Page 21 of Property of Chaos

“Where the fuck are you, you little asshole?”

I think I’m already in love.

I stab a stiff finger into the critter’s haunch and whisper, “She’s talking to you, fucker.”

He rises to his feet and proceeds to stick his furry ass in the air as he stretches before letting loose a fucking deafening yowl.You little…I throw myself backward so damn fast that my head smacks the ground with a reverberating thud, jarring my teeth. The grass is between knee and waist height along the fence line—enough to disguise me but not entirely hide me should she look in my direction long enough.Fuck my black clothes.They probably stick out like a sore thumb against the green field beyond, but then again, the sun still rises, the warm hues distorting things.My saving grace.

“Thought you’d finally decided to leave me,” she says with a slight laugh as the cat presumably nears her. “You like my crazy, though, don’t you?”

Don’t mind it so much myself.

I lift my head, squinting down the length of my body against the rising sun. I can make out enough of her porch past the grass and her front garden to know the door is still open, but not where she is. The seconds pass like decades. I legitimately start to believe the next thing I’ll see is a gun pointed at my head when she busts my ass.

Yet all that happens is the click of her door as it closes seconds before my fucking phone starts vibrating against my leg. The movement stops, and I push onto my elbows to check that the coast is clear.Safe.My phone starts again.

I rip it out of my pocket, eyes on the windows facing the road, and answer. “What?”

“Where the fuck are you?”Selena.

“Out.”

“No shit,” my baby sister sasses. “Your bike isn’t here, and so aren’t you, so I figure that means you’re out, fuckwad. What I want to know is where.”

“Language, Se-se.”

“Fuck your language rules.” She’s sixteen and fucking a handful at the best of times. “You broke your location rule.”

Yeah, I did. I didn’t need the guys to ask why I spent the night at a property we don’t own yet, so I switched off the tracking on my phone. “Club business.”

Silence. Followed by the slow intake of her breath.

“Guess that’s why I don’t know about it, then, huh?”

The fuck?“Am I on speaker?”

Jinx huffs. “Morning, sunshine.”

I catch the distinct irritation of Circus’s rattly laugh.Fuckers.

“I’ll be there in thirty. Get your fucking ass to school.” I stab End on my sister—the club—and sigh.

Playtime is over.

For now, anyway.

NINE

VANESSA

The frantic rattleof a fist against the glass snaps me out of the trance I’d found myself in while preparing the tables for another busy weekday. Wednesday is always the worst for people needing their mid-week pick-me-up, and I get it. I’m the same after another night of the sleep-panic-wake cycle.

I cross over to where Marianna damn near attempts to break through the locked door and flip the catch. “Sorry. We’re not open yet,” I sass.

“Ha. Ha.” She barrels inside, gaze searching past me.

“Theresa’s out back, taking out the trash,” I state, returning to the job at hand.

My best friend and boss know each other, sure. But they sure as fuck don’t like each other. It’s like having two quarreling cats in heat whenever they’re near.

---