Next to Never (Fall Away #4.5)

She’s breathing hard, still shaken, but she nods.

Jared steps up to me. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

Madoc, Jax, Tate, Fallon, and Juliet all follow, fawning all over us, checking our limbs for any bruises or scratches, a crowd of people surrounding us so tightly I can barely breathe.

Jared approaches the Weston kid, getting in his face. “If I weren’t the adult, you’d be on the ground right now,” he threatens. “Get the hell off this track and don’t come back. You’re banned.”

The kid turns his face away, scowling as Jared leers over him.

“Dylan, are you okay?” Hunter steps up, pushing through the crowd.

But then I hear Kade’s smooth voice off to the side. “Well,” he says, grinning as he approaches the Weston guy. “Lucky for me, I’m not the adult.”

And he throws a punch in the guy’s face, sending the kid reeling back and crashing into Dylan. Both of them tumble to the ground, Dylan crying out as she lands on the gravel lining the track.

“Ow, shit,” she cries.

“Kade!” Hunter yells at his brother and scrambles through the tight crowd to get down to her and pull the guy off her. Helping her up, Hunter turns her arm over, checking out the scrapes.

But Kade didn’t even notice. “When you come to the Falls,” he warns the guy, bending over to grip his collar, “bring backup, you fucking idiot.”

“Enough!” Madoc grabs his son off the guy.

Kade drops the kid, and he and his friends sneer down at him.

“Everyone off the track!” Jax hollers, trying to push everyone back. “Now! We need room!”

Jared stares down at the Weston kid, planted on his ass. “Get your car, and get out of here, or I’ll have it towed.”

Everyone starts to disperse, and I check out Dylan’s arm, making sure she’s okay. The scratches are red and angry, but she’s not bleeding.

As soon as nearly everyone is gone, Hunter lashes out at Kade. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

His brother just sneers. “Oh, why don’t you grow a set, huh?”

Kade’s friends snicker and laugh, but then Kade’s eyes lock on Hunter’s hands on Dylan’s arms, and Kade pushes them off her. “Let her go. She’s fine.”

“Stop it,” I finally chime in.

“Hunter, I’m fine,” Dylan assures. “It’s cool.”

“See.” Kade smiles at his brother. “She can handle it.”

Hunter shakes his head, anger written all over his face.

“And the night’s just getting started,” Kade points out, looking around to his friends. “Road trip to Weston, anyone?”

The guys smile, mischief gleaming from their eyes, and I rub my hand down my face.

Hawke hooks an arm around Kade’s neck, both of them staring at Dylan. “Under a Black Flag We Sail,” he reminds her, reciting the Pirate motto.

“Hell yeah,” one of the guys adds.

Dylan stares at Kade, his challenge clear. Weston deserved a retaliation, and was she game?

Hunter looks to her, narrowing his eyes. “Dylan, don’t.”

She glances at him before looking back toward Kade, and I see it in her eyes. The conflict. She knows what’s right, but she wants what’s wrong.

“I can take care of myself, Hunter.” And then she steps toward Kade, Hawke, and their friends.

Chapter 10

“Hey, you all going home?”

Fallon pops her head up from the trunk and nods. “Yeah, we’ll do some s’mores and let the kids catch fireflies. Try to shake off what happened tonight. Might need some wine, too.” She laughs. “You want to come with? Madoc can drop you home later.”

“Sure.”

I’d already texted my parents, letting them know I was with Madoc and the rest of the gang and that I might crash at his house tonight.

I help Fallon load up a cooler, lighter now that she’d drained the melted ice. Opening the back door, I grab my bag and take Lucas’s hat off the strap, turning it around in my hands before putting it on.

The truth is, I can blame my dad for holding me back as much as I want, but there are other things that keep me in my stalemate. That keep me nervous to leave for college in the fall, afraid I’ll miss something back here. That keep me weak and invested in things that probably don’t deserve my attention.

I clear my throat. “So how’s Lucas doing?” I ask, trying to sound casual. “Have you talked to him much?”

“Only as far as work goes,” she replies, pushing up her black-framed glasses. “When our firms cross paths and such. He just . . .” She pauses, thinking, “established his own life out there, I guess. Madoc talks to him, though. He refuses to let Lucas get away.”

I’m sure. Madoc likes to see his family grow, not shrink.

“I wonder what keeps him out there,” I cage, knowing exactly what I was hinting at. “I guess he must like it. You don’t miss him?”

“Of course, I do,” she rushed to reply. “But . . .”

“But what?”

She finishes securing A.J.’s seat belt, closes the car door, and shrugs. “I know he’ll come home,” she states. “Everyone comes home. He left for a reason, and we might not completely understand it, but he obviously wants distance, and I’m respecting that. He knows we’re here when he’s ready.”