Trembling(3)

I covered my mouth with my hand. "Oh my God."



"Yeah," said Jason. "And Jude just left you there. With people like that around."



"So you beat up the guy outside the tent?"



"I did. I wasn't going to, because it wasn't like he did anything. I just told him to shut up, because you were my girlfriend. And he said, 'Your girlfriend looks like a drunken slut.' That's when I beat him up."



"Oh," I said. I was quiet. "How bad?" I finally asked.



Jason shrugged. "I don't know."



"Did they have to call an ambulance again?" I asked.



"I don't know. I took you and left."



I didn't say anything.



"He was bleeding a lot, I guess," said Jason. "Maybe I broke his nose. I don't know."



"Oh God, you shouldn't have done that."



"Can you blame me? He was clearly a total bastard."



"I just don't think it's a good idea for you to do things that might attract attention to us," I said.



Jason sat back down on the bed. "Azazel, we're safe," he said.



"I know," I said. "But I don't trust the Sons. And I just feel like every time you do something like that, it sends out a beacon to them screaming, 'Here we are!'"



"They probably know where we are, anyway," said Jason. "They're a huge, powerful organization. I'm sure they haven't just forgotten about me."



"Maybe they did," I said. "Maybe they did." I wished I could believe that. I wished I wasn't worried nearly every second of every day that the Sons of the Rising Sun were going to burst into our house, guns blazing, kill me, and take Jason. We were blackmailing them with information we had, and so far it seemed to be working. But every day, I worried that it wouldn't work anymore. They'd find some way around our deal. They'd come for us.



Jason lay down next me on the bed. He gathered me in his arms. I buried my head in his chest.



"We're safe," he whispered into my hair. "I swear we're safe. I swear I'll keep you safe."



And I wanted to believe him. I did.



"All I want to do is keep you safe," he said. "You know that, right?"



I lifted my head to look at him. He was so heartbreakingly beautiful. "I know."



"That's why I hit that guy," said Jason. "When it comes to you, Azazel, I just . . . I can't think straight. If anyone ever hurt you, I'd go absolutely insane. You're so important to me."



I kissed him. "I love you," I said.



"I love you," he said.



We kissed again, Jason's hands stroking my back. I moaned softly.



And Hallam stormed into the bedroom. "Out!" he thundered. "Azazel, get out of this bed!"



I got out of the bed, folding my arms over my chest and glaring at Hallam. "We were just kissing," I said.



"Sure," said Hallam. "It's all just kissing until someone gets pregnant."



I rolled my eyes. But I went to my own room anyway. I needed to find some ibuprofen.

* * *

It was nearly eleven-thirty, and I had to be at work at noon. I worked at the Regal Cinemas on Cortez, a ten-minute drive from our apartment if the traffic wasn't bad. Which it always was. Jude said that in the summer, there was no traffic in Bradenton at all. Once all the "snowbirds" left, no one was left in Florida except the people who lived there full time. Snowbirds were rich, old people who came to Florida during the winter to escape the snow up north. Since Jason, Hallam, and I had only lived in Bradenton since November, I had never witnessed a summer in Bradenton.



Bradenton was a very, very big town compared to Bramford, West Virginia, where I grew up. However, according to most people, it was a relatively small place. It was located about forty-five minutes south of Tampa and twenty minutes north of Sarasota, on the west coast of Florida. The rent there was a little cheaper than what you'd pay in Sarasota, which was why we'd decided to live in Bradenton. At the time, I wasn't in touch with my grandmother, who was insanely rich and lived in New Jersey, so we didn't think we'd have enough money to live in Sarasota.



When we first moved to Florida, we didn't really have much money. Hallam had a little bit of cash which he'd squirreled away. Jason and I had a fraudulent credit card. We were barely able to get enough money to move into a three-bedroom apartment. We got jobs as quickly as we could. Hallam insisted that both Jason and I finish high school, so we had to get jobs that wouldn't interfere with our studies. I started working at the movie theater, and Jason got a job waiting tables. Hallam, who was highly educated and British, somehow managed to swindle himself into a job as a professor at NewCollege, the honors college of Sarasota. Both Hallam and I still had our original jobs. Jason, however, had been fired four times. He kept getting in fights. Currently, he had a job working at another restaurant, but he was in the kitchen, so he didn't have to deal with the public.