Sons of Mayhem 2 Chaser (Sons of Mayhem Novels, #2) by Nikki Pink

huh? Tough guy Twist?”
    Gauge’s gravelly voice was serious. “Listen to the woman Twist. No offense, but I saw you fly fifteen feet when a breeze picked you up last week.”
    There were chuckles around the table at Gauge’s obvious exaggeration.
    “You fuckin’ call if you find him, no heroic shit. Got it?”
    Twist nodded and shuffled awkwardly. “Right.”
    The men laughed again. “Alright, fuck off!” said Bottle good-naturedly. He clearly had a soft spot for the younger guy, even if they were somewhat mean to him. It was because he wasn’t a fully patched member yet, I guessed.
    Twist scurried away to a group of long-haired hangabouts lounging around a table, where he began to speak in earnest. The club members’ watched him for a moment, before turning their attention back to me.
    Bottle looked me in the eyes, “Alright, give us a bit more to go on. Why the fuck is he after you so bad? You’re a good looking girl, don’t get me wrong, but still...” his voice trailed off.
    A good looking girl huh? Not bad yourself bike-boy. “It’s going to take a while. I need to tell you it from the start, from when we met. So you can understand what he’s like.”
    “Alright, get to it. Hopefully we’ll be able to use some of this information.”
    I took a big sip of beer as repressed memories began to flow back. I felt myself shivering lightly as I began to tell them about Dewey.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    K aren
    I was a happy girl. I was a happy girl. We weren’t rich, but my home life wasn’t bad. I had a Mom and a Dad, and a sister five years older than me. Mom wasn’t even sick back then, when it started. We had a house, nothing fancy, but the neighborhood was decent, my school was as safe as any building full of dumb horny teens can be, and the local community was friendly. Was friendly.
    In the summer before our final year of junior high we got new neighbors, and of course I was excited at first. Would there be a girl I could be friends with? Would there be a cute older guy I could sneak out at night to see?
    I was disappointed when I saw what the moving-truck-fairy had bought: a chubby, sandy-haired boy who talked about video games as a substitute for a personality.
    “Hi, I’m Dewey, you play Halo?” he had asked me, looking down and shuffling nervously. We were in my back yard, being forced to socialize by parents who love to inflict that kind of torture on their adolescent offspring. Mom and Dad had invited the new neighbors over for a welcome barbecue and beers. Beers for Dad, anyway. The neighbors didn’t drink.
    We sat drinking sodas while I tried to be friendly, but we had almost nothing in common then. We liked different movies and different music. He didn’t read, I did. He played video games, I played the occasional game of Tetris. And his name was Dewey which immediately made me think of the weird younger kid from Malcolm in the Middle.
    “How’s school? You’re going into eighth grade too right?” he asked me. I blinked at him in confusion. He couldn’t be the same age as me, could he? This harmless chubby boy looked to be at least three years younger than me. I couldn’t believe he’d be finishing up junior high with me.
    In stunned disbelief I told him about the school, about the teachers, about the cliques. I wondered how he’d fit in (turns out, he didn’t. Not at first.) I told him about just how god-awful the cafeteria food was. I couldn’t help him when he asked about a video game club.
    And that was it, for the next year or so. Sure we saw each other passing in the hallways at school, or around the neighborhood, but that’s all we did - pass each other and exchange a quick greeting. We weren’t friends; barely even acquaintances.
    But what I didn’t realize was that something was happening to him. Something amazing - at least at first. When puberty finally hit him it was kind. No ugly acne or gangly limbs for him, instead the chubby boy turned into a golden young man. Over