Page 56 of Treacherous

Tightening her grasp on my wrist Ellie tugged me so hard I stumbled forward. "And stay away from the Ring of Fire," she whispered in my ear. "I knew you were going to cause trouble for us the minute I laid eyes on you," she added, her tone laced with disgust. "Stay. Away. From. Noah."

"If you don’t take your scabby little hand off my friend you're the one who's going to get hurt," Hope warned her menacingly.

Ellie dropped my wrist and stepped back slowly. "Take my advice, Teagan," she warned, eyes locked on me.

"I'm really not interested in taking advice from the school Barbie," I said in a bored tone even though I was feeling a little rattled. "I enjoy thinking for myself."

I waited for the queen bitch to sit back down before I left the cafeteria.

Thankfully Hope didn’t follow me, I think she realized I needed space. I was in a foul mood, tired, and seriously pissed off with Ellie for making a fool out of me and with Noah for being the root of all my problems.

"Hey beautiful."

I groaned internally when I reached the parking lot and was faced with Hope's baby brother.

"Hey Colt," I muttered, not making eye contact, hoping he'd get the hint that I wasn’t feeling particularly sociable right now.

"How's your day going?" he asked as I walked past him.

Reluctantly I stopped and turned around to face him, pulling the hood of my coat up to protect my hair from the rain. "You know," I said dryly. "A little of ass and a lot of hole."

Colt chuckled and then ran a hand through his soaking wet hair. "Well," he mused. "Don't let theassholesdrag you down to their mundane level."

I pursed my lips and grimaced. "Right about now, Colt, I'm striving for normal. Mundane is sounding pretty damn appealing."

"Don’t strive for normal, beautiful," he said with a full dimpled smile. "Reach for yourself."

I shook my head in amusement. "Reach for myself?"

"Yeah." Colt grinned as he continued to walk backwards. "The best part about reaching for the best part of you is that it's completely attainable because it's already inside of you." He winked at my confused expression. "You already have the key, Beautiful. Find the lock inside of you it fits. And the best part of it all is you're the only one with a key, therefore no one can take the best of youfrom you. It's yours. For Keeps."

What the…

I stood in the pouring rain, watching Colton as he strolled into the school building, feeling totally confused and surprisingly uplifted.

Yeah, Colton Carter was a strange guy.

****

Noah

"Four grand, Messina," Mortico Gonzalez rasped down the line. "Consider it a little side earner."

"Are you for real?" I growled as I stalked around my living room like a madman with my phone welded to my ear.

After the beating JD and his henchmen gave me at the weekend I hadn’t even considered taking another fight for at least a couple of weeks. Shit, I hadn’t been able to get out of bed until yesterday with the pain in my head. But with George away on business…Shit, what Gonzalez was offering me was fucking insane, but he'd planted the seed of hope in my mind.

Four thousand dollars would go a long way come graduation – if Logan's idea went to plan.

Gonzalez chuckled. "Absolutely, kid. Money's yours – take out Cortez and I'll throw in a little sweetener for your troubles."

"What kind of sweetener?"

"Your debt to Lucius for the paint-job?" Gonzalez mused. "Consider it paid."

My brows rose in surprise. "That's over three…"

"Grand," Gonzalez offered. "You're worth every penny, kid. Now, do we have a deal?"

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