I couldn’t help grinning over at Meyah, as us boys started to pack up the wedding chairs to take back to the hire place in town. She looked perfect in her pastel pink dress. It was soft and flowy and fell to mid-thigh, the color and cut making her legs look long and tanned. It had been a struggle to stand through the entire wedding trying to think of anything but how fucking sexy she looked, so Leo wouldn’t have to hang wedding photos in his house which included me having a raging fucking boner like a teenage boy.
Her face lit up as she stood between Leo and Hadley while the girls all gushed and took a million photos on their cell phones. Most of the outside family had already gone. Meyah’s mom taking Macy with her so that the newly married couple could enjoy their night together.
I had my own plans of stealing Meyah away to have to myself for a little while during the party. She admitted she’d never really had a drink before, so I wanted to make sure when she did, that it was with me so I could look after her if it went straight to her head.
Romeo and I carried a stack of chairs each round to the front of the house.
“Wait up!” Meyah called from behind me. “I can help!”
I looked over my shoulder and laughed as she jogged up beside Romeo. “Help him, he’s the one huffing and puffing. You need to get your ass in the gym, little brother,” I taunted.
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Don’t listen to his bullshit, Meyah. I was always the stronger one. Hamlet just doesn’t like to admit he’s not as perfect as he comes across,” Romeo threw back, raising his eyebrows and daring me to argue. I just laughed, though. Turning back to watch where I was walking when I heard Meyah ask Romeo for the dirt on what I was like as a kid.
She wouldn’t get much.
I was the poster child for well behaved teens.
Club members were still milling around, taking photos, and helping with the decorations. No one was in a hurry to head back to the clubhouse, just content with enjoying the company of family.
Hearing the rev of an engine and crunch of gravel coming up the short driveway, I looked up wondering if it was one of the prospects bringing the van over to pack everything inside. Instead, I frowned at the dark SUV moving quickly toward us, the feeling in my gut telling me it was moving too fast.
Meyah’s soft laughter came from behind me, just as Phee came skipping out of the house and down the porch stairs.
“That’ll be Heath and Bray—” she started but jumped back when the car came to a skidding stop about thirty feet from the house.
“Gun!” Romeo screamed as the car windows began to roll down.
The white wooden chairs fell from my hands. My instincts told me to find Meyah, to get to her, but all I could see was my little sister standing on the staircase out in the open, frozen in shock.
She’s with Romeo.
He’ll protect her.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The bullets shot through the air with short, sharp whizzing noises. I tried to ignore the sound of wood splintering and people yelling as I finally forced my body forward, my feet skidding on the grass as I fought to get to Phee. She’d dropped to her knees, covering her head as the bullets kept coming, one bang after another.
Multiple guns.
More than one shooter.
I didn’t have time to be gentle grabbing her arm and yanking her off the staircase toward me and into my arms, throwing both of us just a few feet toward Rose’s car which was parked at the foot of the stairs. Phee was screaming in my arms, and with every gunshot, her body jerked like she was being hit. I sunk to the ground with her in my arms, hoping the car would protect us long enough for someone to get their shit together.
“Harlyn!” she yelled in my ear, her voice hoarse with tears.
“What?”
She pointed at the top of the stairs—stairs that had several holes in them where we’d just been standing—and I spotted a tuft of hair sticking out from between the thin banisters that encased the porch. “She followed me out.”
“Fuck!” There was no one else out the front, most of the boys had been around the sides or out the back, and the kids were meant to be inside with Chelsea, helping her with the twins. I took a deep breath and made a run for it. Phee screamed at me as I scrambled up the staircase, bits of wood and splinters stabbing into my hands. I couldn’t tell which direction the gunshots were going, whether they were still aiming at the house, or whether they were aiming for the people who’d been out in the open at the side of the house.
I was holding my breath, the adrenaline that was coursing through me made me feel like I was lightheaded, like my body was a feather, and I could float off at any moment. The moment I got close enough to hear Harlyn sobbing softly, I took in a heaving breath and lay on the ground beside her pulling her tiny body into my arms.
She screamed and struggled against me, the noise around us was lessening, but it still sounded like a fucking war zone—people yelling at each other, the sound of guns firing and reloading, things being destroyed.
“Har, it’s okay. It’s me,” I hissed, rolling our bodies so my back was to the firing squad and her body was protected.
When she heard my voice, she clutched my shirt in her hands and sobbed louder.