I don’t respond, but it’s not like he was expecting me to.
“You ready for this?” he questions with a slight hesitance in his tone, though anyone listening in right now would never be able to detect it.
“Try and fucking stop me, Noah,” I warn. “I’m seeing this through.”
His chin lowers, and again, no one but me would be able to decipher it. It’s not only his ‘go ahead,’ but it’s his way of telling me to take point. This guy beside me right now, this isn’t Noah Cage, my boyfriend and the guy who puts up with me teasing him about pink dildoes in his bedside table. This is Noah Fucking Cage, King of Haven Falls, Pack Leader and most feared badass around.
And that right there was the fucking King handing the reigns to his Queen.
The only thing that feels wrong about this is not having Tully and Rivers here with us. Without a doubt, they would know what’s going on. I’m sure I scrolled past a shitload of texts from Tully before looking at the video this morning, but I’ll call her later. Hell, I’m already out of my prison so I may as well head straight to the hospital and spend the day with her after this.
Rivers though, I can’t possibly understand why he isn’t here right now. That isn’t how we work. When a member of our pack needs something, we run. That’s just how it is, how it’s always going to be, so unless he’s in shit of his own, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he could be doing right now. I have a feeling Noah will have words with him about this later though.
Those two just haven’t been the same lately and it’s really tearing at me. I get the fight in the hospital; both their emotions were riding high and I can imagine that Noah’s still a bit pissed about Rivers breaking Tully’s heart despite the fact that he says otherwise. Now’s not the time to dwell on it though, I’m here to do a job and a damn good one at that.
We come to the end of the hallway with either a left or right turn and it hits me that I have no fucking clue where the hell Monica’s homeroom. I don’t want to stop. My feet refuse to quit moving so when Noah murmurs a quick, “Barrett’s room,” I find myself finally seeing the one good thing that came out of Noah dating the girl for all that time.
I turn to the left and head straight for Mr. Barrett’s room. It’s towards the end of this hallway and I don’t doubt that by the time we get down there, she will already know that I’m coming.
The door to Barrett’s room is closed and we don’t waste a second storming through it. Barrett’s head whips up from the papers on his desk and I see a scolding on his lips, but the second he realizes who stands at the door, he backs right down.
The teachers at this school aren’t stupid. They know what’s good for them and they know when the hell to back down. Times exactly like this.
A loud gasp sails through the class and my eyes instantly follow the sound.
Monica. Otherwise known as ‘dead fucking meat.’
Her eyes widen as I zone in on her and without a doubt, she knows she’s finished. Right now, she’s breathing on borrowed time and I can’t wait to bring her down. Again. Let's just hope she’s smart enough to stay down this time.
She sits towards the back of the room, in the furthest corner which I distantly realize is the further space possible from the three cheerleaders who sit across the other side of the room. Smart move on her part, if only she was smart enough not to challenge me again.
I cut up the closest aisle while Noah walks across the front of the room, taking the other aisle, blocking her way if she were to run.
Fear eats at her and I should feel sick knowing just how happy that makes me, but I don’t. I thrive on this shit, especially when it’s because of bitches like this.
The closer I get, the straighter she sits.
Three steps. She starts shaking her head as others sitting around her begin to pull away, terrified of getting caught in the middle.
“No. No, I didn’t…” Monica starts blabbering.
Two steps. She pulls back in her chair, her eyes flicking around the room in terror.
One step. She starts to rise, ready to make a break for it.
Too fucking late. The chance to run was after she jumped me, and she missed that shot by miles.
I rush in, slamming my hands down on either shoulder, forcing her back down into her chair. “I suggest you don’t fucking move,” I tell her.
Instinct has her fighting me off and the lesson Rivers had tried to teach me about thinking things through flies out the fucking window. I grab her by the back of the neck and slam her head down on the desk before me.
“I told you not to fucking move,” I seethe as Noah stands back, completely allowing me to take control. “You sent out that video. Is this what you want? To bring me down in front of the whole school? Because you know how I love to fight back. I’ve already taken you down, don’t think I won’t do it again.”
A thought flashes in my mind that I’m taking this too far and that it would be smart to back up a bit, but I can’t seem to stop myself. The pain from dad’s earlier revelation and the sting of watching myself on that video are too much for me too handle. My emotions are shoot and I’m desperate to get to the bottom this.
I can’t breathe. I need to see this through.
I need this to be over.
Monica sucks in a sharp breath as if only now realizing what a psycho bitch I can be. But hey, she’s the one who turned me into this.
Her eyes flick up to Noah and I see a silent plea, hoping that whatever history they have together is enough for him to sweep this under the rug. His only response is to fold his arms over his wide chest and raise his chin as he looks down at her through narrowed eyes. He looks scary as fuck, but I don’t blame him, this bitch just tried to hurt his queen.
Seeing that there’s no hope for her with Noah and no help coming from the other students in the room, she starts to backpedal. “I didn’t do it,” she cries. “The video wasn’t mine.”
I scoff. “Yeah fucking right. Do you forget who the bitch in that video is? You forget that I was there?” I squish her face harder into the desk. “You forget that it was my ribs you kicked over and over again?” I demand.
“After the blackmailing shit with the cheerleaders, you fucking expect me to think you didn’t organize someone to record that to use against me?”
“I did,” she yells out. “But I didn’t send it. I swear.”
Noah steps forward, slamming his hand down on the table, making us all jump. “Whose phone was it recorded on?”
“Tiffany’s,” she rushes out.
A gasp is heard from across the room and I look across to find Tiffany sitting up against the wall, her hands raised in innocence. “I filmed it,” she admits, too terrified to even dream of lying about it. “I sent it straight to Monica afterward and deleted it off my phone. I didn’t want the evidence.”
“Henley saved your fucking ass a few weeks ago and you didn’t think to do the same for her?”
Tiffany shrugs. “Sorry, but Henley offered to do it to get me on her side. I didn’t owe her anything.”
“You didn’t owe the girl who didn’t rat you out for jumping her and finding the dirt that Monica was using against you?” he questions. “You’re fucked up, but don’t you worry, we’ll deal with you in time.”
Fear flashes in her eyes as Noah turns back to Monica. Tiffany is a problem we can deal with another day, right now, Monica needs to be put back in place.
“Looks like the spotlight is back on you,” I murmur, deathly low to Monica, releasing her head and sitting on the edge of her desk, so close she has to crane her neck to see me. “Tell me, I’d love to hear your side of the story.”
She instantly starts shaking her head, tears springing in her eyes. “I swear, I didn’t do it.”
“Says the girls who lied about…well, everything.”
“I swear,” she repeats, looking between me and Noah. “I’ve done some fucked up things over the past six months that I’m not proud of. Like seriously fuc
ked up, but I’ve learned my lesson and kept my head down. I just want to graduate. Please, you’ve got to believe me.”
“And you’ve got to understand how fucking hard it is to do that,” I tell her. “You see, literally all of the evidence is pointing your way. You were the brains behind me being jumped. You’re the sad bitch who keeps blackmail to get yourself off. You’re the one who had the video. What am I supposed to think?”
“I know it looks bad, but I didn’t do it.” The tears start to fall and for the first time, I start doubting myself. “I swear, Henley. It wasn’t me. I haven’t been to any fucking parties and I haven’t tried to climb my way back up. I just want senior year to finish so I can get the fuck out of here. You’ve already ruined what little chance I had at having any sort of social status, so what could I possibly gain by sending out that video?”
I narrow my eyes on her. She has a fucking point.
“There are bitches all around this school who are dying to take you down. They all want what you have,” she continues, quickly glancing at Noah. “You have him, the grand fucking prize. You have the respect of the whole school and the status every girl wants. Anyone of them could have gained something by sending out that video, but not me. All I would have gained is a fucking smackdown. Lucky me, huh?”
“So, who the fuck sent it?” I demand. “It was on your fucking phone.”
She shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she says. “Anyone could have gotten it. Tiffany emailed it. Despite her deleting it off her phone, it would have still been in her sent emails. Someone could have hacked her phone, or mine, or hell, the fucking cloud. Everything stays on the fucking cloud.”
“Uhhh…” a nervous voice says from behind me. I whip around to face the designated school nerd. His name is Simon and he’s in my Biology class and despite the fact that I’m a fellow science nerd, I’ve never talked to him before.
My eyes narrow on him and he instantly snaps his mouth shut. He either has balls of steel or a death wish for interrupting my interrogation; either way, I’m going to find out which.
“Can I help you?” I demand, momentarily forgetting just how bitchy I can sound.
“I…I…I.”
“Spit it out,” Noah growls.
Simon swallows, his eyes flicking back. “I, uh, I could hack into the school network and find out where the blast originated from.”
I raise a brow. “You can do that?”
“Well, yes. It’s not exactly hard,” he says, spinning the phone on his desk around and showing me the video. He clicks into the sender's details. “It was sent from a school email.”
Noah snatches Simon’s phone off his desk and looks closer at it. “How the hell do you know that’s a school address?”
“I…I just do,” Simon says.
“Well,” I say turning back to Monica with a cocky smirk. “I guess we’ll find out who sent it after all.”
Noah hands the phone back to Simon and after a beat of him not doing anything, Noah grunts. "What the fuck are you waiting for? Find out who sent it.”
“Oh,” Simon says, sucking in a breath. “I need a computer.”
“Right, then,” I say, standing and stepping around to his desk. “Lead the way.”
Simon looks back at Mr. Barrett who studiously ignores him, not wanting anything to do with this. I watch Simon swallow and nod, probably cursing himself for getting himself involved.
As we walk towards the door, I refrain from smirking when Noah takes the long route, passing slowly by Tiffany’s desk and making her shrink back into the wall, terrified of what’s going to come.
As we step out into the hallway, Simon leads the way. He walks before us as Noah takes my hand. “Are you ok?”
“Think so,” I murmur. “I just want to get to the bottom of this.” I let out a sigh. “Call me crazy, but I don’t think Monica had anything to do with it, you know apart from being the star of the show and having Tiffany record it.”
“I think you’re right,” he murmurs into the too quiet hallway. “I just can’t work out who the fuck would have done it.”
“That’s the million dollar question,” I grumble to myself.
I hear someone walking quickly from the opposite end of the hallway and spin around, ready to take down whoever dares come at me now. “Henley,” Principal Evans calls out. He jogs a little to catch up with us. “I heard you were here.”
“News travels fast, huh?” I murmur.
“Yes, look. I know you’re not supposed to be back at school yet, so I wanted to catch you before you left,” he says. “I won’t keep you long, but I’ve just had a…colorful conversation with your dad. He informed me of what’s been going on this morning and I wanted you to know that we will get to the bottom of this. A full investigation will be held and the girls responsible for hurting you will be punished.”
“Thanks, but we handle our own drama.”
A dissatisfied look pierces across his face before he tries to right himself, remembering that despite my attitude, I’m the victim here. “No matter how you decide to handle it, it’s now a school matter as the video involves my students and has been spread throughout my school.”
“I said that we-”
“Henley,” Noah mutters beside me before looking up at Evans. “Thanks.”
Principal Evans nods and realizing that’s the best he’s going to get; he turns and walks away.
“What the hell was that?” I demand, giving Simon a nudge to get him moving again.
“It was principal Evans finally stepping up and doing something about the bullshit that goes down in this school. Candice and Monica have been dealt with by us, but they’re still walking through these halls every day. We might have taken away their social status, but have they really been punished for what they did? They deserve to suffer for putting their hands on you.”
“Yeah, but-”
“But nothing. It is what it is. Deal with it,” he tells me as we follow Simon into the computer lab.
He instantly sits down as Noah and I hover behind him, watching every move he makes. Simon powers up the computer and I impatiently wait while my phone burns a hole in my pocket, knowing that Tully is waiting for something from me.
The computer finally gets up and running and I watch in awe as Simon’s fingers move across the keyboard like lightning. He instantly hacks into the school network and starts doing something that I can’t even keep up with. “Are you able to somehow remove the video from all the people who got it?”
“Ahhh, maybe,” he says. “A lot of people got that blast. I could, but it’d take a while. I’m not exactly working for the FBI. I just play around.”
“Can you try?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he says. "But I can’t guarantee that the people who have already seen it, haven’t forward it on to other people.”
Damn it. I was worried about that. I need to know for sure.
“Don’t worry, babe,” Noah says, placing his hand on my lower back and spreading his fingers. “We’ll work on that. Can we just figure out who the hell sent it first?”
“Yeah,” I say, watching anxiously.
The conversation falls silent as we watch over Simon’s shoulder. “Alright,” he says after a little while. “I can see that the email was sent from computer five,” he says, quickly glancing across the room to the offending computer before getting back to it. “It was sent at 8:17am this morning,” he says slowly, piecing together the information as he’s getting it. “And it was logged in with the student ID – 7258.”
“Who the fuck is that?” Noah grunts as I take hold of his hand, giving it a squeeze.
“Hold on,” Simon murmurs, concentrating on the computer as he goes into the student records. “Alright, student ID – 7258 is…” he sucks in a breath, his back straightening. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” Noah demands.
I hear Simon swallow. “7258 is Rivers,” he tells us. “Rivers sent the blast.”
Unforgettable – Haven Falls (Book 4)
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Release: 20th August 2019
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Author Biography
Sheridan Anne is a wife to a smart-ass husband, Mumma to two beautiful girls, twin sister, daughter, and friend who lives in beautiful Australia. Sheridan writes both romance and young adult fantasy books on a variety of topics and can be found on most days with her family or writing during nap time. To find out more or to simply say ‘hello’, connect with her on Facebook or Instagram -
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Other Books by Sheridan Anne
www.amazon.com/Sheridan-Anne/e/B079TLXN6K
Teen & Young Adult - Paranormal Romance
The Guard Trilogy (3 Book Series)
Warriors of Light (3 Book Series - Coming Soon)
Young Adult / New Adult - Romance
The Broken Hill High Series (5 Book Series + Novella)
Haven Falls (6 Book Series)
New Adult Romance
Kings of Denver (4 Book Series)
Denver Royalty (3 Book Series)
Rebels Advocate (4 Book Series)
Untameable: Haven Falls (Book 3) Page 20
