A second guy picks her up and hurls her into the pool, and she comes up spluttering and cursing.
“Let’s go in and steal her suit,” says one of the guys, his voice deep and thick with a New York accent.
She starts swimming away as fast as she can, and they all laugh. One of them jumps in and swims after her, easily catching up. The others dive in and follow, surrounding her in the water. She screams and spins around when they untie her bikini top, clamping her arm to her chest to keep it covering her.
I hop up and go to the edge of the pool. “Cut it out,” I yell.
Again, no one pays any attention.
When they start untying Lexi’s bottoms, she has to let go of her top, shoving them and fighting as they all laugh and hoot and push her under the water. Pretty soon, they have her top and bottom, leaving her naked for all the party to see.
One of the guys swims away, holding her suit over his head like a trophy and whooping with joy.
“Give it back,” she yells, swimming after him. She sounds furious and is clearly not playing the way they are.
The other three guys swim after her, grabbing her legs, groping at her bare skin. She screams as their hands move over her body, distorted and discolored through the water like some kind of nightmare.
I look around frantically, waiting for someone to stop them, but they’re all just laughing. Even though I swore I’d never talk to Lennox again, this is an emergency, so I run over. “Help her,” I cry, gesturing toward the pool.
“Nah, Lexi’s not our girl,” he says. “Besides, she’s just playing hard to get. We’ve all fucked her already.”
I spin around, searching for Maddox, and see him over beside the shed, his hand braced against the wall and his other behind a girl’s head as she kneels in front of him, bobbing up and down. Too desperate to be shocked, I spin back around, finding a tight group of guys over near the fence. I race over, shoving past Reggie to find the familiar blond mullet I want.
“Billy,” I say, grabbing his arm. “They’re messing with your cousin.”
Without a word, he shoves his beer bottle into my hand and flies past me, nearly knocking me to the ground as he charges across the yard with the speed of a football star and plunges into the pool. He streaks through the water, comes up next to them, and punches a guy in the face.
A shriek lodges in my throat as blood flies. All the guys jump on Billy, and I spin around, gesturing for someone to help before they drown him. The guys he was talking to move toward the pool to watch the fight, but no one jumps in. Lexi jumps onto someone’s back, and when I see no one else is going in to help, I bend and smash the end of the bottle Billy thrust into my hand. Then I jump in and race through the water. I grab onto a handful of dark hair and wrap my legs around his hips for grip, reaching around to press the jagged edge of the bottle to his throat.
“Leave her the fuck alone,” I scream.
The guy throws himself backwards, and we’re plunged under water. I see blood floating up, and I know I must have cut him, but he’s stronger than me and yanks my hand away from his neck, thrashes free, and swims back up. I surface a second later, horrified as I see how much blood is laced through the churning water as more people join the fight.
Strong arms grab me from behind, pulling me backwards. I turn, the bottle raised, but Maddox grabs my wrist to stop me from cutting him.
“You’re a crazy bitch, you know that?” he says, ripping the bottle from my hand and throwing it. It hits the tile beside the pool and shatters, sending glass into the pool and along the edge.
“Let me go,” I howl, twisting to free myself.
“You don’t need to be in a fight with a bunch of grown men, little girl,” he says, backpedaling through the water without letting me go.
“They were hurting Lexi,” I say, a sob catching in my throat, much to my horror. My lip trembles, and Maddox’s eyes soften for just a second.
He pulls me against him in the water, coming to a stop at the far edge of the pool. Wrapping his arms around me, he presses his nose to the top of my wet head. “She’ll be okay,” he says. “That’s not your fight.”
“It’s my pool,” I manage. “I tried to get Lennox to help, but he just—” I break off, hurt twisting in my chest at the memory of his callous response.
“Lennox gets off on that shit,” Maddox says. “Don’t ever underestimate anyone in our crew, little girl. We’re all dangerous. Some of us are just better at hiding it.”
I nod against his chest, grateful that he’s holding me so close he can’t see the tear slip through my lids.
“Come on,” he says after a second. “Fight’s over. I’ll get you a beer.”
I glance over and see that he’s right. The dozen guys who fought and pulled apart the fight are climbing out of the water, and Billy’s shielding Lexi’s body from view while she wraps a towel around herself. The pieces of her swimsuit float near the edge of the pool, which is tinged pink on that end from the blood.
I gulp, feeling a little queasy. I don’t need a beer, but Maddox is being so nice I can’t say no. I don’t want to go back to Maddox the Jerk Face, so I follow him out of the pool. He snags us both a beer and sits down on one of the plastic chaise lounges, pulling me down on his knee.
“Thanks,” I say, leaning toward him, wanting to return to the comfort of his arms.