"Okay," I said, turning my attention to the wall and trying to decide where to begin.
Maverick ran a hand through his hair to try and fix it again and I smiled wickedly as I shook my can up and then proceeded to spray paint a mermaid onto the wall with jumbo boobs and a fish kissing her ass while she made out with a shark. It was pretty freaking beautiful.
Maverick went for a skull with a cock in its mouth and I snorted a laugh at the masterpiece. I finished off my shark tail and then swung my arm out, aiming to give Rick a nice orange hairdo but he caught onto me at the last second and ducked aside, making me paint his shirt instead.
I burst out laughing a second before he lunged at me, spraying pink everywhere while I tried to run for it.
"Stop!' I shrieked, half choking on the fumes as I blindly sprayed revenge orange in his direction and his deep laughter filled the air.
"Hey! You kids! What the hell are you doing?" a man shouted and I gasped in alarm as Maverick released me and we spotted a cop hanging out of his car window to get a look at us.
"Oh fuck," I breathed, rooted to the spot but Maverick was faster to react, grabbing my hand and dragging me towards his bike.
"Come on, beautiful, we gotta run," he urged, tossing his can and making me move as the cop yelled after us to stop.
I leapt onto the back of the bike, dropping my own can of paint as Maverick started her up, loosing the throttle and aiming for an alley beyond the hotel as I clung on tight.
"Stop!" the cop bellowed, blue and red lights flashing as he turned on the siren and a laugh tore from my lips as Maverick raced away down the alley.
"Holy shit," I gasped as he sped on faster and faster, navigating back alleys in the dark from memory alone, swinging left and right before bursting back out onto the street.
The cop was far behind now, but I could still see his lights when I looked over my shoulder and I yelled out for Rick to ride faster as he turned off of the main road and headed down a side alley again. He kept his lights off to make it harder for the cop to keep track of us, but that meant we could hardly see down in the dark alleyways.
This one cut behind a row of stores and ejected us on another street where he turned right and sped away from the town towards the forest and one of our favourite hang outs.
I squeezed him tight, grinning as we left the police in our dust and my hair whipped out behind us in its high ponytail.
Maverick finally slowed down as we came up on the Rosewood Manor, cutting the engine and getting off the bike as we approached the drive.
The old dear who lived here was like a hundred and fifty so she never even noticed us sneaking onto her property and we never left much sign that we'd been here either. But we were always careful to stay fairly quiet just in case.
I hopped off and Maverick wheeled the bike into the trees to the side of the drive, leading the way down the well worn path around the edge of the property.
I glanced over my shoulder as a flash of red and blue caught my attention and I hissed at Maverick to hurry up as he quickly hid his bike behind a large oak tree.
I ducked down as the cop car turned onto the road and Rick dropped down beside me half a second later, taking my hand as we hid in the bushes and waited for it to pass on by.
My heart was pounding so fast that I could hear it thrashing against my eardrums, a shaky breath passing between my lips as I watched the car roll past.
When it moved on down the street and turned out of sight again I turned to look at Maverick, finding his dark eyes on me instead of the road, the look in them making my pulse skip as I bit down on my bottom lip.
"I think they're gone," I whispered.
"Yeah," he agreed, but neither of us moved for another moment.
The sound of a coyote howling in the distance drew my gaze away from his and Maverick stood, tugging me after him as we approached the gap in the fence which we'd used a hundred times before and slipped inside.
He didn't let go of me as he led me onto the Rosewood land, drawing me along with him as we headed for the summer house that we'd all claimed as our own a long time ago.
The little wooden building sat beside the pool and we slipped inside, glancing at the distant manor house where a single light glowed in a downstairs window as usual. I was pretty fond of the old woman who lived there – she was arguably the only adult in my life who actually gave a shit about me. Four years ago Miss Mabel had caught me and Chase sleeping in this summer house one night when his dad had been knocking him about and instead of kicking us out or calling the cops, she’d invited us up to the house, given us both a cup of hot cocoa and told us we were welcome to come whenever we liked so long as we were willing to do a few jobs for her. She’d even turned on the electricity for the summer house so we had lights out there whenever we came over. Last year we'd chased off a bunch of assholes who tried to egg her house on Halloween and gave them a good kicking for it too. I liked to know we were looking out for her, even though she didn't know about that specifically. Sometimes if we came up here during the day, we’d help her out with work in the yard and chat to her on her porch. She didn’t really have anyone which was something I could seriously relate to because aside from my boys, there wasn’t a single fucker in this world who gave a shit about me. And maybe in some small way our visits meant she was less alone, even on the nights we didn’t even go up to the house.
Miss Mabel had even gone one better than letting us hang out in her summer house and giving us sugary snacks whenever we swung by – she’d given us access to another building on her grounds. Right around the back of the property, the manor had a graveyard which included several family crypts dating back to the very first Rosewood to own this land.
Before his death, Daniel Rosewood had built the first crypt alongside a hidden treasury with a stone door which had five locks on it – one for each of his sons so that they could only come and claim the family fortune as a unit, keeping the family united. Over the years since, the treasure that had supposedly been kept in there had been taken out and the Rosewood heirs had handed their keys down when they died until only Mabel Rosewood was left to inherit them. The crypt was empty and derelict now and the five keys had been sitting in a drawer in her dining room, but after getting to know us, she’d gifted us one each so that we could use it how we wanted.
Mostly, we used it to store shit we stole that was too hot to pawn right away. But we’d also taken to hiding other things down there over the years, weapons and secrets and things that could be wielded against us or those we knew. All of it stashed away in case a day came when we might need to use them. There was something about there having been five keys that had always felt like fate to me, like they’d been destined to be ours. And even though the boys liked to laugh about that, I knew they coveted theirs too. The first thing I’d done after getting mine was hang it from a leather thong which I wore around my neck and I never took it off.
We moved inside and Rick pulled the summer house door closed behind us as I headed into the shadows before he switched the lights on. The place was cosy enough with little couches and a table, some playing cards and sodas left here for whenever we showed up. Miss Mable often left snacks out for us too because she was a freaking superstar.
I glanced down at my black shirt and cursed as I spotted the bright pink and orange paint coating it.