LEGEND: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Rosewood High Book 7)

by Tracy Lorraine

  I know barking at her probably isn’t going to get me the result I need. But I need to fucking know she’s safe.

  Twenty minutes later, I still have no response. She hasn’t even fucking read it.

  Throwing the book off my lap, I jump from the bed and shove my feet into my sneakers.

  “Where are you going?” Kane asks as I storm past where he’s curled up with the same woman—Alana—from yesterday. It’s weird seeing him here, let alone seeing him with a woman.

  “Out,” I bark, ripping the door open and marching out into the rain.

  I’m at the Hunter’s in record time, but unlike last night, the lights are on and I fear I’m not going to be so successful sneaking in. Her car isn’t here, which should tell me everything I need to know, but I’m not risking finding out for sure.

  I push the door open and poke my head inside. The hallway is empty but there’s music playing from somewhere.

  Darting toward the stairs, I run up two at a time and fly through her bedroom door.

  I don’t need to look up, I know she’s not here. The lack of response to me barging in tells me everything.

  I look around the room, finding it tidy as if she’s not even been back here and my heart thunders.

  If that motherfucker has her, I’m going to fucking kill him.

  I blink back the images I have from that night of his hands on her body, my fists curling in anger.

  Needing to get out of the house before I’m caught, I slip back out and head down the stairs.

  “Kyle, are you looking for Zayn?” Jada asks, scaring the shit out of me as I turn the corner.

  My hand lifts to cover my pounding heart as my head spins a little.

  “Uh… yeah?” I don’t mean for it to come out as a question, and from the way Jada’s brow lifts I fear she didn’t miss it.

  Nervously, I look behind me at the stairs. Does she know I just came from Harley’s room?

  “He’s down in his den.” She steps aside, allowing me to walk down toward the room.

  “Um… I guess I should have tried there first, huh?”

  She studies me, but she doesn’t say anything as I step past her toward the den.

  I don’t want to go down there. But he might know where she is…

  “Hey, man. How’s it going?” Zayn asks the second I push inside the room.

  I find the other seniors hanging out on the couches, amazingly without any girls on their laps for once.

  “Yeah, good. Alright?” I ask them all, tipping my chin up in greeting.

  “You joining us or what?” Zayn asks when I hover in the doorway. “I’m sure Jake wants to talk to you about next year,” he says, looking toward his captain.

  “Uh… actually, have you seen Harley?”

  “Harley?” he asks, his eyes widening for a beat.

  “Yeah.” An excuse for why I might want to talk to her sits on the edge of my tongue, but I hold it in and wait to see what his response is going to be.

  “No, not since this morning. She’s probably with Ruby and Poppy. Everything all right?” he asks, his eyes narrowing on mine.

  “Of course.”

  “Great, now come hang with us.” He nods to an empty seat and other than turning my back and walking out on them, I don’t really feel like I have much of a choice.

  Their previous conversation continues around me as I take a seat and open the soda Zayn throws at me.

  “So, the Harriers,” Jake starts, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “Your old team doesn’t exactly have a good rep. You any good?” he asks, although from what he’s said previously, he’s well aware of my skills.

  I might have kept up with his conditioning sessions but he’s yet to see me play any actual football. And I’m fully aware of my old team’s rep.

  “Yeah,” I state confidently. “I am.”

  “Well.” He rests back once more. “I hope you’re as sure of your skills as you are your confidence.”

  “You don’t need to worry about me.”

  “I’m about to leave my team in someone else’s hands. I’m fucking worried.”

  “You’ll forget all about it the second you join your college team.”

  Silence ripples around the room at my words and I fear I might have said something I shouldn’t.

  “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right,” he finally says after clearing his voice.

  “Legend, come get some more drinks with me,” Zayn barks as he stands and collects up a few empties.

  “Sure.”

  I can tell by the set of his shoulders as he moves in front of me that he’s about to grill me about Harley.

  “What’s going on?” he asks the second we’re in the kitchen and out of earshot of everyone else.

  “Nothing,” I lie. “I just had a question about our English lit assignment. Didn’t know who else to ask.”

  “Bullshit, Ky. Wanna try telling me the truth?”

  My stomach knots. I can hardly tell him that Gray is threatening to do something to her to get to me. The hot-headed motherfucker will get straight in his car and drive to Harrow Creek to find him. He’ll probably end up getting himself fucking killed.

  “That is the truth. Jeez, can you lay off the big brother thing?” I try to make it sound like a joke but I’m pretty sure I fail.

  “You didn’t even want to look at her this morning, now you want her help. If I find out you’re lying to me, I’ll fucking take you out, Ky.”

  I put my hands up in surrender.

  “I’m just going to use your bathroom.”

  I back out of the room with him watching my every move. The second I’m out of sight, I pull my cell out and find Ash’s number.

  He answers the moment I close the bathroom door behind me.

  “Hey, how’s it going?”

  “Is Harley with Ruby?” I whisper-shout, ignoring any niceties.

  “Um… no. Ruby is with me, why?”

  “Can you ask her if she knows where Harley is?”

  “S-sure.” There’s some rustling before he does as I ask. “No, she doesn’t know.”

  “Call her,” I demand.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Ash asks.

  “Put me on speaker.” There’s movement as he does as I ask. “Ruby, please can you call Harley and find out where she is?” There’s a hardness to my voice which has the desired effect.

  “Okay, calling now. Is everything okay?” she asks in a much softer tone than Ash did, although I can hear the concern in it.

  “Yeah, probably.”

  “It just keeps ringing. I’ll message her and let you know when I find out.”

  I blow out a long breath. “That’s great, thank you.”

  “You gonna tell us what the big drama is now?”

  “She just ran off, wanted to make sure she’s okay.”

  “What did you do to her?” Ruby growls down the line.

  “N-nothing.” We all know it’s a lie, but I say the word anyway. I’ve no idea if Harley has confessed to her girls about what happened last night. The fact Ruby isn’t ripping me a new one right now for it makes me think she might not have. She certainly wanted to cover up the evidence if the scarf was anything to go by this morning.

  “Riiight. Well, if you decide you wanna tell us the truth, we’re at home. But we’ll tell you if we hear anything,” Ruby says softly, but I don’t miss the edge of anger in her voice. Understandable, I’ve hurt her girl. I’m sure it won’t be the last time either.

  We hang up and I’m forced to rejoin Zayn to carry the cans back through to the den and spend my night talking football while I wait for my cell to ring.

  It’s almost three hours later when that finally happens.

  I excuse myself from the room and slip out into the hall.

  “Yes.”

  “It’s nice to hear from you too,” Ash deadpans.

  “Do you know where she is?”

  “Yes, she’s staying at Stella’s tonight.”<
br />
  The breath I didn’t know I was holding comes rushing out of me.

  “Okay, thanks, I appreciate it, man.”

  “You gonna tell me what all of this is about yet?”

  “It’s nothing. I… I was just worried.”

  “Okay well… I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  The second I return from that phone call, I make my excuses and get out of the Hunter’s house.

  My place is empty once again when I get back and I breathe a sigh of relief that I’m not going to have to put up with Kane and Alana going at it all night.

  I grab myself a soda from the refrigerator and fall down onto my bed.

  I’ve got a ton of homework to do but I can’t focus on any of it. Instead, I stare at the ceiling, wondering what she’s doing and praying that she’s safe.

  Right before I decide to actually get into bed and attempt to get some sleep, my cell pings. My heart skips a beat thinking that it might be her, but deep down, I know it’s not.

  Unknown: Our girl looks good in red.

  My hand trembles as I stare at his words. His threat.

  If he so much as touches a fucking hair on her head, I’ll…

  My thoughts trail off as I consider if I’m already in too deep in this.

  I tell myself that it’s just because I don’t want her hurt because of me. I might blame her, want to hurt her for what she did to me. But I want to be the one to do it.

  Plus, I wouldn’t wish that motherfucker on anyone.

  I close down his message, not wanting to give him any clue that he’s getting to me. It’s bad enough he’ll know that I’ve read it.

  I silence my cell and throw it to the other side of the bed in frustration and close my eyes, not that I think sleep will come anytime soon. Especially not when he’s out there watching her.

  Our girl looks good in red.

  He just means her hair… right?

  The sun was almost up by the time I actually fell asleep last night, but as I lay there thinking about a million and one things that Gray could do to Harley, I refused to allow myself to look at my cell.

  If I found another photo of him watching her and I had no clue where she was I knew I’d freak out. I decided it was better not to know and trust that she was safe with Stella.

  When my alarm goes off, my body refuses to wake up, it’s so heavy with sleep, but I know I have no choice.

  The second I open my eyes, I reach for my cell, my restraint long vanished.

  My stomach clenches when I find a message from another unknown number. But when I look closer, I see that it’s a different number.

  Intrigued, I swipe the screen and open it up.

  Unknown: You’re welcome!

  My chin drops as I scroll up and enlarge the image I’ve been sent.

  “Holy shit.” My cock swells as I stare at the image of Harley in the smallest red swimsuit I think I’ve ever…

  Red.

  Fuck. She’s wearing red.

  Without thinking, I hit call on the number.

  “Good morning,” a familiar voice sings. “Did you like your little gift?”

  “Where is she?” I ask, totally ignoring her question.

  “Um… in the shower. Don’t tell me you want me to sneak in and get another? She’s going to kill me when she realizes I sent that, let alone—”

  “No. I just want to know she’s safe.”

  “Of course she’s safe, she’s with me. Why wouldn’t she be?”

  “No reason. Don’t tell her I called or say anything about this.”

  “Trust me, I—”

  I hang up before she can finish that sentence and blow out a relieved breath.

  She’s safe… for now.

  “Fuck.”

  I need to figure out what I’m going to do and how I’m going to get Gray off her back.

  I’d like to say that I could find a load of money and that it’ll make him go away, but something tells me that wouldn’t be enough. He wants my blood, not my dollar bills.

  I shove my hair from my brow, tugging on the strands until it burns with pain. Pain that I deserve for all of this bullshit. For putting her in danger.

  I’m in the parking lot long before the rest of the school once again. I have no idea what class Harley has first, so I figure I’ll just sit here until her car appears.

  Only, it never does and I have no clue what Stella drives.

  The bell rings out and I’m forced to either get out or skip.

  I go with the former and climb from the car in favor of my statistics class.

  I see no sign of her, and by the time lunch rolls around, I’m damn near losing my mind.

  I’ve messaged her over and over again but still, she refuses to read them.

  My lips twist as I think about getting my hands on her and showing her just how infuriating her defiance is.

  “Kyle, did you hear that?” Miss Harper asks pointedly.

  “Um… yes.”

  “Good, so you’ll know exactly what the homework task entails then.”

  “Of course. Don’t sweat it.” I give her my best smile and after blushing a little she turns away to terrorize someone else.

  The bell sounds out and we all jump into action ready to go and find out what the cafeteria is offering up today, only when I get out into the hallway, something—or someone—else catches my attention.

  There’s a flash of red ahead that can only belong to Harley Hunter as she tries to make her escape.

  While everyone else moves toward the cafeteria, I head for her.

  She keeps her head down as she moves as fast as her legs will carry her. It’s cute that she thinks she can outrun me. She should know by now that I’ll always get her in the end.

  I catch up with her right in front of a classroom door. A classroom that I pray to fucking God is empty.

  I wrap one hand around her mouth and the other around her waist as I lift her from the floor and the pair of us crash through the door and into the classroom, which, thankfully, is deserted. Not only is it deserted but the blinds are all shut and it’s dark. Bingo.

  Twisting her around, I press her up against the wall but keep my hand over my mouth.

  I lean in close to her, so close that our noses brush.

  “Nice try, Hunter.”

  Her jaw flexes as she prepares to say something but my hand tightens around her mouth, stopping her.

  “I’ve messaged you. I’ve called you,” I seethe. “You fucking ignored me.”

  Her nostrils flare with her need to argue with me.

  “That’s rude. Don’t you think?”

  She doesn’t react so I make her nod, much to her annoyance if her narrowed eyes are anything to go by.

  “Now the question is… what should I do about it? How should I punish you for thinking you could ignore me?”

  Her jaw flexes again but I don’t let up.

  Reaching around her, I pull her bag from her shoulder and throw it across the room before reaching into the back pocket of her denim skirt, knowing that her cell is going to be there.

  Her entire body jolts when I make contact with her, and I have to fight the smile that threatens to curl at my lips.

  “Oh look,” I say, waking it up and showing her the screen that is full of notifications of messages from me. “It works. Next time I try to contact you, you reply. You got that?”

  Finally, I drop my hand from her mouth, finding her lips pursed in anger.

  “Fuck you, Kyle. Fuck. You.”

  Grasping her chin in my fingers, I press the length of my body against hers.

  “I hate you.”

  “Oh, I know. Feels fucking great, doesn’t it?”

  I drop my hand to her throat and my sudden movement makes her gasp, exactly what I was hoping for as I force my tongue into her mouth and tease hers.

  Her hands lift to my chest and she tries, unsuccessfully, to push me away.

  She resists kissing me to the point she bites my tongue but th
e second I turn the tables on her, suck her bottom lip into my mouth and sink my teeth into it, her body starts to relax. Her nails, that she was trying to claw my skin off with, suddenly vanish in favor of fisting my shirt in her small hands so she can cling onto me.

  “See,” I whisper into her mouth. “You can do as you’re told.”

  “Fuck. You.”

  “Yeah, Kitten. I was thinking the same.”

  Dropping my hands to her thighs, I push her skirt up around her waist and lift her so she has no choice but to wrap her legs around my waist.

  I grind into her forcing a moan to rip from her lips as my length aligns perfectly with her core.

  “You feel that, Kitten?” She nods. “You fucking do that to me.”

  “Kyle,” she cries as I reach around her, slip her panties aside and run my finger through her folds.

  “So fucking wet, Kitten.”

  “Oh God,” she gasps as I push one digit inside her.

  “You want to get fucked right here in this classroom?” I drop my lips to her ear. “Where anyone could walk in and see that I fucking own you?”

  I continue working her, knowing that she’s long past the point of refusing anything I say to her. Her juices run down my fingers as she thinks about my words.

  “You like belonging to me, don’t you, Kitten?”

  “No,” she argues. I don’t need to look at her to know her eye is twitching as she says it.

  “Well, your pussy seems to disagree with you.”

  26

  Harley

  “Oh fuck, Kyle,” I cry as he spears his fingers inside me before pulling them out and leaving me feeling bereft without him.

  I shouldn’t be doing this.

  We really shouldn’t be doing this.

  I told myself that when I saw him next, I would rip him a new one and walk away from him for being such an arrogant, demanding prick. But then he put his hands on me and I forgot everything but how it feels when he touches me.

  He drops me lower, with one hand gripping my ass while the other lifts the hem of his shirt.

  “Go on then,” he encourages, nodding down to his waistband.

  “Ky, you’re not serious?” I ask. He can’t really be suggesting that we do this… here.