Tough Shit (Rejects Paradise 1)

“Go,” he orders with a ferocious snap. The Black Widows cannot afford any more shit on their doorstep. Nic’s dad, Kian, is only one step away from being locked up for the next thirty years. If this shit falls on him, it’s game over.

Kairo, Eli, and Sebastian move like lightning, knowing an order when they hear one. These guys might be best friends and brothers, but there’s a clear boss among them and that’s a line no one wants to cross. They’re all good to fuck around and stir shit up, but when Dominic Garcia means business, they know.

Their doors are thrown open and the car instantly empties of the thick smoke. I go to move after the boys but Nic’s hand snaps out and clenches down around my wrist. “Not you.”

My head snaps back around and I hear “Good luck, pretty girl,” muttered by Kairo just moments before the door is slammed with a solid thump.

The three of them chase after the newbies and rich kids while I look longingly after them. “Come on, Nic. For old time’s sake.”

“You’re only going to make things worse and I can’t have your mom banging on my door at three in the morning demanding that I cough up the cash to bail you out again.”

I roll my eyes and sink back into my seat with a frustrated groan. “That happened once.”

A cocky grin spreads across Nic’s face as he turns in his seat to look back at me. “Come on, you know I’m not about to let you get messed up in the Black Widows business. You need to graduate from high school and go to college. You’re better than this. It’s part of the reason your mom is getting you out of here.”

I stare back at him, meeting his heavy gaze. “The likelihood of me graduating and going to college is about the same as your father getting through the next few years without doing any jail time. It’s never going to happen.”

He shakes his head and watches me as though he’s watching a misbehaved child. “You need to have more faith in yourself.”

“And you need to get a grasp on reality,” I throw back, more than ready to have the same fight that we’ve had a million times before. “Look around you, Nic. I’m a Breakers Flats girl—born and bred. There’s no good for me out there. I’d be lucky to find myself a guy who doesn’t hit me and keep a job long enough to afford a roof over my head.”

His gaze drops for just a moment before meeting mine once again, the fight in his eyes now completely gone. He wanted to be that guy who gave me a future. He would have left his father’s gang and given us a real shot at a life together, but that’s not going to happen now. He would have made such a great husband. You know, in a few years, considering we would have made those few years without accidentally popping out a baby. It was bound to happen had we stayed together any longer. That’s just the life we have around here. Hell, it’s the same life mom had with dad until he was murdered four short months ago.

Nic reaches into the back and his warm, calloused hands take my waist just seconds before I’m hauled through the car. “Come here,” he says a second too late before I’m straddled over his lap and staring back into the darkest eyes I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing.

“What are you doing?” I question as I try to scramble off his lap toward Kairo’s vacated seat, but his grip only tightens. If Dominic Garcia wants me on his lap, then that’s exactly where I’m going to be. No question about it. Nic always gets what he wants.

I give in and relax into his hold, and seeing that resignation, he eases his grip on my waist. Nic tilts his chin, looking up and meeting my eyes, and in seconds I know what this is going to be about.

His hand comes up and brushes over my cheek, his knuckles rough against my skin but I can’t focus on it. All I see are his eyes, desperately trying to pull me in. God, why does he have to look like this? Dark, scruffy hair, stubble over his sharp jaw, and a face tempting enough to have even the strongest of women breaking. He’s sexy as sin and it’s not fair. I can’t resist him. Add the bandana and the tattoos covering his body and I’m a goner. But when he flashes that cheesy as fuck grin my way, I melt.

“Don’t go, Ocean,” he murmurs, his heart breaking before my eyes and slowly killing me from within. “Stay here with me.”

My hands fall against his strong chest as I lean in and softly brush my lips over his. “I have to,” I tell him. “Mom is all I’ve got left. I can’t let her go alone. She’s my only family.”