“Kareeee, come get me. Please? Fuck Katie, Katie and her boyfriend that I didn’t know she had. She said it was her ex-boyfriend, but they’re trying to jump me . . .” Austin slurred his words. “Kare, please come get me.”

I sat straight up in my seat. “What do you mean? Who’s trying to jump you? Where are you?”

Chaos. No longer brewing. It was here.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

I couldn’t say no. Austin gave me the location and I asked Kael to drive me straight there. He put the address in his phone and pulled out of the parking lot, the restaurant lanterns fading in the background as we drove. Thanks to Kael’s ability to drive in crisis mode, it took us only about eight minutes to get there. I called Austin once a minute until we arrived, but he didn’t pick up. By the time we pulled up, two guys were rolling around in the middle of the street; a red T-shirt and a black T-shirt were all I could see. There was a crowd watching. Another guy pushed through and hit the guy in the black T-shirt in the ribs. I recognized it was Austin as he grunted on the ground. I pushed past Kael and he grabbed my arm.

“Stay here.” He put his palms on my shoulders and moved me a few feet away before he disappeared into the crowd. There were three trucks parked in the cul-de-sac and about ten people huddled together, cheering and booing.

I tried to figure out where we were. The street was a row of similar houses, all quiet and with the porch lights on. There were a few people outside, yelling to stop the fighting and saying that they had called the Military Police. We weren’t on post, but we were right outside the gate, so if the cops came it would be Military Police, not civilian. It was the last place my brother needed to be getting caught fighting.

I scanned my surroundings quickly, on my way to find Kael and Austin in the crowd. I shoved to the front of the adrenaline-fueled chaos trying to reach Kael in the middle of the brawl. He pushed one of the guys off Austin and Austin swung at him in the air.

“Stop it!” I recognized Katie’s voice before I saw her. I beelined toward her.

“Come on, Nielson, let’s get out of here!” someone said in the background. A couple more lines of toxic encouragement were thrown out before I saw Kael block my brother from getting hit in his ribs again. I screamed.

“Stop it!” Katie yelled again. I reached where she was standing, close to the fight, her face streaked with mascara tears.

“What happened?” I asked, grabbing her by the shoulders. Kael was yelling Austin’s name, trying to break up the fight.