Vicious Desire by Leslie V. Walker

Chapter Seventeen

Ayanna

Brendan’s forehead crashes down on my shoulder as he eases out of me slowly.

“Are you okay?” he asks. His breathing slows down every second.

“Just sore.” A smile comes at his lips as he leans up to kiss me.

“Good.” He smooths my back for a few minutes before lifting up to his full height.

“We have to get ready. I have some clothes here you can use and then I’ll take you home to change so we can head out,” he says, taking out some of his clothes from what I’m assuming is his locker.

“Where are we going?” He hands me one of his gym shorts and a hoodie while I take off my heels, messaging my feet at the process and choosing to go barefoot.

He turns around, putting on clothes while I do the same. “I have some business in Eastview. You’re coming.”

“Okay,” is all I say not wanting to ruin the moment. At the same time not really getting enough time to process everything that is happening. I fix my hair as best I can, grabbing ahold of my belongings before we head out through the back of the school to get to his car.

We hop on and he quickly starts the car and begins driving. I take out my phone to see I have five unread messages.

Jason: Lost my phone. Sorry.

Jason:I didn’t send this. Are you okay? Where are you?

Me:I’m fine. I left with Brendan.

A sigh leaves my lips as I look over at Brendan, “Did you take Jason’s phone?”

“He should really learn to keep his personal items close to him at all times.

“Yeah, okay.” I shake my head opening the other two texts from Rocco and I laugh.

Rocco:Now Ayanna he might be good at fucking but don’t let it get to your head.

Rocco:Remember whose you sugar daddy ;).

Man, this guy, I can’t help but strangely feel close to him even if we met close to a month ago.

The streets are still littered with a few trick-or-treaters as we park in front of my house. My parents aren’t home they always leave on Halloween day for something of my dad’s job.

I open the door heading inside, the heat of his eyes on my back causes my body to crave another round.

Just as I gather a few clothes in my room and turn to go and take a shower, he grabs me by the hips and kisses my neck.

“I thought you had urgent business to take care of?”

“That can fucking wait.” He says throwing me on the bed and showing me again just how much he desires me.

I’ve lived in Eastview since I was born and never once have, I stepped further into this side of town not even for doctor appointments or other small stuff I needed. We’ve always done things on the other side or outside of town, mom always said it was what dad wanted to begin with.

Pulling up to Eastview fights it’s different from Trailstar Cave. There’s a huge patch of land and in the middle, there’s a lake where people are swimming. People surround with red cups in their hand—filled with alcohol most likely—as they laugh and enjoy themselves. In the back, there’s two-story a building where most likely the fights are at giving off this old century vibe.

“Finally, we’ve been waiting for more than a century.” Rocco exaggerates as we approach him and the others.

“Willyanna, how I’ve missed you.” Rocco practically yells mine knew found nickname as he flings an arm over my shoulder ignoring the looming threat just behind me.

“You saw me earlier today.”

“Yeah, but. There’s something different about you,” he leans back his eyes roaming my body and I shift as I catch the others doing the same. “Like you just got out of a good fucking.”

Oh my God.

My cheeks burn bright red at his comment as I step back, the window creates goosebumps. These boys are intimidating on so many levels. “Are they here yet?” Brendan asks, coming to grab my hand.

Gunner shakes his head as Zane says, “not yet, but we can go around and see how this place works.” We start to move past the lake, heading toward the building when it hits me.

How different Eastview and Westview kids are. As we continue to walk, I take everyone in, seeing the difference, the way Westview carries versus how Eastview is incomparable. With Westview being a hot topic and being full of themselves, we then have the dark alluring confidence of Eastview kids who don’t care about anything but just carrying on.

“So, what exactly are we going to be doing here?” I ask, wanting to know what the plan was.

“Find out who’s behind our people’s killings.”

“And if you do? You don’t honestly believe there won’t be someone else in control.”

“Yes, but at least we’ll be one step closer to stopping him.”

“I love you.” My eyes snap to Rocco who has a hand over his heart. “If my brother here doesn’t do you good, then I’m right here,” grabbing my hand he slides his ring—completely dark with curved writing on it but I can’t make it out—over my wedding finger.

“As a matter of fact, let’s go right now. Let’s elope and start a family. We can have ten Willyocco’s running around,” Rocco jokes, and I erupt in laughter as Brendan pulls me back to him giving a glare at Rocco who steals the ring right out of my finger with a grin. Brendan tells him to fuck off as we finally make it inside the building.

There’s a full crowd of people standing and sitting on the benches surrounding he ring, a fight just ended, and people start taking bets for the next one. I look up to the second floor seeing a long hallway leading up to who knows where, just by the look of this place you can tell it’s heading toward more achievement than yes fights.

We head to the bleachers closest to the stairs of the second floor and sit down. The guys look around eyeing the place all wary, yet even with the rivalry between both sides of town no one approaches them, ignoring them as if they were gum under their shoe.

“Not bad.” It’s really not. Not as good looking as TrailStar, but still better than expected considering the conditions of Eastview. But I know this is not supposed to be here. It seems like the guys haven’t approved of anything like this nor will they ever.

The guys don’t say anything to not draw attention and we just focus on fights that come in and out and about an hour passes before the guys start to make a move. “They should be already up there,” Zane informs us.

I take a look around watching everything, this could have been my life if I never switched schools.

“Let’s go,” Brendan turns to look at me as the others start to walk ahead. I stay sitting looking around, although I badly want to know what is going on my gut tells me I have to stick here even if it’s just for a few more minutes.

“I think I should stay; I might get something out of it. Something we might be missing.” He’s hesitant, conflicted to drag me along or let me stay and search for other clues.

“I want to help. I think I should stay.”

“I don’t know how this is going to end and if anything goes wrong, I need you not to be in danger.” He hands me his car keys.

“Don’t worry, I know what to do in case things get twisted from here.” A small smile doesn’t reach his lips appears before he walks off with the guys and I stay to continue to watch the fight, where two strong built guys are going at each other, it’s going to end up in a tie. I lean against the chair and look around.

Something is off about tonight.

I stay focused on the fight as the two built guys—who I have now named Bob and Jeff—get caught in a tie and new people come and go.

It isn’t till about the third pair comes that things get interesting.

“Now, are you ready for Gillian Vargas?” The crowd roars in excitement and everyone is on their feet immediately cheering on the next contestant.

The girl beside me rolls her eyes and sighs shaking her head as she mutters, “mom’s going to kill him. Again.” She has long black hair, pouty full lips, and big brown eyes, ripped brown jeans, converse, and baggy shirt look. She leans back taking a sip of her beer as she watches the crowd get crazier by the second.

“Who’s Gillian Vargas?” I ask already knowing this information is what I’ve been looking forward to. Probably something to help us in the future.

She turns to look at me and her eyes roam my outfit, tilting her head in approval of my red tank, black shorts, and vans.

“You’re new here? I haven’t seen you around town or school.” She examines me more trying to find out who I am and what I’m hiding.

“I live here, but go to Westview.” Her eyes grow wide, and she laughs.

“Well shit. You have some balls being here.” A smirk pulls at her lips, and she holds out her hand, “I’m Victoria Vargas and that is my stupid older brother.” I take her hand as she points at Gillian who has just climbed into the cage with a dark look on his face.

Gillian is built with a sharp jaw and light brown hair that matches his brown eyes; they look nothing alike.

Someone else walks into the ring who is four times his size and I move closer down my seat, as the threat soars. I watch as Gillian pours water down his stomach making his abs glisten as the other guy stretches out his arms while jumping lightly up and down.

“My mom doesn’t let us have a job, but we’re running low on money, so my brother takes up a fight every night with people who are triple his size. People love it. Sometimes my mom never finds out but other times when she does, she scolds him. I tell him not to do them, but he doesn’t listen. We need the money, and they pay him good.”

Just then the bell rings, signaling the fight has started, and my eyes pop out when the triple guy lands a punch across Gillian’s face causing him to spit blood. But the latter just laughs it off as if it’s nothing.

“He’s a sophomore, so my brother gets paid more for fighting seniors and college students if he wins. And he always wins.”

Gillian smirks mouthing, “Is that all you got?”

With one last shake of his head, he throws a punch at the other guy straight to the face. The crowd’s roar grows louder as Gillian continues to defeat the triple guy, not letting him take another swing at him and sure enough not a few minutes later he wins the fight.

“He’s crazy,” I whisper to no one in particular.

“I like you. If your ever out here again and are lonely come, get me and we can hang and talk about Westview life and everything you’ve missed out on over here.”

I laugh nodding, “definitely.” Now that I’m no longer caring about anyone’s worries but myself, I want to try new things, including doing things I would have never been doing if I went to different schools or had a different dad.

A blonde hair catches my eye and when the source turns around, I swear I almost have a heart attack.

Like an actual heart attack. I’m so startled at what I see I don’t know if it’s a ghost or real. No, definitely real.

It’s her.

Summaya.

She’s here.

What the fuck?

I stand up, jumping out of my seat moving closer to where she is. She’s talking to some girl near the door, and she starts to laugh as they both share a joke. I can’t believe this is happening right now.

All this time she was just here.

“Summaya!” I call out. She looks around trying to find the source who’s calling her.

I move my hand up waving when she spots me, she stiffens, her smile dropping when she takes me in. “Hey!” I move past the last couple of people and look up to see she’s taking a step back. She looks so different than when I last saw her four years ago.

When I’m close to approaching her, she darts off and out of the building, I go to follow when I bump into a sweaty body.

“Hey baby.” Gillian stands in front of me, and I push him away, saying sorry as I run to where I last saw Summaya.

Why is she running?

I move past a few more people and when I finally make it outside, she’s not there. Was it someone else that looked just like her and she ran off because she didn’t know who I was?No, I can’t shake the feeling it must have been her.

I think about checking around for a little while to see if she comes along again but I refrain. I came here to help Brendan and now it’s time for me to head on up.