Page 48 of Rebel

“If I go down because of some shit you guys pulled, I promise I will find a way to take you with me. Might as well fucking kill you if I’m going to get nailed for murder anyway.” It sounded perfectly logical to me. Slamming my fist into the side of River’s head felt fucking good. However, it didn’t ease the need to kill.

Because River was a sucker for punishment—or at the very least a masochist—he said, “This can all go away. You only have to give me Storm. That’s all I want.”

Murderous rage erupted from me, making me slam my fist into River’s head repeatedly. One of his friends managed to break away from Auryn long enough to tackle me, shoving me off River.

Auryn grabbed for me too. He dragged me to my feet and pushed me toward the gate. “That’s enough, Rebel. This is useless. Don’t let him goad you into doing something you can’t take back. He’s not worth it.”

I tried to shake Auryn off, but Casper joined him, helping to drag me from the yard. I threw elbows in my effort to escape them. Once Stray and Dom got involved, I was unable to do shit other than let them drag me away.

“Let me kill that motherfucker.” I twisted and turned in a futile attempt to free myself. “I can’t let him get away with this shit. He needs to fucking suffer.”

“And he will,” Dom assured me. “At the right time. You kill him now in broad daylight in his backyard and we’re even more fucked. Get your head together. You know better than this.”

I knew that they were right. There were proper ways to handle situations like this and people like River Harris. Losing my head and flying off the handle would only dig us a hole we couldn’t climb out of. That didn’t stop me from trying to get back into the yard.

It sure as shit didn’t help when River called after me, “Don’t worry, Rebel. When your ass is behind bars where it belongs, I’ll be there to comfort your girl. She’ll forget all about you in no time.”

“No, don’t do it. Get your ass in the car.” Even though Stray spoke, it was Casper who muscled me into the vehicle. He pointed a finger in my face, ensuring I knew that he meant business before he climbed into the back seat.

I fumed all the way to the graveyard. Since I didn’t trust myself to handle a meeting with a calm head, I stayed in the car and let the others deal with business. The guys we were meeting had come to buy a shit ton of narcotics. I didn’t want my foul mood to muddy the waters.

With my head back against the seat and my eyes closed, I thought about the best way to torture a confession out of River before he did something to send the cops in our direction. It was only a matter of time until they found out we were known for illegal organ sales. Once they put those pieces together, we were good and fucked.

When the text alert went off on my phone, I surfaced from my torturous fantasies to check the message. My eyes scanned the words on the screen, reading them over and over. What in the fuck?

Storm had texted me. All it said was:I will destroy you for what you’ve done.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

STORM

I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing. Try as I might, I couldn’t stop staring at my phone. At the photo that River Harris had sent me.

A photo of my brother getting into a vehicle with Rebel the night of the party. After I had left. Which meant that Rebel lied when he said he didn’t know anything about where Chase had gone that night. How could he do this to me?

Maybe I should’ve known better. It wasn’t as if Rebel hadn’t already shown me who he was. Somehow, I’d been stupid enough to believe in the softer side of him. So badly, I’d wanted to believe that he had nothing to do with my brother’s murder. Even though this photo wasn’t exactly concrete evidence, it did prove that Rebel had lied. He knew something.

The longer I stared at the photo, the more the anger festering inside me grew into a bubbling inferno of lava ready to boil over. Unable to stop myself, I began typing a message to Rebel. Before I could rethink it, I hit send.

His reply was almost immediate. Demanding to know what I was talking about and what was going on. I had nothing more to say to him right now. I’d let myself be vulnerable with him. I’d given him another chance that he didn’t deserve. Well, I was done with that shit.

Now it was war.

The more I looked at the photo, the crazier I drove myself. Feeling frantic and manic, I pondered ways to take my revenge on Rebel. Waiting around for the justice system to handle it wouldn’t appease this need I had to lash out at him right now. He needed to know that I knew what he’d done. That I was going to take matters into my own hands.

I checked several times for his car in the driveway next door. Shortly after dark, it was there. He was home. No doubt he was waiting for the right moment to climb up to my balcony and confront me. Not only did I lock the balcony door, I propped a large stick in the track so it couldn’t be slid open either.

Then I donned a black hoodie, pulling the hood up to hide my hair and face. A quick Internet search had told me everything I needed to know about cutting a brake line.

Was it crazy? Was I taking this too far? I didn’t see how. My brother was dead, his organs missing and probably sold off to rich buyers who didn’t want to wait their turn in an organ donor line.

That very thought drove me out the door and across our front lawns to Rebel’s driveway. He’d finally had my key job on his paint fixed. I had half a mind to carve a new word into it now. Murderer. That would take time though, and this needed to be done quickly.

Luckily, Larry had the right tools. Brake lines were strong, so I had to put some muscle into it. I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to pull it off without the rage that filled me. I wasn’t even sure if I did it properly. Hanging around too long would put me at risk of getting caught, so I did my best to do some damage, and got the hell out of there.

I’d just made it back to my own driveway when Rebel’s front door opened. I ducked behind my mom’s car and watched as Rebel left the house and got in his BMW. Shit. I hadn’t expected him to leave again so soon.

I couldn’t resist the urge to follow him. Knowing that he would easily recognize my vehicle, I waited for him to leave the driveway before grabbing my mom’s keys and following.

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