Take (Need #2)(78)

“She could be f*cking the pope and every crack-dealing pimp within a two state radius, and guess what, whore?” Ashley sneers. “She’d still be f*cking better than you!”

Despite everything going on, that comment makes me want to laugh.

I love my girls.

Jennifer glares at Ashley, but it doesn’t take her long to redirect her venom back at me. “What are you going to do when everyone finds out about you and Brayden, huh?”

My first impulse is to tell her, “It doesn’t matter, bitch, because I’ll still be the one f*cking that cock.” I want to spite her. Lay a claim on what’s mine.

Something holds me back. Jennifer is studying me just as hard as I’m studying her. As if . . .

She’s unsure.

This bitch is probing. Looking for proof. She’s not as certain of what’s happening between me and Brayden as she’s pretending to be.

It makes me sick to my stomach, but I have to deny it. Lie. What’s happening to Brayden is bad enough. The last thing we need to handle right now is the social implosion this would cause us if Jennifer decided to spread her suspicions.

God, I hate this chick. Now more than ever.

“You should try learning your lesson and moving on, Jenn. Maybe then you wouldn’t be jealous of every girl he spends time with instead of you.” I turn to get into the car.

“You’re the only girl he spends time with!”

Damn right. Because right now, his body is mine. His heart, too. I just don’t know how long I’ll own both.

Not that it’s going to stop me from going to him.

“You think you know the truth about me and him, but you don’t know shit.” It’s the last thing I tell her. I’m the first one to get into the car. My friends take a bit longer, and I know it’s because they’re staring Jennifer down, daring her to say something else about me.

Eventually, Jennifer turns to leave, and one by one my friends get into the car.

“What a f*cking skank.” Marilyn slams the front passenger door closed.

Jenna gets into the driver’s side. “I want to slice her face apart. I know that’s probably wrong of me to say, but I’d love to disfigure the bitch for life.”

“It’s not wrong. She has it coming.” Ashley gets in last. “I don’t know how we’re going to keep her from running her mouth.”

I don’t either, and I can’t think on it. Jennifer’s gone. My mind fixates on Brayden once more and how worried I am for him. I don’t know what possesses me to try looking into his phone.

Jenna’s driving as fast as she legally can. When I swipe my thumb across the screen, I almost gasp with shock. There’s no passcode. It automatically takes me to the home page, and the first thing I see is my picture.

It’s a picture of me sleeping in his bed, my arms curled around one of his pillows. He caught me with the sunlight illuminating my features, and goddamn it, there’s a smile on my face.

I’d probably been dreaming about him. About all the things he’d done to me the night before.

Heart in my throat, I open up his gallery.

Me.

Nothing but my pictures as far as I can freaking see.

In a lot of them, I’m asleep. In others, I’m awake and he somehow managed to catch me unaware.

Others are from my Facebook. He must have downloaded close to a dozen of my pics.

“Oh, Brayden,” I whisper, closing my eyes as two tears leak out. Yes, it’s his fault he engaged Austin. Both their faults that they couldn’t control themselves.

I can’t get out of my head how vicious the fight was.

They’d been two men out to truly kill each other. Had the cops not arrived, God knows what would have happened to either one of them.

I don’t know what’s going to happen to Brayden now. His father still pays for his college tuition. He’s going to kill Brayden when he finds out about this.

More tears leak out.

Afraid one of the girls will see, I try to surreptitiously wipe away the tears and turn my head to stare out the window. It takes me a while to even realize I’m hugging Brayden’s phone to my chest tightly.

Ashley rubs my shoulder soothingly again—her go-to comfort move. “Kira?”

“Hm?” I don’t look at her.

“I know there’s a lot of bad feelings between you and Brayden, that he hurt you really bad in the past. Even if you don’t tell us the details, it’s obvious.”

I have no idea where she’s going with this, so I remain quiet.

“Have you ever entertained the idea that . . .” She pauses, and I hear her take a deep breath. “Girl,” she says in a low tone. “I think it’s obvious you’re still in love with him.”

It’s like being stabbed in the chest, but it’s something I had already admitted to myself deep, deep down.

I still love that crazy, stubborn *.

It’s why I’m in this car heading to him. Why I, without responding to Ashley, beg Jenna to go faster.

It’s the most frightening, uncertain moment of my life.

For all I know, by tonight, the entire town will be filled with the rumor that I’m sleeping with my stepbrother.

By tonight, Brayden’s father might ruin his life further and decide to no longer help him with college.