Page 10 of The Catalyst

Vigilantes? “What, like Batman?”

Judy throws her head back, laughing, gripping her stomach for support. “Sure, let’s go with Batman.”

I roll my eyes. “Sure, make fun of me all you want. The rest of the world doesn’t deal with vigilantes daily.” I run my fingers through my hair, agitation leaking from me. “What is even the fucking point of being a damn vigilante? It’s a small-ish town and nothing bad happens in small towns. Plus, there are cops who can take care of all the less-desirables.”

“Actually, the cops in Grove Hill are owned by the Gray family. They are the most corrupt of the hoity-toity bunch. They think the rest of us are small-town scum and that we should follow whatever they say. They and all their buddies get away with everything, but Ronan and his friends fight back against that. They have their rules and everyone knows if they break them…well, it's not pretty. No one knows exactly what happens, just that the people who break the rules are never heard from again.”

Wow. I was not expecting that. Hempstead wasn’t corrupt. How can someone justownthe cops? Maybe that makes me naive or ignorant, but I’m curious.

“What are the rules?” I’d hate to be run out of town like all those other people. I doubt they could run me out, but their attempts aren’t pretty, like Judy said, and I trust her. She has no reason to lie.

“Don’t steal, don’t hurt others unprovoked and don’t kill people. It's easy to follow those rules and most people do. It’s only the bad apples that break them. You might disagree with what they do, but they’re the good guys, and they protect the people of this town.”

I believe that. That stranger didn’t give me any dangerous vibes; if anything, he seemed like he wanted to protect me from pricks like “Jordan and his crew.”

“Look, it doesn’t matter how you plead his case. It was just an item off my bucket list. I’m not going to date him or anything like that. Sure, we had chemistry, but that’s it. I’m not in the right place for the complications of a relationship, okay? I just moved to a new place. You’re the only person I know and apparently, I already made an enemy just because my libido latched onto the first guy to give me goo-goo eyes.”

“I get it, Beth. I really do. You have to be ready, but I’m just making sure you have all the facts and aren’t under the disillusion that it was “just sex.” She uses her fingers to accentuate the air quotes and I groan.

“I really don’t like you right now.”

“I told you the same thing at the party, but here we are. I’m all you got, babe, even if you just need a buffer.”

“I just might take you up on that,” I joke as we climb out of the car and head through the crowd. When I say crowd, I mean there has to be hundreds of students gathering and so much shouting that I would’ve thought I was at a concert if I didn’t know better. “What is going on?”

“No clue,” Judy whisper-shouts over the screams. I grab her hand, pulling her through the crowd, but when we break through, my eyes widen in shock.

Really, I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but I thought I had more time to mentally prepare myself to see him again.

The sex god of a stranger stands in the middle. His arms crossed over his chest, an amused smirk across his full lips, as one of the douchebags who wouldn’t leave me alone at the party charges at him. I almost scream for him to get out of the way, but at the last second, he sidesteps the idiot and said douchebag ends up falling on his face.

“I’m going to fucking kill you, O’Reilly!” the dumbass says as he wipes at the blood dripping from his nose and stands to his feet.

“You have to catch me first, Devon,” the stranger teases but doesn’t run or even lift his fists. “And you’re not doing so well right now. I haven’t even touched you and you’re all bloody. Did you pop a blood vessel?”

Devon’s face tenses with rage as he charges straight for him, but the stranger is faster. Jumping up onto the tailgate behind him, he proceeds to do a flip over Devon’s head and lands on his feet, using his hand to keep from falling on his face.

Holy shit.

Devon’s gut slams into the tailgate and he gaffs with agony.

“You’re a good-for-nothing prick,” Devon yells, but “O’Reilly” smirks triumphantly.

“And you’re an entitled trust fund baby. How about you save yourself some dignity before the whole school witnesses you kicking your own ass?”

I can’t help laughing at that, but it's true. He hasn’t touched him, but Devon is covered in cuts and bruises.

Others in the crowd laugh as well. Devon’s eyes flash around him before landing on me at the same time my stranger sees me.

His smile widens as I drop all amusement from my expression, but then Devon approaches me with malice on his face.

“Hey, new girl!” He has just changed his target from my stranger to me, and I’ll be even harder to crumble.

“Back off, Jordan!” the stranger yells, anger on his face, and that’s when it clicks.

Devon Jordan.

Not only is he the one Judy told my stranger was harassing me at his party, but he’s also the guy my mom told me about this morning whose family invited me and my mom to dinner.

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