“Is this the cheating boyfriend?” Church asks, taking a sip of the coffee in his right hand. I nod, and he smiles. “I see. He's not worth our time then.”
“It's worth my time to kick his cheating ass,” Spencer says, but Ranger reaches out and grabs his arm.
“We have other plans, man. Let it go.”
“Yeah, take your whore and have fun plugging each other in the ass while you wait for your turn,” Cody snarls, and several of his friends snicker.
Spencer's jaw clenches, and the twins exchange a look, like they're all about to go in for the kill. Instead, Ranger moves in without warning, locking his arm around Cody's neck and putting him in a headlock.
“What the he—” Cody's voice cuts off as Ranger squeezes him a little tighter, the muscles in his arms bulging, his face a mask of darkness that would scare the crap out of me if I were one of Cody's weaselly little friends.
Must work because they all back off a step.
“Who taught you to treat women like that, you little creep?” Ranger asks as Cody thrashes around, his face turning pink. “Or anyone else for that matter? You don't know shit about Charlotte or her relationship with any of us.” He releases him, and my ex crumples to the ground, choking and coughing. Ranger cracks his knuckles, and I'll admit, this super primal part of me gets all squeal-y at the idea of him stepping in to protect me. But like, I can also protect myself.
“You cheated on me with my best friend, Cody. And you know what? I just walked away from it. Hell, I even forgave Monica. But you clearly aren't sorry, and you don't see anything wrong in what you did. So … get fucked.” I move down the steps and over to the open window of his Jeep, grabbing the pink feather pen from my bag and stabbing it right into the center of his pretty leather seat.
“What the hell?!” he rasps out, stumbling toward me, raking his fingers through the frosted tips of his sandy hair. I pull the pen out and stab it another spot, turning to him and lifting my chin in defiance.
“You're supposed to get a Jeep for rough ‘n’ tumble outdoor shit, not for leather. It looks stupid as hell, and you should seriously reconsider getting a cloth interior.” I shoulder past him, and he grabs my arm, fingers digging into my skin so hard I'm sure they'll leave bruises.
“Listen to me, you ugly bitch—”
He doesn't get any further than that because Ranger hauls him back by his t-shirt, spins him around, and decks him in just such a way that Cody drops to the ground like a boneless sack.
The rest of SCHS watches on in abject shock. Monica even pulls her shades off and drops them on the sidewalk next to her.
“Let's go,” Ranger tells me as both twins and Spencer grin. Church raises a single brow, still leaning up against the side of some sleek black sedan … I think it's a Rolls-Royce? It suits his personality. While the twins are driving flashy sports car, he's got something elegant and understated. “We've got a long drive ahead of us.”
“We do?” I ask, as Ranger steers me away, and the twins face each other in an epic thumb war to see whose car I'll be riding in.
“We do,” Ranger says, but he won't tell me anything else as Spencer slides into the passenger seat of one of the Lambos, and pulls me onto his lap.
I'm always up for an adventure … especially if the deal's all the sweeter because I get to see my ex-boyfriend's comatose form as we pull away from the curb.
Karma's a bitch, ain't it?“What are you guys doing here?” I repeat once I'm safely seated on Spencer's lap with Micah behind the wheel of the Lambo. He drives like a goddamn speed-demon, and I realize we're in some sort of race with Tobias. Church is driving the other car, the Phantom or whatever it was Micah called it, but he most definitely isn't part of the race. We're leaving him in the dust.
“It's summer break, isn't it?” Micah asks, glancing over at us as he passes several slow-moving cars on the shoulder. Oh Christ, he's a worse driver than Monica. We're all gonna die. “Why wouldn't we be here?”
“Did you not want us here?” Spencer asks, lifting a dark brow.
“You have no idea how excited I am that you're here,” I tell them, just before I realize where we're going. We're heading south, toward Los Angeles. “I'm just sort of surprised you guys came all this way to see me.”
“Uh, we told you we would, didn’t we?” Micah rolls his green eyes, and then slams his foot down on the gas, shooting us forward into traffic. My body ends up plastered against Spencer's, but I don't mind. No, pretty sure I got the best seat in the house.
