my face. The two are always getting into trouble, even without meaning to. I dread to think what they’ve done this time.
“Trent, make sure you let Maddox take you home. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Landon warns, leading Paisley out.
“Does he not care that they smell of smoke?” I ask, arching my eyebrow.
Maddox shrugs. “They’re Carter’s; they can take care of themselves, and by the sounds of it, they did something you jackasses couldn’t.”
“And you,” Trent adds smugly, arching an eyebrow at his brother.
Maddox slaps him around the back of his head before taking a seat on Evie’s desk.
“What have you done?” Jaxon asks, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“You know when that guy tried to set the warehouse on fire?” Colton asks, waiting for Jaxon to nod. “Well, it got us thinking about how fire worked, how it’s contained during bush season in other counties and, well—”
“Fucking hell,” I mutter, taking a seat.
“We contained it to one building,” Jacob rushes to add, grinning like a fool. “It was kind of cool really. Up until the canisters exploded.”
Trent nods, his expression serious. “I nearly shit myself when the walls shook. Thought we were goners.”
Smashing his bottle of Jack up the wall, Jaxon stands. “What the fuck did you do?” he roars.
Theo and Colton have the brains to flinch and step back, whereas Trent and Jacob grin wider, like they’re watching a lion roar from within a cage and think it’s cool.
“We set the factory on fire, the one Andrew Black owns up on Hoo Brooke.”
“He doesn’t have one there,” Jaxon snaps, the colour draining from his face. “You’ve just set fire to someone’s business, you fucking dipshit.”
Theo grins, shaking his head. “Where you went that one time was his front business. It seems Mr Black is up to no good because we found another warehouse under his name, not the company’s. I’m also thinking that’s where his main office is.”
“You can’t be serious,” I demand. “We had him thoroughly checked.”
I think.
“Clearly not good enough,” Jacob mutters, scuffing the tip of his trainer across the floor. “We found it within hours. It wasn’t hard.”
“Yeah, you guys are old, probably didn’t think to check out other places,” Trent adds.
I glance at Maddox, who looks too smug for my liking. “Do they realise we have pigs?”
Gulping, both boys take a step back, clearly having heard the rumours that we feed our enemies to the pigs. Colton, however, takes a step forward, reaching into his pocket before throwing something small at Jaxon.
“We got that out of the office before we heard the sirens and got out of there.”
“What if you had gotten caught?” Jaxon snaps, twisting the USB between his fingers.
They all shrug, but it’s Jacob who answers. “From what my sister said, you guys didn’t tell the police anything of your suspicions on who it was, so another building being set on fire in the same day isn’t going to cause alarm. They’re probably expecting more to happen and will assume it was the same kids.”
I shake my head at the devious little shit. He is nothing like his sister, Charlotte, who is as crazy and as sweet as they come.
“You can thank us now,” Trent speaks up, losing his grin when Maddox leans over to slap him again.
“Don’t be cocky just yet. You might have stolen a USB with porn on,” Maddox chuckles.
They all cast a glance at the USB, their eyes scrunching in disgust.
Colton shivers. “He’s fucking old, so it’s bound to be some random kink or sick shit.”
“What is on it?” Eli asks.
Theo rolls his eyes at Eli. “We aren’t doing all the work, you know. Look yourselves. We’re going out.”
“Hold up,” Jaxon barks. “It’s late, so what you’ll be doing is going inside and either helping Mum or playing your Xbox.”
“But—”
“No buts, Theo. I mean it. If I find out that you’ve snuck out again, I’ll take all your privileges away.”
“Well, we want the new Call of Duty game for helping,” Colton argues, crossing his arms over his chest. “Maybe then we’ll have incentive to stay in.”
“Charge it to my account,” I tell them, watching them high-five each other.
Before they go to leave, they turn to the Carter boys, a cunning look in their gaze. “You still going to that party tomorrow?”
Jacob, the youngest of the two, nods. “We’ll be there.”
“Well, now that’s cleared up, I’d better get these two back,” Maddox announces. “But this isn’t over. Like Landon said, it’s not fair if you keep payback from us.