Rebel With A Cause (22 page)

Yikes
, he thought miserably.
That was a mistake.

De didn’t want her, but he needed some company of the female variety.

He shook his head. An hour ago, Aria had gone to bed, but he’d stayed in the lounge, cracking open bottle after bottle of beer
, rum, vodka, whatever he could find, basically
. He was well on his way to
being
smashed.

“Why not?”
Aria was at a loss of what to do. She didn’t know how to handle De in this state.

De burped
, loudly
. “Shut the fuck up, Aria.”

She bit her lip and decided to go back to bed. It was obviously for the best. She couldn’t handle him.

De heard her walk away. He was angry.
Angry at the world, angry at himself, and angry at Kaitlyn Johnson.
If she hadn’t spun that web of lies, he would still be with his mates, drinking, partying, having fun and carrying on.

He wanted revenge.

He wanted to hurt her.

He belched again, and crushed the can in his hand. He launched it across the room with a yell.

“Screw you Kaitlyn!” he yelled. “You ruined my life!”

He got up, adrenaline coursing through his veins, and faced the wall. He drew back his hand and slammed it into the wall.

“I hate you!” he cried.

Slam
. His hand broke through the wall.

He continued to punch, yelling obscenities about Kaitlyn, Carter, T-Man, and anyone else he thought of. He wanted to hurt them.

“De?”
That was Aria. He felt her light touch on his back.
“De, baby, come back to bed.”

He pivoted on the spot and backhanded her across the face. She fell to the ground, and looked up at him with fear in her eyes. It was real fear, the kind he hadn’t seen since he’d killed his parents.

“Don’t touch me,” he spat, and hauled her back to her feet. He threw her back onto the couch and stood over her. “You’re all the same,” he hissed. “All of you, wanting to change me. Leave me alone, I DON’T WANT YOUR HELP!”

He picked her up, one arm under her shoulders, another under her knees. He carried her to the bedroom, where he proceeded to screw her.

He ignored the tears and her cries. He was Deangelo
Carboni
, and he took what he wanted, when he wanted. No one could stop him. He was his own man.

A little over a week later, Carter and Kaitlyn had moved into Carter’s house, and now it was Bekah’s turn. Just in time, too, because Marcus was bringing his brother, Brady, home tomorrow.

Bekah gasped when she saw Carter’s house. “My god, Carter, how’d you manage to afford a place like this?”

Carter laughed. This house was definitely his drea
m come true.
A greyish, beige carpet spread throughout the house, with
Navajo White
paint on the living area walls. Carter had taken Kaitlyn furniture shopping and she’d bought a charcoal sofa, with green pillows. She’d also bought
an off
-white, loosely knotted blanket to throw over the back of the sofa. It was
possibly his favourite furniture set-up in the whole house. Kaitlyn really had a great eye for interior design.

“Katie’s mum helped out a lot,” he confessed.

Bekah looked up and towards the kitchen area. Kaitlyn’s mum had turned the three separate dining, kitchen and lounge areas into one large, open-plan area. Kaitlyn was in the kitchen, making lunch.

“Nice, Katie,” Bekah commented. “Did you help too?”

Katie nodded. “Yeah, I picked out all the furniture. Carter, take’s Bekah’s bags for her and show her where she’s staying. Don’t be so rude.”

He laughed and did as he was told.
It was nice to have his two favourite girls living with him. Bekah was more like a sister than a cousin, and Kaitlyn was the love of his life.

He grabbed Bekah’s bags off her and led her towards one of the spare rooms. The one he led her to, had been specially decorated for her. Kaitlyn had gone all out, having fun with this room.

“Oh, wow!” Bekah cried, opening the
white oak door. “This is amazing!”

It really was. After hounding Carter for Bekah’s favourite colours, she’d really gone to town. She’d bought a black frame double bed, with a padded headboard and matching grey sheets. There were black end tables with mirrored tops, with deep red and black Victorian style wall lamps hanging over them.

Behind the bed, there were no windows, but Kaitlyn had hung a curtain rail up, to hang some deep red curtains. It was a
feature wall, but a removable one
, so that when Bekah moved out, they could take it down.

On the floor, a plush, deep purple rug. Bekah quickly kicked off her boots and walked over it. She loved the soft fabric between her toes.

“Wow, she must have put so much effort into the room,” Bekah complimented.

Carter laughed. “Yeah, Katie was really excited. She hopes you like it.”

“Are you kidding? I love it!” She laughed, and Carter hugged her.

“Do you need a hand unpacking?”

Bekah shook her head. “I’m ok. What’s Katie up to?”

“Oh, she’s making lunch.”

Bekah smiled and Carter left her to unpack.
He walked into the main room and sat down at the dining room table.

“How’s Bekah?” Kaitlyn asked. “Is she settling in?”

Carter nodded. “Yeah, she seems ok.”

“Does she need help unpacking?

He smirked and got up from his chair. He walked over to
stand behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I already asked her that, Katie. She assured me she was fine.”

He kissed her shoulder and gave her a smouldering smile.

“Good, Kaitlyn replied. Now, do me a favour, and go and set the table.”

Carter eyed the spread Kaitlyn had prepared. Potato salad, rice salad, bread rolls – she’d bought those – coleslaw, and a fruit salad. It looked delicious.

“What’s with the health kick?” he joked.

Katie spun around and grinned at him. “It’s not a health kick, Carter. I just think, with the way we keep messing
with our sleeping patterns by going out to all these races, we need to be more careful with our health.”

He
grinned
right back. “Like I said,
health kick
.”

She groaned and pushed him away. “Just set the table.”

He laughed and stole a kiss. “Love you Katie.”

She rolled her eyes and moved away. “Love you too. Now set the damn table!”

He began setting the table like she ordered, and admired her from afar. The way she moved around the kitchen
was like she was right at home. She was stunning.

Kaitlyn was just pouring the drinks when Bekah walked out of her room.

“Hey,” Katie greeted. “Do you like your room?”

Bekah smiled at her. “Yeah, I love it,” she enthused.
“Real cool.
It’s totally me.”

Kaitlyn was happy to hear that.

“Carter,” she ordered, “
help
me bring the food over.”

Bekah jumped up to help, but Kaitlyn waved her down.

“Nonsense,” Kaitlyn said. “It’s your first day here, you sit and relax,
me
and Carter will bring everything over.”

Bekah sighed and sat down at the table. Carter carried over the salads, and Kaitlyn carried over the bread rolls and drinks.

They sat down to eat, Kaitlyn secretly elated that life could be so normal. This was the kind of life she wanted, now and forever.

Carter loved this. The past week, Kaitlyn’s nightmares had been becoming
less and less. She’d calmed down around him, and was almost back to her usual, fun-loving self. Moving into the house was certainly helping.

“So,” Bekah said conversationally, towards the end of lunch. “Did you hear about De?”

Kaitlyn froze. Carter clenched his fists.

“What about De?” he asked, outwardly calm, but silently seething.

Bekah took a bite of her bread roll, chewed, and swallowed.
“He’s been arrested.”

Kaitlyn paled. Carter began choking.

“He
what?
” he yelled. “What the hell for?”

Bekah looked at him like he was crazy. “Jeez Carter, it’s not a big deal. He just got into a fight, that’s all. He’ll be out later today. I know he’s your mate and all, but chill.”

Carter’s face twisted in fury. “Deangelo
Carboni
is no mate of mine.” He pushed his chair away from the table
and stormed off.

Bekah watched him walk away. “God, what crawled up his ass and died?” She turned back to Kaitlyn and saw tears in her eyes. She felt guilty.

“I…I’m sorry,” Kaitlyn choked. She, too, stood up and ran away.

Bekah watched her run and wondered what the hell was going on. Something was up, and she wanted to find out what.

Kaitlyn found Carter
on the garden bench out back.

“You ok?” she asked him sadly.

He looked up at her. “I should be asking you the same thing.”

She shrugged and sat down next to him. They sat, not touching, in a comfortable silence.

“So, how are you really, Katie?” Carter asked quietly.

She sighed. “I’m fine. I just wish that I’d told the cops about De now.”

He leaned forward, gripping the seat tightly, and looked back at her. “Do you really?”

She shrugged. “I guess. Just knowing that he’s out there, continuing to hurt people…I don’t want to enable him to do that. I want to bring him down, lock him up and throw away the key.”

Carter looked down at the ground. “So, what are we gonna do then?”

Another female voice interrupted them. “Katie, what exactly did De do to you?”

Carter sighed. He guessed it was time to finally let someone else in on their secret. Especially since that someone was his baby cousin, who would be living with them for a while.

He led the girls back inside, and sat them down on the sofa.

“Carter?” Bekah asked. “What’s going on?”

He sighed and let out a deep breath. He sat down on the matching armchair, rested his elbows on his knees, and clasped his hands
.

“De attacked Katie,” he confessed heavily.

“What!” Bekah yelled.
“How?
When?”

He locked eyes with Katie, who had tears running down her cheeks. He looked back at Bekah.

“After we broke up, Katie didn’t handle it too well. She went off with De…” It was hard for Carter to continue talking about what happened. He still blamed himself, reasoning that
if he had never been
the jerk that he was, none of this would have happened.

“De attacked me,” Kaitlyn interrupted. “I stupidly went off with him, and when he tried it on…I
told
him no, but he did it anyway.”

Bekah gasped. “Why didn’t you tell anyone? Did you call the cops? Why didn’t you call the cops?”

Kaitlyn looked away. She was ashamed. Yes, her nightmares were becoming less frequent, but she still felt dirty, and worthless. Talking about De made it worse.

She curled her legs up under her body and hugged a pillow to her chest.

“I don’t know. But I know De needs to be taken down. He needs to be locked up, and they need to throw away the key. He’s
scum
.
”

Bekah was at a loss for what to say. She was usually a quick thinker, cunning and witty. But now, she felt like she’d been bowled over.

She, who was a street racer herself, failed to see the dangerous freak that De was.

“I can’t believe it,” she muttered. She didn’t
want
to believe it. But there was no reason not to believe Carter and Kaitlyn. Carter never lied to Bekah,
ever
. He was like a big
brother, always wanting to protect everyone. He was honest, unless he was protecting someone. Bekah
had
to believe him.

And Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn was like a sister already, why should she lie to Bekah?

She had no option
but to believe them.

“We need to figure out a way to get him locked up,” Katie said quietly.
“Or at least to stop him.”

“We’re gonna need help for that Katie,” Carter replied sourly. “Where are we gonna find people that we can trust?”

Bekah looked at him like he was insane.
“Hello? You have friends, do you not?”