Elect(40)

“I’m sorry, Phoenix. What can I do?” I put my arm awkwardly around his shoulders and sighed.

“What if that’s us?” he whispered. “That could be us. What if I trust the wrong person and get killed? What if I do something to piss my dad off, or worse, your dad?”

I cringed, because I’d thought of that exact same thing over and over again until I could no longer sleep at night.

“I don’t want to die that way, Nixon.”

“What do you mean—?”

“They beat him!” Phoenix’s lower lip quivered. “They beat him in front of my aunt and then… I beat him because they told me to and she…” He began to hyperventilate. “She told me it was okay. She handed me the gun and—”

“It’s okay.” I patted his shoulder. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

“It’s not like TV, Nixon. It’s not.” He began rocking back and forth. “There’s so much blood and it’s quiet, Nixon. It’s so damn quiet when someone dies. It’s just like, all of a sudden, their eyes have no life and there’s blood, and people started talking about the game last night as if someone didn’t just die.”

He looked up at me. “Promise me something…”

Tex walked into the room with Chase; both of them looked from Phoenix to me then back to Phoenix.

“Anything.” I knelt down on the ground and faced him.

“We make a pact. The four of us.” Phoenix looked up, his eyes glassy from crying. “If any of us get into deep shit, regardless of if it’s our fault or not, we do the person the favor of killing them. I don’t want to die a rat. I don’t want to die like that, Nixon.”

I glanced at Chase. He nodded once and pulled out his knife, slicing open his palm and then handing the blade to Tex.

“We promise,” I said, slicing my own hand and shaking each one of their bloody hands before wiping my own blood onto my jeans. “A quick death.”

“In the head,” Tex agreed.

“It’s done.”

Phoenix nodded and rose to his feet.

I’d made him a promise. Funny thing was, I had totally forgotten about the promise and now that Phoenix had reminded me, I knew I couldn’t go back, not on a blood oath, no matter how old I was when I made it.

I sent a quick text to Chase.

BATCAVE

He replied right away.

OMW

The only good part about my day was that I was going to see Trace again, but technically that could be defined as bad, considering I’d pushed her almost-naked form away from me this morning.

Shit, she’d looked good.

Damn.

Hell.

There weren’t enough curse words in the world to describe how irritated I was with my decision to push her into Chase’s arms. But really, what choice did I have?

I needed her alive more than I needed my next breath. Even if it meant she would never be mine. I needed her to be okay.

I went into the Elect hangout and rummaged around in the fridge for a sandwich.

Giggling interrupted my hunt. What the hell?

Whispers and then more giggling.

I shut the fridge and walked over to the spare bedroom and opened the door.

“Tex?”

Tex tumbled out of the bed, using the sheet to cover his body. I rolled my eyes and was briefly traumatized over the fact I was about to see my sister naked, when… my eyes saw blond hair, not brown.

“Son of a bitch,” I yelled and lunged for Tex. His eyes widened briefly before he backed up.

“Wait!” He put his hands up. “I can explain.”

“Make it fast.” I clenched my teeth and leaned in. “Because I’m about five seconds away from murdering you!”

“Mo knows!” Tex held up his one hand in front of himself. “We broke up! Okay?”

“So if I call her right now, and ask her if you guys are dating, she’ll say no?”

“No.” Tex cursed. “Because we decided this family had enough drama going on, without us adding to it.”

“I still don’t believe you.” I crossed my arms. “You’ve been sneaking in and kissing and—”

“Wow, you really don’t know your sister as good as you think you do.”

“I have a gun,” I pointed out. “Don’t piss me off.”

“Go away!” Tex yelled at the girl in the bed. She grabbed her clothes and scurried out of the room as fast as her bare legs could take her. Tex sat on the bed and cursed. “She’s scared shitless, man.”

“Who is?”

“Mo!” Tex yelled. “See? This is what I mean! Everyone’s so damn worried about Trace and her grandfather and Luca, but shit, Nixon! Your sister just lost her father a few months ago. You’re all she has and you aren’t making it better by acting like you’re five seconds away from losing it whenever we’re all together.”