Path of Destruction (23 page)

H
ayden no sooner pulled into the parking lot than he saw a small circle gathered near Devon’s Land Rover. Parking quickly, he jumped out and jogged over to see what the commotion was all about. He sincerely hoped a certain girl was no longer with them. Hoped, but knew better.

Naturally, there she stood, glaze-eyed staring at Jarrod like some sort of savior. His arm was around her and he handed her a flask. She took a long pull from the flask, a drop of whiskey falling from her lips. Hayden strode forward, keeping his eyes locked on her as she laughed and wiped her mouth.

“I think you’ve had enough,” Hayden said, stepping between Devon and Ella Jane.

Some freshmen girls Hayden didn’t know were hanging on Devon’s every word. Reaching for Ella Jane’s arm, Hayden sneered when Jarrod tugged her gently out of his reach.

“Easy, Prescott. I didn’t see your name on her.”

“Then you didn’t look hard enough,” Hayden practically growled at him. “Babe, look at me. You okay?” He met Ella Jane’s eyes, his chest tightening at the lack of focus in them.

“She’s fine, Dad. Just having a good time. Lighten up.” Jarrod tightened his hold on her and Hayden saw red.

He lunged, but Devon wrapped his waist with both arms and told him to chill out in his ear. “Don’t worry, man. She and Kent are already
well
acquainted.”

He turned him just in time for Hayden to see Jarrod nuzzling Ella Jane’s neck. Hayden responded by slamming his head backward into Devon’s. The grunt was simultaneous with his loosened grip and Hayden took advantage of the opportunity to turn and give the guy a solid shove against the car.

A brief flicker of panic shot through Hayden as he realized just how much pent up anger he was carrying. Ella Jane, Cami, the storm, Pop’s being gone, his grandma, his dad’s book making business… He felt as if he’d been stretched tightly, each person holding a piece of him, and now, he’d finally snapped.

He paused before throwing a punch, fearing he might seriously injure Devon, and backed up just in time to see Jarrod with his arms around Ella Jane. The reprieve allowed Devon to land a solid hit to Hayden’s jaw, and he staggered backward.

He used the momentum to ram and elbow into Jarrod’s ribs, connecting before he even contemplated the consequences.

She’s standing too close.
The thought came a split second too late.

Ducking Jarrod’s return punch, Hayden positioned himself between them to keep the brawl from reaching her.

His vision blurred as he called out for Ella Jane to not fucking leave with Jarrod, in those words. Devon was the obvious creep, but Jarrod was the snake in the grass that lured the girls into their trap. Dropping to avoid another wild fist of Devon’s, Hayden barreled into him at waist level, slamming him into the car hard enough to set the alarm off. Out of the corner of his eye, barely on the periphery, Hayden saw a welcome sight. Brantley Cooper hitting Jarrod so hard the guy hit the ground.

Someone yelled out that security was coming their way. Hayden didn’t seen any uniforms approaching, but it distracted him enough for Devon to get another punch in, his forehead this time. What kind of asshole punched a guy in the forehead?

Adrenaline took over and Hayden full on tackled Devon, throwing punches until someone pulled him off.

“Breathe, Prescott. You got him, man. Stop. You got him.” Brantley Cooper was holding his arms behind his back and dragging him from the crowd. “Nothing to see here, folks. Carry on,” Cooper yelled to the crowd. Someone helped Jarrod up as they passed by.

“Get off me,” Hayden seethed, jerking his arms from Coop’s hold. “I’m fine.”

“Easy there, pretty boy.” Coop backed up. “I just saved your ass.”

“Whatever,” he fired back despite knowing that Coop had in fact done just that. It’s no telling what would have happened if Jarrod’s dipshit friends had jumped in while Hayden was alone. He let out a sigh. “You better go,” he said with a nod toward where Ella Jane stood dumbstruck. “Get her out of here before the chaperones come out and start taking names.”

“Yeah,” Coop agreed. “But here.” He opened up his truck door and pulled a T-shirt from inside before tossing it to Hayden. “For the blood.”

Hayden swiped the shirt over his brow. There was a lot of blood.

“I’ll be fine. Now, get her out of here before they come out—”

The rumble of an engine broke and the squeal of rubber broke his train of thought. Hayden and Coop watched the black truck roar out of the parking lot with Ella Jane inside.

“Shit,” Coop snarled as he jumped into his own truck.

As much as Hayden wanted to follow after them, he could barely see to walk, let alone drive, which only infuriated him more. He should have been the one chasing after her. Or better yet, the one driving her home. The same old situations kept playing out. Hayden was always left watching as Coop swept into save her.

He leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees, trying not to vomit as the ground wavered beneath him.

“Come on, Rocky,” a familiar voice called out.

He lifted his head to see Cami walking toward him—two Camis, actually. Both of them were decked out in a killer red dress and sadness. Once she was close enough that there was only one of her, her eyes flashed not only concern but with resigned disappointment.

“Let me drive you home.”

“H
old still,” Cami instructed as she applied the butterfly strips to his brow.

He was sitting up on the counter in his family kitchen. Luckily, his parents were out for the evening and the home nurse had already made her rounds and gotten his grandma tucked in bed. Cami nudged his bouncing leg with her hip trying to get him to pay attention, but his mind was running on overdrive at the moment.

“You keep moving around and I’m never going to be able to get this thing closed up. I told you it needed stitches.”

And she had. She’d even tried to take him to the emergency room, but he’d refused. He probably had a concussion, but he wasn’t in the mood to answer any questions about how he’d ended up with the gash. He took in a deep breath and tried to stop himself from moving. It wasn’t just the pain that was making him antsy. He was still pissed off at how the entire evening had played out. Pissed off that Ella Jane had chosen to hang out with those idiots outside of the prom. Pissed off that he let himself give into the anger he was trying to bury. And
extremely
pissed off that, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get ahead of his feelings for her. She’d made it more than clear that she didn’t want a relationship with him, so why couldn’t he just let her go?

“I mean it, Hayden,” she warned. “You’re going to have a nasty scar.”

“It’s fine,” he snapped. “Just close it up already.”

“Whoa. You don’t get to be a dick to me.” Cami dropped her hands and took a step back. “I get being angry with Jarrod and Devon. Hell, I even get the being mad at Ella Jane or Coop or whoever in the hell else you want to blame for tonight, but you’re not going to unload your crap on me. I’m the one trying to help you.” She held up the bandage and waited for him to acknowledge that she was right.

He nodded. “I’m sorry,” he admitted as she resumed tending to his wound.

Cami was a lot of things to him—confidant, one-time girlfriend, best friend, ego checker, and now nurse. He shouldn’t have been angry with her. The girl already walked around like she was carrying a two-hundred-pound boulder on her shoulders, he shouldn’t be adding to it.

“Thank you.”

Cami finished up and placed her hand on his face to turn it up toward the light. “That’s as good as I can do.” She gave him a soft smile as she moved his face back to hers. A sudden rush of nostalgia hit him as she looked at him.

“Thanks, Cami-girl,” he said, placing his hand on top of hers. “Not just for this but for always being there. I appreciate it more than you know.” With a quiet nod, she stared at him. He wondered if she was thinking the same thing he was.

It would be so easy for us to just be together.

To be like they once were. Before the bubble that was Summit Bluffs burst and the outside world came crashing into their perfect existence. She had to have been because when he placed his hand on her hip and pulled her to stand between his legs she didn’t protest.

With his hand on the skin the cut-out back of her dress revealed, he lowered his lips tentatively toward hers.

Her pouty, red lips welcomed his in a familiar caress as she moved her arms around his neck. Slowly they explored one another’s mouths as Hayden waited for some kind of grand sign from the universe that this was the girl he was supposed to be kissing. That the pink, cherry Chap-Stick covered lips of Ella Jane Mason were not his end all be all. He tried to kiss Ella Jane’s memory right out of his mind, and Cami was more than accommodating.

She moaned softly against his lips and he slid off the counter, pressing his body against hers as his feet hit the floor. The attraction between them was still there. She could still make his heart race and blood rush.

The comforting smell of her high-end perfume reminded him of the good times they’d had. God, it just felt so good to be on the same page as someone. Cami reached for the hem of his shirt, tugging it up over his head, careful not to reopen his wound.

He returned his mouth to hers—this time with more purpose than before. Both of them seeming to be fueled by an eagerness. To return to what once was. To move on. To erase the past and forget.

Cami’s hands traveled down Hayden’s chest, her touch reminding him just how easy things with her were. How simple they’d been. Uncomplicated. Predictable and convenient. But as he started to reach for the zipper of her dress, he felt her resolve weaken as her lips stilled. The sudden change in her demeanor allowed his brain to catch up to his body. There was a blue-eyed blonde wearing a wounded expression permanently etched behind his eyes.

You can’t just forget her.

As they came up for air, he knew that as nice and familiar as it all felt, it wasn’t the same.

“We can’t go back, can we?” Cami asked in a broken whisper. Her brown eyes sought out his.

Hayden shook his head apologetically. “Guess not. But, God. I wish we could.” He kissed her forehead before she removed herself from in front of him.

Positioning herself next to him against the kitchen island, Cami wrapped her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder. “When did everything get so complicated?”

“You want an exact date or just a ballpark?” He chuckled.

He knew the exact date for him. It was June eleventh—the day that Ella Jane Mason came bouncing down the steps of her front porch and gave him a not so warm welcome to his new job. She’d been rude, demanding, and breathtakingly beautiful.

“Can I ask you a question?” Cami left her head resting on his shoulder.

Hayden cleared his throat, wishing he could clear his memory as easily. “Sure.”

“Why are you still chasing after her?”

There was no need to ask who she was talking about. Hayden’s feelings for Ella Jane were transparent.

After trying to come up with a decent answer, he simply shrugged. “I don’t know how to quit. I wish I did. It’s not like I haven’t tried to turn it off and just get on with my life, but she’s all I fucking think about. You know?”

She sighed loudly, heavily, as if carrying a weight similar to his own heartache. “I do. More than you know.”

“You still hung up on the guy from this summer?” Hayden asked, remembering the night of the bonfire. The night of the storm. There was another exact date that changed the course of his life irrevocably.

She finally stood up straight and looked at him. “It’s more complicated than I can even being to explain.” She sighed. “I waited too long. Screwed up things I can’t change.”

“I get it.” He understood where she was coming from. If he hadn’t had the party, if he hadn’t left his grandparents alone that night, if he wouldn’t have told Ella Jane to wait for him on the ridge. There were a lot of things that he wished he could change, but people were dead, lives were destroyed, hearts were broken, and he didn’t possess the power to change any of those things.

“Maybe that’s why I can’t stop chasing her. I don’t want to look back and regret not telling her how I feel.” He watched Cami nod at what he was saying.

“I know exactly what you mean. And trust me, it will be the things you didn’t say that you’ll regret the most.”

He wasn’t sure what was going on in that head of hers and he wasn’t going to force it out of her. If he knew anything about her, it was that sometimes just sitting there and being her shoulder to cry on was the best thing he could do.

“P
ull over!” she heard Cooper yell from beside her. “Pull the hell over now, Ella Jane.”

He was playing a hazardous game of chicken should any cars come along. Glancing over, she saw the outrage on his face.

How had everything gone so wrong?

She’d decided to take Lynlee’s advice, work out some of her frustration on Jarrod Kent since he was a good-time guy not connected to the memory of her brother in any way. Seeing Cooper, who’d told her in no uncertain terms that there was no way in hell he’d be at prom, there to escort Cameron Nickelson had fueled her desire to become belligerent beyond feeling.