Fury (New Adult Romance) - #1.5 Fierce Series (22 page)

“Thanks,” I say, knowing I’m on thin ice. I rummage in my pocket and
take out the money Jennifer gave me. I hand it all over to Wes, but he starts
flipping through the bundle, and then takes out a few bills and gives them back
to me. “I told you, you can keep thirty percent. Here. Take it. Next time you
can take it out prior to giving it to me.”

Whoa. He’s really trusting me now. Good for me, bad for him. I’m
glad my plan is working out, though.

Wes grabs his drink and calls a girl forward. “Pour him a drink.”

When she’s done, she hands it to me, and Wes holds up his drink. “Cheers!”
He chugs down the drink in one go and lets out a huge sigh afterwards, while
I’m trying to go slow.

“You know, I kinda like you, kid,” he says.

“You do?” I say, not believing a word of it.

“You kind of remind me of myself four years ago, when I just joined
this frat house.”

“Huh? Four years? I thought Alpha Psi was only three years old?”

A wicked smile appears on his face, and his eyes narrow as he looks
at me. “Oh, is that so?” He laughs. “That’s what they want you to think.”

He flicks his fingers and the girl pours him another drink. “No,
this frat house has been around for a little while longer than that. We only
operate under a secret frat house name so we won’t get caught on campus.”

This is news to me. I thought the current leader was the only
leader, and Jaret once told me it was only three years ago that he started this
thing. Something’s not right.

“Before the current leader, we had a different one. I remember him.
Tough Mexican chap who had a thing for knives.” He laughs again, as if he’s
bringing up fun memories. “Too bad he didn’t live long enough to see his frat
house grow and be this amazing.”

“What happened to him?” I ask, trying to find out more information I
can give to Agent Williams.

“He got killed. Rumor has it it’s our current leader that poisoned
him. Of course, those are only rumors. Nobody knows, really. Nobody sees the
leader. Only the courier does. We don’t talk about it in here. We just work and
make money while keeping our mouths shut.”

I gulp. Holy motherfucking shit. That means Alpha Psi existed long
before the leader Agent Williams is looking for took over. This gang is far
bigger than I thought. Shit, this brings it to a whole different level.

Wes’ eyes drift off to a girl leaning over the bar to collect the
drinks she’s going to serve out. His tongue dips out of his mouth and he wets
his lips. It looks so disgusting, it makes me want to puke.

“Well, well,” he hums. “Time for me to score. I’m feeling like
nailing that chick right now.” He gets up from his seat, leaving me and Jaret
alone with horndog girls, who keep touching us. Jaret’s phone rings, and he
says, “Shit, I forgot, a client was supposed to call me. Be right back.” He
gets up and walks into a room in the back where he’s alone.

Now I’m alone with five girls, all looking at me like they’re hungry
for some cock. One of them picks up a glass of champagne and hands it over to
me, forcibly pushing it into my hand. “Drink,” she says with a low, moaning
voice.

Another girl pushes her bloated tits up against my shoulder, rubbing
herself up against me. I don’t like it one bit. It feels so fucking wrong and
disgusting right now. Especially when another one starts touching my dick.

I shoot up from the couch and step over them to get out of there.

Suddenly I hear a scream.

I look up and see Wes fighting with the girl at the bar. She’s
crying, and he’s pulling her with him by her hair. She kicks backward so hard
he lets go of her, but not without turning around and giving her a firm slap
right in the face.

The girl squeals, placing her hand on the reddened spot. I wince,
looking at Wes spouting shit at her. My fists are ready to pound in on him for
treating her like that, like she’s some kind of sex doll who has to give in to
his every command. It’s so fucking wrong, but I can’t do anything about it. If
I did, I’d be kicked out of here in no time.

“Well, fuck you then! You fucking whore! Get your ass out of here,
right now!” he screams, and he closes his belt buckle again. He wasn’t even
alone with her yet and he already unbuckled. Dirty piece of shit.

He pushes her, and she falls to the floor. People briefly glance at
them, not looking even remotely interested in what’s going on. “If I ever see
you here again, I will rip your throat out,” he yells, storming away like an
ape-man.

The people around us are still dancing, talking, drinking. Nobody
bats an eye at the girl whimpering on the floor. So once Wes has left the room,
I walk over to her and hold out my hand to help her get up.

“T-thanks,” she stammers, pulling her ripped dress back down.

“You should get out of here,” I say.

“I can’t.”

I lean in closer. “Why not? It’s not safe here. You see what they do
to girls like you. What are you doing here anyway?” I take her with me back to
the entrance of the club so I can safely get her out of here before Wes comes
back.

“I need the money,” she whimpers, her eyes still watery.

Shit. It’s breaking my heart just looking at a girl like this. She’s
young, probably not even eighteen yet. Fuck. What’s wrong with these dudes?

I rummage in my pockets and sigh. “Here. Take this.” I push the
money Wes gave to me into her hand.

“What? I can’t take this,” she says.

“Don’t. Just take it, and promise me you’ll go looking for a better
job than this. Don’t come back here.” There’s an intensity in my voice, which I
think she can’t ignore.

She nods and sniffs.

“Good. Now get out of here.”

“Thank you,” she says, tears rolling down her cheeks as she runs out
the door, up the stairs, and vanishes. A sigh of relief passes my lips as I rub
my temple with my fingers. This is getting more fucked up by the minute, and
I’m not sure I can keep this up. I need to find out who the leader is, fast,
before this whole thing blows up in my face. Before Wes finds out I’ve been
spying for the enemy all along. I know he won’t take it lightly. I’ll just have
to brace myself for the day when either I’ll come for him or he’ll come for me.
But once this is all over, I’ll make sure he can never,
never
, hit a
girl again.

Chapter
19

Affection

The next day …

I feel like I walked a thousand miles yesterday. So many things
happened. Trading drugs to an addicted mom, going to the movies with Leafy, and
then the party with Alpha Psi. It’s a lot to process, and I think I have to pen
down some stuff fast before I start to forget.

So when I get up I immediately write down everything important, from
the name of the druggie mom, to a summary of everything that happened at the
club. It’s then I realize that I still haven’t done any homework. Shit.

I run my fingers through my hair. A knot forms in my stomach,
because I don’t want to disappoint my brother, and I really want to succeed.
It’s just a bit harder than I anticipated. I can’t do it alone. I need Leafy
for this.

So I decide to go to her in the hopes that she’ll help me with my
homework. My heart is already going haywire just from the thought of seeing her
again, even if it’s only for studying. I enjoy every minute I spend with her.

I knock on her door, and she turns around in her chair, wiping away
what I think are tears. “Hey. Everything okay?” I hope she’s all right, because
she doesn’t look the part. I’m worried.

“Not sure,” she says, sighing.

Crap. I really came in at a bad time. She seems upset about
something, and I don’t want to bother her with my shit if she has other things
on her mind. “I was gonna ask you to be my study buddy today, but if you’re
feeling crappy, I can come back another time.”

I turn around, but she grabs my hand, and I stay put. Her touch
sends delicious shocks through my body and cock. God, the effect she has on me
is growing every fucking day, and I don’t know what to do about it.

“No, wait,” she says, her voice sounding so sweet … it’s as if she’s
begging me. How can I say no to that?

She lets go of my hand again and I turn around. “Um … I could use
some distraction.”

“You sure? I mean, studying isn’t really a distraction, more a
bore,” I say.

I don’t count studying as a distraction, more as a difficult chore.
I can think of plenty of other things to do that count as a nice distraction. A
cheeky smile spreads across my face, because I’m thinking about kissing her
right here, right now.

“To you it is. I think it’s fun,” she muses while we walk to my
room.

Hmm … Fun? Is that what she calls fun? Throwing her on my bed and making
out with her while fondling her pussy is what I call fun. “I can think of a few
more things that are way more fun to do …” I chuckle from the thoughts alone.
She tenses up as I say that, her eyes widening while she closes the door behind
her. She’s still being really uptight about this thing going on between us, and
I’d love for her to just give it up to me. Being straight-up blunt with her
might do the trick.

“Like having girls on my lap,” I add.

One peek at her makes me smile wickedly. A flush spreads across her cheeks,
and I turn around just before she starts to scold me for saying what’s on my
mind. I sit down on my bed and grab a few books lying around. I think it’s best
to shift the topic to what we were supposed to do, since she’s not ready for me
yet. “I tried this morning,” I say, looking down at the pages.

Her pine-forest scent drifts past my nose and alerts me to the fact
that she is sitting down beside me. I shouldn’t let myself get distracted so
much. “Could you tell me how you do it?” I say, clearing my throat and holding
up the book.

Her lips part and she stares at me for a second in bewilderment.
“Yeah, of course.”

She helps me work through my homework, just like last time.  When my
memory issues become too visible, I try to make stupid jokes to cover it up,
but I think she’s on to me. She has this look in her eyes, like she knows
what’s wrong, and it scares me. I don’t want her to find out yet. I want to be
her protector, her lover, the simple but smart one. I don’t want to be the one
who can’t remember anything he’s taught. I just want to be the best I can be,
at least in her eyes.

So I keep trying to make it work and force myself to listen to her,
even when I’m out of energy. After a while I realize I can’t keep up with her
pace. It pains me to admit it, but it’s true, and I don’t like to be confronted
with it.

“I can’t do this.” I sigh and throw the book away, lowering my head
so I don’t have to look at her. I feel like a failure sometimes.

She pets my back, and I can feel each finger separately as she runs
them across my spine. It gives me goose bumps and an erection.

“Don’t say that. You’ll get it eventually,” she says.

It’s nice that she wants to give me hope. She doesn’t know that my
situation is hopeless, though. “No, I won’t.” It’s useless to try and be better
at this. I’ll never be as good as her. Not even close. I probably won’t even be
good enough to finish college. “Goddammit … I tried everything. Asking you to
help me out was one of the few things I thought would help.”

She raises her eyebrows at me, her compassionate eyes staring
straight into my fucked-up soul. “But it can, if you give it some more time. It
takes a little more effort to really get the hang of how to do it fast.”

“No! You don’t get it. I ….” What am I supposed to say? What’s
telling her that I have a learning disability going to do for me? I know what
it’ll do. She’ll think I’m stupid, just like everyone else. I don’t want that
look of pity from her. Anyone but her.

“You what?” she says.

I close my mouth and grind my teeth in frustration. I should’ve just
kept my mouth shut from the beginning.

“What, Hunter? You can tell me.” Her eyes are filled with gentle
kindness. Should I tell her? I don’t want to ruin this thing that’s happening
between us, and I’m afraid that if I tell her, she won’t like me anymore. But
every time I look into her eyes, there’s something boiling inside me, desperate
to get out. There’s nothing I want more than to trust her, to have a deeper
connection with her. Maybe sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and just
go for it.

I sigh. “I think I have a learning disability. Trouble with
remembering …”

Her jaw drops, and it’s exactly what I was afraid of seeing. “Are
you sure?”

What? What kind of question is that? “Yes, I’m sure. I just can’t
prove it. That’s why I can’t use it as an excuse.”

She frowns, clearly confused. “But how do you know then?”

How could I not know? I deal with it every single day of my life.
There isn’t a moment that passes when it doesn’t bother me. What bothers me
even more is that I know exactly why I am the way I am. That I have my mother
to thank for all the shit in my life … it’s too much. I can’t tell her. This is
my misery, not hers.