Glancing away, I quietly mutter, “I don’t think anyone else would ever have put themselves at risk for me like that.”
Leaning in between the two front seats so he can gently grab my chin between his thumb and forefinger, Tyler turns my head so he’s looking into my eyes, “It was nothing, love,” he says softly with a gentle smile at the corner of his mouth, stroking his thumb over the angle of my jaw, having no idea just how much his words and soft touches are affecting me.
“Now go on in and have a drink or get off to your vibrator or whatever you chicks do to unwind,” he adds, totally ruining the moment, but causing a bark of laughter to burst from me before I shake my head and get out of the car, giving them a short wave before I turn the corner and approach the gates. Once again the car idles by the side of the road until the gates are securely closed behind me.
I hurry up the drive and into the house, not slowing down until I’m safely tucked away in my bedroom, with the door locked. I can’t handle anything else right now, least of all my father drilling me about today’s activities.
Finally, alone, I lean my back against my bedroom door, closing my eyes, and taking a deep breath, giving in to the mounting headache building behind my eyes.
After a few moments, the pain begins to ease a little and I dump my school bag and make my way into the bathroom for a long hot shower.
Stepping into the shower, I let the hot water flow over my tense muscles and wash away the shit-show that was today. I put on a brave face at the time, because I’m used to putting up a strong front when shit hits the fan, but in all honesty, today shook me up more than I’d ever let on. Yeah, everything turned out fine, but I’m not used to being kidnapped, threatened, and having guns pointed at me, and now my adrenaline has run out and my hands and legs are starting to shake. I can barely hold myself up any longer.
By the time I get out of the shower, I’m dead on my feet, unable to do anything other than wrap a towel around my body before I collapse onto the bed. My eyes are closed before my head even hits the pillow.
I sleep all the way through to the following morning, only waking up when Thomas knocks on my door to remind me about school. Pleading sickness, he leaves me alone, promising to bring me up some soup later in the day.
I now have the whole day to develop a game plan and work out what I’m going to do with Preston and Barrett, as well as Aiden and Tyler.
First on my agenda is to find the tracking devices Aiden and Tyler have hidden in my belongings. I tear my room apart going through every piece of jewellery and item of clothing I own, trying to find the damn devices.
Eventually, I discover them placed into the inner lining of all of my shoes. The tracking devices are small, flat discs that I wouldn’t have felt when wearing the shoes. Very smart.
I can’t help but wonder how the hell they managed to sneak into my room to plant the devices. Did my father let them into my room?
By the time I’m done retrieving every tracking device, one in each pair of shoes, I have twenty-seven of them in total. It also makes me painfully aware of how many shoes I own. Which is insane since I’ve never worn most of them, living mostly in my Converse.
Now that I have them, I don’t know what to do with them. I spend the rest of the morning staring at the little plastic bag I put them in, mulling over some ideas.
Suddenly, a hilariously cruel idea comes to mind that I know would totally piss the two of them off. I can’t hold back the mischievous grin that spreads across my face. We might be on good terms, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with the fact they snuck into my room and planted tracking devices without my permission, or at least telling me that they had done it. For that reason, I feel totally justified in what I’m about to do.
Taking one of the tracking devices, I dig out an envelope from my desk and place the device inside it. Googling a random PO box halfway across the country, I write the address on the front of the envelope and arrange with Thomas for the envelope to be sent express delivery.
That should keep the boys busy for the rest of the day, I think, laughing to myself.
If only I could handle Preston and Barrett as easily.
Chapter 32
AIDEN
“Sophie is staying at home for the day.” I tell Ty, having just gotten off the phone with Oliver. Can’t say I blame the girl after what happened. She was pale as a ghost when we dropped her off at her house yesterday afternoon.
Things have been weird since I fucked Sophie. They were strange enough before that night. Ever since she climbed into the back of our car after that party, Ty and I have both been a little obsessed with her. She’s not like anyone I’ve ever known. There’s a fire in her, a fierceness. Most others who had been through what she has would have crumbled in on themselves, but it has only made her stronger, and I have a feeling I only know the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Sophie Montgomery has had to survive.
The last few weeks following her around while she spent time with that group of girls from her school and that fuckwit boy who was hanging all over her, drove me fucking mad. I wanted to break his fucking hands every time he touched her. Every time I watched that douchebag pull her into his lap or fucking kiss her, I wanted to put a bullet through him. Breathe in his pain, watch him scream and writhe around in agony while the blood spurted from him. Fuck yeah, that would feel so good.
I may not be as drawn to violence as the rest of the Beasts, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel fucking satisfying to think of destroying someone that way.
Now we have this situation with Preston and Barrett to deal with. If I ever get my hands on those fuckers for what they did to her, they won’t fucking walk straight for a week. I would have taken care of them yesterday if Sophie hadn’t been my primary priority, but I needed to get her out of there before anything else happened.
“Good, she deserves an easy day,” Ty replies, sprawled out half-asleep on the sofa in my room at the Beasts motel. Neither of us slept much last night, sitting up half the night trying to formulate a game plan. We are getting more and more involved with Sophie, and it’s going to become a problem with the club soon, if we aren’t careful. We need to work out what we want to do. We never wanted to be part of club life and now, more than ever, we feel the need to get out.
“What are we going to do with those motherfuckers?” He asks, clearly as annoyed about yesterday as I am.
We spend the next few hours bouncing ideas back and forth, trying to find something appropriate that won’t piss Sophie off. She clearly has some sort of feelings for the two idiots, although I can’t for the life of me work out why. That takes straight-up murdering them off the table. Unfortunately.
We are still discussing ideas when my phone goes off with an alert. Looking at the screen, there is a notification telling me Sophie has left her property. Strange. Oliver hasn’t text to say he’s taking her anywhere. Perhaps she just needed to go for a walk, clear her head. I know she loves wandering alone along the trails in the area.
Wanting to give her some space, I ignore the notification and return my attention to whatever Ty is saying as he gets up off the sofa and grabs us two beers from the mini-fridge in my room.
“I’m just saying, we should scare them like they scared her. Show them who they are messing with, so they know what we’re capable of. We can’t have them going after her again.” He says, sitting back down and passing me a beer.