Page 21 of Poisoning Ivy
I bite back the desire to ask if that really would have been such a bad thing, but figure the answer is yes, because hitting me would have probably done some damage to his car... and his car is his prized possession.
When he first started driving, he took over his mom’s Kia crossover, so his upgrade last year was probably a defining moment for him. When I stand on the balcony in just the right spot, I can see into Killian’s driveway, where he spent a good part of the last summer with Monty and Theo fixing that thing up, making it into what it is now. I won’t lie, it was a good show. As much as I hate to admit it, they’re hotter than any of the stuffy guys from the school I graduated from a few weeks ago. I guess I’m more into the rugged type—the antithesis of everything I am usually surrounded by.
"Sorry!" I mumble, grabbing the vodka bottle by the neck and moving out of the haze of the headlights.
I can hear Don’t Fear the Reaper playing from inside his car, though I’m pretty sure it’s a cover. The loud music on top of the headlight haze makes it hard to pull myself out of the way. Killian takes my laugh as a personal offense, pressing himself against my chest like he wants to fight me. “What’s so funny?”
“The song.” I laugh again, my lips feeling numb as I fail to keep the sound in.
They’ve been the reapers to me for my whole life—the boys of Reaper’s Row. The trash my parents warned me to stay awayfrom; the no-good kids who are involved in some ‘dark stuff’ according to my mother. I wonder if the locals call them the same thing, if they fear these guys as much as I do, if they look forward to seeing them as much as I do.
I'm nearly past him when Killian grabs me by the arm and reels me against him. He smells like bonfire smoke and whiskey, and his touch is too warm for the staggering heat of the summer. It's unusually warm for this time of year; I feel sticky with the humidity that’s crept its way up the mountain in the wake of summer storms.
"I should have known it was you, Bambi. Running like always."
"Let me go," I mutter, pushing against the solid weight of his arm to try and get some leverage.
As a general rule, I avoid the three of them these days, but I don't let them control me. I'm allowed to walk around the mountain, regardless of what I know Killian is about to say. But he doesn't say it. The car door opens, and I turn my head to see Theo walking toward us, a smile on one side of his face that makes my mouth go dry. He's taller than I remember, and the shadow as he approaches me is somehow more intimidating because of it. His sun-bleached curls hang in his left eye, but I don’t miss the look in the right one.
Behind him, Monty sidles up with a smile that's softer. That's no surprise, since all of him is softer. He's always been kinder than the others, and yet his loyalty is to them. They’re his brothers—not biologically or even legally, but I guess they did make a blood pact when they were younger that they'd all always have each other's backs. Maybe if I’d been around back then, they wouldn’t have cast me out. Maybe I’d be one of them if I didn’t have to return to the staggering confinement of the city every summer.
"I thought we told you not to come back here, Tiger Lily?" Theo chuckles, drawing right up to where Killian stands with mepressed against him. I don't bother trying to free myself from his grip, refusing to give them any more fuel to antagonize me than they already have just by virtue of me being an outsider, let alone a girl.
"Don't call me that." I snap, anger lighting a path through me that the vodka fueled. It reaches through me, pools in my stomach, and dips ever so slightly lower. Monty grips the vodka and pries it out of my hands, holding it up to let the headlights shine on the label.
"Damn, Poison." He chuckles. "You're hitting the hard stuff, huh?"
I roll my eyes at him and try to slip out of Killian's grip again, annoyed that my moment of freedom was so damn short lived. Why did they have to stop me? Why do they hate me so much that they can't even ignore me?
"I can give you something harder." Killian whispers, his voice deeper than it was last time I saw him. It's weird. In some ways, it's rougher and deeper than before, and in other ways, it sounds slightly softer and breathy.
Theo's snigger is all the proof I need of the fact that they're fucking with me, and I don't like it. I swing my elbow back to try and catch Killian in a rib, but he drags me against his hard chest, a thick arm wrapped around me and trapping me there so that his breath skates on my neck.
"Fuck off." I grumble.
"So, youdon'twant something harder?"
He laughs, and I shake my head as the 'harder' thing he has to offer me makes itself known. I feel it against the small of my back, and it sends chills down my arms, making everything in me tighten with fear... or maybe notfear. Whatever it is, it's potent. I'm trying to wriggle out of his grip when he lets go of me all at once, and I nearly fall to the ground again.
The heat in my cheeks, put there by the vodka starting to work through my bloodstream, increases with my embarrassment. Theo catches me before I can fall, though, grabbing me beneath the elbow and pulling me back to the right center of gravity.
"Falling for me, Tiger Lily?" He mocks, stealing thethank youthat was sitting on the tip of my tongue.
"You wish." I jerk out of his grasp and turn to get away from them, pushing further down the path.
"I've got weed." Killian's voice sounds just as I get past them.
"Good for you." I mutter, not bothering to turn back to face him.
Monty chuckles as Killian runs after me, his hands closing around my arm again. I turn to glare at him but find him watching me without the smirk I've come to think never leaves his mouth.
"You drink now? I thought you were too good for that?"
"I've never said I was too good for anything." I shrug.
"Yeah?" He laughs, his eyes glittering at whatever wicked ideas his brain just conjured. "Prove it."
"What?"
