safe.”

I would try my hardest to make sure I’d be safe, but would Jet be okay after it was all said and done?

CHAPTER 20 – JET

“We’ve got enough people ready to fight tonight. You don’t have to go up,” Niall said. “He wasn’t lying.”

“I want to,” I said with determination. I owed the son of a bitch, and I aimed to make him collect.

“You know this one?”

Shaking my head, I said, “I’m just in the mood. The sick fuck deserves everything coming to him.”
And Evie deserves to see me make it right.

“I’ll let everyone know you’re headlining,” he said with a sly grin on his face. He rarely gave me an out, but when he did, I usually took it. Not backing out stood to make him a lot of money because word would spread fast that I was fighting and the crowd would more than double. Not to mention the money he could make from bets. It was a popular thing for people to bet against me, hoping this would be the time I got my ass kicked. It was a rare occurrence, but people cleaned up when it happened.

Niall left me alone in the small, stuffy room to prepare. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I wrapped my hands and wrists. My breath steadied, and I focused on what I planned to do to Preston. I didn’t plan on holding back at all once I got him in front of me. This would not be me using any mixed martial arts skills to wow the crowd while I beat my opponent into submission. This would be me straight up annihilating that mother fucker.

While thinking about how good it was going to feel to face him, the last time I’d had an altercation with him ran through my mind.

I’d gone to Evie’s for her guitar lesson, although we hadn’t quite made it that far. Before we started dating, I used that as an excuse to go see her every chance I got. To my surprise, she picked it up easily enough and was getting better and better each time. Once we were together, we still practiced, but it wasn’t quite as frequent.

The breeze in the air smelled like spring flowers as it rustled the grass around us. I sat leaned up against her house with her head in my lap, running my fingers through her soft hair.

“Let’s go for a walk,” she said, and looked up at me with the brightest eyes, tempting me to do whatever she asked me to. When she looked at me like that, I was putty in her hands. She could bend me to her will with nothing more than a glance.

“Yep,” I said. “Where you wanna go?”

“I don’t know,” she said, sitting up. “I’m kind of hungry. Do you want to go to Fatso’s and get something to eat? They have the best burgers I think I’ve ever tasted.”

“I’m broke, darlin’… and don’t say you’ve got money,” I said, cutting her off before she had the chance.

“But I do,” she said, smiling. “You know I don’t mind. What am I going to spend it on anyway?”

“It makes me feel like more of a dirt bag than I already am. I should be the one paying when we go out.”

“Look at me,” she said, throwing her legs over mine.

Her thighs straddled me, and I felt myself going hard instantly over the closeness of her body. I began to imagine our clothes disappearing and slipping my cock into her.

Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t happening right then. She was a virgin, and I wasn’t going to force or manipulate her into having sex with me. She was so innocent and pure and nothing like me. Hurting her was the last thing I wanted to do, even if it only lasted a few minutes. I wanted to preserve her as long as I could, yet the thought of making love to her fucked with my mind from time to time. I had to slow us down on more than one occasion when it was the last thing I wanted to do. Little did I know that day just how close we were to actually fucking.

Her hands gently grasped the sides of my face as her eyes searched mine. “You are
not
a dirt bag. Why would you say that?”

“I love the way you look at me. Do you know that?”
Almost like I’m worth something.

She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear as she glanced away from me. My fingertip caught her chin, pulling her back to me. I could almost taste her on my lips as I leaned in. My lips lingered near hers for a second before finally touching hers, relieving the ache that’d been building.

“Let me go leave a note and let my parents know where I’m going,” she said against my lips a moment later. “And the money I have came from my grandparents after I played some songs for them. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if it weren’t for you, so you’re basically why I have any money in the first place.”

“They paid you for playing your guitar for them?”

“Yeah, it was all kinds of cheesy, but they were proud, and now we can go get some grub.”

She stood and disappeared around the corner. I took the opportunity to adjust myself. Standing, I stretched. The sound of voices from the front yard caught my attention. I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but when I recognized Evie’s voice and the irritation in it, I had to check out the situation. As I inched toward the corner, the faces of a couple of dickbags from school came into view. A feeling deep in my gut churned, like rage and testosterone duking it out to see which one was going to get to make me go on a rampage if they were being rude to my girlfriend.

“Fuck off,” Evie said. Her hands balled into fists at her sides. “Jet’s my boyfriend, and it’s no one’s business what I do with him.”

I hung back for a second to observe what was actually going on. My instinct was to throw punches first and ask questions later, but I kept it together.

“Oh, come on. Blow me just one time. Your boy never has to know.”

It was at this point that the rage and testosterone decided to band together and work as a team.

“Your lips would look so sweet wrapped around my dick.”

“Not happening,” she said as she turned to try to leave.

“Come on, you little whore,” he taunted. His friend laughed, no doubt egging him on. “I’m not done talking to you, bitch.”

That was when he put his hand on her to prevent her from escaping, and I lost my goddamn mind.

Charging forward, I headed straight for him, not stopping until I knocked him on his ass. My fist pummeled him over and over. Blood flew from his nose and trickled out of his mouth. At one point, his buddy tried to pull me off him. He got knocked on his ass, too. He didn’t attempt to intervene again.

“Jet,” Evie screamed. “You’re going to kill him.”

Not true. I hadn’t taken it that far, although I didn’t know that at the time. Her words yanked me out of the moment, and I backed away, but not before kicking him once in the ribs just because I wasn’t really fucking done with him. She rushed to my side and threw her arms around me, pressing her cheek to my heaving chest.

Preston scrambled to his feet, stumbling as he and his friend took off down the street as fast as they could.

“Put your hands on her again and I’ll fucking destroy you,” I yelled after them. “I’ll fucking destroy you,” I said again to myself.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Her hands trembled as she inspected the skin on my red and swollen knuckles. “I think you broke your hand,” she said, her voice shaking.

Stretching out my fingers, I looked down at my hand and said, “It’s fine. I’ll put some ice on it when I get home.”

“Maybe you should go do that.”

Fear flickered in her eyes as she tried to avoid looking at me.

“Evie… I had to, you know that, right?”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal. I had it handled,” she said, taking a step back.

“No, you didn’t. He put his goddamn hands on you. He was going to hurt you. I could see it on his smug fucking face. Do you have any idea what he could’ve done to you?”

Bile rose in my throat at the thought of him stealing her purity and innocence away from her.

“I know you were defending me. Thank you.”

“Yeah,” I said. Shaking my head, I headed home.

Little did I know, my whole life was going to change in about an hour. I was about to meet Georgia for the first time, which turned out to also be the beginning of the end for Evie and me.
Hopefully, tonight isn’t the beginning of the end again.

CHAPTER 21 – EVIE

The drive to the warehouse where the night’s events would take place was surprisingly short. Too short. My eyes flitted back and forth at the other vehicles parked in the grass field outside of a large, brick building. I could make out what appeared to be a loading dock on one side and a metal door on the side facing us that lifted a few seconds later.

“You okay?” Big asked, glancing over at me.

“No. I feel like I’m about to jump out of my skin, and my mouth feels like a fucking desert.”

“Open the glovebox.”

I popped it open to find some random papers and a box of bandages. “What am I looking for?”

“Get you a bandage.”

“But I don’t need one.”

“What’s in that box will relax you.”

I opened the box and tipped it upside down. A hand-rolled cigarette hit my lap, and I realized instantly that it was a joint. The urge to laugh at how ridiculous his hiding spot was overwhelmed me, and I couldn’t stifle it. At least it was a reprieve from my nerves, even if momentarily.

“What’s funny?”

“You do realize if a cop pulled you over, that’s the first place they’d look for drugs?”

“Meh. I don’t give a shit about that, or I wouldn’t have it in here in the first place.”

“Friends in
high
places?” I asked, chuckling to myself over my stupid attempt at a joke.

“No. I’m not a Flanagan,” he said as he fished a lighter out of his pocket. “Give it here,” he ordered.

I handed it to him, and he brought it to his lips. A second later, he flicked his lighter, bringing the flame to the end of the joint. He took a long drawl from it and passed it to me. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hesitant. I could count on one hand how many times I’d smoked marijuana in my life, and it’d been years since the last.

I took a puff and held the smoke in, but I immediately started to hack so bad I thought I was going to produce a lung.

Big scoffed. I coughed. Then I laughed a little and then a little more. Was this really my life? Was I really getting high in the parking lot of an illegal underground fighting operation to calm my nerves in case my could-be boyfriend got critically injured?

As ridiculous as it felt to me, Big was right. My nerves calmed and I was back to feeling normal, for the most part, though it had done nothing to alleviate my dry mouth. I still managed to get a good jolt of anxiety to the gut periodically, but I now had the ability to move on from it quickly rather than dwell on it like I’d been doing before.

“I’m thirsty… and sort of hungry.”

“Bet you are… There’s a full bar inside, but you won’t get much food unless some of the bikers are fighting tonight. If they are, their old ladies will probably bring some shit to sell. They always do.”

“Lovely,” I said as I pictured badass biker babes hauling in God only knows what kind of food. “I just want some water.”

“You can get something inside. Come on,” he said and got out.

I followed suit and joined him. “So how does this work? Am I supposed to hold your hand or something?”

A throaty laugh burst from Big. “What are we? Ten?” he asked through jagged breaths in between his laughing fit.