Broken Trust: A Dark High School Romance(20)

“Take your hands off me, Beck,” I said, steel in my voice.

He leaned back just far enough to meet my gaze, and when he saw the conviction in my eyes he carefully lifted his hands from my waist. “You moved out of the Delta compound.” Again, not a question. “It’s not safe to do that, Riley. You need to move back.”

I barked a sharp, sarcastic laugh. “Not happening. Is that all? I don’t want to be late for class. No doubt there will be glue on my chair or some shit.”

His jaw tightened and a quick glance down told me his fists were clenched tightly at his sides. “This isn’t a fucking game, Riley. It’s bigger than us.”

“Us?” I curled my lip in a sneer. “Don’t pretend there is anything between us other than betrayal and lies. I’m not your fucking monkey, and I won’t dance to your tune. Unless the orders come from the actual Delta council, don’t bother me again.” Using my shoulder, I shoved him back just far enough that I could squeeze back out of the closet and into the slightly less than empty hallway. Great. Knowing my luck, there would be rumors about what I’d been doing with Beck in the closet circulating by the end of first period.

Fuck it. What did I care what a bunch of spoiled rich kids thought of me?

I’d only taken a couple of steps away from the closet when I heard it open and close again behind me, and a kid in a sports uniform gawped at me.

“Take a picture, it lasts longer,” I snapped at him, stalking down the hall to my class with my ridiculous high heels clicking on the marble floor.

By the time I took my assigned seat in my class, I was in a sour mood, something that wasn’t helped by the fact that someone had actually shortened one of the legs on my chair.

Not even joking.

They’d somehow managed to cut about half an inch from one of the chair legs so for the entire class I bobbled back and forth without being able to rest comfortably. I had to hand it to those snickering assholes ... they were creative.

Eddy was appropriately stunned when I told her about it at lunchtime. The chair thing, combined with the convenient drip right over my desk in the next period sort of made them evil geniuses. If I hadn’t been the target of their maliciousness, I might have been impressed.

“Girl, that’s like ... military level torture techniques,” Eddy muttered as we gathered our food and headed for our usual seat. Or what was our new usual seat, since I’d turned my back on the Delta boys. As we crossed the dining hall, Jasper gave me a small nod of support but the other three wore unreadable masks as they blankly stared past me.

“You know he cares about you, right?” Eddy blurted out as we sat down, then clapped a hand over her mouth like she couldn’t believe she’d said it out loud. “Sorry,” she squeaked from behind her hand. “It slipped out.”

I rolled my eyes and stabbed a piece of pasta on my plate. It was chicken, sundried tomato and pesto and was fast becoming one of my favorite lunches at Ducis. “I’m not discussing that douchecanoe and his flawless ability to manipulate everyone around him to achieve his own twisted end game. Sorry, but no.”

“Uh huh.” Eddy filled her own mouth up in a clear sign she didn’t particularly want to discuss it either. “So. What do you think Katelyn and her crew have planned for you this afternoon? Bit of hair pulling? Some rotten food in your locker? Maybe she’ll go full Carrie and dump pig’s blood on you!”

I grimaced and glanced in the direction of the shining blonde Huntley daughter. “Don’t give her suggestions,” I muttered to Eddy. “What do you think she’s here for anyway? Doesn’t it seem super suspicious that Huntley suddenly manages to enroll a student here? Like, doesn’t Delta own this freaking school?”

My friend just shrugged, tucking some short blonde hair behind her ear. “You know they don’t include me on company business. How would I know?”

I leveled a flat stare at her. “Uh, coz you’re way sneakier than you let on, and I don’t believe for a second you haven’t been listening at doors you weren’t supposed to.”

“Hmm,” she hummed, a wicked smile teasing her lips. “Still, I have no idea. I heard Dad ranting about it to Mom last week but it was along the lines of ‘how the hell did this happen’ rather than ‘these are all the answers Edith is hoping to hear,’ you know?”

“Yeah, that would have been awfully convenient,” I murmured. “Yet another mystery to unravel.”

“Hey.” Eddy tapped the table to get my attention back from my conspiracy theories. “More important topics. Are we having a house warming at your sweet new pad?”

She was beaming with excitement, and I couldn’t help laughing. “And invite who? Did you forget you’re my only friend, aside from Dante?”

Her expression turned cagey, and I knew it was because of their brief romance. “How is he? Jasper mentioned something about him being in a fight?”

My mood soured significantly and I scowled in Jasper’s direction. “Something like that,” I agreed. “He’s okay, though. Just ... steering clear of all this shit for a bit.”

I’d texted him between classes and told him about my new place. He badly wanted to come by and check it out, but I wanted him nowhere near any of the Delta bullshit. Look where it had landed him last time.