Renegade Hearts (Rebels of Sandland 1)

“Maybe because he knew it was bullshit and never gonna happen,” Brandon said getting right up into Lockwood’s face and stopping me from pummelling him into our cheap linoleum floor.

“You need to do one, Lockwood,” I said, gritting my teeth and clenching my fists. “Do you like hospital food or something? Because if you carry on the way you are, that’s all you’ll be eating for the next few months.”

Lockwood took a few steps around Brandon, eye-balling him as he did. Mother fucker had more balls on him than I realised if he wanted to goad Brandon. Then he turned to face me.

“You’re really tough when you’ve got your guard dogs on standby, aren’t you?”

“I can go one-on-one with you any time, mate.” I went to step into him, but the coward moved away.

“Young man, I think you need to leave. Because if my sons or their friend don’t kick your ass out soon, I will.” Trust Dad to get the final say.

Lockwood sneered again and then ripped his keys out of Brandon’s hand and headed for the door, bumping Connor’s shoulder as he did.

“Oh, I’m going, old man. Like I’d trust a bunch of hillbillies like you to do a good job on my car.”

Me and Brandon followed him outside. He wasn’t gonna get away with calling us names. Not when he was the biggest dickhead in this town. And as for disrespecting my dad and dissing this garage? He was a dead man walking.

“We’d do a good job on your car all right.” I picked up the jet-wash hose that was lying on the ground close by. “We always do a really thorough job.” I pressed the lever and the water shot out, drenching his ridiculously over-priced trainers and making him do a stupid dance to try and avoid the jets of water that were drowning his feet.

“And if you’re not off our property in the next sixty seconds, it’ll be the inside of your shitty car that gets the next wash down.” I splashed the front of his car, then threw the hose back down, folding my arms over my chest and giving him a look of disgust.

“Run away like the little bitch you are, Lockwood,” Brandon shouted, then in a quieter voice he said, “His time will come. Don’t worry, mate.”

I wasn’t worried. Not about him getting what was coming to him, anyway. But I needed to make sure he didn’t get his claws into her. He’d always been a sly asshole, but for some reason, no one ever saw through it. But they would now that I was on his case.

Lockwood’s days were well and truly numbered.

The gnawing ache in my stomach didn’t seem to want to go away. In fact, it’d gotten worse as Friday loomed ahead like the unwelcome visitor it was. Now, it was Friday evening, and the gnawing was becoming a full-on, gut-wrenching nausea, only made worse by the fact that I hadn’t heard from Ryan at all. I was starting to question myself over whether the kiss actually happened or was it a figment of my overactive imagination? Maybe it’d meant more to me than it did to him? Just another one of his twisted mind games.

I had felt guilty about the whole Chase thing and not telling Ryan about it. I knew he hated Chase with a vengeance, and after the incident in the woods, I could kind of see his point. Trouble was, I still couldn’t get through to Chase either. I had debated going to his house to call it off, but instead, I’d opted to go for the least confrontational route. Yes, I’d go along with the charade, but I wouldn’t make an effort. I’d wear my ripped skinny jeans and grey tank top, with my hair scraped back into a ponytail and not a scrap of make-up on. If I acted like a douchebag, then maybe I’d be home for nine o’clock to get in an episode of New Girl. Every cloud and all that.

Liv had come round eventually and was apologetic for being such a dumbass and agreeing to the date in the first place. She even offered to go in my place and take one for the team, as she put it. I almost took her up on the offer, but I knew I had to shut this shit down myself. She’d owe me one though. She wasn’t coping well with the whole ‘Zak being a man-hoe’ situation. Couldn’t say I blamed her. Those Renaissance boys sure knew how to mess with a girl’s head.

I heard the front doorbell and my stomach twisted into knots. I glanced at the clock on the fireplace; six o’clock. He was two hours early. Great. I huffed out my annoyance and stomped into the hallway to open the door. I did debate jumping behind the sofa and pretending no one was home, but I knew my mum would be flying down that staircase if I didn’t open the door; letting Chase into the house to give out more of her cookies and fake parenting vibes. Not today, Satan. Not today.

I flung the door open, plastering a bored and disinterested expression on my face. When I saw Ryan standing on the other side my jaw dropped to the ground.

“Wow. You look really pleased to see me,” Ryan said sarcastically, looking at me from under his sexy curtain of hair.

I felt the knots turn to nervous butterflies and I took a deep breath, not sure what to say.

“I… Er… I thought…”

“You thought it was your hot date for the night. Lockwood?” The twinkle in his eye disappeared when he said that name, replaced with a look of distaste.

I gulped, trying to wet my dry mouth, but it didn’t help. Sandpaper had nothing on my throat right now.

“How did you know about that?” My heart was beating ten to the dozen. I realised in that moment that I didn’t want Chase to come between whatever it was me and Ryan were slowly building. Chase was a blot on my landscape and Ryan was a boulder that blocked everything out. He was my sun and Chase was a cheap forty-watt economy bulb that flickered to life and faded just as fast.

Ryan folded his arms before he spoke, giving me a pointed stare.

“Kian told me. Oh, and Lockwood, when he came by the garage the other day to gloat to my dad and everyone else that’d listen about how he wanted to impress his girl on their date.” He frowned at me and took a step back. “I can leave if you want.”

Was he angry with me? I hadn’t done anything wrong here.

“No,” I said defensively. “I mean… I don’t know. He’s supposed to be here at eight and I don’t know what to do.” It was official. I was an idiot.

“Do you want to go out with him?”