Toxic Bad Boy (31 page)

His sentence was a
non-mandatory zero to two years and he’d be up for evaluation every
so often, but what if they kept him in here for the full two years?
He couldn’t go that long without a fix.

The other three boys had
mandatory sentences ranging from one to three years. Josh and
Javier would be out in a year, but Tobias was only fifteen and had
three years left to serve.

Tobias was the first to
slide under the fence. Michael glanced back to see four guards
gunning for them. A couple other inmates, or residents as the staff
liked to call them, stood back to watch the show.

Michael pushed Javier out
of the way and crawled under the fence. Tobias had already ditched
them, running down the hill. Rumor was Tobias had a thing for
pretty boy Josh, but Josh didn’t swing that way. Michael guessed
Tobias had gotten over his crush at the prospect of freedom. As
Josh slid under the fence, Michael took off down the
hill.

The juvie facility was
just outside of Denver in a town at the base of the Rocky
Mountains. The facility was exclusively for high-risk teenage boys
with mental health issues or drug addictions.

Michael didn’t think he
was as bad as most of the other kids there. He wasn’t exactly sure
what Javier had done to get locked up, but Tobias and Josh were
both there for assault. Their treatments were more intense than
Michael’s.

Javier caught up with him
and Josh a moment later. Tobias was nowhere in sight since he’d
disappeared into the trees. Michael wasn’t sure if the guards would
be permitted to hunt for them outside the facility property. It
wasn’t as if they were real cops.

The whole place was a
joke. The inmates all wore navy polo shirts and khaki pants like
they were in a fancy private school. Michael had been given two
plants his second day in there to care for. They weren’t going to
con him into thinking it was a fun place to be and he’d always
hated nature.

“
Where you heading?”
Javier asked him as they hid behind a cabin about a mile from the
facility. Sirens blared in the distance and Michael knew cops would
be combing the mountain for them.

“
My cousin’s house in
Aurora,” Michael told him. “Just gotta swipe a car to get there.
How about you?”

“
Gonna go crash with this
girl I know in Colorado Springs.” Javier threw Josh a wary glance.
“How about you, Larsen?”

“
Excited to see my
girlfriend,” he said, a lustful gleam in his eyes. Someone was
getting laid. Michael would get that need taken care of after his
cousin hooked him up with an A-Bomb. “How about you give me a ride
after you steal that car, Mike?” Josh asked.

Michael nodded, like he’d
turn down the guy that was crazy enough to almost kill a guard. “No
problem.”

They left their spot,
keeping hidden behind the abundance of trees in the area until they
hit a more populated area. Michael hotwired the old Chevy parked in
the back of a bar.

As he worked, he heard
Javier ask Josh, “So, is your girlfriend hot?”

Michael couldn’t see Josh’s face, but his voice
sounded strange as he said, “She’s perfect.”

“
Do for this life as if
you live forever, do for the afterlife as if you die
tomorrow.”

-Ali ibn Abi
Talib

CALEB

“
If you really wanted to
welcome me home, you’d let me borrow your girlfriend for the
night,” Ian said when Gianna and Cece left the room to grab snacks
in the kitchen.

“
You’re about to get your
ass kicked on your first day out of juvie,” I warned
him.

“
As if you didn’t deserve
it for that picture you sent in Gianna’s care package? What did you
write on the back? Oh yeah,
all night
long
.”

“
Shut your mouth,” I
snapped. “I don’t want Gianna to hear you.”

“
Hear what?” Dante asked
as he plopped down on the other end of the couch.

“
About how Caleb bragged
about banging Gigi to torture Ian while he was still locked up,”
Taye said from behind me. Crap, I hadn’t known he was standing
there.

Dante’s eyebrows rose as
he shot me a look. “Are you stupid, man? You won’t be banging
anything but your fist if she hears you.”

I scowled, eyeing the
doorway to the kitchen. “I’d never disrespect Gianna by giving
details.”

“
Doesn’t matter,” Ian
said, a grin spreading. “You remember that girl, Kalani, who was
from the girl’s cell block?”

“
The one with tattoos on
her hands?” I asked, trying to remember what the rest of her looked
like.

“
Yeah,” Ian confirmed. “We
were able to sneak off a couple times to fuck.”

I reared back in disgust.
“Holy shit, man! I can’t believe you’d touch any of those nasty
chicks.”

“
Desperate times,” he said
vaguely.

“
I’m going to pretend I
didn’t hear that,” Cece said as she came into the living room
carrying a bowl of chips in one hand and a container of dip in the
other.

Gianna walked in after her
with plastic cups and soda. “Me too, Ian. I thought Caleb said you
had a crush on some girl who wrote you letters.”

“
I don’t have crushes,”
Ian told her.

“
Where the heck are Jared
and Gage with the pizza?” Taye complained.

The two of them had left
almost an hour ago while we waited at Gianna’s mom’s house. My dad
and her mom had taken off for the week to Las Vegas. It wasn’t lost
on me that almost a year ago Gianna and I had run off together on a
trip to Vegas.

I was prepared for them to
come back with the news that they’d remarried. Julie seemed eager,
almost desperate, to get my dad in her clutches again. Not that he
minded, he never had when it came to her.

Chance was at their dad’s
house, leaving her mom’s house empty for Ian’s coming home party.
Gianna didn’t know it yet, but Ian had called up a couple girls he
sometimes messed around with. They’d be arriving later.

Cece arranged the chips in
the center of the coffee table and took a seat across the room from
Dante. His eyes lingered on her while she pointedly ignored him.
They hadn’t worked things out and Gianna wasn’t sure Cece would
give him another chance now that she’d been able to salvage the
invitation to the Colorado Ballet Academy. Cece claimed she didn’t
have time for a boyfriend since her schedule was full with
practices and soon she’d be taking her high school classes
online.

I pointed out to Gianna
that a baby would’ve been even more time consuming. Gianna had shut
down my argument, telling me to let it be. She was right, it was
none of our business and they had to figure out their problems
themselves.

Jared and Gage arrived
with a stack of pizzas each and the guys all followed them into the
kitchen. Pushing the vultures out of the way, I placed two pieces
of pepperoni onto a paper plate and handed it to my
girl.

“
Thanks, babe,” she said,
awarding me with a beautiful smile.

Ian took an entire pizza
box, not bothering with a plate, and sat at the kitchen table.
“This is heaven,” he mumbled around a bite. “As soon as my pussy
gets here, it’ll be like I was never in juvie.”

Gianna twirled to face
him. “You did not invite some skank to my house!”

“
Shanks,” he corrected
her. “There are two of them. Tag team style.”

“
Ew!” Cece
complained.

Taye threw his head back
laughing. “You gonna take them into her mom’s room?”

“
Was planning on using
Gianna’s bed,” Ian answered, already on his second
slice.

“
Your dick isn’t going
anywhere near Gianna’s sheets,” I told him, throwing an ice cube at
his head.

“
Ew!” Cece repeated. “I’m
eating!”

Ian retaliated with an ice
cube of his own. I dodged the chunk of ice as it whizzed past my
head. Why was I friends with him?

“
Where’s my cake?” Ian
asked after eating his fifth piece of pizza.

“
Oh my god!” Gianna
yelled. “I forgot it in my Jeep! It’s probably melted in this
heat.” She jumped out of her chair, making it scrape against the
tile.

“
I’ll help you,” I
offered, planning on stealing a kiss in private, or a mini-makeout
session.

“
No, that’s okay. It’s not
that heavy. But can you get the ice cream out and start scooping
it?”

“
Sure,
princess.”

“
Whipped,” Ian whispered
loudly enough for everyone but Gianna to hear as she rushed out the
door. Cece went with her, likely to whine about Dante staring at
her obsessively.

“
You’re the pussy who
asked Gianna to get him a cake like it’s your birthday.”

“
I want two scoops!” he
called out after me as I opened the freezer.

I’d prepared eight plates
with ice cream on them and the girls still hadn’t returned with the
cake. “I’ll go see what’s taking them so long,” Jared said, walking
toward the front door.

But a sick feeling hit my
gut as my chest tightened. Something was wrong. Charging past him,
I threw open the front door and jumped down the porch steps. Cece
looked dazed as she sat up from where she’d been sprawled in the
driveway near the place Gianna’s Jeep had been parked.

“
Cece!” Jared yelled,
taking in the cut on her temple.

I grabbed Cece’s
shoulders. “Where’s Gianna?”

“
Josh,” she mumbled
weakly. “I’d only met him a couple times, but it was definitely
him.”

“
He took Gianna?” I asked.
Fear like I hadn’t known since last October built in me.

Dante kneeled down to help
her up and she turned her face into his chest. “Yeah.”

I pointed to Gage. “Call
911!” Going back inside the house, I grabbed my phone from the
kitchen and dialed her dad. Calling 911 would get us Broomfield
Police Department and Josh might take her elsewhere in the
city.

“
Hello?”

“
Chris, it’s Caleb. Josh
took Gianna.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Josh!” I shouted into the
phone. “That fucker somehow got out because he showed up here and
took Gianna!”

I heard Chance say
something to his dad and Chris snapped, “Go wait for me in the
car!” Then to me, he said, “I’m on my way and calling Novak. Did
you call the police?”

I was on my way to my car,
intent on doing anything proactive. “Gage did. I’m going looking
for them, they’re in her Jeep.”

“
Wait there for the
police!” he said, hanging up.

Ignoring him, I got in my
car and Ian was able to jump in right before I peeled off. “Where
are we going?”

I hit the steering wheel.
“I don’t fucking know.”

“
I thought he was locked
up until next year?”

“
Me too.”

“
Do you know where he
lives?”

“
I doubt he’d be stupid
enough to take her there,” I told him, forced to stop when a light
turned red.

“
He’s insane,” Ian said.
“He could take her anywhere.”

“
Not fucking helping,” I
muttered, my heartbeat accelerating at the thought of all the ways
Josh could be hurting her.

“
The school,” Ian blurted.
“He’d take her to their old high school!”

I flipped a bitch, almost
causing an accident. Horns honked at me as I sped toward the high
school. It was insane that he’d bring her there, but Josh was
batshit crazy. Thought of it that way, it made sense for him to
bring her to the last place he’d seen her. The place where they’d
spent time together before I’d come along.

GIANNA

Josh paced back and forth
on the freshly waxed floor. The rubber soles of his plain black
sneakers squeaking with each step. His navy polo shirt was wrinkled
and his tan pants had dirt stains at the bottom of the
legs.

“
Get up,” he said, coming
toward me.

I got to my knees and then
my feet quickly in an attempt to avoid his touch. Backing up to the
nearest wall, I barely held back a panicked scream. When I’d
screamed earlier, he’d slapped me. I could handle a smack, but I
couldn’t take him hurting me like before.

My legs shook as Josh
grabbed my arm and jerked it so I’d let him lead me around. School
would start next week and the gym was left open a lot in August so
practicing football players could get into the locker room to
change and shower. The weight room was also in the building but I
didn’t think anyone was on school grounds except for maybe a
janitor in the main building.

No one would know we were
here because Josh had parked my Jeep behind the gym out of sight.
“Come on!” Josh snapped, his grip bruising my arm.

He opened a door in the
gym, revealing a narrow stairway. “Where are we going?” I asked,
already guessing it led to the roof.