Leo is piss poor and delivers newspapers for a bit of cash at the crack of fucking dawn to the last few neighborhoods around here that still read the actual paper. Makes for a good second eye, sees what we can’t and reports back when necessary.

“Yeah, that girl.” Royce chuckles, only Cap and me can tell it’s forced. “She’s feisty.”

And it’s left at that.

Everyone parts ways and as soon as they’re gone, I turn to my brothers.

“You guys see her yet today?”

“Nope.” Cap shrugs and Royce shakes his head.

“What do you think happened?” Royce asks.

“Catty chicks?” Cap guesses.

Royce snorts. “Yeah right, none of them would get a hit on her.”

“None are brave enough to try.” I look between them. “We gotta find out. We already made it clear no one’s to touch her after that bleach shit. Someone’s not listening.”

I spit, then with all the energy I have left, I throw myself forward, hitting her square across the jaw. She stumbles into the crowd, her feet sliding from under her, ass hitting the ground.

The onlookers whistle and beer flies through the air, splashing onto me.

Fuck, I’ll need to rinse these clothes before laundry goes in.

People try to get my attention, but I squeeze from the circle and move over to the crates.

Bass slips from the crowd with a grin as I’m jumping up. He flicks his lip ring with his tongue, shaking his head.

“Dayum, Rae. You only get better out here. You’re a fucking beast.”

I shrug, grinning to myself, sticking both hands out. He slaps money into one, then helps cut the tape off the other.

“Where the fuck you learn to box like that?”

“Mom’s not much of a mom. Brought trouble.”

“Ah.” He nods. “You taught yourself, then?”

I inspect my knuckles on my left hand, squeezing my fists shut then opening them again. “When there’s nobody else to keep hands off you, you learn to fight ‘em off yourself.”

He pauses, his eyes shifting between mine. “That bad where you came from?”

“I know others who had it worse.”

He grabs my elbows and helps me down. “You always downplay your problems?”

I chuckle, shaking my head. “What do you know about my problems, Bass?”

“Not enough.” He smirks and steps forward. “Change that, Rae.”

I drop my grin to my feet, before looking back up ... and then I’m pulled back.

“What the fu—”

I glance over my shoulder, and my blood boils as not one, but all three of my latest pain in the asses stand behind me. I try to jerk free of Maddoc’s hold, but I’m only shoved down the line until Royce is gripping my forearms.

“That was some badass shit there, RaeRae,” he whispers, laughing when I try and elbow him.

Bass shifts so he can meet my eyes through the three and Maddoc moves to block him.

“Rae—”

“You can go now, Bishop,” Maddoc cuts him off. “And stay away from Raven.”

He scoffs. “It’s my job to bring in the—”

“I didn’t ask you any questions,” Maddoc cuts him off.

“Go, Bass, it’s fine.” I give him his out, no need for trouble to fall at his feet because of me. His eyes find mine again and he nods, glares at all three boys, then makes the smart choice by backing away. The last thing I want is for his side hustle to be blown up at the hands of these assholes.

They cage me in, all wearing familiar glares that have zero effect on me. I yank from Royce’s hold, grab my sweater off the box and pull it over my head, snatch my backpack and place it over my shoulder and weave my way through the crates. And, of fucking course, they follow.

“This where you been sneaking off to late at night, to beat bitches’ faces in?” Royce jokes. “And here I thought someone was keeping that pussy wet for—”

Royce grunts and I glance back, finding his glare on Maddoc.

“Why you fighting?” This comes from Maddoc.

“Because it’s just so much fun.” I roll my eyes, glancing from left to right to make sure there’s no one watching, then slip through the broken fence and start through the parking lot.

“Money,” Cap guesses as if there would be any other reason.

I cut my eyes toward him and he nods like he understands.

He doesn’t understand shit.

I thought these boys were like me, but they’re not. I don’t know for sure what conditions they were raised in, how hard or easy they had it when push came to shove, but one thing’s for sure, they were never poor boys from my kind of ghetto where you had to beg or steal to eat. I’m no thief and I refused to beg. It didn’t take me long to find another way.

“Stop fucking walking,” Maddoc complains and I stop all right, spinning to face him with a glare.

“Back the fuck off. Why are you guys even here? Shouldn’t you be at your little party making sure no peasants make it through the door in the kings’ absence?”

Royce grins at that and I roll my eyes. Idiot.

“Thanks to your bullshit, the school thinks you’re one of ours. You—”

“No, big man,” I cut him off with a mocking laugh and his jaw ticks. “They think I’m ‘one of yours,’ because you let them. Not my problem.”

He gets in my face and I hold my breath. “Our boys are questioning us. You show up to school with random cuts and bruises and it’s making people talk. We may be a lot of things, bastards in every way, but putting our hands on a woman when it’s not part of fucking her, isn’t our forte.”

“Is that supposed to make me cream?” I whisper like a slut. “Listening to you talk about how strong you are, how bad you are, how your hands are meant for pleasure, not pain?”

His eyes harden.

“’Cause guess what, you’re not the first boy to promise a prize at the end of the night who delivered a punch instead.”

His brows snap at the center and he grabs my upper arm, but before he can open his mouth, voices float from the other side of the parking lot.

I jerk from his hold and start forward, but he yanks me back.

They drop down to hide between the cars and I frown.

“This is private property,” Captain tells me as Maddoc yanks me down beside them.

I gape at them. “There’s literally like three dozen people not fifty feet away, yelling and screaming, and duh ... illegally fighting.” I widen my eyes like a brat. “It’s no fucking secret there are people walking all around here.”

The voice grows closer and Maddoc’s head snaps toward the sound, his forehead wrinkling.

He recognizes the voices.

He meets Captain’s stare before sliding it to Royce, who curses and props his head against the car door beside us, and it hits me.

They don’t want to be seen out here. But why?

Maddoc glances around, but I can tell he already knows – there’s no other way out of here.

Cap glares at me.

“What?”

“This is your fault.”

My mouth drops open. “My fault?” I hiss. “You fuckers pretend to play nice, insert yourself in everything I do, tracked my ass down, and this is my fucking fault? Like the joint being in Maddoc’s hand was ‘my fault’ or your followers thinking I’m with you because I noosed a girl for five seconds? You guys need to wake up and realize how weak you really are and fix it before someone who wants what you have comes in ready to take it. Can’t even own up to your own bullshit ‘cause it’s just so much easier to lay blame on everyone else, huh?”