by James Tate
“Miss Deboise?” the teacher asked with a small hesitation over my name. “Is everything okay?” Her gaze was serious, encouraging me to fess up and report the bullying. But I wasn’t stupid. The teachers held considerably less power in this academy than most. Saying anything would only result in more bullying for me and probably a loss of job for her.
The rest of the class went by uneventfully. I hadn’t really reacted to their big reveal, which left them all a little shocked, from what I could tell. Not that it stopped the slutwhoreslut comments or the catcalls from the guys when I left the classroom.
I’d been the last one out, which was pure survival instinct, but they were waiting for me at the door.
I lurched back as a bag of trash was thrown at me. It tumbled to the floor and then there were condoms everywhere. Like hundreds of them, some even looked used.
“We gathered this from your last whore-session,” a chick said, laughing at me as I stared down with disgust.
“Hope you’re getting well compensated,” another called out, and I shook my head, ready to fight my way through this crowd.
“Get the fuck out of my way,” I said without inflection. It was a game now, refusing to let them see me break. They were not going to break me.
A familiar face came into view, and our eyes locked. Hers were glittering with mirth and evil intent, the smallest of an asshole smile on her face. Katelyn Huntley did not participate in the bullying, but she was there, watching, and enjoying it all.
I had a sneaking suspicion that she was the one orchestrating this all behind the scenes. But to what end? What was this bitch doing in Delta’s school? Was it just about making sure the five heirs were divided? Or was there something even more sinister in her plan?
Her smile grew, and she winked before pushing her way through the crowd and out of my line of sight.
Shit! She was definitely up to no good.
I had no time to worry about that though, I had to get the fuck out of this group of dickbags that were trying to get a rise out of me. Just as I raised my fists, ready to make good on my promise, the crowd stepped aside, finally allowing me to exit the classroom. I ground to a halt when I realized that they hadn’t moved for me. Beck, Dylan, Jasper, and Evan stood in a row, their faces completely unreadable, but I knew the four of them well enough by now to see the fire in their eyes. That slight rigidness to their jaws. The cut of muscles in Beck’s arms that said he was about to lose his shit.
The memory of his arms around me last night slammed into my mind, and I actually shook my head to try and dispel the thought. I had to stay strong. I could deal with this. I did not need to run back to the guys who had betrayed me.
Jasper took a step forward before he halted and squeezed his eyes shut for the briefest of seconds.
He was remembering that he couldn’t help me here. That none of them could protect me.
It was my choice, and I needed to live with it.
“Hey, assholes,” I said as I strolled past. “Here to join the revelry? Apparently I do a four for one in my whore sessions now.”
There were more beeps across all the phones around us then, and with trepidation, I pulled mine out and tried to mentally prepare myself for whatever was about to happen now.
Only it was blank. As was the previous email that was still sitting in my inbox. Someone had gone through and wiped all of the emails, somehow. That would have taken some high tech hacking to achieve such a feat.
Beck gave me the briefest nod that I knew no one else caught, and then he turned and left, his friends at his side.
Fuck. My chest ached, his actions slicing away at the shield I wore around my heart. The memories, my anger, all fading under the smallest of actions from the Delta guys. Fuck.
11
I made it through the rest of the day without too much trouble. Which only made me suspicious for what they had planned next. That night Beck showed up silently, and before I could even say a word, he strode across and climbed into my bed.
“Uh, what are you doing?” I demanded, trying to figure out if I was seeing him correctly. “Get the fuck out of my bed.”
He shook his head before he reached over and grabbed the back of his Henley, slowly pulling it up over his head. I swallowed hard as his body was revealed, piece by delicious piece. “You don’t have nightmares when I hold you,” he said after he’d finished tormenting me. “Let’s just cut out the middle man here, and start the night how it’s going to end.”
I spluttered and glared and stomped around the room, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to move his stubborn ass, and I sure as fuck was not sleeping on the couch in my own home, so I dressed in my most revealing pajamas—because if I had to suffer, so did he—and I strolled across the room, as slowly and sexily as I could.
I felt a little like a baby giraffe trying to walk for the first time as I swung my hips, but Beck didn’t seem to mind. His eyes dark and glittering as he watched me cross the room. I wore just a tiny pair of boy shorts and a cropped top that revealed my stomach and most of my boobs.
When I crawled into my side of the bed, I swung around and pointed a finger at Beck. “If you touch me, I will rip your dick off. Got it?”
His smile grew, but he didn’t make any promises, and I wondered how the hell I would sleep with this fluttering brush of butterflies all through my body. Being near him was like being near a live wire. I could feel the energy, the buzz, and the danger.
So much fucking danger. Why the hell couldn’t I stay away? Because I was kidding myself to think it was just one sided. I fought him, but not as hard as I should have been. In some masochistic way, I liked torturing myself as long as he was close.
And we were back to needing therapy.
Somehow I slept, and not a single dream came along to bother me. Which did fucking bother me, because Beck was the reason for my nightmares, and I hated that he was the one who also kept them at bay. At least he was gone when I got up, and I tried not to think about how much my pillow smelled like Beck, indicating we’d spent the night wrapped up together, as always.
Dressing for school felt a little like dressing for a funeral. I was depressed as I pulled on the stupid uniform and slid my feet into my Converse. Fuck wearing heels today. I didn’t even care if I got detention.
My phone beeped when Eddy was out front, and she hugged me hard when I got in. “How are you doing today?” she asked seriously.
I snorted. “Well … they haven’t broken me yet.”
She laughed, but it was strained. “I’m not going to ask you to reconsider again, because I’m starting to realize that you might just be the most stubborn of the heirs, but … let me know if anything bad happens. I have some pull still, and I will not fucking hesitate to cut a bitch. You hear me?”
I shot her a grateful smile. Even after everything, including me trying my best to push her out of my life—out of self-preservation from anything Delta related, and also fear that Catherine would make good on her threat to hurt her—Eddy had been loyal and steadfast. She’d stayed by my side. Accepted my many flaws, and never gave up.
“I love you, girl,” I said, staring out the window because I wasn’t the best with the emotional shit.
“Love you too,” Eddy said. “Even if you are an idiot.”
Couldn’t argue with that.
We were late to school today, and I should have been on high alert with so many students around, but I really couldn’t find the energy to give a fuck. Maybe it was emotional overload, but I was starting to feel a blank sort of acceptance of my current situation. It was depressing, and it hurt worst because I missed my parents more every fucking day. It hurt so badly that I still could barely even think about them.
“See you in chem,” Eddy said when she left me at the door and headed off in the opposite direction.
I nodded, still caught up in my own head. In my own pain.
Maybe if I’d been paying attention I would have noticed the looks. The gathering of students in
odd positions, groups that were blocking off doorways and stopping people getting through. Maybe I would have noticed Katelyn, with her evil smirk, standing at the head of the hall, watching me as I stumbled along. Maybe I would have noticed and protected myself before the first fist swung out and slammed into the side of my head.
I stumbled into the crowd on the opposite side as something hit me again. I had to blink for a second as my brain shorted out. What the fuck had just happened? I was shoved again, and then slapped, all of it happening so fast that my brain was struggling to catch up with it all.
“What the fuck,” I growled. Dropping my bag, I tried to face the next threat.
The faces around me were dark and creased in evil intent, and one thing was strongly clear: they wanted to hurt me badly enough that I would be forced to leave.
“You don’t belong here, slut,” a girl shouted as she slapped at me again.
I managed to slam my fist into her nose before she got another word out, but there were too many for me to fight them all. Hands pulled at me, slamming me into a wall of lockers, and then I was pressed against it by a huge body. I managed to turn my head to see him, squinting at the guy. I didn’t recognize him immediately, as he jammed the hard lines of his body right into my ass.
“Stuck up bitch,” he whispered in my ear, dry breath and spit somehow landing on me at the same time. “You’ll give it up for everyone else in this school, but not for me?”
It was then I remembered exactly who he was. That dirty blond hair and watery blue eyes. He was the one who had grabbed me at my first party here, the one who didn’t like to take no for an answer.
Throwing myself back, I kicked and struggled as hard as I could to dislodge him, but he was so much stronger and bigger than me, that I had almost no leverage to move. He continued to press his dick into me, his hands roughly gripping my boobs, squeezing them to the point of pain.
“Let me go!” I screamed before a hand came up to wrap across my mouth. It wasn’t his hand; he had friends helping him out. Someone else wrapped their hand in my hair, yanking my head painfully back, and I screamed against the palm holding me.
Everything in my head went dark and scary, and I fought against the panic because that would get me nowhere. I needed a level head if I wanted a chance to get out of this situation relatively unharmed.
I mean, he wouldn’t rape me right here in the hallway, right? In front of everyone?
Before that thought could even settle in my head, I was being lifted, multiple hands preventing my kicking and fighting limbs from connecting to anyone, and then we were in a classroom. Just like the other day with Beck, I was dragged into a space that I didn’t want to be in, but unlike with Beck, I was absolutely fucking terrified right now.
“Hold her down,” one of the guys said quickly, and I tried to bite the hand over my mouth so I could scream again. There were too many of them. At least six guys that I could roughly see from where they held me and all of them bigger and stronger than me.
“We need to hurry before a teacher investigates,” another one of them said. “There’s bound to be more than one snitch out there.”
I was slammed into the ground, and the hand over my mouth slipped, and I let loose with a bloodcurdling scream, knowing that it might be my one shot at getting help. Something hard crashed into the side of my head, and everything went dark for a minute. I couldn’t pass out yet, I had to fight more, so I forced myself to focus.
I tried to buck off the heavy body pressing me down. The hand was removed from my mouth again, and just as I went to scream, a rough, bruising sort of kiss pressed against my lips. I bit at the tongue that was trying to invade my mouth, all the while trying not to vomit at the perverse invasion of my body that was about to happen.
These guys were not kidding around. They were dead fucking serious in their attempt to rape and demean me, to reduce me to nothing more than a body they could fuck, without a single consideration for the person I was. The bullying had been escalating the last few days, but this was an entirely new level. We had moved past high school pranks. This was real life fucked up, and I was about to lose whatever innocence had survived the death of my parents and me being forced to kill a man. There had been a small sliver there. But it would be no more. I’d truly be broken.
Even as my reality flashed through my mind, I was still fighting. To the bitter end, I would never stop.
“Hurry up,” one of the guys muttered. “We’re getting paid good fucking money to make sure she never comes back here again.”
Another one chuckled. “Oh, she is gonna come. All over my dick.”
Bile rose in my throat. A scream followed it, and I wondered if I’d choke on my own vomit before they even got my clothes off. They were using most of their body weight to hold me down now, and I wondered if my right elbow was dislocated, they had it at such an angle.
One lifted my skirt and hooked fingers in my underwear. I screamed again, muffled by the hand over my mouth, and despite my determination not to show them how they affected me, tears leaked from the corners of my eyes.
I was helpless. So fucking helpless.
My shirt tore as a frenzy entered the faces I could see, and then my bra was being pulled at the same time as my panties. Spots danced in front of my vision, and just when I was about to close my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see their faces, there was a huge bang. From where I was being held down, I couldn’t see what had caused it, but for a moment I hoped it was the door. That someone had come for me.
Knowing my luck though, it was more likely another fucking rapists wanting to join in.
For a fraction of a second, there was silence, and I heaved for breath.
Then all hell broke loose.
Limbs flew everywhere, and I caught just the briefest glimpse of Beck’s terrifying, furious face before some asshole’s shoe caught me in the temple and the world went fuzzy. Unlike the damage inflicted on me up until then, I was pretty sure that one was an accident and most of the boys who’d been involved in my near-rape were desperately trying to get out of the classroom before Beck killed them all.
Or, that’s what I could make out from the noises, shouts, and blurry shapes moving around as I tried to both clear my vision and cover myself up.
A warm pair of hands brushed against mine as I tried to fix my clothing, and I screamed.
“Shh, Spare, it’s just me,” Evan murmured in a low, soothing tone like he was dealing with a frightened animal. Fuck, he was. “I’ve got you, little bug, take a breath.”
His arms wrapped around me as my vision started to return, but my head pounded like I was being hit with a battering ram so I squeezed my eyes shut and let Evan half carry, half drag me over to the side of the room.
“What’s going on, Evan?” I asked, trying and failing to button my torn shirt with shaking hands and slitted eyelids. “Is Beck…?”
“About to be expelled from a school we fucking own?” Evan finished for me. “Yeah, pretty much. Are you okay if I go stop him from killing that kid?”
I pried my eyes open a fraction more, peering across the classroom to find Beck punching the shit out of one of my attacker’s faces. Like, seriously laying into him. Blood sprayed with every hit, and the kid’s whole body was limp in unconsciousness. A deep shudder of revulsion ran through me, knowing what those boys had intended to do to me, and for a moment I considered letting Beck kill him. What would one more body matter? Beck’s hands were already stained beyond repair.
But … was I really that person?
“Go,” I told Evan, giving him a small push. I clutched at the jacket he’d draped over me and watched in numb silence as Evan smoothly intervened before Beck’s blood coated fist could land again. I stared at them, unblinking, while Evan spoke in low tones. Beck’s jaw was taut, his whole body coiled as tight as a bow string and his gaze … his gaze was locked firmly on me from across the room. I stared back at him as he abruptly released my unconscious assailant from his grip, dropping
him to the hard floor with a painful sounding thud. Still, he stared, even as Evan continued speaking, handing him a rag from fuck knew where to clean off his hands.
Beck stalked across the room to me, and I swallowed back the terror threatening to pour out of my throat in a scream. Logically, I knew he’d just saved me. In my heart, I knew he’d never hurt me. Not really, not physically, and not intentionally. But that primal, instinctive part of me saw his iced expression, those eyes that held murderous fury, and the hulking strength of his body… and wanted to flee.
He paused when he reached me, crouching down until he was on my level, all the while maintaining that unwavering eye contact. My whole body was trembling in uncontrollable shivers, my teeth chattering, and my fingers turning numb, yet I couldn’t look away.
“Butterfly,” he breathed, reaching out a copper scented finger and stroking a tangled snarl of my dark hair off my face. I flinched. I didn’t mean to, but I was no longer in control of my own reactions. Fear had driven all semblance of logic and reason out of my body, and my arms tightened around my knees, tucking me into a tight, quivering ball.
Beck’s face tightened further—if that was even possible—and he gusted out a long sigh. “I won’t hurt you, Butterfly. I’d never…” He trailed off with a grimace and we both knew why he couldn’t finish that statement. Sure, he’d never hit me. But that didn’t save me from how badly I’d been hurt by his betrayals when it came to Delta.
“Riley,” he tried again, voice a graveled mess as he shifted slightly closer on his knees. “Please, baby, let me hold you?”
I still trembled violently and my instincts screamed at me not to trust him, but I couldn’t give a fuck. I needed Beck to erase the fear, just like he’d done every night since the plane crash. All it took was a tiny nod, and he gathered me up into his arms, sweeping us up off that dirty, blood splattered classroom floor.
