I know he’s right. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but he’s right. I’ve not forgotten the alignment of stars it would take for my life to be okay. My family, my debt, my record, the warrants that are undoubtedly out for my arrest right now, my lack of education…
I’ll embarrass Hawke. I know it’s not a relationship.
We hid together out of necessity and bonded. I could never stomach him trying to save me.
“Your mom hasn’t been home in three days,” Hugo tells me.
I cast my gaze up to him.
His voice softens. “You need to come home.”
Hawke takes my wrist. “Don’t you fucking move.”
“I don’t know how much longer I can keep CPS from showing up,” Hugo threatens.
That’s why Bianca wasn’t answering the phone. She was afraid I’d come home if I found out. Goddammit.
Axel tips back a flask, emptying it down his throat, and Alejandro blows out smoke before he flicks his cigarette at one of the Pirates on my left.
“Shit.” The kid wipes the embers off his shirt.
Green Street closes in, the air changes, and the hair on my arms rises as the rain cools my neck.
“Hawke, seriously,” one of the Pirates says. “They will tear this town apart. Give her back.”
But Hawke doesn’t move. Hugo grins.
I look over my shoulder for the first time, Hawke’s friends staring at me, some of them like I’m the cause of all this. They can fight, but they don’t want to fight for me.
Hugo gazes at me, and I turn my head, whispering to Hawke. “These aren’t my people.”
He squeezes me. “Hugo is using you as an excuse. They’ve wanted this for a long time.”
“Your friends won’t see it like that.”
I don’t want to leave him, but I can’t live like this. I can’t follow him everywhere. I need to be in control of my life and make my own way. A friend should make his life better, not worse, and Bianca needs me.
I pull myself free and walk for Hugo.
But Hawke pulls me back. “Aro…”
“I’m not worth all this trouble,” I tell him, yanking free again. “I need to go home.”
His eyes sharpen, but he lets me leave. I walk over to Hugo and turn, facing the Pirates.
Hugo laughs. “Someone likes Chicana girls,” he says to Hawke. “Never boring, are they? I’ll get you another one.”
“I want that one.”
I dart my gaze up to Hawke, the sudden hardness to his voice not like him. He looked worried and sad before. Now he doesn’t.
His glower is all for me.
“Well, you can’t have this one,” Hugo retorts. “Not unless, you know what.”
Huh? I look between Hawke and Hugo, realizing they’ve had another conversation without me at some point.
But Hawke’s focus is all on me. “Come here,” he says.
I don’t.
His jaw flexes. “I asked you once before when all this shit started,” he grits out. “And I’m telling you now. Come here.”
I steel my spine, remembering the last time we were all together like this. That first night in front of his house.
He never saw me as equal, always less. The one who needed to be paid for, protected, guided…
A pet. A project.
I square my shoulders. “You don’t get to save me, Rich Boy.”
Hawke’s face changes, his eyebrows relaxing, his chin lifting, and the heat that was all over him last night and while painting my toes this morning has now gone so cold.
Hugo just laughs. “Don’t feel bad—”
But Hawke doesn’t give him a chance to gloat. He launches out and throws a fist right across my foster brother’s face.
I rear back, howls erupt, and Nicholas flies in to pull Hawke off, but it’s too late. Hugo is already hitting back, and Kade runs in, everyone losing their fucking minds.
“Kill ’em!” Axel bellows at the top of his lungs, and before I even see who it is, some girl in pink Chucks is grabbing one of my braids and yanking my face down into her knee. She slams it into my cheek, and it takes a second, pain spreading through my face.
But it’s like riding a bike. Every muscle fires like an engine, and I spring into action. I throw my shoulder into her stomach, she loses her grip, and I shove her back, sending her onto her ass.
I whip around, finding Hawke getting punched by Hugo as Axel holds him, and I start to run for him, but he shoots out his leg, kicking Hugo and then elbowing Axel in the side.
Throwing him off, Hawke twists back around, his eyes sparkling like fireworks as he glares at me. But then a punch lands across his face, and he spins, plummeting to the ground. He lands on the hard concrete, and then flips over with a cut on his cheek dripping blood. He eyes Hugo, and I rush over, dropping down on him.
“Stop!” I tell him. “Just go home.”