Playing with Fire
He picked up the pompom he’d discarded on my bed, tossing it up to the ceiling again, one hand tucked behind his head, smirking.
“Shit, Texas. Looks like you and I are going on a date.”
Grace
“It’s not a date,” I insisted to Karlie the following day as we both walked out from the lecture hall, heading toward my pickup. “Easton forces him to go out. We’re probably goin’ to stand in the corner and sulk together.”
But even as I said it, I didn’t really believe it. I didn’t want to make my best friend feel left out. West St. Claire and Karlie Contreras didn’t hang out with the same crowd, and the last thing I wanted was for her to think I was ditching her for the cool kids, even though, in all probability, she was studying or working on Saturday and wouldn’t be able to make it anyway.
Karlie examined me skeptically. She knew West and I were having sex. On the one hand, I could tell she was excited about me finally coming out of my shell. On the other, I could also see why she was worried I’d get hurt. West didn’t scream steady boyfriend material. Heck, he didn’t even whisper it.
Karlie stopped by my pickup, balancing her laptop case against her waist.
“Don’t drink anything unless you pour it yourself and keep your phone with you at all times. Just stay safe, okay?” It sounded like a warning more than a request.
“How do you mean?” I eyed her.
She shifted her gaze sideways, like her eyes would reveal something she didn’t want me to know.
“Remember the day you went on a fake date with Easton Braun and I told West where you were?”
I remembered. I knew Easton had only taken me out to put West in his place. I’d played along, because I didn’t want to lose West as a friend. If that was what he needed to snap back into place—a reminder that I wasn’t disposable—I was ready to prove it to him.
“Yeah?”
“Well, West said he’d hook me up with Miles Covington if I spilled the beans about your whereabouts. It wasn’t why I told him, of course; I knew you wanted him to know. I just wanted to see him sweat. I forgot all about West’s agreement with me. But then Miles actually asked me out.”
“Isn’t that awesome?” I blinked at her, not following. “Miles is a great guy, and you seemed to be into him when we were at the Plaza.”
Karlie’s eyebrows furrowed. She looked at me like my phone was off the hook.
“You know I stand no chance with the guy. He just asked me out because West told him to. Miles said he didn’t want to get on West’s bad side. Your precious boyfriend is the campus bully we always stayed away from when we were kids. He’s playin’ everyone like a puppet master. I don’t know, Shaw. He seems to have too much power ’round here.”
“Karlie, he just wanted you to meet a nice bo—”
“It’s not just about Miles. I heard West has been messing with the wrong crowd. Taking fights with dodgy people, mixin’ up with criminals. Stuff like that. There’s plenty of rumors going around, and I don’t want to say anything that’s not true, but I don’t think I realized what kind of trouble he was when I hired him.”
The roles were now officially reversed. I was all for West, and Karlie thought we should be wary of him.
“Don’t go cagey on me, Karl. What do you know?” I asked.
She gnawed on the side of her fingernail, torn between wanting to tell me and avoiding a fight. “I heard he arranged a second fight with Kade Appleton. Know the guy? He’s a local. Allegedly beat his pregnant girlfriend to a pulp and got kicked out of an MMA league for it. It was all over the news.”
West told me Appleton didn’t play fair. I nodded faintly. My paper heart wrinkled into a ball of sorrow. He’d tell me, wouldn’t he? West told me everything.
Other than what matters.
“I’ll ask him about it.”
“Tell him not to do it. If he messes with the wrong people, and you are associated with him, you could get in trouble, too.”
“West’s smarter than messin’ around with criminals, and he’d never put me in danger.”
“West is fearless, and stupidity is bravery’s mistress. Recklessness is its wife, something else he has in abundance.”
She was, of course, right. I knew that. I popped the driver’s door open.
“Don’t worry. West is a good apple.”
A green candied apple.
And possibly a poisonous one, too.
“Did you agree to a second fight with Kade Appleton?” I asked West when we were on the Ducati, on our way to Reign’s party. Hot wind swirled my yellow hair. I wore another long-sleeved mini dress. White with pink dots, paired with hot pink heels. I took a risk in wearing lacey sleeves. If people paid close attention, they could see some of the scars on my left arm. But I felt wild and beautiful next to West. A full-fledged phoenix, stretching out its golden wings, flying sunward, with glittering specks of fire in its wings.
West turned his head back toward me, but all I could see through his helmet were those smoldering, earth-scorching eyes that shone like beacons in the dark.
“Where’d you hear that?”
“Doesn’t matter. Is it true or not? I don’t want you gettin’ in trouble.”
He whistled low, making a show of downplaying the entire thing. “You sound like my mother.”
I sound like your girlfriend, you hopeless brute.
We cut through the assortment of stores on Main Street. The Albertsons grocery, little café, and pizza parlor. There wasn’t a soul in sight. Everyone worth knowing was currently at Reign’s frat house. Karlie was right. This definitely wasn’t our scene.
“Just answer the question, West.”
“And if I am?”
“Then I’ll have to ask you to kindly withdraw from the fight on the grounds that he almost killed you last time.”
“I won the match.”
“Half-dead,” I quipped, trying to keep my temper in check. “How do you expect me to sleep at night knowing you’re goin’ to fight some bastard who beat up his pregnant girlfriend?”
“I don’t expect you to sleep at all. I expect you to wait for me with a beer until I’m done whooping his ass, preferably spread eagle, with a bow over your neck.”