Ruthless Love (Ash and Innocence 1)

I considered letting him to go voicemail, like usual, but I was in particularly good spirits, so I picked up.

“This is forsaken son speaking. How can I help you?”

“Tristan. Stop fucking around. I need you out of that house.”

“Inconvenient, isn’t it? Next time you want your spawn to follow orders, you might want to keep a closer eye on them. Maybe don’t leave them behind when you fly to California for a three-year vacation?”

“Save it. I didn’t call to listen to you bitch and moan about—”

I hung up the phone.

Correction. I wasn’t just going to throw a party tonight. I was going to throw so many parties in this place that my dear old man would be lucky if it was still standing by the time his realtor came back again.

I spent the first few periods at school spreading the word.

At lunch, Gage brought up the party in conversation, which prompted Kennedy to give me one of her looks.

“What?” I asked.

She brushed off the question, but after school, she brought it up again in the parking lot. I was headed to the locker room to talk to coach, who had asked me to come talk about the results of the drug test he’d given me a couple days ago. If I passed it, I was back on the team.

“You’re sure you want to keep doing this with your dad?” She asked.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

She had developed a habit of fiddling with my clothes when we talked, and I’d consequently developed a habit of thinking it was fucking adorable. She pulled at the hem of my shirt, rubbing her thumb over it as she chewed her lip, clearly trying to find the right words. “I want to see you happy. I guess I just hate that your family is still—” she shook her head.

“Shitty?”

Kennedy gave an almost apologetic shrug.

“My mom and dad. Yes. But my sister is just getting brainwashed. God knows what kind of shit they’ve told her about me by now, but they’ve had three years to turn her against me. Still, I don’t blame her for any of it. Maybe when she’s older and out of their lives a little, she’ll come around.”

“But what if you just moved on from it? That house is the last thing your dad has that he can use to control you.”

“And it’s the only thing he cares about I can fuck up.”

She smiled sadly. “That’s really what you want?”

I touched her cheek, giving her a kiss on the forehead to soften what I was about to say. “You’ve taught me to be different. Better, at times. And even though I’ve got a big ass, wheelchair shaped soft spot for you—”

She interrupted me with a little punch to my chest.

Ignoring her, I continued. “But if anyone ever fucks with me or someone I care about they aren’t getting the new and improved version of me. They’re getting the twisted, vengeful version. The one who will absolutely do everything in his power to punish them.”

She looked like she was thinking deeply about what I was saying as she plucked a stray hair from my sleeve, then brushed the spot with her fingertips. Even the innocent touch made my skin prickle with goosebumps.

“Only the bad guys?” she asked.

“What?”

“You’ll only be like that to the bad guys, right?”

“As long as the definition of ‘bad guy’ is someone who hurts you in any way, or someone who crosses me, then yes. Only the bad guys.”

With a little sigh and a smile, she nodded. “Then I guess I’ll just have to live with that, because I apparently fell in love with a little bit of a dark hero, didn’t I?”

I chuckled, then threaded my fingers behind her lower back, pulling her in closer. “A hero, huh?”

“A dark hero,” she corrected.

“You say that like it detracts from the compliment.”

“Stay with me,” she said suddenly.

“Coach actually wanted me to—”

“I don’t mean right now. I mean… My house. Whatever happens with your dad and the house. Stay with me. If it’s too weird, you can sleep in my room and I’ll sleep downstairs, or—”

I couldn’t help smiling. “Before I respond to any of that. I just have to stop you there. You really think I’d be worried about how ‘weird’ it is to share a bed with you every night? Are you sure you’ve met me?”

She plopped her forehead into my chest, looking down. “I didn’t want to freak you out. I know we’re just in high school, and the whole moving in together thing is so far from normal.”

“We are far from normal, Wheels. After all. I’m the dark hero and you’re my wheelchair-bound sidekick.”

She playfully whacked her fist into my stomach. I grunted, flinching back a little from surprise. If she kept practicing her punches on me, they were going to start hurting before long.