The Help (Kings of Linwood Academy, #1)(39)

I don’t know why I do it, am barely conscious of my body moving, but the next thing I know, my lips are pressing against Chase’s, my tongue sliding into his mouth. Maybe it’s because of what I saw the night of that party, the image I’ve never been able to erase from my mind.

She looked like she was in heaven.

The girl sandwiched between them had looked lost in ecstasy, and that’s what I want right now. To lose myself.

Chase jerks in surprise, just like I did when Dax first touched me, but he doesn’t pull away. His tongue works against mine, meeting my fierce, desperate strokes as he pulls me toward him. Dax presses closer on my other side, and I feel his lips on my skin, trailing up my shoulder to my neck.

The shudders have stopped, and my body finally feels like my own again. My muscles feel shaky and weak, worn out from contracting over and over again, but feeling is returning to my fingertips. I skate my hands up the soft fabric of Chase’s shirt, clutching it in my fists as I draw him even closer—

“What the fuck?”

Lincoln’s voice from the foot of the bed snaps the bubble, popping the fragile, gossamer shield that kept the rest of the world out.

Reality comes rushing back in, and with it, the realization of what I’m doing.

I just witnessed someone die—saw someone be murdered—and now I’m sprawled on a bed making out with two guys. I sit up suddenly, pushing Chase away. He and Dax roll away from me, rising to sit too. My cheeks flame as embarrassment and guilt tear through me.

But even through those emotions, and through the returning horror of what we saw tonight, I can tell my body isn’t sinking back into the state of disassociation it was in. I can think a little more clearly.

“She was in shock. We were calming her down,” Chase says, a slight note of defensiveness in his voice.

Lincoln narrows his eyes at the three of us, a muscle in his jaw ticking. River is standing behind him, watching us silently too. I can’t handle their scrutiny right now, so I scoot off the bed, tugging the too-short dress down as I do. I’m barefoot, and my phone and wallet lie on the mattress where I finally dropped them.

“We have to call the police,” I say in a voice that hardly sounds like my own.

“You don’t have to do anything.” Lincoln crosses his arms over his chest, leveling a quelling gaze at me.

“Are you kidding?” I stammer. “We’re the only fucking witnesses to what happened! We’re the only ones who know—”

“What do you know, Pool Girl?” he interrupts, cocking his head. “Do you know what the guy looks like? His license plate number? Where he went?”

I lick my lips. “No. But I can describe his car.”

“Can you? What kind was it?”

“It was… it was black and—”

“Are you sure? Maybe it was dark blue or gray.”

My stomach twists, anger joining the other emotions roiling through my body.

“Why are you trying to convince me I don’t know anything? We saw something. We need to go to the cops—”

He moves toward me so fast I don’t even have time to stumble backward before he’s in my face.

“Listen, Pool Girl. I know you’re new around here, so I’ll explain a few things for you, okay? Whoever did this wasn’t fucking around. And half the richest families in Fox Hill have the cops in their pocket. So going to the police won’t do shit except paint a target on our backs. Do you get that? I know you want to follow the rules like a good little girl and do the right thing, but there is no ‘right thing’ here. ‘Right’ doesn’t win this time, do you understand?”

I blink at him slowly, taking in his darkly handsome features like I’ve never seen him before.

And in a way, it feels like I haven’t.

I thought I had my guard up, I thought I was keeping me and Mom safe by not getting too comfortable, by being paranoid and suspicious of everyone here.

But it turns out, I wasn’t paranoid enough.

Things in this twisted world I’ve fallen into are more fucked up than I ever imagined.





16





Lincoln and I stare each other down for another full minute. But I’m the one who finally breaks the standoff. I turn away from him, snatch my phone and wallet off the bed with one hand, and storm toward the door.

I don’t shut it because I can’t trust myself not to slam it, and the light from inside the room spills out into the hallway behind me as I stride quickly toward the north side of the house, where my bedroom is located.

“Harlow, wait.”

It’s the second time one of them has called me by my name tonight, and just like the first time it happened, it makes me hesitate. As if there’s some power in the word that only they possess, as if it’s a command instead of just my name.

Lincoln’s voice is soft, but his grip on my elbow is hard as he forces me to a stop. He spins me to face him, and his eyes burn in the darkness as he gazes down at me.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” I whisper fiercely.

“No.” His expression hardens. “But I can tell you that I look out for the people I care about. I’d do anything to keep them from getting hurt. I told you we can’t go to the police, and I’ve been nice about it so far, but I don’t have to be. So think twice before you say anything about this to anyone.”