So Toxic(Bad Boy Next Door Book 4)(287)

Lonnie Fisher laughed as he pitched a rock at a sad-looking lump of fur huddled on the creek bank, half in and half out of the water. The pup yelped when the stone struck its back leg. Its eyes darted from Lonnie to Darren Bledsoe standing on the far side of it, then at the creek rushing behind it.

Lonnie, a sophomore, was a year older and still bigger than me. He was a helluva lot bigger than Lou. But that didn’t slow her one bit. Before I could get hold of her, she thrashed through the last clump of weeds, rushing Lonnie. He never saw her coming.

With both hands, she shoved him into the creek. “You big bully!”

Darren pointed at Lonnie, laughing like an idiot.

I pushed Lou behind me. “Get the dog, Lou. Let’s go.”

Lou ran to the pup. “I got you. It’s gonna be okay.”

Darren stepped into the water, like he was going to stop her from taking the puppy. She waded to him and jumped a bit like she was going to head butt him, faking him out. He fell on his ass with a splash.

She nodded. “Good. Stay there.”

Lonnie dragged himself to the bank, muddy to his elbows, his eyes hard as stones. “You can’t leave with that dog. He’s mine.”

Lou turned her body, as though shielding the sopping pup from Lonnie. “No, he’s not. You don’t deserve him.”

Lonnie climbed from the creek, dripping and red in the face. “You little bitch whore—just like your momma.”

My fist balled and my gut hardened.

“Lou, run.” I glared at Lonnie. “Don’t talk to her that way.”

He laughed. “Oh, and what are you gonna do about it? Her momma’s a whore and Loula Mae’s gonna be the same thing. Everybody knows it. Maybe someday I’ll make her my whore.”

I jumped at Lonnie, taking my best shot at his face.

He grabbed my shoulders and tried to throw me aside. I dug in my heels, gripping his arms and wrestling him to the ground. But he managed to flip me over and punched me in the eye. Pain flared through my brain.

I managed to get him off me and stand. We exchanged a few more punches before he got in another headshot, knocking my scrawny ass to the ground. Lonnie and Darren ran after Lou.

I staggered up and darted into the woods after them. I ran and ran until my side hurt and my lungs burned. But I couldn’t find Lou anywhere.

I eventually sat on a stump, head in my hands.

God, please don’t let Lonnie find her.

A few minutes after I gave up, a whisper floated to me on the breeze. “Buck. Buck. Look.”

I turned this way and that, trying to find her, but still I couldn’t see her. A little branch bounced off my leg. I twisted to see where it came from. There she was, up a tree, grinning like a possum eatin’ peaches. She waved at me with the puppy’s paw.

I stood.

She tucked the pup under one arm and worked her way down the limbs.

She dropped the last few feet, rolling into the leaves, puppy sprawling over her belly. When it licked her chin, she giggled and reached for my hand, pulling me down to join them.

I edge out from under Tuffy.

He lets out a small whine, his tail thumping the hardwood floor.

I step over him and head to my room. Too bad Lou’s never half as happy to see me as she is to see Tuffy.

A throat clearing behind me pulls me up short. “Buck?”

“Yeah, Pops?” I reach around the door frame and switch on the light.

Pops holds out a handful of yellow sticky notes. “Someone named Adrianne keeps calling.”

I clench my teeth. “You mean Arianne.”

“Adrianne—Arianne, whichever. She really wants to talk to you. Must’ve called here at least thirty times today.”

“Fuck.”

“Who is she?” Pops scratches his forehead.

“Arianne is…lesson one-oh-one in don’t mess around with the producer’s daughter.”

If I’d known when I met her that she’d be so clingy, I’d have skipped that pussy. Problem is, I didn’t know, and now I’m stuck between my dick and a hard place because she doesn’t want to retract her claws and let me loose. No matter what I tell her.

“So, someone you shouldn’t have taken out?”

“Met her on set, the movie before last. Didn’t really know who she was when we first…”—fucked—“went out. But it didn’t take long to figure out she was the producer’s daughter. He’d brought her along because she’d never been to Italy.”

“And you two didn’t hit it off?” He quirks an eyebrow.

“She thinks we did. Now, I’m fucked, because there’s a leading role I’m trying to land with Razor Wire Productions, who her daddy now works for—correction, her daddy now runs. Hazards of working in a small industry.”