Fallen Crest Family (Fallen Crest High #2)(23)

Yeah, I would. A small tingle sparked from the anticipation. Then I frowned. Peter—I cringed. That mean the Elite would be there, but of course they'd be there. Everyone was there. "Peter's here?"

He nodded.

That meant that Miranda was too. She had been dating Peter before she fell hook, line, and sinker for Logan. I tensed as I remembered the past few months. The Elite crowd at my school tried to use me to pull Mason and Logan into their group. More than a few times Logan had laughed in their faces. Miranda had referred to him as a manwhore and any girl who fell for him was a slut. So she looked like the fool when he turned his charms on her. It took one party, only one party, and she was walking around with his shirt on the next morning.

Logan dated her for a month. He had been persuaded to date her to protect me since she was the Queen Bee at my school and she made a few threats of making my life hell. If she was connected to Logan, she'd be happy and she wouldn't continue to go after me. But that hadn't been the real reason. That had only been the spin put on it so he would follow through with Mason's plan.

The real reason that Mason wanted Logan to date Miranda was to humiliate her. He knew if she started dating Logan, she would look like a hypocritical bitch. And she had. The rest of the Elite group revoked her role as their leader. She had condemned all the other girls for sleeping with Logan, only to dump her boyfriend of three years for him in one night?

The whole situation left me feeling uneasy. Logan had been used and he still didn't know it.

Mason wanted to hurt Miranda, but only Nate and I knew the real motivation behind it. Miranda pushed a button that Mason knew could've threatened his relationship with his brother. Me. There'd been another girl Logan had loved, really loved, who used him to get closer to Mason. Then I came into their lives. I fell in love with Mason, but he worried that Logan had feelings for me as well. When Miranda taunted him that he got the girl Logan really wanted, Mason nipped that threat in the bud. That was the real reason he had Nate convince Logan to screw her for a month.

Everything went off without a hitch.

Miranda's friends lost respect for her. Logan thought he was protecting me and Mason knew he wouldn't have to worry about Miranda anymore.

It left a sour taste in my mouth.

And then Adam dropped the last bomb. "Yeah, and I guess some of the Kades' cousins are here too. They brought half of the party with them when they showed with Logan."

"Logan's here?" I jerked forward in my seat. My heart started racing. Logan was here. Mason was here. This party was too big for any parent not to know about. I had to get out of there. "Stop. Stop the car."

"What—wait!"

It was too late.

He slowed for another group of people that crossed the driveway and I shot out of there. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going, but I started to run towards the road. My heart was pounding; it was a solid thump in my ears. The same panic started again, it threatened to choke me, but I kept going.

I was distantly aware of Adam calling my name, but I kept going.

"Hey, whoa!" A husky chuckle sounded next to me as I tore through a group. An arm snaked in front of my chest. As I ran into it, I started to fall, but a strong arm curled into my waist and I was lifted before I fell to the ground. I was held against a massive chest, but I gulped as I saw Heather through a haze in my eyes.

She'd been laughing before. I saw the small lines still around the corners of her lips, but she grew serious as she saw my fear. My chest kept heaving up and down and I clawed at the arm that held me in place. He grunted behind me. "Damn, Heather. She's going to make me bleed."

"Hold her still, Norm!" Heather snapped at him. She softened her voice and brushed some of my hair out of my eyes. "Hey, hey. What's going on? What's wrong? What happened between here and Manny's?"

"You know this chick, Heather?" A different voice chimed in.

She gave him a dirty look over her shoulder. "Yeah,so shut your pie-hole. She's my friend."

"She's Kade's bitch. Drop her, Norm."

"Shut up, Channing!" She gave Norm a look over my shoulder. "You drop her and I will rip your balls off tonight after you've passed out. She's my friend."

The arm tightened around me. A deep voice rumbled through the chest that held me. "I don't know, Heather. I don't want to mess with the Kades. They might be rich pricks, but they don't mess around."

"They're not preps, Heather." That same voice argued from the side. It was low and full of warning. "You might like the girl, but she's theirs. We shouldn't even be here. I knew it was a stupid idea to come."

Heather's eyes snapped in irritation before she twisted back around. "There are no other parties. This one is it. Besides, we're not doing anything wrong. I know this girl and she's scared. I want to know what happened—"

"And if it's because the Kades did something to her? What then?" the guy mused. He didn't sound threatened, just reasonable. "She's not our problem. You're not sticking your neck out for her."

Her mouth dropped, ready to fight back—

He spoke over her, "I don't care. You're not pulling us into a fight against them and I won't let them hurt you. If it comes to it, we're walking away. All of us. You too."