Falls Boys (Hellbent 1)

“Hey, Aro,” Schuyler says, rolling on some lip gloss and meeting my eyes in her mirror.

I flinch. Oh, what the fuck?

“We’re just going to give you a ride home, okay?”

“Thoughtful.”

“I mean, you can come back,” the driver tells me, and I see his white teeth flash a smile. “We’re just teasing Hawke.”

Stoli tips back a silver flask, and I look down, seeing his legs cross over mine, locking me in.

“Well, she’ll have to walk, Dirk,” Schuyler tells him. “River rats don’t have cars.”

Bitch. Did she plan this? Get a little pissed when she saw me and Hawke in his room this morning?

But I keep calm, replying, “Someday I will have a car.” I look at her. “Might have a job, too. A career. A family. A little money maybe. A Caribbean vacation.” I pause. “Maybe a cruise. Hey, anything is possible, right?”

She turns her eyes over her shoulder, staring at me.

“But having none of that shit equals being happy,” I tell her. “As you well know.”

Hawke has probably been the only thing to ever escape her. She’s used to getting what she wants.

“I get it,” she goes on. “Hawke is your meal ticket. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t blame you for targeting him.”

Targeting him? I don’t need Hawke. Any woman with half of a brain should bank on paying her own bills. And being a single parent. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

“Some women can only grow by men,” she muses.

Whatever.

Stoli lifts his flask again, and I smell the alcohol. “Why do they call you Stoli?” I ask.

“It’s a mystery.”

Yeah.

The driver—Dirk, she’d called him—increases his speed, and I look behind me, seeing Hawke disappear behind the turn we just sped around.

Shit.

Dirk winds around turns, the tires screeching, and I grab his headrest to keep upright. “Slow down!” I shout.

But Stoli speaks up. “Hey, Weston!” he sings.

I look and see he’s holding out his phone, pointing it at us in selfie mode and recording.

“Got one of your own!” he announces. “Let’s get this party started!”

Idiot.

I look behind me again, but I don’t see anything. Where is Hawke? I can’t go back to Weston. My brother and sister are in Shelburne Falls, and I have nowhere to stay if I go home.

“So, have you guys done it yet?” I hear Schuyler ask.

I don’t look at her.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” she admits. “Maybe that’s what Hawke needed. To slum a little. Get himself excited with someone who will only ever be a hot piece of ass.”

“Jesus, Schuyler.” Dirk laughs, glancing at her, then back to the road. “We’re having fun. Don’t be a bitch.”

But she just keeps going. “If he hasn’t touched you, don’t worry about it. He’ll probably be a virgin forever. His dick is broke.”

It was hard enough in my mouth this morning.

I don’t tell her that. Instead, I lean forward, ball my fists tight, still held together with the zip-tie, and jerk my chin. “Hey.”

She turns her head, and I punch her right in the goddamn nose.

She flails, but I launch myself out of Stoli’s lap, grab her in the front seat, and hold her hair as the car swerves.

She screams, and they try to pull me off.

“Hawke is worth a hundred times of every other man you’ve ever met,” I grit out in her face. “If I hear one more piece of shit about him leave your mouth, you’ll need surgery to fix your face.”

“Hey!” Dirk yells, trying to drive and rip my hands off her. Stoli wraps his hands around my waist, yanking me back, but the more he pulls, the more I bring her with me over the fucking seat.

“Ah!” she cries, and I spot a line of blood dripping out of her nose.

The car rocks side to side, we tumble, and I pull her as I kick the back of Dirk’s seat.

He slams on the brakes, swerves to the side of the road, and the car screeches to a halt. Everyone loses their balance, and Stoli releases his hold just long enough. I throw myself out of the car and fall to the road, breaking my fall with my arms. I gasp, climbing to my feet.

I don’t wait to look where I am. If he just posted that video and the Rebels see me back in Weston, they’ll keep me there.

I run.

With my wrists still tied in front of me and my hair flying in my face, I race across the road and into the woods. I see headlights approach, but I don’t stop to see if it’s Hawke.

“Aro!” Stoli yells.

Digging in my heels, I run as fast as I can, through the trees, down an incline, and across a dirt road.

“We’re going to get you!” someone sing-songs.

“Get her!” I hear another shout.

Shit. Sweat dampens my face, and I don’t know when I lost my hat, but it’s probably still in the car.