Page 79 of Boys Who Taint

“Levi, do you know anything about this?”

I throw my sister a damning look while she just sits back in her chair and smiles gleefully.That witch … Is she trying to pin this on me?

“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, you do. Some guys I’m friends with heard you and Aspen talk during swimming practice. She said she had a stalker, and you didn’t care.”

Dad scoots back his chair too and stands. “Youtalkedto Aspen? Dammit, Levi, you know you’re not supposed to engage!”

I dart out the front door before I have to hear another admonishment from my own damn family.

I can’t listen to them continuously tell me to stay away from Aspen.

To let her go when I simply … cannot.

I only stop running when I’m at my motorcycle, and I kick the metal until it makes me bleed.

“FUCK!” I scream.

I don’t care who hears because the louder I yell, the less choked I feel.

It’s as if invisible hands are slowly snaking their way around my neck, suffocating the light out of me until all that’s left is the monster coiled deep inside my heart, sucking in the darkness until it clouds my every waking thought.

If only she knew. If only she knew how far I was willing to go.

How much I have killed.

I suck in a breath and pet my bike. “I’m sorry, love.”

Then I hop on and start the engine.

“You know there’s no way out of this, right?” Sunny’s voice makes me look over my shoulder. She throws me my helmet. “You forgot this.”

“Thanks.” I put it on and secure it.

“Don’t leave loose ends,” she says, winking.

“If I do, you owe me a kill, sis.”

She licks her bottom lip. “Just say when and where, and I’ll be there.”

I nod and race off right as Dad walks out the door too, but I’m long gone by the time he’s opened his mouth again. I’m not interested in listening to what I’ve heard over and over again.

Stay low, don’t talk to anyone you consider a friend.

If this is all that’s left of my life, I don’t fucking want it. Return to fucking sender.

I drive through the city with music blasting in my ear to distract me while I watch the sun set and the moon rise full of vengeance.

Through the seedy part of town Mom told me not to cross. I know what lurks in these fucking corners—murderers, drug dealers, traffickers, the worst of their kind—but right now the touch of darkness is what I need to stay sane, to remind myself I’m not the rot of this planet.

This is the part of town no one goes to if they can help it, because it’s run by the Bonesmen Brotherhood, a notorious group of criminals dead set on making a name for themselves as the most destructive men on earth. Their only interest is money, no matter how they acquire it. They don’t break rules. Rules don’t exist for the likes of them. And ever since my parents and Aspen’s parents took down two of their locations, they’ve regrouped and grown even stronger. Which is why I’m careful whenever I drive through this neighborhood, speeding whenever someone looks at me wrong.

But the sight of one white-haired guy makes me hit the brakes, and I push my helmet up to see if I’m dreaming, but I’m not. I’m definitely not.

Aspen’s boyfriend, Grey, just walked out of a seedy-looking underground club that’s definitely on Bonesmen Brotherhood territory.

Fuck.

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