Broken: A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance (An Evergreen Academy Novel Book 2)

by Ruby Vincent

  I snorted. “I can believe it. Olivia was spitting. I told her everything over the administration phone and she demanded I put Evergreen on the line. I don’t know what she said to him, but he went redder than a maraschino cherry.”

  “I hope she tore him a new asshole. He took away everything that makes Evergreen bearable. I almost feel bad for approving this plan.”

  “We didn’t make Evergreen do these things. And maybe if he cared as much about this school actually being a better place as he does about it appearing like one, then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  She heaved a sigh. “Let’s not talk about this anymore. Finals are coming up and then we’ll be free of this place. Tell me you’re coming to stay again.”

  “I can’t. I’ve been away from Adam for so long, and I think your mom might develop a permanent wrinkle between her brows if I show up with a baby again.”

  “Goodness. You know, I don’t think other big sisters love their brothers as much as you do.”

  I just smiled. “None of them are as cute as him.”

  “I can’t argue with that.” Sofia leaned in and snuggled into my side. “Would your mom mind if I came to stay with you?”

  “No way. It would be amazing if you came over again. We had so much fun last year.”

  “Yay. Then it’s settled.”

  “Will Madeline keep our secret? It would be a disaster if people here found out where you went.”

  “She won’t tell. I’ll make sure of it.”

  We talked for a little more and then I said I had to go. Finals were coming up and this year was no less hard than the first. I was heading back to my room to get my textbooks and then I was spending this beautiful November Saturday in the library.

  I passed lounging couples on the quad and slipped into the main building. The hallway was hushed; the only sounds breaking the silence were my soft footfalls. I pushed through the double doors and stepped into the courtyard.

  Pausing on the cobblestones, I filled my lungs with crisp air. I loved it out here. Everyone hung out in the quad so I had this space to myself to listen to the cackling crows and the bubbling of the fountains. Somedays I liked to bring out a blanket and study out here.

  Maybe I’ll do that today instead of going to the library. Can’t let this go to—

  “Valentina! Look out!”

  My head whipped around just as a streak tackled me.

  Crash!

  I screamed as we fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. They came down on me hard, punching the air from my lungs as something showered us.

  “Shit. Are you okay?!”

  I couldn’t speak. I struggled to catch my breath as the person climbed off of me and came into focus. Jaxson’s golden locks brushed my forehead as he bent over me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you so hard.”

  Jaxson straightened, and all of a sudden, I was rising with him. He lifted me into his arms and cradled me to his chest. From my position, I got a look at the planter that crashed into the spot I had just been standing in. The breath left my lungs again for an entirely different reason.

  “Come on. We need to get out of here.”

  Jaxson stuck his head out of the overhang, scanning above him, then he took off with me in his arms. If my mind hadn’t have gone white with panic, I might have stopped him but the only thing I could register was the sickly shiver that started in my spine and was spreading through the rest of my body.

  I would have died if he hadn’t saved me.

  Jaxson ran all the way to my building. “Valentina, where’s the key? We need to get inside.”

  I tried to reach for my pocket but my hand was shaking too much to go inside.

  “It’s okay. I got it.”

  Jaxson put me on my feet and I stumbled. He caught me before my legs could give out. Holding me up with one hand, he used the other to get my keys and let us inside. Jaxson firmly shut and locked the door, and then I was in his arms again.

  “Wait...” I managed.

  He didn’t slow down. Jaxson bounded up the stairs and made for my room without me having to tell him where to go.

  I was trembling worse than ever as he let himself inside and crossed the room to my bed. He gently placed me down and pulled the covers to my chin.

  “You should be safe here. I’ll go—”

  Jaxson made to get up but my hand flashed out of the blanket. I gripped him so tightly he cringed at the nails digging half-moons into his wrist.

  “D-d-don’t—” I gasped. The band around my chest was tightening; I felt like I would never breathe again.

  “Alright, I get it.” Jaxson grabbed my hand and extracted his wrist from my clutches. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  He said that, but when he stood again, my heart squeezed. “N-no.”

  Jaxson continued what he was doing. He toed off his sneakers, and my mattress dipped as he climbed up and settled down next to me. Jaxson stayed above the covers, but that didn’t stop me from feeling his heat as he pulled me to him and draped one arm over my waist. The other stroked my hair, brushing it back the way I would never tell him I loved.

  I didn’t know how long we lay there, but no words passed between us as the light from my window dimmed to a dusky orange. Slowly, my racing heart eased back into its normal rhythm and my shakes went away.

  Still, it was a long time before I trusted myself to speak.

  “Jaxson?”

  “Yes?” His lips were right next to my ear, and his breath on the back of my neck made goose bumps erupt on my skin. I was highly aware of the fact I was cuddling with my enemy in an empty building.

  “Did you... see who it was?”

  “No.” His finger was still playing in my hair. It was highly distracting. “I saw that thing coming for you and reacted. I didn’t look up.”

  “I would have died,” I whispered. “I’m always in the courtyard alone. If you hadn’t seen—” A realization came crashing through my mind. “Hang on. What the hell were you doing there anyway? I’m always there alone.”

  I felt his shrug against my back. “You’re going to be pissed, but keep in mind I saved your life. You’ve got Ryder and Ricky jumpy about what you’re going to do next. Ryder doesn’t like how quiet you’ve been so he told me to follow you around.”

  “What?!” I sprang up, knocking his hand off me. “You’ve been stalking me?! For how long?!”

  Jaxson put his arms behind his head and fell onto his back. He looked totally comfortable in my bed. “Only a few days, but like I said, it’s because of that I saved your life, so you’re not allowed to be mad at me.”

  “You wanna bet?” I pointed at the door. “Get out.”

  “Why?” His grin was wicked. “I thought we were spooning, baby.”

  My cheeks were on fire. I couldn’t believe this asshole.

  “I’m glad I was there,” he went on. The smirk faded. “That could have been really bad, Valentina.”

  I swallowed hard. “I know... Thank you.”

  “We don’t want you dead,” he replied. “Not even Ryder.”

  Jaxson tugged on one of my folded arms and pulled me down. I didn’t let myself think as he rested my head over his heart. It thump, thump, thumped in my ear while he put his arms around me once more.

  “Are you feeling better?”

  “Yes,” I mumbled. The heat was spreading from my cheeks and zinging through my veins. I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I had even less of a clue about what he was doing. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

  “It’s what happens when we reach the point in the relationship when you’ve seen me naked.” Jaxson must have been burning up because I was hotter than a stove now. “Just wait and see how nice I’ll be when I see you naked.”

  “You’re not going to see me naked,” I retorted automatically.

  “Bet you thought I’d never end up in your bed either, and look at us now.”

  “How can you make jokes, Jaxson? I know you hate me for leaking t
hose songs.”

  Jaxson stilled. “So you’re finally done pretending it wasn’t you?”

  “We both know it was me so why pretend? I did it, and I would do it again. Stop acting like you’re not pissed.”

  “I wasn’t pissed. I was fucking out-of-my-mind raging after what you did to me. My dad banned me from the studio and has barely taken my calls since the songs got out. Also, Interstellar Records is in some serious legal shit. I wanted to get back at you and hard.”

  The stupidity of allowing this guy to be alone with me would have been hitting me if it wasn’t for something he kept saying. “Why are you talking in past tense?”

  “Because I realized sometime around you breaking your own damn nose... that you must be feeling the same thing. We— I did some really awful shit to you. I went way too far, and honestly, you let me off easy.”

  I couldn’t believe what he was saying. Did he really mean it? “Jaxson, if this is some kind of trick—”

  “It’s not a trick. I don’t know about the other guys, but it’s over for me. I hit you hard; you struck back. We’re even.” His arm tightened around me. “If you don’t believe me, then think about the fact that I know you’ve been hanging with my girl Sofia in some secret rooftop hideout and I haven’t told Ryder.”

  I snapped my head up. “Oh no, Jaxson, you can’t say anything! If people come after her—”

  “I’m not going to tell anyone. I’m tired of hurting you, Val, especially when I don’t know why I have to.”

  My chin sank back on his chest. “I’m not sure what to do with this.”

  “Do you still want revenge against me?”

  “No,” I admitted. “I’m done.”

  “And I’m done too. So let’s just start there.”

  I didn’t reply. I didn’t know how to.

  “Besides,” he began, “we have bigger problems. Whoever is after you isn’t playing around. What if the next time, I’m not there?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What happened to the bodyguard?”

  “I couldn’t trust her.”

  “Then find one you can.”

  I peered at him. “You’re not going to tell me to drop out?”

  “I might if I thought for a second your stubborn ass would listen.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, I think the last year made it clear to everyone that I won’t.”

  A smile tugged at his own lips. “You want to stick around, then fine. The Spades can’t say I didn’t do my part to get you out, but now you’ve got bigger problems. You’ve got to play this a lot smarter.”

  “You honestly don’t know who they are. The Spades.”

  He shook his head. “No one does. Not who or how many.”

  “But fear of them was enough for you to humiliate me in front of the planet.”

  Jaxson’s face shuttered closed. He turned away.

  “Why did you do it?” I pressed. “You admit you went too far, so why?”

  “There is no excuse.”

  “I want one anyway. Tell me why.”

  The line of his jaw grew hard with tension. “Because... I was scared. I’ve heard the stories of the Spades, and the things they’ve done to people. The lives they’ve ruined. I didn’t want me and Dad to be next.” Sighing, Jaxson heaved himself up on his elbow and looked down at me. “I thought I was making the right choice. My family or you. But the truth was I was just being a coward.”

  I had never heard Jaxson talk like this before, and my head spun with everything he was telling me.

  Jaxson placed a finger under my chin. Twin orbs of shining blue drew me in and drowned me. “I’m sorry, Valentina.”

  “They were wrong,” I said so softly my lips barely moved. “You’re not the stupid one.”

  A grin spread across his face. “That’s what I keep telling people.”

  This time, it was me pushing him back down and settling into his arms.

  “WON’T WE GET IN TROUBLE for this?” Jaxson plucked the chip from my hand and popped it into his mouth. “Hey.”

  We hadn’t left my room all day, and by midnight our stomachs were letting us have it for the missed meals. Thankfully, I had plenty of junk stashed away.

  “Get in trouble for what?” he asked.

  “There are cameras all over this place so Gus knows you’re here. Honestly, I’ve been waiting for him to bust the door down.”

  Part of me also might have been hoping he would bust the door down. This entire day didn’t feel real. I couldn’t comprehend being here with Jaxson, and a piece of me was still holding out that this was some evil trick. Jaxson hadn’t pushed for us to do more than cuddle, but even if he did, I knew I couldn’t let it happen. My heart wasn’t in a place to trust him.

  Jaxson paused the movie we were watching and shifted to face me. “Gus knows I’m a Knight. He won’t be busting anything down.”

  I gaped at him. “So you’re just allowed to come and go out of girls’ rooms as you want? Is there no end to the things you guys are allowed to get away with?”

  He laughed. “I still haven’t managed to get Wheeldon off my ass so we can’t get away with everything. For some reason that guy doesn’t like me. What’s that about? Everyone likes me.”

  I giggled. I could say a lot about Jaxson—and I have—but the guy did make me laugh. “He about busted a blood vessel the first time you called him ‘homie.’”

  He put up his hands. “Exactly. That’s a mark of friendship and he almost lost his mind.” He shook his head. “I just don’t get that guy.”

  “You’re such an idiot.” I took a chip and shoved it into his mouth.

  Jaxson chuckled between chewing. “No one around here likes the way I talk, but I see it as a plus that while my friends were taking elocution classes, I was running around the feet of the biggest names in music.”

  “I’d trade elocution classes for that in a hot second.” I rested against my headboard. “Must have been amazing.”

  “It was.” Jaxson’s eyes slid off my face, becoming unfocused. “My mom wasn’t about all this stuff. Money, cars, weekend trips to Europe. She grew up in a place a lot like your neighborhood, and met Papa Van Zandt when he was still searching dive bars for local talent.”

  “She was a singer?”

  “No, a drummer. Dad said the first time he saw her, he had to come back the next time to listen to the band play because he spent the whole time out of it and just staring at her. I remember sitting on her lap while she played, but not much else. She died when I was five.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  I took his hand in mind and he didn’t waste the opportunity to lace our fingers together.

  “She didn’t want our family to be like the rest around here. Parents never around. Kids being raised by nannies and bank accounts. So when she passed, Dad kept his promise and brought me to work with him and... I loved it. Me and Dad are closer than most people are and the music I’ve gotten to listen to with him was incredible.” The smile faded. “But I ruined that.”

  I lowered my eyes. “Jaxson, I’m—”

  “No, don’t apologize.” The intensity in his voice made me meet his gaze. “I deserved what you did. We both know that.”

  “You did, but I only wanted to hurt you, not your dad or the label.” I blew out a breath. “I love Levi Van Zandt. Not kidding. Love. If he asked, I’d be your stepmom in a heartbeat.”

  Jaxson’s mouth fell open. “What the fuck, Moon?”

  I clapped my hand over my mouth to hold in my laughter.

  “Take it back.”

  “No.”

  “Do it.”

  “Never.”

  “That’s it.”

  I squealed when Jaxson pounced. His fingers skittered all over my body as he tickled me into submission. We were both laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe.

  “Okay, okay!” I cried. “I take it back.”

  “Good.” Jaxson hovered over me. His legs were splayed on either side as he straddle
d me. “Don’t make me have to teach you this lesson again.”

  “You might,” I teased. “I’m a stubborn ass, remember. I don’t learn easy.” I gripped his shoulders and shoved, pushing him down until our roles were reversed. “Can I ask you a question? It’s something I’ve always wondered.”

  He nodded.

  “How did you, Ezra, Maverick, and Ryder become friends? You guys aren’t even kind of alike.”

  “What’s that got to do with anything? You’re nothing like Richards. She’s as sweet as that honey her mom peddles, and you’re as ruthless as it gets, and I mean that with mad respect.”

  I flicked him on the forehead.

  “Ow. See what I mean?”

  Rolling my eyes, I said, “Will you just answer the question?”

  “Okay, okay.” Jaxson fell back onto the pillow. His grin faded under a serious expression I rarely got to see. “We are different, but stuff like that doesn’t really matter. Sometimes things happen—big things. And it binds people together so freaking tight that you have to be friends... because no one else will ever understand you like they do.” He shook himself. “You probably don’t get that—”

  “I get it.” I climbed off and lay down next to him. “I understand perfectly.”

  I HAD THE DREAM THAT night.

  The awful routine of waking up gasping with my sheets soaked in sweat was not one I missed.

  My fingers were clumsy as I reached for my hidden phone. I had Mom on the screen and my finger hovering over the call button when I stopped.

  I hadn’t had the dream in months, but after nearly being killed, I wasn’t surprised it had come back.

  Maybe part of me knew it would. That’s why I sent Jaxson away.

  It had been obvious that he wanted to stay, but I made him leave around three in the morning. I couldn’t deny I had fun with him, nor could I deny that he had saved my life, but I was a long way off from sleepovers.

  What are we now? I thought as I stripped my sheets. Friends? Non-enemies? Two people who spend an afternoon eating chips and watching movies and then go back to avoiding each other?

  All I knew for sure is that my feelings toward the other Knights hadn’t changed. Ryder and Maverick were still names begging to be taken off my list. Maybe being with Jaxson hadn’t kept the dreams away, but planning revenge against him and the rest had.