Untouched (Bay Falls High, #1)(16)

I bent my knees and moved down and grabbed the rubber rat by its tail.

I pulled it toward my nose and smelled it.

“Cologne,” I whispered. “I know the cologne.”

“You know the cologne?”

I turned my head. My eyes met Beth’s. In a way she already knew. But I spoke the name anyway.

“Tall, hot guy,” I said.

“What?” she asked, laughing.

“Tall, hot guy,” I said. “That’s how I know him. I never got his actual name.”

“Tall, hot guy?” she asked. “There’s a lot of those here.”

“Not this guy. And he’s friends with sexy smoker.”

“Sexy smoker?” Beth asked.

“And then there’s Kip,” I said. “At least he was nice enough to-”

Beth grabbed my arm forcefully. “Did you just say Kip?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Say it again.”

“Kip…”

Beth ripped the rubber rat from my hand. She slammed my locker shut. The bell rang for our next class but something told me she didn’t care about that.

She pulled at my arm, going toward a door. When we passed a trashcan, she quickly tossed the rat.

“Beth, what’s going on?” I called out.

She looked back at me. “I have to get you out of here, Ti. Before it’s too late.”

I opened my mouth to ask too late for what? but Beth was already moving again.

I looked back as she opened the door, hoping we weren’t going to get caught.

And there he was. Standing at the end of the hallway, thick, muscular arms folded, mean, devilish eyes pointed right at me.

Tall, hot guy… watching… waiting… stalking…





“How did this happen?” Beth asked.

“What?”

“How did they figure you out? Or care about you?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

I watched tall, hot guy try to kill someone…

“I think I saw one of them at the beach,” I said. “I don’t know. I wasn’t paying attention. I was on the phone with my mother…”

“Your mother?”

“She’s sick,” I said. “In the hospital. That’s why I’m here.”

“Oh, damn, I’m sorry. She going to be okay?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I could have stayed back home. Maybe I should have.”

“I told you about this,” Beth said.

“Told me what?”

“The rules… I mean… with a z…”

“You mean rulz?” I asked.

“No, Ti. Listen to me. They are the Rulz. As in don’t mess with the Rulz. Don’t break the Rulz. Don’t push back against the Rulz…”

I shook my head. “I still don’t understand.”

“They are the school. They are… even outside the school.”

“Meaning?”

“The richest. The most powerful. They could do anything to anyone and get away with it.”

“Why?”

“Because if someone talks, they go down. Hard. That’s why. Their families are just as powerful. You cannot imagine how far they can reach. It’s not just a BFH thing.”

“Okay, you’re starting to scare me, Beth,” I said.

“Good,” she said. She looked around. “Come with me.”

She took my hand and led me toward the garden.

Just seeing the flowers made me shiver. Thinking about the three of them - the Rulz - standing there, side by side, after setting me up to send a clear message that I had screwed up big time. And to think if I hadn’t gone down to the beach… or if I hadn’t instantly trusted Kip’s kind eyes…

Or better yet why not just tell Claire? She was powerful in her own right. She was a rich badass woman who could take care of herself. Maybe she could make a call or two and tell these assholes to leave me alone.

Beth took me to the exact spot where I had seen sexy smoker with his foot up on the stone bench.

I hated cigarettes and smoking but when he stood there, exhaling the smoke into my face…

“Who are they?” I asked.

“You said Kip’s name,” Beth said.

“Yeah.”

“The other two are Barr and Pres.”

“Barr and Pres,” I whispered. “Who is the sexy smoker?”

“That would be Barr,” Beth said.

“Barr,” I said. “So Pres was the one I saw at the beach then.”

“I guess.”

“He was,” I said.

Now I had to picture it all again. Replay everything I had seen now that I knew his name. His height and the width of his shoulders. The way he punched that other guy right into the water. The way he threw the guy around like a junked toy. And then holding him under the water…

Or better yet the sound of his voice.

I don’t know who you are, sugar, but you better catch a case of amnesia… and catch a case of being homesick. You don’t belong here. And I won’t give another warning.

He was the one who called me a rat. He was the one who put a rat in my locker.