of the house, stumbling in her haste, her high heels sinking into the ground. Clumps of dirt and mud trip her up as she finds the end of a hose along the side of the giant mansion and starts yanking it towards her car.
“Guess you shouldn’t have called me a whore, huh?” I laugh—a full-bellied, can’t stop myself, laugh. Watching her slip and slide in the dirt when she realizes she hasn’t even turned on the water … it’s too much, really. I fall to the ground and just lay there, staring up at the sky as the fire rages over her car. Tires pop under the pressure of the heat and the whole frame sags to one side.
She’s got maybe twenty more minutes until the fire reaches the gas tank. I tossed it more towards the front anyway. Feminine cursing reaches my ears as water sprays out, shooting me in the face and chest before quickly diverting to the vehicle.
“You’re insane!” she snarls as she tries to put out the fire.
I get up and look down at my soaked front. I don’t even care. I pull my t-shirt away from my stomach, lifting it up and ringing out the water as I watch my handiwork.
“Yeah,” I say, giving her a wink as she just stares at me. “You should remember that for next time.”
Then a masculine voice interrupts. “What the fuck is going on here?”
15
Dean
“Hey, where’d the girl go?”
No sooner has the question left Abel's mouth that I hear screaming over the music. Our heads turn towards the house as the back doors are flung open and Eli and Griffin come hauling ass out of the house. Eli looks up and calls my name. “Carter!" he yells, startling several people nearby. "We got a fuckin' problem, man." He gestures for me to follow him back into the house.
I take off, heading after him as Braxton and Abel follow. "What the hell is going on?" I demand. First, the girl up and disappears on her own and then—I come to a halt on the front step of Abel's house.
As if overwhelmed by his need to be a sarcastic asshole and point out the obvious, Abel snorts. "Never mind, found her."
"What the hell did she do?" Brax asks, his tone filled with—God, I really hope that's not admiration. That is not something I need right now.
"You're insane!" Kate says, her whole body trembling as she holds the hose—still spraying out water against her burnt Mercedes. There are black marks all along the side, and little fires still in the grass, mixed with...
"Is that a bottle of rum?" Abel asks absently.
"Did she make a fucking Molotov cocktail and chuck it at Kate's car?" someone else asks. I don't know who it is. All I know is that it's not Brax and it's not one of my team which means we've got too many fucking people bearing witness to a bitch who just took action on our property without our say so and that's a fucking problem.
"Eli," I snap. "Get everyone inside."
Without missing a beat, the big man turns and starts herding people. "Alright, motherfuckers, you heard the man. Nothing to see here. Return to the party."
"Awww, man, come on, I wanna see a catfight!" someone yells.
I don't need to do anything. Brax whips around and growls. "You want to fucking leave?" he snaps out. "'Cause you can leave willingly or in a body bag, your choice."
No one else says shit after that. I look at my watch. "We've got thirty minutes," I say. "We have to get this finished and we have to get out of here."
"On it," Abel says, disappearing back into the house.
I turn to Brax. "Can you—"
He laughs. "Nope," he says, shaking his head. "You deal with the bitches. I'm just back up."
"Fucker," I mutter, but there's no point and no time to argue. Kate's eyes lift and she looks at me over Avalon’s head.
"Dean," she says, her bottom lip trembling—I can't tell, though, if it's anger or something else. To be honest, I don't really care. "Your psycho bitch just tried to blow up my car!"
The chick turns around, looking beyond me and Brax, as she scans the yard. She pauses and grins. I force myself not to turn the fuck around and see who she's smiling at. "Too bad she failed," Brax comments. "That would've been one hell of a show."
Kate flicks him a look of pure hatred—what do you know—it was anger after all. "Do something,"