Fighting for Rain - BB Easton Page 0,71

him. Popular. Good-looking. Entitled as fuck. Guys like that don’t take rejection well. They throw tantrums like fucking toddlers when shit doesn’t go their way. And wherever Carter is right now, my guess is that he’s plotting his next move, not licking his wounds.

I look around the room, taking a mental headcount, and a sinking feeling slithers into my gut.

The runaways are all accounted for at Q’s table—watching their phones and smoking weed and aiming guns at each other’s heads like they’re Governor Fuckface on TV. Quint—who is now down to a large Band-Aid and a couple of aspirin a day—and Lamar are in a heated debate about whether they should steal a Jeep and find a place in the mountains or steal a convertible and try to find a beach house to squat in. And the Renshaws are huddled together as usual, all except for Carter.

He’s the only one unaccounted for.

Until that motherfucker marches into the food court, carrying my duffel bag.

Carter shoots me an eat shit look as he heads straight toward Q’s table, and I laugh—I actually fucking laugh—and shake my head.

So predictable.

Rain doesn’t think it’s funny though. She stiffens in my arms the second she sees him.

I want to reassure her that it’s going to be fine. That no matter what happens, I won’t let these dramatic little bitches hurt her. But I can’t.

This is post-April 23.

All bets are off.

Carter stops directly in front of Q, commanding the attention of everyone in the food court, as he unzips my duffel bag and dumps it out on her table. Extra clothes for Rain, water bottles, trail mix, canned stew, dried fruit, beef jerky—all the shit I brought from Rain’s house, plus all the nonperishables I’ve been hoarding from my trips to CVS—tumble out like bombs. The cans hit the table and roll to the floor in a series of loud clangs and bangs, and everybody holds their breath and waits for Q to drop a bomb of her own.

Her mouth curls up on one side as she admires both the spoils and the show. “Well, well, well … what do we have here, mall cop? You tryin’ to buy a spot at the big-boy table?”

“This is Wes’s bag!” Carter declares in his best Captain America voice. The authority in his tone has me rolling my eyes.

Fucker would have made a great mall cop.

“He’s been hiding food, supplies, even bullets!” Carter turns and aims an accusing finger directly at me. “Kick. Him. Out.”

It’s an Oscar-worthy performance. I’ll give him that.

Q cackles. It starts low and deep, only in her throat. Then, it builds into something loud and psychotic. Suddenly, food and clothes go flying as she comes across the table, grabbing Carter by the face and kissing the shit out of him. He pushes her off and stumbles backward as she stands in the middle of the table, towering over him.

“You wanna act like a little bitch? I’ma treat you like a little bitch.”

“What the fuck?” Carter yells.

His mom gasps and covers Sophie’s ears even though she’s too engrossed in whatever she’s watching to know what’s going on.

“You think just ’cause I ride ya dick whenever I want that you can tell me what the fuck to do in my muhfuckin’ castle?” Q drops to her feet directly in front of Carter and shoves a sharp fingernail into his chest. “You ain’t shit, mall cop. If I should kick anybody out, it’s yo’ ass. That muhfucka’s the best scout I eva had …” Q looks directly at me as her lip curls into a sneer, and her hips gyrate back and forth. “And he looks like he could eat the hell outta some pussy, too.”

The word pussy is the match that detonates the powder keg. Loud metal scrapes echo all around us as a dozen chairs are pushed out at once. Carter’s parents stand in disgust. The runaways leap to their feet to cheer on the madness. And I shove away from the table because Carter is stalking toward me with his hands balled into fists. I want to tell Rain to get the fuck out of here, but I don’t have a chance. I’m too busy preparing for Carter to take a swing.

Which leaves her wide open for him to grab instead.

Carter wraps his long fingers around her biceps and crouches down so that they’re eye-to-eye. “Rainbow, please. Just let me explain. It meant nothing, I swear!”

Rain grunts and tries to jerk away from him, but Carter