of here,” I tease, smirking at Reid.
Reid glares at me, looking seconds away from punching me. “I’m not being a baby. That spider looked like it was eating for twenty,” he snaps. “I don’t know why I’m defending myself to you.”
Lifting him up, he, too, easily lifts himself out with no help from the others. Eli pops his head over the ledge, reaching down for me. I step back a little before doing a run and jump, grabbing onto his hand. He pulls me up, the veins and muscles in his arms straining.
The second I reach the ground, smoke and the smell of burning wood fills the air. I turn to look at the house through the bush, seeing angry red flames devouring the building.
“Fucking hell,” I mutter.
“Lily, stay here,” Jaxon orders, his jaw hardening as he looks across the garden. I follow his line of sight, my fists clenching when I see Tim staggering over the lawn, blood dripping down his face and shoulder.
“Reid, stay with her,” I order, ignoring his pout before running towards one of the three lads running up behind Tim.
The one holding a baseball bat.
“Think you’re fucking big, do ya,” I yell, charging at the largest of the three whilst Eli and Jaxon occupy the other two.
“You’re dead men,” he snaps, lifting his bat over his shoulder, ready to swing.
I plunge my fist into his gut before he can bring the bat down, my fist then connecting over and over with his face. The feel and sound of his nose breaking is music to my ears.
“Not so fucking big now, are you,” I bark, kicking him in the stomach.
He reaches into his pocket, leaping at me, and before I can disarm him, he’s swinging a glass bottle around the side of my head. It cuts into my skin near my temple. The minute I feel the warmth of blood trickling down the side of my face, I lose it. I grab him by the collar and headbutt him. He staggers backwards, his face filled with murderous rage.
“Who sent you?” Jaxon demands, his voice void of emotion, worrying me.
For a moment, I’m distracted, but thankfully, I manage to duck in time to miss the handle of the broken bottle coming at me.
I kick him in the chest, sending him crashing to the floor. “Stay the fuck down,” I yell to his panting form, before turning to Jaxon, ready to intervene.
His face is flushed red and filled with so much rage even I have to take a step back. He’s covered in sweat and soot, and unlike me and Eli, he doesn’t have a spec of blood on him. He lowers his head, his eyes cold as he watches the lad on the ground crawl away on his stomach, blood gushing from his nose and mouth. Jaxon follows at a predatory pace, ready to strike at any given moment.
He kneels, grabbing the lad’s leg, and drags him back. That’s when I notice the knife in Jaxon’s hand, a knife that fucker on the floor must have tried to use on my brother. Where else would Jaxon have produced a knife from, because he most certainly doesn’t carry one.
I take a step forward, but then something hard hits the back of my head. Stopping, a low growl erupts from the back of my throat as I slowly turn around to face my attacker.
The large, stocky lad takes a step back, his eyelid twitching as his eyeballs bulge from their sockets. He must read my intent because he gulps, dropping the brick to the floor whilst looking seconds away from pissing himself.
“The fuck?” I grumble, and in one swift move, I jab him in the temple, knocking him clean out to the floor. “When I say stay down, I mean stay the fuck down.”
I turn in time to see Jaxon stab the knife into the lad’s leg. The howls echo over the roar of flames still raging like a storm all over the house.
“Who the fuck sent you?” Jaxon growls.
Tim hurls when Jaxon digs the knife in further, and Eli steps to the side, avoiding the mess, looking bored at the scene. I glance behind him, seeing the lanky guy he went after sprawled out on the ground.
Groaning sounds as the lanky guy begins to stir. It’s like they know, because within seconds, sirens can be heard coming towards us.
“Jaxon,” Lily screams, sounding so terrified her voice turns scratchy.
He gets up, running towards her, and we follow, watching as