Page 188 of Falling in Reverse

The music I heard down the street floats closer and prominently louder, sounding as if it’s crawling up my driveway when I pull myself out from under the hood and down the length of the black paint of the Nova. And there, walking like he owns the fucking place in dark blue jeans that are cuffed at the bottom and a black Deftones shirt on is Torin Wildes.

The fucking problem—my dad is outside hanging out with me.

Fury immediately pumps through my veins as I march to cut him off from entering my domain.

Yeah, I fuck with him a lot—every chance I get—but he’s not going to be seen by my father.

“This is getting really old, bruh,” I snarl the closer I get, hoping my voice is low enough that Dad doesn’t catch it. “What do you want?”

He smiles, clearly aware that I don’t like him in my space and definitely in my neighborhood. “You showed up at my house. I thought that was our thing, Wildfire.”

“When I said bring your ass to South Shore, I didn’t think you were that dumb.”

He doesn’t lose his shitty grin, looking unaffected by my threat or anyone’s looming around. “Same. Though, I’m not scared of The Nameless. In fact, I could take a little aggression out.”

“I’ll repeat…” I move to my right to keep him blocked off from Dad, but Torin is taller than me which defeats the purpose. “What do you want, Pretty Boy?”

His amber eyes fall back behind me and my stomach twists into a giant knot. “I wanna see your ride.”

Bullshit.

“Get fucked, Torin.”

His gaze moves to my right again. “Then I wanna meet your daddy.”

It’s the way he says it. There’s no teasing behind those words but a blunt warning that he’s here to purposely start shit.

My fingers wrapping around the wrench I was just using, bend on clobbering it over his thick skull in t-minus ten seconds. “You wanna get your ass kicked in front of a grown man?”

“Not yet, baby. I haven’t tasted that pussy yet and...if you’re a good girl, I’ll even forget you steppin’ in on my dinner with your false intentions of just wanting to be part of the family.”

I step up on him because this isn’t a game. I might have him looking out for me in The Landings, but he will not be messing around in my dad’s life nor my sisters’. Being at my house is a whole other level of fucked for me and I didn’t even want to be at his in the first place.

If I had it my way, I’d erase all this and stay out of their way, but I don’t have that luxury right now.

“I said I don’t want to be part of the family. I’m not gonna tell you—” Torin swiftly rounds my body, ignoring my warning, and signs his own death sentence in the process.

Whipping around, I follow him and watch Dad’s blue eyes fall on the motherfucker who just came over the line that divides our two towns to harass me.

“Hey, sir”—Torin extends his hand over my dad’s hospital table that hangs over a La-Z-Boy chair that Levi got him somewhere—“I’m Torin. Friend of your daughter’s.”

Dad’s hand shakily comes up to return the gesture and my jaw tightens as I come up to Torin’s side. “You wanna water, Dad?”

“N-no.” He looks up at Torin suspiciously through droopy eyes. “You c-come t-t-to fix…my k-car-r?”

Torin smiles. “Nah, Bay won’t let me touch it.”

Damn straight, I won’t let you touch it.

“G-g-good. T-t-too men-y-y h-h-h-han-ds…o-on it”—Dad’s jaw bobs like a fish out of water, trying to finish his sentence, but I don’t finish it for him. Pride is all Dad has right now, and I’ll be damned if I baby him. He’s having a rough day today already, I’m not about to make him upset—“mes-ses t-t-hings…up.”

“I highly agree.” Torin glimpses over his shoulder at me. “I was just here to be DJ. That okay?”

I’d say no, but wouldn’t that cause suspicion?

“T-t-u-trn…off”—Dad raises his arm again and points at the tool bench where my phone is—“I…hat-t-e B-b-ryan Ad..ams.”

“Dad,” I snap through narrowed brows. “Are you kidding me?” He glances over at me, unapologetic at his comment and that Bryan Adams is bomb as fuck. Then he lifts his shoulders. I scoff. “Wow…are we related?”

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