Poughkeepsie Begins (The Poughkeepsie Brotherhood #0.5) (6 page)

“That’s mine, you little ass pump.” A wiry but intimidating asshole with a tear tatted on his face and a string of molars around his neck stood. He walked right up to Beckett’s face, nose to nose.

“Looks like that’s Dentist’s run. Sorry, pup.” Kick’s voice filled the room, but Beckett just stared into the man’s black eyes.

Beckett hit Dentist so hard the man went down like a bag of bricks. Just out fucking cold.

“Shit.”

“Son of a bitch.”

Beckett looked from Dentist to Kick’s face. “Either I do that to him every time I see him, or he reports to me.”

It was the people in the house who let Beckett know he was on to something. The reviews were in, and he’d caused a visceral reaction.

Kick nodded. “Okay, pup. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Candy walked into class with Zyler, but sat next to a sleeping Beckett. He was out cold, head resting on his folded arms. She gently tapped on his desk as Mrs. Drivens called the class to attention. No response. She touched his wrist softly.

Like a rattlesnake, quick as a blink, he snatched her wrist in response. She gasped as he opened his bloodshot eyes.

“Sorry, pink princess. I wake up loaded for bear.” He let her arm go.

“She’s talking about our project.” Candy pointed to the front.

Beckett nodded and sat up, running his hand over his face.

They watched a video of three debates, illustrating how theirs should go. By the time Candy was done taking notes, Beckett was sleeping again.

When Mrs. Drivens gave the class time to brainstorm with their partners, Candy let him sleep. There was something so exhausted-looking about his face. She wrote down their topic: for and against the use of animals in the circus. She gave him the task of conveying the “for” side. The bell rang, and he didn’t stir. Zyler walked up and smiled at her.

“You’re stuck with a great partner, right?” He tapped Beckett’s foot with his own.

Without opening his eyes Beckett gave Zyler the finger.

“Hey, Candy, I’ll carry your books?”

Candy no longer took her backpack from class to class. She had her schedule and locker stops down.

“Just give me a second? I’ll meet you in the hall. Thanks.” She smiled back at him.

He left reluctantly.

Beckett ran his hands through his hair, messing it up.

“Listen, I want to work with you on this. But I’m serious about my grades. Are you busy tonight?” She stood as he did the same. He had nothing to grab from the desk. “Do you even have a pencil?” she asked.

He shook his head and grinned, both dimples showing up as his eyes sparkled.

She handed him one of her pink Candy pencils.

He took it and stuck it behind his ear. “I’m busy every night.”

“Well, you’re going to have to figure out when to see me.” She gathered her books in her arms.

“Fine. I’ll take you home today.” His eyes smoldered as he looked her up and down.

“Great. Meet you in the parking lot after the last bell.”

He looked both surprised that she’d agreed and a little worried. He covered it with a shrug. “I’ll be there. Thanks for the pencil.” He stepped close to her, so close she thought he was going to kiss her. He looked from her lips to her eyes and back again. “Candy.”

When he walked away, she exhaled. Her heart clenched when he looked into her like that—like he knew so much more about life than she did.

That was why she’d kissed him that time.

She turned toward the exit and saw a surly Zyler puffing his chest.

Beckett walked by and slapped his shoulder. “Keep it up, Cyler.”

“Zyler.”

“Whatever.”

Candy caught up to him as Beckett melted into the foot traffic in the hallway.

“He’s such a jerk. I bet we can get Drivens to put you in our group. She knows he’s scum.” Zyler held out his books for Candy to pile hers on top of.

“I don’t know why you’re always so mean about him. He seems okay. Just tired.” She walked down the hall next to Zyler, thinking about Beckett.

He shouted to a few guys across the way before returning to their conversation. “If running drugs was an Olympic sport, he’d medal every damn day.”

Candy didn’t love that. She wasn’t a fan of drugs at all, but she didn’t love Zyler’s tone either. “Yeah, I hate judging people a ton before I know them.”

“I’m not judging. I’m informing a friend who hasn’t grown up in this town so she doesn’t make mistakes she’ll regret later.” Zyler lifted his chin in greeting to another football team member walking in the opposite direction.

“Well, can you inform me why you seem so much nicer when no one else is around to see?” Candy liked the Zyler who was just for her much better than the one who paraded down the hall and showed up at the lunch table.

He stopped walking and tsked her a bit. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Me and my boys like to play around, but it’s just fun, you know?”

She didn’t add that if they needed him to be an asshole, they weren’t the best of friends to have. Instead she asked another question. “So do you just hate the rumors about Beckett or do you have other reasons?”

She took her books back from Zyler, and they continued to her class.

“He started shit with my boys a while ago—took some dirty hits on them in the locker room. We’re here to protect, you know? We’re the football team, but this is our school. And he’s a problem. Came after Dunns in his home with a gun. Screwed and dumped Kain’s sister. We’ve got issues with him. And I’m not afraid of him. He’s just a poser. He’s bad news, Candy. Stick with me instead.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek before promising to call her for a math study date.

She nodded, puzzling over his words as he walked away.

Just how dangerous was Beckett? And why did that thought make her hot instead of scared?

After school Candy made sure to slip into the bathroom to refresh her lip gloss. She also wanted to avoid having Zyler and Beckett come head to head again. When she walked out of the school, the lot had emptied. Beckett leaned against her car.

“Thought you forgot about me,” he told her as soon as she was close.

“Surprised you stayed awake this long.” She opened her car with the key and hit the unlock button. “Do you have a car or…?”

He shook his head. “I come alive at night, baby. And no. I usually get a lift to and from. I can get a car here for us if you want.”

“No. It’s fine. I’ll drive.” She motioned to her passenger seat.

“Are you a safe driver, pink princess?” He pulled open the door.

“You’re worried about safe? Huh.” She started the car, but made no move to drive it anywhere. It needed a good ten minutes to heat up before the power steering fluid was warmed.

“Are we going to go? Or was this a ploy to get me alone?” Beckett started fidgeting with all the things she had—the cherry air freshener, the fuzzy dice.

“It has to warm up.” She fought a smile.

“Got to say, I expected a more impressive ride, judging from all the expensive shit you have.” Beckett turned in his seat to look at her.

“You like judging a book by its cover there, Taylor?” She tried the steering wheel. Still locked up.

“Sometimes that’s all you have to go by.”

He was ready to spar. God, he could fill a damn space. She could hear her heartbeat.

“Well, I’ve bad luck with cars. This is my third. We keep getting lemons.” She used the windshield wipers and washer fluid to clean up her view.

“You crashing them?” He was going through her glovebox.

“No. They just have horrible things wrong with them. The last one wouldn’t go uphill. So I’d drive, like, eighty miles per hour until I hit a hill, and by the time I got to the top I’d be doing five miles per hour with everyone honking behind me.”

Beckett snickered, and she joined him.

“And the one before that? If I didn’t run the gas while holding the brake, it would stall out. So at every stop I was revving the engine, and people thought I wanted to race them, which I didn’t.” She pulled on the steering wheel again. It felt a bit more responsive now.

He slapped the dashboard as he laughed. She bit her lip and pulled on her seatbelt, giving him the evil eye until he put his on too.

When she got to the light in front of the high school, she turned to him to see where they were headed. “You want to go to the library?” she asked.

“I’m not allowed there.” He winked at her.

“Who gets banned from a library?” The light turned green, but no one was behind her, so she waited.

“I have a lot of skills, hot stuff.” He lifted his eyebrows.

“Well, my house is out of the question. I can’t have boys over when no one is home. My brother has a doctor’s appointment, and my dad’s at work.” She kept pulling on the steering wheel so it wouldn’t lock up again.

“Even for school purposes?” Beckett put on what she guessed was his best innocent look.

“Even for school purposes. You’re a player too.” Candy leaned over and turned on the radio.

“I’m offended.”

“Says the guy who gets kicked out of libraries.” She tapped out the rhythm of the song.

“I didn’t get banned for having sex in it.” He pouted, and now it was her turn to laugh. “Fine.” He sighed after a moment. “We’ll go to my shithole. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Candy was puzzled, but decided not to say anything. She’d see soon enough.

He directed her and seemed to grow more somber with every turn. When he pointed out the house, it didn’t look like a shithole. The kids who played in the front yard were all clearly happy to see him. Two little girls with wild hair climbed him like a tree. He swung them both around with an obvious familiarity, and her heart swooned.

“Is this your girlfriend, Beck?” one of them asked. “She looks like a princess.”

He knocked a football away from her head as it flew between boys on the front lawn.

“She does, doesn’t she? I think she’s the princess of crappy cars.” Beckett took each little girl by her hand and led them in the front door. He yelled over his shoulder, “You jerks have homework?”

The boys replied in the negative, and he let them be. As they entered the house, an older woman came out of the kitchen and wiped her hands on a dishtowel. Beckett walked past her without introducing Candy, so she just waved awkwardly. The woman waved back.

“Hey, can you do that fancy braid on other people? Or just yourself?” Beckett pointed to the two little girls.

“I can try.” She wrinkled her nose at the two cute faces in front of her.

Beckett dropped their hands and came to Candy, taking her hand and spinning her before she had a chance to know what he was doing.

“She makes these, girls.” He stopped her so they could see the back of her head.

They made happy noises and clapped.

She repeated herself, “I can try.” She turned to face him. He basically had her in a hug.

“That’s all I’m asking,” he said softly, just to her. His blue eyes danced.

He pointed upstairs and held her hand as he took her to the girls’ room. It was so barren. Brown comforters that looked twenty years old covered twin beds. Candy thought of her stuffed animal pile. It was obscene. These girls had the smallest scattering of toys. Shame washed over her as she sat down on one.

The girls introduced themselves as Summer and Wintery. They produced a brush and two rubber bands. Summer put herself into position between Candy’s legs first, and Candy got the idea that she was the more outgoing of the two.

She brushed her hair as gently as possible and had to start the French braid twice before she got the rhythm down. Beckett sat on the floor as she worked, and Wintery climbed into his lap. Summer gave them the whole rundown of her day. Then she explained that they were going to a ranch, and she was really hoping there would be elephants.

She moved her head around a lot while she talked. “And when we get back, then our class is going to the zoo, and Beckett told me we could go even though it’s really ’spensive.”

Candy stopped braiding to look at him, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze. She finished up Summer’s hair, and the girl felt it with excited hands.

Cole appeared in the doorway, and Wintery was out of Beckett’s lap and into his arms in a heartbeat.