Warning: Strong Language and Sexual References!
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"What the hell happened?" Rave demanded of Ty and Mason. He had been pissed to get a phone call saying that Ary had run off again.
"Your girlfriend is way worse than you," Ty groaned, clutching a napkin to his nose. It had finally stopped gushing out blood, only minutes before Rave arrived back at the club.
"How could you let her get the drop on you?" Rave just stared at Ty in shock. Ty had taught him everything he knew about fighting, which was a lot.
"I don't know if you know this, but your girlfriend is kind of an expert when it comes to getting away from people. I'm just glad she didn't fucking shoot me!" Ty exclaimed. He wasn't mad at Ary; he had deep respect for her. He was just pissed in general.
Rave was about to start yelling at Ty again when his phone started to ring. He answered without checking the caller ID.
"What!?" he growled into the phone.
"Don't blame Ty." It was Ary.
"Where the hell did you need to go by yourself?" he asked, trying to bite back some of his anger. He still sounded royally pissed off.
"If you don't have to tell me where you run off to, then I don't have to tell you where I run off to. And I sure as hell don't need a baby sitting tagging along!" she snapped at him. He winced. She had to be pretty pissed off to actually resort to yelling.
"You were being held captive just yesterday!" he retorted.
"By my birth father!" she replied.
"You don't know that for sure," he reasoned.
"Well, whoever or whatever Garrett is, he's working for my mom and I've dealt with her kind of crazy for over twenty years. I didn't freak out when I was eight and she destroyed the kitchen with a golf club because my grandma said her turkey was dry, and I sure as hell am not gonna freak out when she hires someone to kidnap me and forcibly send me to rehab. Okay?" Ary huffed out the words.
It took Rave a few seconds to wrap his mind around what she just said. There were bigger and worse things to worry about than Ary's psychotic mother. Granted, Juliana was in the top five of Rave's list of people that wanted to harm Ary, but she currently wasn't number one so he'd have to just push her aside for the moment.
"Christian has men out looking for you!" Rave tried a different approach. A reasonable one. Not that he ever expected Ary to be reasonable.
"I know," Ary sighed. "That's why I brought a gun."
"You what!?" Rave was full on shouting now.
"Rave, calm down. I'll be fine, and I promise to be home tonight. Don't worry," she spoke to him, calmly, as if she were dealing with a difficult child.
"How can you expect me not to worry when you're constantly running off and getting into trouble?" Rave hissed into the phone.
"Because I always come back," was her stellar excuse. Rave literally groaned out loud. "What?" she asked, all huffy. "How is that any different than when you go off running into trouble?" she demanded.
"Because I know what I'm doing!" he hissed into the phone. "I'm not messing around. I lived this life for over ten years and let me tell you that no one in their right mind would willingly choose to live like this."
There was silence on the other end. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Rave knew he was being unfairly mean to her, but he just couldn't help it. Every time Ary went off on her own he was left with a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't something he liked to live with.
"Well then, I guess I'm obviously not in my right mind then," Ary replied, before hanging up.
Rave tried calling her back, but it just went straight to voicemail. He had to use all of his restraint to keep from throwing his phone across the room. He didn't understand why Ary always felt the need to put herself in danger. She didn't need to. Why had she even paid him to protect her cousin when she was going to do the same exact thing? He didn't understand her at all.
"So?" Mason was the first to break the awkward silence.
Rave took a calming breath. He wanted to yell or punch a wall, but he refrained from doing either. "Well, Ary is packing now," he said, slamming his phone down on the counter.
"As if she wasn't dangerous enough before," Ty grumbled. He gingerly touched his nose and winced.
"What are you gonna do?" Mason asked. He was worried about Ary too and he knew first hand what one of Christian's flunkies would do if they got their hands on her.
"I'm gonna go get her and drag her ass back here," Rave decided.
"Is that a good idea? With Ary's family drama and everything?" Mason asked, giving him a worried look.
"I really don't give a fuck if it's a good idea or not. I'm not going to let something bad happen to her again," Rave said, and with that he was storming out the door.
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"Where the hell have you been? We've been trying to call you all week!" Scarlett started to nag Ary as soon as she stepped inside the house.
"Where's Mom?" Ary asked, ignoring her sister's question.
"She's at work. Some of us actually have to work and don't get to mooch off of other people," Scarlett replied with a snotty attitude.
Ary just stared at her sister. She knew that Scar had her fair share of dumb blonde moments, but was it really possible for someone to be that dumb? Scar had been living at home with her kids for over three months now. She only worked part-time, as a teacher's aide. She didn't even take Micah to school in the morning or Stella to daycare in the afternoon. She never got up early enough to take care of her kids, and she was calling Ary a mooch?
Nothing would have made Ary happier than to rip her sister a new one, but she didn't have time to get into a screaming match with her sister. She wanted to save all of her screaming for her mother. It wouldn't be good if she wasted her energy on her sister. She chose to take the high road and decided to just walk away.
"Where are you going?" Scarlett demanded, following Ary out of the house.
"I'm going to see your mother," Ary replied, still walking away. She had to keep telling herself to just keep walking, even when she really wanted to turn around and punch her sister in the face.
"Hey!" Scarlett grabbed Ary's arm and stopped her from getting into the Jeep.
Ary winced when Scarlett's grip tightened around her bruised wrist. Scarlett, having spent some time trying to hide bruises, quickly picked up on Ary's reaction. Before Ary even had a chance to pull her arm away, Scar managed to push up the sleeve of her jacket, revealing the red, raw skin around her wrist.
"Scar, it's not-" Ary started to defend herself, but Scar cut her off.
"What the hell, Bella!?" Scarlett shouted at her. "You're still with the asshole that hurts you?"
"He doesn't hurt me!" Ary objected, and even she thought she sounded like the typical battered woman. Anything she said would just make it sound like she was defending Rave for beating her. All she needed now was to tell Scar that she deserved it.
"I'm calling Mom and Dad right now," Scarlett said, digging into her pocket for her cell phone.
"Good. Call them," Ary shrugged, folding her arms across her chest.
She was starting to feel anxious now. For the past few days, after Garrett had dropped the dad bomb on her, all she could think about was confronting her mother. Now she wasn't so sure that was the best idea. Most of her plans against her mother tended to backfire. She wasn't as skilled at manipulating people as Juliana was. She could easily see her mother turning this around on her.
Ary didn't wait for Scar to call their parents. She jumped into the Jeep and headed into town. She wasn't in town to talk about her various injuries, especially when those injuries had nothing to do with Rave. Not everything in her life had to be about her boyfriend.
Ary sat outside the small antique store where her mother worked, just staring at the building. The confrontation with Scarlett and the drive into town had given her some time to think. She was starting to talk herself out of confronting her mother. Even though she wanted a big blowout with her mom, she wanted to be sure that she'd win the argument. No one would believe her claims without hard evidence. Coming to that realization made her feel depressed. She had run away from the club, hurting Ty, and angering Rave for no reason.
Ary tightened her grip on the crowbar as she walked confidently down the street. She glanced around the area. Like most weekday afternoons, Haven was like a ghost town. There wasn't anyone around to witness the incredibly stupid thing she was about to do.
She grabbed the crowbar from the back of the Jeep and hopped out, walking confidently across the street to her mom's pretty little car. She raised the crowbar above her head and then unleashed all of her anger on the car. Every little thing Juliana had done to degrade her, to belittle her, to control her went into the power behind her swings. She imagined her mother's face. It might have been a dumb idea, but it was making her feel a lot better.
"Bella! What are you doing!?" Luke stopped her as she was about to smash in the windshield. "Shit, let's get out of here," he said, quickly glancing around to see if anyone had seen her go bat shit crazy on her mom's car.
"I know that was incredibly insane, but that felt really good," Ary laughed once she and Luke had gotten a safe distance away from the antique store and her mother's totalled car.
"What is wrong with you?" Luke hissed at her.
"Come on, it was a little funny," she snorted, trying to hold back some of her laughter. "Luke?" she looked up at him when he didn't reply to her. He was staring off down the alleyway.
"Bell, be quiet and stay back," Luke ordered her, pushing her back behind him.
"Luke!" Ary stumbled backwards, barely catching herself before she had another run-in with a dumpster. She was seriously considering attacking Luke with the crowbar. "What the hell?" she shouted at him.
"Shh!" he hissed at her, motioning for her to be quiet.
"Why?" she whisper-shouted at him. She didn't know why he was freaking out. Their uncle was the Sheriff, she doubted she'd get into too much trouble for beating the crap out of her mom's car.
Ary looked past her cousin and groaned. A crappy Oldsmobile had pulled into the alley, almost completely blocking off access to the main road. The car pulled to a screeching stop and three men got out.
"Hey Lukey," the dark skinned man in front said, winking at her cousin. The two other men circled around them.
"Friends of yours?" Ary asked, giving Luke a dirty look.
Luke just ignored her.
"Luke!" Ary gasped when her idiot cousin lunged at the first man, who was holding a knife. Ary couldn't believe her cousin! His form was leaving him wide open for attack.
"Not so fast, sweetie," One of the two other men came up behind Ary, grabbing a hold of her before she could jump into help Luke.
Ary had a thing about being grabbed from behind. She didn't like it and it usually sent her immediately into attack mode, which was an unfortunate thing for the man holding her. She bit down on his arm. He yelped out in pain, loosening his hold on her. Using his moment of weakness, she pulled herself from his grasps and quickly spun around to face him. Not giving him any chance to defend himself, Ary quickly kneed him in the groin. His face went sheet white and he dropped to his knees. For good measure, Ary kicked him in the face, sending him sprawling backwards in the dirt.
Ary turned to see that the scrawny little Mexican guy had pulled out a butterfly knife and was twirling it like he was some master knife thrower. Ary quickly glanced over to Luke. He was still grappling with the third guy and seemed to be holding his own just fine.
"Alright hombre, let's do this," Ary said. She rolled her shoulders and stood in a defensive position.
She guaranteed she had been in more knife fights than the wannabe thug in front of her. All three of the men looked to be about her and Luke's age, if not younger. They were probably fairly new to the gang, trying lo earn some street cred by capturing her. It really hurt her pride when kids that couldn't even rob an old lady thought they could easily take her down. She had been the one to put their boss behind bars afterall.
The Mexican guy ran at her and she side stepped him completely and when he tried to stop himself, she kicked him in the back. He tripped over his own feet and went flying into the side of the dumpster. He knocked himself out cold.
"Dumpsters," Ary chuckled to herself.
"Bella, are you okay?" Luke rushed up to her and spun her around, searching her for injuries.
"Get off me, I'm fine," she hissed, slapping his hands away.
They heard tires crunching over gravel and turned their heads to the opposite entrance to the alley. A dark van had pulled in and Ary had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. This wasn't a good day for her or Luke.
"I don't think the crowbar is going to cut it, cuz," Ary told Luke as they watched four other guys step out from the van. They looked a little older and a lot more competent than the three guys they had just dealt with.
They both inched their way backwards. It was only about fifty feet to the main road, but would it be a smart idea to lead four potentially armed men out into the open? The school was only three blocks away. Ary didn't want anyone to get hurt, let alone children. But she did have an idea. Admittedly a risky one, but it was still an idea.
"Run for my Jeep," Ary hissed at Luke.
"What?" he hissed back.
"Run!" Ary shouted, grabbing Luke's hand and sprinting off in the opposite direction.
Her Jeep was parked just a few feet down from the entrance to the alley. It didn't even take a minute for them to reach it.
Ary grabbed the gun she had stashed underneath the driver's seat, flipped off the safety and aimed the gun at the four men. Only two of them were armed with guns, but that was still one more than she was comfortable with.
"Put the gun down girly, before you get hurt," the black guy in front said, laughing at her.
Ary's heart was pounding in her chest and her legs felt like jelly, but she didn't lower her weapon. Now this might be her over confidence kicking in, but she didn't think they'd kill her. At least not yet. They wanted to make both her and Rave suffer. How much pain and suffering would their be if they just killed her now? Christian wouldn't get a chance to revel in her pain, and she had a feeling that that was very important to him.
"Put down your guns!" Ary shouted back in reply.
"What are you doing?" Luke hissed at her.
"I'm either playing it really smart or I'm trying really hard to get us both shot," Ary told him.
"Oh my God," Luke groaned, putting his hands on his head.
Ary didn't flinch when she heard the sirens in the distance, but she did notice the four men glancing off in that general direction. That's when she took her shot, or shoots to be exact. She shot the black guy first. The bullet ripped through his left leg. He dropped to the ground, his gun slipping from his hands. Even before the gun had hit the ground, Ary turned her gun towards the second armed man. His gun was already aimed at her. There was no time to run away; she took her chances and pulled the trigger again, a split second after he pulled his.
His bullet whizzed past her head and hit the driver's side window of her Jeep, shattering it. Ary had to fight her natural instinct to duck and cover her head, but she forced herself to run forward, despite the sharp glass cutting into her arms and the side of her face.
The two unarmed men were still ducking down, the one she had just shot was flailing around on the ground like a fish out of water. She had clipped him on the right side of his chest, probably hitting a lung. She quickly kicked his gun back behind her. As she turned to the fourth man he was already scrambling to grab his gun.
"Not so fast, buddy," Ary said, pointing her gun at him. He froze. Smirking, Ary knelt down and still keeping her gun aimed at him, she grabbed his gun as well.
"What the fuck was that!?" Luke shouted, coming up behind her. He had the gun she had kicked away in his hands.
"That, my dear cousin, is how you properly open a can of whoop ass," Ary replied, coolly. She was feeling more confident now that she was sure she wasn't going to throw up everywhere.
"You're insane," was all Luke said.
"Shut up and go get the guys in the alley. I'll watch these idiots until the cops get here," Ary snapped at him. She basically took out six people on her own while Luke struggled with one, and he was still giving her lip? Some people were just so disrespectful.
Ary kept both guns raised and ready to shoot as Luke jogged down the alley to check on the three others they had left there. Despite her cousins obvious flaws in combat, he made an okay partner in crime. She was slightly proud of him.
"You think you're tough shit?" the black hurt asked her.
"Do I need to give you a play-by-play replay of what just happened?" she asked, nodding to the circle of blood on his pants.
"You think Christian is doing all this to get at you?" he laughed, mocking her.
"Why else would he be doing all this?" Ary questioned.
"Why don't you ask your cousin with the pretty green eyes?" he suggested.
"Luke?" Ary asked. He shrugged. Before she could ask him any more questions, the first cop pulled up on scene.
"Down on the ground!" One of the deputies shouted at the four men, waving his pistol about like an idiot. In his defense, it was probably the first time he had to draw his weapon in the field.
Ary just kept glaring at the man in front of her, guns still raised. Even the arrival of more cops and even an ambulance couldn't break her from the staring contest. She was trying to get inside his head, read his mind even. What the hell had he been talking about?
"Bella?" Jack broke the trance she was in. Regretfully, she handed both guns over to her uncle. "Bella, what-"
"There's three more down the alley. Luke has them taken care of," Ary said, dismissing what her uncle was about to say.
Jack looked at her like he had no idea who she was. The man had taught her everything she knew about gun handling and yet he seemed completely baffled by the situation. She didn't have time to dwell on everyone's low opinion of her. She turned away and pulled out her cell phone.
"I need you to get to Haven as soon as you can. Seven Bloodbaths just tore up my town. And I need you to call Sheriff Jack Harper and give me authority to question the men myself," Ary told Detective Wilcox.
"You just want the local police to hate me, don't you?" Wilcox groaned into the phone.
"Trust me, they'll be too focused on me to worry about some city cops busting in on their action," Ary assured the older man. "Now make the call," she said, before hanging up.
Ary locked eyes with Luke as he walked out of the alley. He grinned at her and all she could do was stare at him, analyze him. What did Luke know? She'd like to believe in her cousin's innocence, but after the stunt he pulled with Michael last spring she wouldn't put anything past him. Luke was just another person lying to her, like her mother, like Rave. She was beginning to think that humans were just incapable of telling the truth. One way or another, she'd get the truth out of someone. Or die trying.
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What has Luke done now? What do you think he's hiding? How do you think Ary's family is going to react to all this. Give me your opinions in the comments!