Broken Trust: A Dark High School Romance(40)

“Ow, no I won’t,” Jasper grumbled. “Girl sleeps like the dead. When she’s not having a nightmare.”

There was an extended silence, like they all knew they were somewhat to blame for the nightmares in my life.

While I did want to hear more of Beck’s feelings, I also didn’t, because it was crumbling my resolve like it was made of cheese instead of steel.

I shuffled around and started to mumble a few sounds, like I was just waking up. A fingertip traced across my cheek, and I knew from the angle that it had to be Beck, and I let my eyelashes flutter before I opened my eyes and sleepily met his steely gaze.

“Hey,” I said clearing my throat. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”

I pulled myself up, settling back into the seat. To my relief, the ache in my muscles was easing, and I was feeling a bit less like I’d been thrown through a meat grinder. Yawning, I rubbed a hand over my face. “What did I miss?”

They all started talking at once, each saying something different, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“That much, huh?”

Jasper laughed loudly. “You missed the start of the city,” he said, and I leaned forward to see the New York City skyline which was now proudly in view.

“Whoa,” I murmured. I’d never been here before, despite living reasonably close. The city was not for my family; my mom hated the bustle and crowds and traffic. Dad never had an opinion one way or another, but he did mention once or twice that the city was no place for a simple steel worker.

I’d told him that he was too good for New York, not the other way around.

For a brief moment, grief knocked me so hard that I almost sobbed. It just came out of nowhere, and it hit me until I couldn’t breathe. There were still moments that I wished I’d died in the crash with them.

Save ever feeling this pain.

Beck shifted beside me, and like he could feel the grief pouring off me in waves, he reached out and took my hand. Dylan took my other hand. Neither of them said a word, they just held onto me. And somehow, between the two of them, they stopped me from splintering into a million pieces and drifting away in the breeze.

A single tear escaped and trailed down my cheek, and I let it fall, until I could taste the saltiness on my lips.

Until I could taste my pain.

Thankfully we were distracted by the surge of traffic around us, and I managed to get all of that sadness back into its box. Locked down.

Jasper maneuvered the huge car surprisingly easy through the city. It was clearly not their first time driving here, and despite the slow movement of cars around us, we managed to make it to the Delta offices in good time. “Which tower is Delta’s?” I asked, looking at the four huge towers, each shiny and intimidating. I couldn’t see names on any of them, but I assumed one was the Delta headquarters.

Jasper pulled into an underground parking lot, and we waited for the gates to open.

“All of them,” Beck said.

I paused. “All four?”

“Eight,” Evan corrected me. “We own the full block here.”

I sank back into my chair, slamming my mouth shut. Well, fuck. I mean, I was aware that Delta was rich and powerful. I knew they basically controlled half the world. But the real estate alone here, in the center of New York City, arguably one of the most powerful and expensive cities in the world, would be worth a billion dollars.

The underground lot was massive, and the cars in there made me drool a little as we passed them. Jasper pulled into a spot right by the elevators, and we all filed out.

The guys were changing again, adopting their “Delta personalities” as I liked to call them. Game faces on. When we got into the elevator, it powered us up to the first floor, where we had to get out and cross by the huge front desk. There were four ladies there, greeting people, assigning security badges, and basically running the show.

There were people everywhere. The noise was insane, and everyone was dressed in what I was dubbing business chic. Of course, I looked like the teenager I was, dressed in jeans and converse.

“Should we be in suits?” I asked the guys as they surrounded me when we stepped further into the chaos.

Beck snorted. “Well, our parents would like that, but we live to piss them off in whatever way we can. They might be able to dictate a lot, but for now, we still dress ourselves.”

All four of them were dressed in their version of rich playboy. Designer clothes, but still jeans and Henleys, boots and white high-tops. Nothing that suggested they were businessmen. Not today, anyway.

“Excuse me,” one of the desk chicks called out when we strolled past, heading for the second bank of elevators behind them. “Everyone needs to sign in.”

Jasper and Evan laughed, both of them shaking their heads as they continued forward.

“You need to sign in!” she shouted again before she turned and hollered for security. Two huge buff dudes hurried over but got no more than ten steps in our direction when Beck lifted his hand and gave them both a two fingered salute. “Hey, Paul. John,” he said.

Both dudes relaxed then, shaking their heads before strolling back to their posts by the metal detectors at the doors.

“Name is Sebastian Beckett,” Beck said to the chick who had her mouth hanging open. “Best you learn who the fuck we are.”

We strolled away then, and I shot her one last glance, not surprised to see her face was a splotchy red, despite the layered on makeup she was sporting. Poor girl was probably new or something and now she would be panicking about being fired.