Break of the Six (The Preston Six Book 4) (22 page)

Poly held Julie as they sat in chairs near the door. They kept glancing at the door, waiting for the same news as Joey. Poly stroked Julie’s hair with her bloody hand, but she was covered in the blood of another—Zach.

He wished he could have taken some for his own. How could anyone be so evil? He gritted his teeth and punched at the air. She had to be all right. Too many things were left unsaid. He played with time, thinking it would give him mercy and allow Samantha to find their friendship again. Now time looked to be running out and he would give anything to have just a bit more of it with Samantha.

The door swung open.

Joey held his breath and the whole room froze with anticipation.

The doctor walked past the swinging door and with one look on her face, Joey fell to his knees, racked with sobs. The doctor stumbled over a few apathetic words that Joey couldn’t hear. The room crushed in on him and he felt sick. He gagged and vomited on the floor. Familiar arms wrapped around him, more words were spoken, mixed in with crying. But none of it sunk in. A single thought pounded in his head, wanting to consume him.
She’s gone.

“I’m sorry,” were the only words he heard from the doctor.

The room filled with cries of pain. Julie came to his side and then Hank and Lucas. They formed around him, but he didn’t feel it. He felt empty, like all his life force had been poured out. Tears flowed from his face, but he couldn’t summon a word from his throat, and wondered if he ever could again.

Pulling his friends in closer, they clung to one another, sharing in each other’s grief.

They were no longer the Preston Six.

JOEY GRIPPED THE EDGE OF the podium and looked over the crowd of people. A few days had passed since Samantha’s death and he hadn’t strung together more than a dozen words since. Now, faced with a eulogy, he forced himself to find the words.

“When we were born, a reporter named us the Preston Six. A name he figured would stick with the reader and also look good as a headline. What he didn’t realize is that he’d given a name to the special bond we all share.” Joey paused and looked to his four best friends in the front row for support. Julie openly cried while the rest urged him on with teary eyes.

“Samantha was a gift to us all. She had the ability to brighten any room and win over any person with her charm and beauty.” Joey held onto the podium and looked to Gretchen sitting behind Julie. She held her hand over her mouth and sobbed. The preplanned words slipped from his mind.

“Too soon,” he said. “Too soon is what I hear a lot when people give their condolences for our loss. Too soon. I agree, she was taken from us too soon. Too soon for me to tell her how much she meant to me.” His voice cracked and he paused, trying to gain composure.

“Many died in the last few weeks. This event is being played out a million times over across the world. But Samantha isn’t a statistic of the Cough; she was our friend, part of what made us whole. If there is anything I have learned over the last year, it’s that life is not fair. But what happened to her is beyond unfair. The lies she was fed—” He cracked, trying to reign in enough anger to continue.

“As the sun sets tonight, it will set forever on the Preston Six.” He cleared his throat and dabbed his eyes, mumbling, “too soon.” He felt himself losing it, but forced the words through his tears. “She’d want us to remember her for all the light she brought to our life, not her final moments of pain.”

He thought of the time he gave her the earrings on his balcony. In that moment, while he embraced her on their cold birthday night, he thought life couldn’t get better. It was the last night of true innocence for each of them.

Joey sniffled and wiped the tears from his face. “There is another thing she would have wanted.” His hand shook as it fished around in his jacket pocket. He felt the adornment dropped by Zach in his last moments. He knew it still worked and the man who would be watching.

He lifted the tie clip from his pocket and held it high.

Julie gasped.

“This is Marcus’s eyes and ears. I know he is watching and listening. Say ‘hi’ to Marcus.”

Poly stood from her chair. “What are you doing, Joey?”

“I’m doing what I know Samantha would want us to do.” Joey turned the tie clip so it faced him. He stared at the black stone. “I have something I want to tell the man who killed Samantha . . . we give up.”

“Screw that,” Lucas called out.

A few others yelled in protest, but Joey continued, “I can’t bury another friend or another parent. I can’t let you do what you did to Samantha to another person I love. She would want us move on and live our lives as normal as we can, and we can’t do that if we are battling a man who knows no equal. Marcus, we give up. Please, I plead with you to let us live our lives. We will not interfere again.”

Joey placed the tie clip on the podium and brought a hammer out from under it. He raised the hammer up and slammed it down, shattering it in pieces. He hammered those pieces over and over again, until sweat ran down his face.

When he looked up, he saw the faces of the people he loved staring back at him. He hated lying to them all, but he needed Marcus to hear the message. Wiping the pieces of the tie clip to side, he glanced at Julie and got a nod. It wasn’t transmitting anymore.

“Now that
that
bullshit is over, I can speak some truth.” He glared at all the people in every row from front to back. “I’m not giving up. I won’t stop. Nothing will stop me until the man who is responsible for this is dead and I expect your full involvement in ending Marcus. No, I demand it.”

“Hell, yeah,” Gladius said as she stood. “I’m in. You’ve got my blades. I would love to skewer that man.”

He nodded his thanks and continued to address the group. “This time, we will be patient. We have a lifetime to wait for this revenge. Maybe lifetimes. And there isn’t a single thing that will derail our path to him. We will be the freight train of destruction straight up his ass.”

Looking out at the group, Travis and Harris both nodded. His parents looked shocked but that was okay. They didn’t need to understand what he planned on doing. They didn’t need to be involved.

POLY HELD JOEY’S HAND AS they sat next to the lake. If he didn’t have her, he didn’t know what he would have become over the last few months since Samantha died. She kept him from going off the edge. If not for her, he’d burn the whole earth down solely to take Marcus with it.

The Earth had started showing signs of recovery and the events of it all brought them much closer. In fact, since Samantha died, he couldn’t stay away from Poly. Being with her in every intimate way, was the only good thing to happen to him since Samantha’s death.

“Thinking about her again?” Poly asked.

“Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“Remember the time when she stuffed some bait in Lucas’s sandwich?”

“Yeah, and Lucas bit into it and ran around the boat, looking for water to get it out of his mouth.”

He laughed. “She’d hid the water under the cabin.”

“And he ended up dunking his face into the lake and slapping it off his tongue.”

They laughed.

She squeezed his hand and smiled at him. He loved he could share memories with her, he loved everything about Poly.

He had another thing to share and now seemed like the perfect time. He stuffed his hand in his pocket and felt the familiar velvet box. They had once held Samantha’s earrings. He had worn much of the velvet off the box so it looked like a dog with a skin disease, but he kept rubbing the edges, feeling the cardboard underneath the velvet.

The breeze kicked up and rustled the trees above them. He watched one spin down to the lake and float on the rippled surface.

“There is something I wanted to ask you.” He grasped the box in one hand.

“There is something I wanted to talk you about too,” she interjected, shifting her weight from foot to foot. She bit her lip and looked up at him.

“What is it?”

“You go first,” she quickly said.

He held her hand and pulled it closer. “I know we’ve been through a lot and I’ve realized life is short, too short. I know now I don’t want to spend another moment waiting to show you how much I love you.” He knelt on one knee. “Poly Marie Lampis, will you marry me?”

She yanked him up, jumping up and down with her hand covering her mouth. “Yes. Yes, of course I will.” She jumped into his arms and planted kisses all over his face.

He laughed in pure joy and swung her in circles. Placing her on the ground, he pulled back. “Now, what was it you had to tell me, future Mrs. Foust?”

She placed her hands on his cheeks and looked straight into his eyes, smiling.

“I’m pregnant.”

The blood left his face and he couldn’t speak. It wasn’t that he didn’t want a family with Poly, the thought of creating life with the one he love made him happier than he thought possible. But another man wanted them to have a child so badly he went to great lengths to make it happen. Marcus Malliden.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Poly said.

“What?”

“We won’t let him take this baby.”

“I swear on my life. That won’t happen.”

The story continues with
Fury of the Six
, scheduled for release in Aug./Sept.  2015.

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