Renegade Hearts (Rebels of Sandland 1)

Grabbing the back of my neck in frustration, I racked my brains to try and think where else she might be. A lightbulb went off in my brain. It might be a long shot, but it was worth checking out.

I pulled up in front of the old Asylum and cut the engine. It was eerily dark out here and there was no sign of life, but I figured, if she wanted somewhere to hide, here was as good a place as any.

I squeezed through the broken fencing and picked my way over the rubble. I couldn’t see shit, so I used the torch on my phone to help light my way. As I pushed into the building, the sound of the birds flapping around at my disturbance made me jump.

“Em? It’s me. Are you here?” I called out into the darkness, but the only response was my echo reverberating off the walls and shattering my already shredded nerves. It wasn’t looking good.

I ignored the thumping pain in my heart and made my way down to the chapel. I’d been planning on bringing her here this week. I’d got it all worked out. A date with that special Ryan and Emily touch. But now, those plans were falling away faster than the rotting bricks and peeling paint on the asylum walls.

When I got to the chapel, with the rainbow lights from the stained glass windows dancing around the dark and dusty interior, I stopped. She wasn’t here. Where the fuck was she? I’d run out of options.

My phone vibrated an incoming call, and when I saw Zak’s name, I answered.

“Ryan, mate. Where are you?” Zak sounded frantic. I felt a spike of adrenaline hearing him like that. I knew I wouldn’t like what he was about to tell me.

“I’m looking for Emily. Is she with you?” I grit my teeth waiting on his response. My stomach was in knots. I knew Finn had spoken to her and pleaded my case, and I was grateful to him for that. It wasn’t ideal. I’d have rather spoken to her myself but thinking about her hearing everything from the others before me, getting comfort from them, that pissed me off the most.

“She was.”

My mouth went dry. What the fuck kind of answer was that?

“What do you mean, she was? Where the fuck is she now?”

I was losing my shit fast.

“I think you need to come to the gym. I don’t want to do this over the phone.”

I didn’t have time for his bullshit. I cut the call and ran out of the chapel. Once I was back in the van, I tried calling Zak again on speaker as I drove, but he didn’t pick up. None of them did. What the hell was I going to find out when I got there?

I barged my way through the doors into the back room, where Finn, Zak and Brandon stood in some kind of weird stand-off.

“Tell me what the fuck is going on?” I glared at each one of them, but they all looked as guilty as fuck and stared down at their feet like a bunch of morons. “What happened? Where is she?”

“She took off about a half hour ago. I’ve no idea where she’s gone. I’m sorry, mate.” Finn was a good guy. He liked to keep the peace. But I didn’t need his apologetic neutral shit right now. I needed ans

wers. It was obvious something had gone down.

“Why? What the fuck happened?”

Brandon stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. I could tell right away from the defensive stance that whatever it was had Brandon-fucking-Mathers written all over it.

“Did you upset her? I swear to God, Brandon, if you’ve done something to her I’ll fucking kill you.”

It wasn’t Brandon who spoke next, it was Zak, and what he said had the blood rushing to my ears and my brain drowning in a mixture of white noise and rage.

“Brandon made a pass at her. He kissed Emily and when she pushed him away he told her you didn’t love her, that it was all one big fucking joke. He said you were only dating her to get revenge on her father.” Zak glared at Brandon as he spoke. Me? I couldn’t even see straight. If he wanted to see what revenge looked like, he was about to get a big fucking lesson.

“Well, it was. Wasn’t it?” Brandon had the nerve to shrug, like what Zak had said didn’t mean a damn thing. “I put the girl out of her misery. I couldn’t stand to see her pining around you for a minute longer.” He turned to face me and grinned. “Guess I did you a favour. No need for the long drawn out break-up.”

I lost it.

I really fucking lost it.

I barrelled over to Brandon, throwing my whole body into his and wrestling him to the floor. He didn’t put up a fight and when I reared back and punched him in the face, he laughed. The fucker actually laughed.

“She didn’t believe him,” Finn shouted as I took another swing at my ex-best friend’s ugly smirking face. “She told Brandon she loved you. She loves you, Ry. Mate, she knows about you using her at the start and she doesn’t care. She said nothing he could say would change the way she felt.”

I knew what Finn was doing. He hated confrontation. But this wasn’t about Emily’s feelings for me, whether what she’d said was true or not. This was about Brandon doing what he always does; treating people like pawns in his fucked-up games and avoiding all the consequences. He’d put his hands on my girl tonight. He’d said things that I’d never ever forgive him for. He was a dead man walking as far as I was concerned.