Fury (New Adult Romance) - #1.5 Fierce Series (33 page)

I stop dancing and search for the sound, and then I spot the girl
Evie was dancing with lying on the floor.

“You don’t want a guy to join in on the fun? Pathetic,” a guy says,
towering over her.

My eyes narrow as I watch him, my hands balling into fists. I don’t
want to make a scene, not with all the gang members watching, but if he takes
it a step too far, I’m not going to hold myself back.

“Fucking dykes!” the guy screams.

“That’s it,” I say, and I storm toward him. I don’t care about the
gang anymore. They can watch if they want. I’ll show them what I’m capable of.

“What the fuck did you just say?” I yell in his face.

“They’re a bunch of dirty fanny bashers. They’re not allowed in
here.”

Fuming, I say, “You don’t get to fucking decide that.”

“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” He spits on the floor
like he’s all that. I swear, I’m going to punch him so hard he’ll be flying out
of here if he doesn’t make a run for it soon.

I grab his collar and pull him up easily. “You’re a fucking asshole,
you know that?”

“Dykes don’t belong in an Alpha Psi party,” he snarls.

Nobody gets to fucking treat girls the way he just did. This is not
okay. “I dare you to say that word again.”

“D.Y.K.E. Dyke,” he repeats, but I’m not giving him enough time to
spell out that last letter before I smack him in the head, hard. His nose
cracks and he lands on the ground a couple of feet away.

“Get your fucking homophobic ass out of here!” I yell. I’m sick and
tired of assholes like that, judging people, thinking they have the right. Live
and let live.

The guy has trouble getting to his feet, but once he does he runs
out the door like the scared motherfucker he is. Good. He’d better be gone
before I shove the nearest chair up his ass.

“Dick,” I say, snorting.

“Are you okay?” Leafy says as she walks over to the two girls. I
hold out my hand to the girl lying on the floor and help her get up.

“T-thanks,” she says.

“Don’t mention it,” I say.

“You girls all right?” Leafy asks.

The girls smile, and I think Evie even looks at me without contempt
this time. “Thanks. Both of you,” she says.

“Can we go home now?” the girl that was on the floor says.

“Yeah,” Evie says, grabbing the girl’s hand. “We’ll go home.”

“I’m sorry,” Leafy says.

“It’s not your fault,” Evie says, and they have a short moment with
each other. I guess things still need to be talked out between the two of them.

“See you later, okay?” she adds.

“Definitely,” Leafy says.

The girls leave while I crack my knuckles, trying to calm down
before I explode. This is really not a good time to start a fight, although
there’s nothing more I’d like to do now than to kick that guy’s ass.

“Are you hurt?”

I turn around, and suddenly Leafy grabs my hand, checking it for
wounds.

“No. I’m fine. Pussies like him can’t even graze me.” I smile at
her, appreciating the fact that she always wants to care for me.

“I found a distributor willing to talk.” I hear Jaret’s voice before
I see him, but turn around immediately.

“Awesome. It’s time to go then,” I say, and as I try to follow him,
Leafy grabs my arm.

“Wait, what? You’re leaving?”

“Not the party. We’re gonna talk. See if we can find out who the
courier is.” I kiss her on the forehead and walk away with Jaret, leaving her
behind. I hope she’s okay with being alone for a while. I don’t know how long
this will take, but I hope it’s quick. I don’t want her to get into trouble,
and I certainly don’t want her to follow me either.

“C’mon, he’s in a bedroom, waiting for us.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Well … not much … I just thought I’d go about this a bit different
this time.”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

He chuckles. “Let’s just say I don’t think he’ll remember much of
this.”

“What did you do?” I say. “Don’t tell me you drugged him?”

Jaret grins as we walk up the stairs. “I might’ve slipped something
into his drink while he wasn’t looking.”

“Dude …”

“I know.”

“You scare me sometimes,” I say, laughing.

We enter a room and I find a guy lying on a kid’s bed, twirling his
finger in the air. When he sees us, he springs up from the bed and smiles
broadly. The stars are almost visible in his eyes.

“What the hell did you give him?”

“Oh … just a mix of a couple of things.”

I slap my hand against my forehead. “Oh, God …”

“Well, let’s just do this quick, okay.”

Jaret walks up to the guy and goes to his knees. “Hey, dude, we got
a question for ya.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” he says, completely zoning out.

I really don’t have time for this shit. I get closer and grab his
face, forcing him to look at me. “Tell me who the courier is.”

He just smiles at me. “What?”

I sigh and release him from my grip, angry as hell because this is
not going to get us anywhere either. “That guy is stoned out of his mind.”

“Just wait, we just have to keep asking.”

“We don’t have time to wait!”

Suddenly the door opens, and I turn around to see who it is. Shit.
It’s Wes.

“What are you doing up here?” he asks.

“Uh …” I look back at the guy lying on the bed, who’s now closed his
eyes and seems to have passed out.

“He took too many drugs at once,” Jaret says.

Wes squints, his eyes darting back and forth between the both of us.
“And you sold that to him?”

“No, well, yes, part of it. But we didn’t realize he took this much.
We can take care of it, no problem.”

“You sure he’ll be okay?” Wes asks.

“Yes, we’ll make sure of that,” Jaret says with the biggest, most
pretentious smile I’ve ever seen.

“Hmm …” Wes nods. “Well, I just wanted to tell you, Hunter, that
your chick has left the building.”

“What?” I say, my eyes widening.

“She’s gone.” He shrugs. “Not my problem, just thought, since you’ve
been a good salesman today, I’d do you a favor by letting you know. See ya.”

He closes the door behind him and leaves just as quickly as he came.
I’m flabbergasted. The first thing I want to do is rush out so I can find my
girl, but I know I have a duty to fulfill here. My body and mind are torn in
two.

“Go after her, dude,” Jaret says. “It’s not safe for her here,
alone.”

“But I can’t leave you on your own like this either. This isn’t your
fight.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll get him back home, safe and sound. And I’ll
make sure he tells me who the courier is. I’ll stay with him until he does.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, don’t worry about it. Go.” He fumbles in his pockets and takes
out his keys. “Bring her home. I’ll catch a ride from one of the other
dealers.” He throws the keys to me.

“Okay, thanks. I owe you!” I say while running out.

“More than once!” Jaret yells as I close the door behind me.

Chapter
26

Pleasing My Leafy

Running down the stairs, I make my way to the door and barge after
Leafy, who just left the house without telling anyone. I’m fucking pissed she’s
run off again. When I spot her, I run over to her immediately.

“Are you trying to get in trouble? Don’t you know how fucking
dangerous it is to go without me?”

“I don’t care. I want to go home,” she says, turning around again.

I grab her arm. “Why do you keep running away?”

“Fuck off!” She jerks away her arm. What’s gotten into her all of a
sudden?

“What the fuck? Why are you so angry at me?” I say. “I didn’t do
anything.”

“Brody told me all about you and Jessie.”

What? She talked to that guy about my brother? What the fuck did he
tell her? And how much does he know?

“Your brother was dealing for the frat club, too. That’s the reason
he’s in jail, isn’t it?” she asks, clenching her jaw.

It starts to sink in with me what just happened. That guy told her
things that made her realize I’m not telling her the whole truth.

“You’re always hiding things from me. Why can’t you just tell me
what you’re doing? Why are you dealing drugs? Is it just for the money?” The
croakiness of her voice is painful to hear. She’s disappointed in me, and I can
understand why. I wish it could be different, though. I wish everything was
different, and that we could’ve met under different circumstances. But this is
the real world. This is how it is.

“Partially … but it’s not the biggest reason,” I say. Money is only
a part of it. I might be able to save enough to bail him out, but to get his
sentence reduced I need to catch the leader. It’s the only way to make sure I
can bring Jessie home with me.

“But you’re broke all the time, just like me! What the fuck have you
been doing with that money?”

I snort. “Saving it. I told you I’m trying to get Jessie out of
jail.”

“By dealing? Doing the same thing that got him in there?” she snaps.

Now she’s really pushing my buttons. I hate that look on her face,
that look of contempt. “I’m doing what’s right.”

“Right? Drugs? And here I thought you were a good thing in my life.”

I stare at her in disbelief. Fuck. She just ripped my heart in two.
She’s right. I’m not a good thing in her life. I just wanted to believe that I
was. I want to make it happen, if she’d only give me the time to fix all of
this shit. But she shouldn’t give up on me yet … She can’t.

“Don’t say that,” I say. “You don’t know what I’ve been through. You
don’t know how fucked up my life is. I told you it wasn’t easy.”

My life has been nothing but a mess, and she’s made it a little
better. She can’t take that away from me again.

“My life isn’t easy either, but now it’s only getting harder with
you doing things like this. I don’t want to see you end up in jail. Your
brother’s in there because of what he did, and you’re going straight after
him.”

That’s it. “My brother is in jail because he tried to take care of
me!” I yell. “We lived in the slums for years. He was the only one I had, the
only one who cared for me. The only way he could earn enough to support us was
by dealing. He doesn’t deserve to be in jail for that. Not when the frat club
practically used him as bait.”

I owe my brother so much. I
have
to do this.

She just gapes at me in a moment of shock. “Then why in God’s name
are you in the club, too? They could do the same thing to you!”

“Because I owe it to my brother! I’d risk everything to get him out
of there. That’s why I need the money: to bail him out.” I grab her tighter,
trying to get it through to her that I’m doing this because I must, not because
I want to. “Wouldn’t you do the same if your family was in jail?”

“I guess …” she stammers.

Finally … she understands a little. “I want my brother back … It’s
because of him that I’m in college now. He saved up every freaking coin he
could so he could get me some education, even with my learning problems.”

Her eyes drift to the ground and her hands relax again. She
swallows. “B-but there are other ways to make money and to get someone out of
jail.”

“Maybe, but there are other reasons why I chose to do it this way.”
And I can’t tell her what those reasons are, because that would risk the entire
operation.

“Why? Does it have something to do with that guy you’re looking for?
The boss?”

“I can’t tell you,” I say. I wish I could. I want to come clean to
her, but I can’t. Not yet.

She sighs. “This again.”

“Don’t you see? I’ve tried to tell you, but you won’t listen to me.
I cannot tell you, because it would put you in harm’s way. I don’t want you to
get hurt. I’ll do anything to prevent that,” I say. I’m desperately trying to
keep her away from all of this.

I don’t want to fight anymore. I don’t want to make her worry, and
I’m sick of all this lying. I just want this to be over as fast as possible,
and I hope she’ll give me time to finish this so I can show her that I’m not a
bad man.

I wrap my arms around her and bury my head in her hair, keeping her
close to me. Christ, sometimes she really scares the shit out of me. I can’t
lose her. Not anymore.

“I know I’m a screw-up, but I’m trying to get things together.
You’re the only good thing that’s happened to me in my life,” I whisper into
her ear. “College life has been hard on me, but I want to succeed so badly. I
just don’t know how. I thought that I could stand a chance with you. I thought,
if that girl helps me out, teaching me how to learn quickly, maybe I can make
it. Maybe I can make Jessie proud. Maybe the investment he made in me won’t be
in vain.”