Broken Trust: A Dark High School Romance(29)

Beck’s chest heaved as I told him the rest, but he didn’t interrupt me.

I didn’t leave any of it out, not even the part where those assholes mentioned being paid to rape me. To chase me from this school, or maybe even kill me. I had no idea what they planned to do when they were done with me.

“If I didn’t fucking kill them, I’m going to now,” Beck finally said, his body as hard as a rock. “Delta will not let this stand. I will not let this stand. Huntley is going to pay, I just have to figure out the best way to do it.”

Now that some of my pain and shock was fading, a fury more potent than anything I’d felt before, simmered in my chest. “Whatever you’re planning, I want in.”

Before he could reply, a phone rang, and Beck got up to retrieve it from the bathroom. “Talk to me, Evan,” he said, coming back to sit on the side of the bed. He started to brush my hair back again, and I let my eyes flutter closed at the soothing motion. I was exhausted.

“No,” Beck bit out, and I opened my eyes again, wondering what Evan was saying.

Beck grumbled. “Fuck. Fine. Okay. You need to come and sit with Riley while I’m gone, and bring me some clothes. Mine got wet.”

His face was expressionless, but it was always his stormy eyes that gave him away. “I have to go and give my report to Delta. They’re trying to clean the mess up, but it was very public this time, and I need to help them navigate it.”

I nodded, pulling myself up. “Do you want me to come as well?”

It was about the last thing I wanted to do, spill my pain to those old bastards, but I would do it if it meant Beck was not in trouble.

He shook his head. “No. Fuck no. I don’t want you to have to be around them anymore than necessary. They’ll use any weakness against you. But you do have to get dressed…”

Because Evan was coming, and he didn’t want me naked.

Beck helped me up, and I shuffled into my closet, grabbing out underwear and my comfiest pajamas. They were warm and fluffy, and left almost no skin showing. I couldn’t stand to look at my bare skin right now.

I didn’t get back into bed, instead choosing to wait for Evan on the couch. Beck sat beside me, and we didn’t speak, but he held my hand in his, and it was enough.





Beck





Leaving Riley with Evan after what I’d just witnessed, was about the hardest fucking thing I had ever done. My butterfly… They had come very close to breaking her. Just the fucked up memory of their faces. That gleam in their eyes as they held her down…

I slammed my fist into the wall outside her building. I wanted to do that over and over until some of the rage inside died down. Breaking a ton of bones, their bones, hadn’t even nearly sated my bloodlust. I wanted them dead. It was only the thought that I might end up in jail, unable to protect Riley, that stayed my hand. I’d always had a fucked up anger issue, and Riley brought out the worst … and the best in me.

I couldn’t face Delta like this though. Going in there with my emotions clearly on my face, was a good way to get us all screwed.

“Hey, Beck,” someone called as they passed me in the street.

I didn’t bother to respond, and the look on my face was enough for them to hurry the fuck along. Safest thing for anyone around me today.

You got there in time.

We had, but it was almost too fucking late. That wasn’t good enough. Not for Riley.

She didn’t know it yet, but whatever distance she’d tried to maintain between us was done. Fucking done.





12





“What’s happening, Evan?” I asked him. “He’s not going there alone, right?”

Beck had just left, and now it was Evan and me, waiting to hear what punishment Beck was going to face. Evan looked far less relaxed than usual; his hair was a mess, like he’d run his hands through it a bunch of times, eyes bloodshot, and there were even some very light spatters of blood on his shirt. He reached out and pulled me into him, and for a second my body froze, until I remembered it was Evan. I sank into his embrace.

“Fuck,” he murmured against my shoulder. “You took ten years off my life, Spare.”

“You should have been in my position,” I joked weakly.

He led me to the couch, and I found comfort in having him here. Not the same as Beck, but it was still comfort. “Dylan and Jasper are with him against Delta,” Evan said as we sat. “I’d be there too, but we can’t leave you alone. You’re our priority too.”

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous?” I asked, shifting around until I was comfortably snuggled up against his side. “Letting them know you guys care about me?” Even as I said it, I knew it was true. They did care, despite their betrayal. I’d been so mad about it all, about how they tricked me into trusting them and then forced me into shooting a man, that I hadn’t wanted to see things from their point of view. But deep down, I knew they did care. It hadn’t all been bullshit.

“Too bad,” Evan huffed, reaching over and grabbing the TV remote to click the screen on. “We won’t play their games if it puts you in any real danger, and today was way over that line. Way over. They could have...” He trailed off with a pained sound, staring straight at the TV and not meeting my gaze. “Spare, they weren’t going to stop.”