Tortured Souls (Rebels of Sandland 2)

His eyes went wide. He didn’t know I’d been watching them that morning. I knew more than I’d ever let on. Knowledge was power, after all.

“My statement was nothing like that,” he said, shaking with anger as he spoke. “I told them I hadn’t seen you. I also told them that I knew you better than anyone else and that I’d stake my life on it being an accident. I’d go to court and say that shit too. So, don’t come in here with your bullshit accusations and try and paint me out to be something that I’m not. Both me and Em stood by you. We always would. There’s nothing that we’ve done in these last few months to go against you. I don’t care what you think you’ve seen or what you think you know. I know the truth.” He banged his chest with his fist in confirmation. “And my conscience is clear, brother.”

I took a moment to collect my thoughts. There was stuff I still needed to get off my chest, and I was struggling to see things as clearly as I did before. Ryan’s little speech was fucking with my brain.

“And you,” I said, getting my shit together fast and turning to face Zak. “All you’ve done is strut around town with your over-gelled hair and your stupid grin. You couldn’t wait to get those parties started again, could you? You had the spotlight all to yourself. You liked that, didn’t you, mate? You didn’t have to vie for the attention anymore. No more crowds heading down to see me fight and leaving your shitty D.J. act so it’d flop like Lockwood’s limp dick. You could shine all on your own. When I was around, you didn’t stand a chance. I was who they came to see. I was the fucking event.”

“And we all miss having you around,” Zak replied, sounding humble. “So, I like a bit of attention.” He shrugged and grinned to himself. “But I never felt jealous when you got it too. You’re talking out of your arse, mate. If you came back now, we’d welcome you with open arms.”

“Would we?” Ryan said, cocking his eyebrow.

Zak turned to face him and frowned.

“Yeah, you know we would. Takings have been down since Brandon left.” Then he looked back at me. “We’d have you back and we’d have your back. We always have. I don’t know why you’re coming at us with all this shit. We’re the ones who should be mad.”

What the fuck was he on about now?

“And why should you be mad? Come on. I could do with a laugh.”

“Where do we start?” Ryan shook his head, grinning smugly to himself.

Finn had stayed pretty quiet so far, and I couldn’t tell if he was measuring us all up or he was scared to admit he’d already seen me.

“Start at the beginning, bro. I’ve got all day.”

I was the one to spread my arms out wide this time, showing Ryan that I was the boss around here, not him. I was ready for them to come at me and whine like little bitches about how I’d abandoned them. Bring it on.

“You pissed off without telling anyone where you were going.” Ryan started right where I knew he would. “You got into a fucking fight that’s been hanging over all our heads for the last few months. Cops have been grilling us. Following us everywhere to try and find you. But don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about fucking up our lives, as long as you’re okay, right?”

As long as I’m okay? He needed a fucking wake-up call.

“You think I’ve been okay since I left? You think it’s been easy for me? Do you think I liked watching you go about your business as if nothing fucking happened?”

I could feel the anger rising up again. I was ready to explode.

“Then why didn’t you reach out to us sooner? We’d have helped.” Finally, Finn had spoken.

I knew they were visiting my nan and I was thankful for that, but I wasn’t going to kid myself.

“You’d have ratted me out first chance you got.”

“We wouldn’t do that. You know you can trust us,” Finn replied, and from the contrite look on his face, I almost believed him.

“He can trust us, but can we trust him?” Ryan piped up.

“You can trust that I’ll knock you the fuck out if you’ve got the balls to come over here and say that again,” I snapped.

“Yeah? You daring me?” Ryan goaded like he was ready to throw down with me in this shithole.

“Woah. Hold on a minute. Let’s hear what he’s got to say about the text messages,” Zak said, playing referee again.

“What text messages?” I asked, looking each one of them in the face.

“The ones you sent us last night. We know it was you.”

Ryan pulled his phone out of his back pocket and started to read from it.

“We know what you’ve done. It’s payback time. We are coming for you.” He held his phone up and snarled at me. “What is this shit? Do you think this scares us?”