AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah,” Dominic echoes. “We could just tell her to leave, then we won’t have a problem.”
“Aren’t you guys curious though?” I ask. “Why is he suddenly so interested in this place again? Two years with no contact? Maybe if we talk to her, we can find out more, see if he’s sent her out here to spy on us.”
“Who gives a rat’s ass?” Dominic spits out. “We don’t need outsiders trying to study and dissect us. It doesn’t matter why.”
“It just seems strange,” I continue. “What does Dr. Thornton want, exactly?”
“Shut up,” Bastian turns to me, balling his hands into fists. “Stop talking about him. I don’t want to hear his name.”
“You can’t even hear his name?” I ask, gaze fixed on my older brother. The raw intensity of his reaction leaves me bewildered. “It’s been two years, Bastian. Besides, he said he was never trying to hurt us …”
“Shutup!” Bastian yells, lunging at me. “I said stop talking about it! We don’t talk about her, ever!”
Dominic curses loudly. “Now look what you’ve done.” He grabs for Bastian, trying to keep him from hitting me. “You got him all riled up because you wouldn’t stop.”
“Hey, don’t blame me!” I snap back. “I’m just saying that there’s something weird about this, okay? I say we go confront this girl and find out what’s going on, that’s all.”
Bastian glowers and narrows his eyes but relaxes in Dominic’s grip, enough for Dom to let him go.
“Fine. We’ll do it your way, Caleb,” Bastian says. “We’ll just tell her that her presence is unwanted and she should take off. If that bastard comes around, then we can deal with whatever he wants at that point.”
At least Bastian had calmed a little on the murderous rage. He wasn’t usually like this but hearing that name after so long must have completely rattled him.
I have to admit that it had me a little spooked as well. Confronting this chick seems like the obvious next step, but it means facing demons I thought were long dead and buried.
“Maybe it’s nothing,” I say, laying a hand on Bastian’s shoulder. “But if we find out, maybe we can get some closure.”
“Fine,” Bastian gives a jerking nod. “Let’s go then. Before I change my mind.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief and shut my laptop. “Beau, go home. Bastian will give you the money tomorrow,” Dominic says.
Beau scampers off and we step out of the bar and into the cool night air. The restored '75 Firebird, a relic from our late grandfather, gleams under flickering streetlights. Its engine roars to life, resonating through the quiet alley as we prepare to embark on our mission.
“Get in,” Bastian says. “Let’s go … have a chat.”
3
BASTIAN
“Why can’t the past stay in the past?” I mutter as we walk into the brightly lit diner. It didn’t take long for us to glean her location, not when this chick practically wore a neon sign that screamed “outsider.”
“Let’s just confront her and get this over with,” Dominic says in a low voice.
She’s sitting in a booth near the middle of the diner, looking like even more of an outsider than I expected. The girl is pudgy, wearing a stupid-looking beret on her red hair and what looks like kindergarten clothes—a jumper and a turtleneck with black leather shoes.
“She belongs on Sesame Street, not here in Caspian Springs,” I whisper to my brothers. Dom snorts; Caleb’s lips quirk into a smile.
As we walk up to her, her eyes scan us over and I smirk, seeing the fear in them. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing here,Princess,” I tell her, leaning into her space. “But this is our neighborhood.”
“I’m here to do work,” she protests, hands in her lap. “That’s all.” This close I notice her vivid green eyes and her oval face,covered in a smattering of freckles. She bites her bottom lip and scrunches her brows before sitting up higher in the booth.
“We don’t know who you are, or what you want,” I threaten. “But if you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave.” The place goes silent, tension thickening as the silence hangs in the air for a beat before she finally responds.
“I have every right to be here.”
“You’re not from around here, so you don’t know us,” I say, indicating the three of us with my hand. “I’m Bastian Ravenwood, these are my brothers. That right there is Dominic, and that’s Caleb. We aren’t just your friendly, local bike shop owners. We’re the ones in charge around here. So if we want you to leave, you leave.”
“I’m not here to make enemies,” she says, staring at the table in front of her. “I’m just here to do some research.”
