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Halen
Our parents would tellstories about the days when they were in high school in the Hamptons instead of Riverside. I can’t think of anything worse than going to school in the fucking Hamptons. Nothing against the place, but having to exist with the mundane who know nothing of the world I was born into sounds like a fucking liability.
I draw in a deep breath. I’ve been waiting thirty fucking minutes. Only they would make me wait at all—and for what? It better be a good reason. I am tired as hell. Me and the girls sat up all night last night planning what we were going to do. How it was going to be done and what kind of carnage we could create with the time that we have left before the ritual.
Digging through my handbag, something pinches my thumb and I suck it between my lips as the clovers from my bracelet shine against the sun. “These assholes better hurry up.”
Elaborate patterns line the gold archway to the front door of Hayes Castle. I wish I was joking. Our home is an excessive portrayal of modern-day regency, presenting a deceptive image of perfection and gold.
Leaning against the entryway table next to the bifurcated staircase, I hear cars pulling up outside. Doors open and close, and then heavy footsteps pound against the marble porch. Finally, both doors part open, and there, standing in front of me, is my twin brother.
“Don’t fucking look at me like that, Halen. This is the first time we’re not all waiting on you.”
“First of all…” I take a step toward him, before he widens the door further, revealing War and Vaden out on the driveway. “Wait, why are you all here and not already there?”
War lifts his arm to rest on the door of my car, flashing me a wide smirk. Aside from being painfully annoying all my life, he has made it his mission for as long as I can remember to make everything difficult for me. He also has a perverse way of getting off on my demise.
“Get in the car, Halen.”
With a raised brow, my mouth snaps closed. “Uhm, I wasn’t talking to you.”
His tongue glides over his lower lip. “Oh, you weren’t? Hmmm… let me see where I can find the fucks I can give you. Maybe they’re beneath my nine-inch cock. Get in the car.”
“Shut the fuck up. Both of you.” Priest—aka said twin brother—turns his back to me and I watch as he makes his way back down to his ride. He opens the front door, and I trace the lines of his flared guards. Priest’s S15 is the best you’d ever see. Dumped almost on its ass and rolling with deep black rims. We all have different cars, but they all stick with the same theme. Even our Euros do.
Black. Even the number plates that we don’t have to display.
“Pap is away, you know!” I call out, flipping Priest off behind his back and shoulder barging past War on my way down.
“Wanna try that again?” War calls out from behind his GTR. The fact that hestolethe R32 body that I wanted to build whenwe were fourteen, and worked it to push over eight hundred horse, meant that not only did I need to import the R34 from Japan, but I threw in a Hakosuka for shits and gigs. Vaden then made a mad dash for the S14, before War was an absolute asshole and took a damn RX4. War’s 32 is pretty, though. Gloss black with a wide body kit and bronze deep-dish rims. And that’s not even mentioning what’s under the hood. We’re just one massive family with a Godzilla complex. Which only meant River grabbed the Honda NSX and Stella the RX7 Batty. Priest has a collection too long to detail.
I can almost feel the daggers Vaden is shooting at War. “We’re laughing until we’re not and Priest shoots you between the eyes.”
“My aim is better!” I call out, sliding into my 34. I push the start button and breathe out a sigh as she purrs beneath me like a well-groomed beast.
There’s a knock on my window. I flutter my lashes up at my twin and crank it down. Our similarities end with our hair color. Where my eyes are green like Mom’s, his are honey hazel and rimmed black. How he stands at six-six and me five-four I will never know. The math is not mathing.
“Yes, brother?”
“Don’t look at me like that.” He flicks my forehead with his finger. “You ain’t racing at Devil’s Cockpit.” My smile falls. “I mean it, Halen. You’re not. I need you to hang back with the girls for tonight.”
“What!” I snap. “Do I look like a babysitter to you?” It doesn’t help that I’m the oldest girl, even if not by much. The others don’t need a damn babysitter. Except for maybe Stella.
“You look like you’ll be whatever I want you to be.” He leans down, tossing a mask onto the passenger seat. “It’s Friday the thirteenth.”
“I don’t want—” He stalks off once again. My window closes as I open my Spotify playlist. I need backup.
I tap my best friend’s number, checking my lipstick in the rearview mirror before directing my car out of the circular driveway. Riverside is a smaller town, with a population of 13,534. The population is important, because anytime it drops, we make sure it’s from natural causes. If anyone steps into our town and inflicts harm, they answer to our Fathers, and soon… to us.
“I’m ready, but hear me out…”
I slump against my chair, narrowing my eyes even though I know she can’t see me. No one relied on me to take care of others, but I liked to anyway. It’s like I was birthed with a natural flair to protect my family, so I’d never complain, but if they thought I wasbabysitting,then maybe they wouldn’t find out about what we really do.
Sometimes, and I mean mostly every day, we needed a fucking break. To be away from the glamour and gold, and just… exist. Do whatever the fuck we want without our brothers looking down on us like pesky house cats that hadn’t been fed in two hours.
“I don’t want to hear you out, Evie!” Evelyn Paige has been in my life since we were two years old. Mother said we reminded her of her and her best friend Tate. I wasn’t so sure if that was true. I love Aunty Tay, but the bitch is as crazy as Mom. I swear, we all watch as they enable each other through bad decisions. Now it’s shopping, holidays, and petty revenge. I can’t imagine what they would have been like as teenagers.
Evie is not that. Not even close.
