Chapter Fourteen

Cash

I chuckle, I like that reply, and I quickly type it out pressing send.

“A bit violent,” Jensen smirks.

Trick shrugs, that deadly smile on his face as he asks, “Am I wrong?”

“Nope,” he admits immediately.

I burst out laughing earning looks from the others until I read out the reply that I have just gotten, “He said: Yes, boss. Sorry. Didn’t mean anything by it.”

The other's laughter soon joins mine.

“You scared the shit out of him, the poor fucker,” Riot says through his laughter.

“As Trick pointed out though, we would follow through on our threat, it’s definitely not idle. So, really, we are doing him and anyone else who tries to hit on Ever a favor, and preventing them from great amounts of pain,” I reply, with a smirk.

“So, what you are saying is that we are saints,” Jensen chuckles.

“Definitely not that,” I reply.

“Never that,” Rafe signs with a smirk.

We all laugh again. I honestly can’t remember when we laughed this much, it’s like a heavy weight has been lifted and we haven’t even seen her yet.

“I’m glad she is with Rylie,” I say, “I liked her, and she’s obviously a good person since she managed to help the girls.”

“I ran into her just after that, when the girls had all taken the money and dropped the charges against Ryan. She was mad as hell,” I explain; lots of shit happened after that, and I don’t think that I remembered to tell them about it at the time. “It wasn’t until I told her that we were going to keep an eye on him and that we knew where he was that she calmed down a bit.”

“She was involved in that quite heavily, but I haven’t heard or really seen her around since then,” Trick says.

“Well, that’s mostly because you spend your time fighting off Serena,” Jensen chuckles.

Trick frowns and rolls his eyes, “She really doesn’t understand ‘no, I’m not interested.’ It’s becoming an issue.”

“She’s ridiculous,” Luc replies, “her friends are just as bad. Maybe we should stop telling her nicely.”

“Yeah. I think we are going to have to.” Trick replies.

The car falls silent again after that, and I swear that each mile is taking ten times longer than it usually does, although I know there is no logic in that thought, I can’t help it.

“What if she doesn’t remember us?” Luc suddenly asks when we are nearly back at the school.

“Dude, she is going to remember us,” Jensen says with confidence, that darkness that he always carries in his eyes is not quite so prominent.

“How can you be so certain,” I ask.

He grins, “One, we were best friends for eight years; there is no way she has forgotten us. She promised that she never would. Two, she is at Trick’s house, and you know Jenny, she will have talked her ear off about us. She did say that she told her that we would find her at school.”

“That’s a really good point,” Luc replies, “I had forgotten about that.”

“See, so she is going to remember us just because she’s been at Trick’s house,” Jensen repeats, clearly pleased with himself.

“Shit,” Trick curses.

“What?” I ask, worried that we have forgotten something major, maybe with the job or something.

“I can’t remember if my room is tidy,” he replies worriedly, “what if she goes in there, and there is shit everywhere, and she thinks I’m a slob.”

The car is silent for a moment as we absorb the absolutely crazy that has just spilled out of his mouth.

Jensen scrunches his nose, “Dude, why would she go in your room?”

Trick shrugs, “I don’t know. Curiosity? Girls like to snoop, don’t they?”

“Erm,” Luc replies but doesn’t say anything else because what is there to say? Trick is in full freak-out mode, over his room, of all things.

“Ever isn’t just any girl,” Rafe starts signing, his usual calm hopefully rubbing off on Trick as he continues. “Even when we were kids and spent every single day together, she would still ask permission to touch stuff that wasn’t hers. I highly doubt that she has changed that much. Not only that, but she has just been dropped off by child services, possibly witnessed her dad die, or was at least in the house when it happened; I doubt that she is going to be concerned about your room.”

Trick groans, “Shit, you’re right. I’m sorry for taking you guys along on my crazy ride.”

We all chuckle, but there is an edge to it now.

“Shit, she has been through a lot recently, hasn’t she?” Riot says, his voice sober.

“Yeah, she has,” I reply. “But we can be there for her now, and we can help her through it.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Riot replies. “Hell knows we are all somewhat acquainted with dealing with trauma.”

“Yeah. Come to think of it, we are probably the best people to help her,” Rafe signs.

“Er, what about the Tomlinson shit?” Jensen asks. He adds, his voice full of deadly promise, “If they touch a single hair on Ever’s head, I’m going to end them in the most bloody way possible. Boyd is going to count himself lucky that he is in juvie and wasn’t involved.”

Whoa, okay, there is that darkness that we all know and love.

“I don’t think we have anything to worry about from Tomlinson,” Riot says with a frown dragging down his features.

“He’s right; ever since Cash lost it and beat the crap out of Billy and Lucky, they have backed right off. So have their people. I think they realized that all that shit that it was rumored that we were capable of, we actually were, and it made them second guess themselves. They have kept their shit to their side for months now.” Trick replies.

“You’re welcome,” I grin proudly.

“Yeah, we haven’t even been called for any fights since school went back,” Luc adds.

“Shit, I hadn’t even thought of that,” Jensen admits. “I hope they have because although they are all assholes, I would hate to have to torture one of them.”

“Dude,” I say with a sharp smile that matches his, “you might want to tone back that sort of talk around Ever.”

“Fuck,” Jensen curses, “good point.”

I don’t think we are going to have to worry too much about Ever and her reaction to who we really are. Unfortunately, if her house got raided then she most likely has pretty good knowledge of the darker side of life. I hate that if I am being honest, but it does mean that we don’t have to worry about some of the things that we say shocking her.

Having said that, I hope that I am wrong and that she has no idea about anything illegal and knows nothing about what her father was up to. Even though that might make his death more difficult to come to terms with at first, at least she would have been safe from the horrors that happen in our world.

“What do you think she looks like now?” Trick asks quietly.

I shrug, “She is probably still tiny.”

The guys smile fondly.

“She always hated that she was shorter than us. She used to say that one day she would be taller, and then we would all have to look up to her,” Riot chuckles.

“Apart from Luc,” I grin. “He was shorter than her right up until she left. He had a growth spurt just before she went.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Luc winces. “I was really worried that I was going to be shorter than Ever forever.”

“We know,” I reply. “Ever knew? That’s why she was as happy as the rest of us when you grew taller than her.”

Luc’s cheeks tinge slightly pink, “Someone told me that boys were always taller than girls and that girls didn’t like boys who were shorter than them. I was worried that she wouldn’t like me.”

The lightbulb turns on for all of us.

“Oh! You know that makes a lot more sense,” Trick says with a smile.

“Dude, you know that Ever never gave a shit about things like that? She would have still liked you no matter what,” I point out.

He nods but adds, “I’m still glad I’m taller than her.”

“If she’s still tiny, then you will tower over her,” Jensen teases, “don’t worry.”

“Fuck off,” Luc replies with an amused smirk.