Renegade Hearts (Rebels of Sandland 1)

Brandon grunted in agreement.

Ryan and the porter managed to help Brandon into the chair. All the time, Brandon was swatting them out of the way and cursing them, saying he was fine on his own. And me? I was still stunned from Constance’s little outburst and looking between the two boys in front of me.

“Made the right choice?” Constance whispered in my ear. “If you go with your heart, you’ll never go wrong.”

If I went with my heart, would I be hot-footing it out of this hospital and never looking back? I doubted it. For some reason, these boys were pulling me in. But I always knew one was calling to my heart. I just didn’t know if he was playing with it in return.

Another night, another shit-storm in the life of Ryan Jameson Hardy. I felt like my willpower was dying a slow death. Everything around me seemed to be goading me, egging me on. Making me feel like the control I’d craved was just an illusion. I had no control. Not when every little movement, every throwaway comment or look got my back up. I always knew she made me weak, but I’d been good at fooling myself all these years. Making it look like the pretty little liar didn’t affect me. Now, I wasn’t so sure she was the liar I’d always painted her out to be. In fact, I knew she wasn’t. She’d gone above and beyond tonight, for all of us. She was earning her place in this fucked-up little crew we had. Trouble was, I didn’t want to share her, even now.

The porter wheeled Brandon out to the waiting room and I glanced over to see Emily talking to Nurse Ratched. Emily looked up at me as they spoke, and a blush coloured her cheeks. Usually, seeing her flustered like that would’ve spurred me on to up the asshole stakes. But something had changed tonight, and I didn’t want to be that asshole anymore. Not for her.

I spotted Zak and Finn sitting in the corner next to Kian, and we parked Brandon up close by.

“Who’s doing the close tonight?” I asked, feeling irritable and pissed off. Our parties went on for as long as they needed to, and it was still pretty early. With all of us sat here watching Brandon’s ass, there was no one to shut shit down. We couldn’t afford to lose money, D.J. equipment, or our reputation.

“Cops came and shut us down,” Zak said. “We got everything out in time though. Not everybody, but…” He shrugged. “At least we’re good.”

I knew that meant he’d closed any bets, collected money and got all our stuff out. We were good for another night.

“Were you there when they showed up?” I asked.

“No. Tom texted us with the tip-off. We cleared the place in good time.” He looked at Finn and they both nodded in agreement.

We were lucky to have an ally in Tom. He was a local policeman. A good guy. He’d been a few years above us in school, and I think he liked the underdog. That, and living dangerously. Why else would a cop go out of their way to tip four reprobates like us off when a raid was about to happen? If it wasn’t for Tom Riley, we’d have failed years ago.

Brandon continued to whine like a bitch in the corner, complaining about anything and everything. I had no filter and no patience for his bullshit tonight. He soon piped down when he spotted Emily coming over. Even he’d mellowed towards her.

“Hey, Winters. You gonna come and mop my fevered brow?

“Fuck off,” she snapped back.

He clutched his heart, trying to be dramatic. “She loves me,” he joked, and the others chuckled along. Not me. I was getting tired of his sly digs.

“You look fine to me. Let’s go.” I stalked towards the door, not even waiting to see if any of them would follow me. I didn’t care. Well, I did, but I wasn’t about to show it.

When we got to the car park, I glanced back and saw them following a few feet behind. Zak was smirking, and he threw his arm around Emily saying, “You’re becoming one of us now, Ems. We’ll have to find a job for you. Make it official.”

She grimaced and pushed his arm off in disgust. “I don’t think so. That sounds like everything I don’t want to do with my life… Ever.” He thought she was joking. She wasn’t. That girl was growing bigger balls by the minute.

She whipped her phone out and started scrolling away. I knew what she was doing, looking for her friend’s number so she could get a ride home.

Not happening, princess.

I walked over to Kian and held my hand out. “Gimme your keys.”

He fished them out of his pocket and gave them to me without question.

“You go with Finn and Zak. Take Brandon home. I’ll drop Emily off.” I turned to walk away, but Winters had other ideas.

“I don’t think so. I’m calling an Uber.”

“Like fuck you are. Get into the damn car, Emily.” She rolled her eyes at me and I could tell she was about to argue some more, but she thought better of it and stomped over to the passenger door of Kian’s car.

“I suppose I should be grateful. At least this car has a working door.” She opened it, got in and then slammed the door shut, sitting back with her arms folded and a sour-ass look on her face.

She was pissed, but I liked that she still did as she was told. The perfect combination of challenge, sass and goddamn sexy attitude that sent a message straight to my dick. The others headed over to Finn’s car which was parked nearby, and Brandon shouted over to me. “Go easy on her, mate. Leave something for the rest of us.”

Suck my dick, Mathers. It’d be a cold day in hell before I let you anywhere near her.