Fractured Minds (Rebels of Sandland 3)

“Where are they?” Some blond guy standing to the left of Adam Noble lifted his chin as he asked me. “Maybe we can help you?”

“We ain’t doing shit for him, Colton. Shut your damn fucking mouth,” Noble barked, making the rabid Rottweiler next to them cower at his anger.

So that was Colton King. The Joker. He had a twisted sense of humour and a talent for fucking shit up. He was ruthless, manic, according to the stories I’d heard, and slightly insane. He’d flip out for any reason, and sometimes for no reason at all. Maybe he was more of a threat than Adam The Psycho Noble?

Story was, King’s father died in suspicious circumstances. At the funeral, King supposedly wore a T-shirt saying, ‘Do I look like I give a fuck?’ and spent the day getting wasted. Then he went back to the cemetery after the wake and pitched a sign into the dirt over his dad’s grave that said, ‘Soul for rent.’ Ask anyone and they’ll tell you, even to this day, they have no idea why he did that. Maybe his family was more fucked up than mine?

“If he’s here to stir shit up for someone, it might be fun.” Colton shrugged his shoulders and started swinging the metal pipe in his hands, banging it off a faulty lamppost to the side of him and cackling in a crazy way to himself.

“We don’t do shit for them.” Noble pointed in my direction. “They can handle their own.”

“If I needed help, I’d have brought it.” I puffed out my chest in an effort to show some degree of confidence.

“We aren’t fucking about,” Noble the psycho snapped. “You aren’t getting past us. So turn around and jog the fuck on.” He held his bat up now, brandishing it to show he meant business. The rest of them followed suit.

I had two options here.

One, I could ignore them, charge my way through, and probably get the shit kicked out of me, yet again. I’d end up with another trip to the emergency room and it’d put me out of action for a few weeks. But that’d leave Tony free to do whatever the fuck he wanted. I couldn’t risk that.

Or two, I did what they said. I left, planned my attack better, and came back. Maybe in the daylight, when they’d crawled back to whatever rocks they all lived under. As much as I wanted to take option one, I had to be smarter.

Maybe there was another road I could take to get to Spires Lane?

“Don’t even think about trying to get round us and go another way,” Noble said, reading my mind. “We have eyes everywhere. If we see you, we will kill you.”

“I call shotgun on that ride.” Colton laughed, and the others grunted out their own fucked-up responses.

And me? I took a few more steps backward, keeping my eyes trained on the bunch of lunatics in front of me, not trusting them for a second.

“That’s it, Knowles. Run back to your little crew and tell them all about how the big bad wolves of Brinton made you shit your pants. If they want a war, they can bring it themselves.”

“This is nothing to do with them. It’s about me. Only me,” I hissed, pointing my finger at them and gritting my teeth. I needed to make sure they understood that this didn’t involve my friends.

When I was satisfied that they’d heard, I turned and walked as fast as I could out of there, leaving behind their catcalls and shouts of what a pussy I was. Tonight was not my night, but I wouldn’t give up. I had a target. I just needed to get the soldiers out of my way first.

Trying to keep my shaking hands under control, I dug my phone out of my pocket to call Alice. I had no idea if she knew about her new neighbour yet, but I had to make sure she was pre-warned.

“Hey, Finn. You okay?” she answered, sounding carefree.

She didn’t know.

“You need to leave Brinton Manor, Al. It’s not safe,” I said, cutting straight to the chase.

“You’ve said that before, remember? And I didn’t listen the first time. I’m fine. Danya knows the area, and they know her.”

I had no doubt who the they were that she was referring to. The fact that they knew this Danya girl––that being a good thing in Alice’s eyes––didn’t fill me with a whole lot of confidence.

“He’s there,” I told her, and the line went quiet. I thought she’d hung up. “Hello? Are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. What do you mean, he’s here? Here where?”

“There. In Brinton Manor. He’s got a house on Spires Lane. Mum told him where you are.” I heard the quiet gasp down the phone.

“Why the fuck would she do that? I told her not to tell anyone.”

And if you believed that, you’d believe anything.

“Because she thinks he isn’t just anyone.”