Devil's Despair Box Set: Books 1-3 (45 page)

“Jesus Christ!” Trav exclaims. “Have another fuckin’ drink, Raegan,” he barks and her happy face falls at his aggressive tone. Travis recognizes this immediately and grabs her in a huge, over-exaggerated embrace while apologizing profusely.

I give an eye-roll to Ace in response.
He returns it with his own.

Travis would never hurt his sweet, little Raegan.

“Shit, sorry,” he says while holding her head to his chest. “But you can’t call shotgun with me in the car and especially when we’re all drinking, you loon.” He roughs her hair and she giggles,
again,
in response. “I’m too big to fit back there.”

Once he sets her free from his hold, she walks back to Ace and grabs his waist for support.

“Travis whined,” she tells on him to whoever will listen.

“I didn’t.”

“Oh, you definitely did. I liked it. It makes you cute, like a puppy. Sarah would . . .”

Oh, God, Rae’s not only tipsy. The vodka has made its way with full force into her bloodstream. Ace’s woman is fucking smashed.

Ace, finally having enough of their flirting banter, moves Rae in front of him and pushes her shoulder to get her to move along and toward the doorway of the apartment’s porch. “Enough, woman. Let’s get you inside before the neighbors call the cops.”

“They’re jealous,” she says with a snide sneer aimed at us left walking behind her.

“Jealous of?” Trav asks, and when he does I brace for Raegan’s defiance to burst from her mouth through her words.

“My man is hot. The little biddy,” Rae says, pointing to the neighbor across the street, forgetting she’s not home, but at Travis’s place. “Mrs. Richardson watches us sometimes.”

Ace stops moving and looks down with a stern gaze. I know he’s willing her to shut up, but the ever-challenging Rae continues without a care. “Don’t look at me like that, Ace. She does . . . she watches! Last night when you had at me in the living room, I . . .”

“Ace, please shut her the fuck up. I didn’t come home early to listen to this shit.” When I look to Travis, I see he has his hands over his eyes, as if that will hide the visual of what Raegan just candidly described.

“Go on, Rae. I’d like to hear more,” I say, ribbing Trav with my elbow and being met with a punch to the shoulder from him and an animated ‘please’ from Lacey.

“Are we adults?” Ace queries, looking at Travis and me behind them, then turning his angered attention to Rae. “And you.” He bends closer to her face, “Shut the hell up or I’m reminding them of how loud you get when I ‘go at you,’ got it?”

“Oh, don’t be mad.” She slaps his chest while smiling. “I don’t mind. Although, some warning or foreplay isn’t always a
bad
thing.”

“Ace! Can you
seriously
shut her up now?” Travis raises his voice as the words penetrate.

But Rae’s not done. “I mean, some women like to shower alone. I don’t mind company from time to time, but . . .”

Ace slaps his hand over her mouth and her smile, which still shows at its edges, makes it difficult to keep my own from appearing.

“Go, Rae.” Ace points to the porch before she steps her foot on it.

“Heard those words countless times, too,” she says in return, mumbling them in sarcasm. “‘Go, Rae’” she utters, mocking his tone, “usually to be followed by, ‘take it, soak me, or fuckin’ do it, woman.’”

Lacey giggles and I pull her into my chest to shut her up. “This is like watching a train wreck,” she whispers, loud enough for the others to hear. Travis throws her a mild glance, which she misses in her own tipsy state.

“No one wants to look away, though. It’s how they always are. Watch . . .” I tell her in my arms. “Raegan’s about to get an ass-chew.”

“Oh, Jesus. You’re pushing me, Rae. They don’t want to hear this shit,” Ace growls.

Lacey leans up, this time on a real whisper. I smell the alcohol on her breath, she’s that close. “It’s like a skit.”

Travis looks to Lacey and me and I shrug, clearly having enjoyed the banter between Ace and Rae and not in the least bit uncomfortable. Raegan’s hot and if she wants to talk about her and Ace’s sex life openly, I’m shamelessly willing to listen.

Once we all make it to the lighted area near the door, Trav catches sight of what’s at our side. “Sarah have company?” he inquires while pointing to the dark blue ten-speed leaning against the house then a pair of muddy men’s tennis shoes sitting on the floor mat next to it.

Rae catches sight of these and
yet again,
her drunken state causes her to giggle uncontrollably. Once she gains control, she gestures to Ace. “Company. Hmm. Probably not the company you’re gonna approve of.” She shies away when Ace’s expression turns hard, then casually adds with a drunken shudder, “I’m guessing.”

Once Travis finally realizes what’s going on, his keys are in his hands at lightning speed. Ace stands behind him, ready to break the door down once allowed and as soon as the door is open, the men fall into the living room as I let go of Lacey and hold Rae up with one arm, nearly carrying her over its threshold.

“What the fuck?” Ace bellows, not caring if the neighborhood watch in
Florida
can hear him.

This isn’t going to be good.

The next sound I hear is Sarah screeching as if her life is in danger. When I push Raegan inside, I immediately seat her on the bench next to the door and make sure she stays upright before I hear fist meet flesh and the loud grunt that follows.

Lacey’s eyes go wide before I see what’s happening in front of us. “Oh, God, what’s happening?”

A
n overreacting temper like this could mean either Travis or Ace; unsure whose is worse.

“Oh, my God, stop! You have to fucking stop!” Sarah’s screaming as I watch Travis push what looks to be a teenage boy to the ground then punch him hard in the face again.

Rushing to Sarah, who’s attempting to step between them, I grab her around the waist and hoist her into the air, pulling her a safe distance from the commotion. She weighs next to nothing, even being nearly seventeen. She’s tall and thin but very athletic, which makes it difficult to hold her back when she starts using her muscular limbs to kick and punch the shit out of me.

“Hayden, fucking let me go! Trav’s going to hurt him, damn it!”

“I think that’s the point, squirt,” I say softly in her ear, setting her down and holding her with one arm around her small waist and the other around her shoulders, across her collarbone and neck. Lacey comes to stand at my side, looking fearful but saying nothing as I hold Sarah.

Ace grabs Travis’s shirt, pulling him off the kid to avoid Travis’s well-known temper from continuing its wrath. “Trav,
enough,
” Ace demands, pushing him away and settling him next to the door, leaving his hand on his chest for assurance. “Now, what the fuck?”

Sarah starts to speak, but Ace cuts her off. “Not talking to you, Sarah.” Pointing to the kid on the ground, Ace’s voice is lethal. “You!”

“Holy shit, you hit me!” the kid hisses at a very angry Travis. He’s got balls, I’ll give him that.

“Who the fuck are you?” Trav spits down at him, not caring to address the blood leaking from the kid’s nose.

Breathing heavily as he takes in the crowd around him, he explains, “Landon.” He waits, as though Travis and Ace have any fucking idea what that means. “Dude, I wasn’t hurting her.”

And action.

It’s then the guys drop their stare on the suffering boy in front of them to turn their equally measured glare to Sarah, whose squirming in my arms, but I can’t see why since I’m at her back.

Ace finally lets Travis go and Travis steps toward the kid on the floor again, renewed anger and fury enveloping him with each measured inch. The kid scoots back in terror.

Raegan chooses this moment, of any fucking moment, to pipe in with her sleepy drunkenness. “Sarah.” She points lazily as if the scene playing out is casual. “You may wanna,” she turns her finger to her own shirt, motioning up and down as if she’s wearing hers the same, “button up your shirt, honey. Trav and Hayden are here.”

Oh, dear God, Raegan. No more vodka.

“Get out!” Travis roars.

“I think you better go,” Ace says with a casualness I’ve feared from him a few times in the past. It’s controlled, calm, and incredibly eerie. His fury isn’t directed at Landon as Trav’s is, though. His anger is boring into the small woman in my arms still struggling to break free from my hold.

Once I set her down, she realizes what’s coming as soon as Landon gets set to leave and then furiously spends the next five seconds, making herself decent as Rae suggested.

Travis stops Landon before he can make a safe getaway. “I don’t see your fucking face in my fuckin’ house or near Sarah again.”

Landon, tall and lanky in comparison to Trav’s thick and rigid body, spits his own angry, “Fuck her.” Scowling back at Sarah who is now crying, he finishes with an insulting, “No girl’s worth this shit.”

Travis pushes him out the door and slams it once he’s gone.

Raegan’s eyes now wide and her mouth hanging open has me briefly believing she’s caught on to the seriousness of the situation, but I’m wrong. And I find I’m wrong when I hear her say, “Well, he wasn’t in a very good mood, was he?”

No one answers her; Ace and Trav are too pissed and I’m trying not to laugh so my only response is to smile at her. Raegan catches my eyes, smiles wide, and offers the most un-seductive, fucked-up wink that almost comes across as stalker-creepy. I let out a small chuckle, which thankfully no one hears.

“What the fuck, Sarah?”

“What do you want me to say, Ace?” Sarah’s tone is sarcastic and petulant. At least she’s no longer screaming.

“Couple things, I think. To start, maybe you wanna tell me why I walk in on you at Trav’s place and you’re sprawled out on the couch with some guy?”

“He’s not ‘some guy,’ Ace. His name is Landon and he
was
my boyfriend, ’til Trav fucked that up!” she screams, pointing to Travis who has his arms crossed over his chest. His stance is angry and strong, but Sarah doesn’t waver. “He’ll never talk to me again now.”

“That’s not a bad thing, squirt,” Ace snaps back without a second thought. He didn’t have to contemplate at all. The answer to Sarah ever having a boyfriend is always going to be no. “We agreed, no boyfriends. You’re too young.”

“We agreed?
Agreed?
Who fucking agreed to that?”

Travis steps up, getting in Sarah’s face. “Why do you talk like that? Is that your way of attracting,” he points to the door Landon just closed, “men like him? Is that what you’re trying to get?”

“Maybe you should hear her out.” I try, for Sarah’s sake, to calm the guys. Travis is livid. His stance is hard and he hasn’t stopped grinding his jaw since the kid left. “I’m just saying maybe you should think about what it was like when we were her age, that’s all.”

My reasonable thinking doesn’t penetrate to the angry room in the least. Ace’s eyes narrow before his bellowing voice strikes, “Is that a fucking hickey?”

Sarah grabs her neck, knowing the exact location of where this alleged hickey could possibly be placed, and blinks back certain tears knowing she’s busted. Ace’s is waiting patiently for her answer.

“Of course it’s a hickey, honey. You know what they look like. Here . . .” Rae has made her way up off the bench, only slightly less drunk, and is now grabbing the hem of Ace’s shirt, attempting to play show and tell with an apparent hickey she’s placed on him at one time or another. It could have been last night; it could have been years ago. I’m unsure Raegan would know the difference at this point. Ace gives up his anger long enough to grab her and put her in her place underneath his arm.

“Shhh, Rae. Not now, okay?” She nods at his directions, turns her gaze to Sarah and smiles wide. Once Ace catches her sly move, he lets out an exasperated huff. “Christ,” he hisses in annoyance.

Sarah leans her back into me, silently asking me to intervene, but when I look to Travis I get a short shake of his head and his narrowed eyes tell me to remain quiet.

“Where’s Shelby and Mel?” Lacey asks the room, reminding everyone that this wouldn’t have happened if Sarah weren’t left without a chaperone.

Through tears, Sarah answers, “Shelby called. They were called into The Ward and couldn’t make it.”

“Sarah, grab your shit. Let’s get Rae home. I’ll take you home, and we’ll talk about this in the morning.” Ace barks his orders and Sarah immediately complies.

Thank fuck for that.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Lacey

“WELL, THAT WAS interesting,” I tell Travis and Hayden as we stand in our apartment alone in the wake of Sarah, Rae, and Ace’s quick departure.

“She’s an idiot,” Trav exclaims. Hayden and I stay quiet, unsure what to say to an extremely pissed-off Travis. “She’s a kid, for fuck’s sake. What’s wrong with just enjoyin’ being a kid?”

Hayden works to calm him. “She’s not a kid anymore, Trav. She’s months shy of seventeen and she’s almost done growing up.”

“Not sure what’s worse. The little she-devil-child Sarah, or this boy-clothes-shoe-crazy one.”

“This boy-clothes-shoe-crazy one?” I ask, ready and willing to stick up for Sarah. I remember being seventeen; it was full of confusion and constant insecurity. Seventeen-year-old girls rely on boys to validate them in a way adults don’t understand. “I don’t know her that well, but I was her age not long ago and I’d say it’s typical behavior. Boys mean a lot to girls at that age.”

Travis sneers at me and picks up his beer. “I’m going to bed. I’m gonna try not to think about what I can’t ever fuckin’ un-see.” He walks away muttering wildly under his breath. “In my fuckin’ house. On my fuckin’ couch.”

Hayden turns to look at me and says, “You’re right; that was interesting but it was also fun.”

“Yeah, is he always like that?”

His eyebrows rise before answering, “With Sarah? Yes.” Then he continues to explain. “You know Ace and Sarah mean a lot to him. Ace has been busy with Rae and Deck since they moved here permanently, and Sarah’s been acting out more since. Trav takes it personally when she does . . .” signaling to the couch, “shit like she just did.”