by S. Massery
Just as I’m loosening my grasp, hers tightens. She pulls me down to her, and her lips catch mine.
My body erupts in electric shocks.
The ache in my chest eases.
I lean into it, reclaiming her mouth. My hands slide down her body, gripping her ass and lifting her. She wraps her legs around my hips, and she lets out a little squeak when her back hits the wall.
Her tongue traces the seam of my lips.
I growl. Our tongues dance around each other.
I capture her lower lip between my teeth and tug, eliciting a groan from her, too.
We kiss until she breaks away, turning her head sharply to the side.
My erection is pressed against her core with only our jeans separating us. I’ve never wanted to get in a girl’s pants more—specifically because it’s her.
I turn my attention to her neck, pressing kisses and nips from just below her ear down to her collarbone. Slowly, her hand comes up and cups my cheek. She brings my face up, and I watch her as she watches me.
She’s breathless. I am, too.
“Holy shit,” she says. “I—”
“Save it.” I kiss her again, just to prove that I can. Because I need to know it wasn’t a one-time thing.
She lets me.
“You’re mine. Okay?”
“Okay,” she says. “I need to get back…”
I grimace and set her down. “Don’t get in Caleb’s way. I don’t know what he would do if you tried to interfere.”
She crosses her arms. “So, what, I’m supposed to let him bully my new friend?”
“I don’t know.” I blow out a breath. “They’ll either kill each other or come out happy on the other side.”
She looks away. “Okay. Fine.”
I brush my thumb over her cheek. “I don’t want to see you hurt.”
The pain in her eyes almost does me in—but this is a step in the right direction. Riley belongs with me. I know it as well as she does. It’s about time we straightened this mess out.
And now we can be happy.
29
Eli
My nose won’t stop bleeding.
I’m not exactly sure why Riley’s dad hit me, but it just so happened that Detective Jim Masters was talking to Noah when it happened.
Jim seemed pretty fucking gleeful about it, too.
Riley crouches beside me, holding a stack of gauze.
I’m man enough to admit that I wasn’t expecting the hit, and that Riley’s dad packs a mean punch. Damn. My jaw already feels tender to the touch, but the nurse who handed me an ice pack five minutes ago felt my nose and determined nothing was broken.
Small blessings, I guess.
This face won’t win trials with a crooked, bulbous nose.
If I can even get into another school that offers pre-law…
“Do you need to call your dad?” the detective asks me. “If you want to press charges.”
Riley helps me to my feet.
I grimace. I’ll probably have a nasty black eye thanks to the nose injury, but other than that, I’m unharmed. “Press charges against Mr. Appleton? Um, no. I don’t want to do that.”
“See?” Riley snaps. She lifts my hand and curls my fingers around the gauze, then takes off down the hall. She stands above her father, her hands on her hips.
I can’t imagine the conversation they’re having.
“Hey, Masters?”
It isn’t like me to ask for help, but…
He raises his eyebrows. “Change your mind? Didn’t want to say it in front of the girl, huh? Not a problem—”
“No. There’s something else I could get your opinion on.”
He waits.
“I think the family is in danger,” I spit out.
“The family—who, the Appletons?”
I keep my eyes on Riley, making sure she doesn’t come closer. “They’re afraid. Riley and Noah, anyway. Riley’s been having some weird stuff happen… nothing reportable, of course. But—”
The detective lifts his hand. “Riley’s father is a highly respected prosecutor for the district attorney’s office. There are some pretty high-profile cases going on right now, so I’ll make some inquiries. See if I can dig up a price on their heads.”
My stomach drops. Dad defends people like that—people who put fucking bounties on innocent girls’ heads.
“Whoa, whoa,” Masters says. “I didn’t say that’s what’s going on here. I saw that train of thought leave the station.”
“You don’t know what’s going on,” I snap.
“I know the Blacks don’t get along with the Appletons.” The corner of his mouth lifts, daring me to deny it.
I can’t. I’m standing here with a bruised ego and face, and Riley’s dad is in handcuffs at the opposite end of the hall.
“Probably had something to do with that case…”
I tilt my head, feigning casual confusion. Inside, though, my stomach plummets out my ass.
“What case?” I lie.
Detective Masters wrinkles his nose, disgusted. “Your father taught you well.”
Speak of the devil—Dad comes toward us.
“It’s like you summoned him,” I murmur.
To say Dad and I haven’t been seeing eye to eye since I started the assistant coach position would be putting things lightly. He was downright furious when I came home and announced my new title, mere days before his deadline.
The goal was to piss him off, but I thought it would blow over.
It didn’t.
He walks up to me, seeming ready to deck me himself and grabs my chin. He pushes my head to the side, taking a closer look at the bruise I’m sure is already visible. It hurts like a son of a bitch, and worse yet when Dad probes at it.
“We’re pressing charges,” Dad says to Detective Masters. “I want him arrested for assault.”
Oh boy.
“Dad—”
“Mr. Black, your son has already declined to press charges. Of course, he has the right to change his mind at any time.” The detective’s gaze swings back to me.
Now they’re both staring at me.
“No,” I say. “I already said no. Shouldn’t you get him out of handcuffs now?”
Dad rolls his eyes. “You heard him, Detective.”
Masters nods and heads down the hall, leaving me and Dad alone.
“You okay?” he asks in a low voice.
I frown. “He really hates the sight of me. Because of Riley?”
“That girl is more trouble than she’s worth,” Dad warns. “We loved her like our own, and then when she hurt us—”
“Stop.”
Us.
I can’t keep doing this.
I came back to Emery-Rose determined to make her pay. Not just Riley, but her whole damn family.
But how can I collect payment when she’s already given so much? And even when I guarded against her, she still got under my skin.
So here she’ll stay.
I narrow my eyes. “Enough, Dad.”
I feel old and young at the same time. Ancient and fresh. It’s an odd thing.
“We’ll talk about this later,” he warns.
No we won’t. We didn’t talk about it for almost a year, because deep down, he blames me just as much as the Appletons.
Detective Masters brings Riley and her dad back over to us. She crosses to me and takes my hand, and we both step back as our fathers face each other.
“You ever touch my son again, and I’ll have your license stripped away from you,” Dad warns.
Oh god.
Riley’s dad sneers. “A lovely tune, coming from you.”
Detective Masters claps. “Well, this is fun. Mr. Black, how about you come with me downstairs? I suppose I can trust you to behave while I’m gone, Appleton?”
Riley’s dad just gives Masters a wry look.
He accepts it, though, and then my only protection is gone.
Not that I really need protecti
on…
“You can stay because I can see my daughter has somehow forgiven you,” her dad says. “But for the love of God, stay out of Noah’s room.” He turns away and adds, “Or else he’ll give you a matching black eye.”
30
Riley
This is déjà vu, and I hate it.
Mom’s hand is limp in mine. She’s been sedated for the last twelve hours, give or take, and the only sleep I’ve gotten has been in this chair.
They pumped her stomach, which made her hysterical.
A psych evaluation was ordered, but not before a heavy-handed nurse administered a sedative that knocked her out… perhaps overly effective.
Dad pushes Noah into the room, and they both frown in unison when they see me.
I must look like hell.
“Well?” I demand, half rising. “Did they tell you—”
“A suicide attempt is a mandatory seventy-two-hour hold,” Dad says gently. “They’re going to evaluate her and we’ll go from there.”
I sniffle. I know she can’t come home, but the pain of it is blinding.
Worse than her cancer, because this is her doing.
I hate you, I think at her.
As if my words actually penetrate, she flinches in her sleep.
“Come on, honey. You need rest.”
You haven’t stopped moving since the meet, is his unspoken phrase.
It’s early—the sun just poked its head out twenty minutes ago, tinging the sky pastel pinks and oranges. It’s too early to do anything except go home and crawl into bed.
“Riley,” Noah says, reaching out his hand.
I have to release Mom to take it.
“We’ll be okay,” he says. “Dad snored all night on a cot in my room, so he’s fit to take over watch.”
The tips of Dad’s ears turn pink.
I still haven’t wholly forgiven him for hitting Eli. It was unexpected and shocking, but maybe I should’ve been able to predict it. I was a wreck for weeks after Eli and I broke up.
He was the one who sat on the edge of my bed and pleaded with me to get out of it.
I should’ve realized his fear was that I was going to become my mother.
“Please go home,” Noah says. “Have someone—Eli, even—drive you home.”
I start. “You’d be okay with that?”
“When he’s not being a dickface, I can tell he makes you happy,” he admits. “But you can tell him I’ll kill him if he plans on being a repeat offender.”
Oh, right.
That.
“I don’t think he will,” I hedge. Casting one last look at Mom, I slip out the door and down the hall.
I call Eli on my way to the elevator, and he says he can pick me up.
Ten minutes later, he pulls up to the hospital, and I climb in.
“That was fast,” I comment. “Especially since it’s barely six.”
“I was actually on my way here.” He points to one of the drinks in his cup holder. “I got you a latte.”
My cheeks grow hot. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Bagel, too.”
Now I’m positively mush.
He gets on the highway, speeding for home, and I automatically reach out to touch his arm.
“Can you take me to the school? I need my car.” I shift, remembering how I left the keys in the locker room in my haste to get outside.
The water bottle is still in my locker, I’d bet.
“I, um…”
He turns onto the school’s street. “You okay?”
“My keys are in the locker room.”
He squints at me. “That’s why you kicked your tire.”
I lean forward, anxious to lay eyes on my car—if only to make sure it’s still there. Who knows if a stalker would’ve vandalized it or stolen it…
But there it is, near the row of busses.
I exhale.
Now I just need…
“Shit.” I smack my forehead. “Clearly not sleeping most of the night wasn’t a good idea. My keys are how I got into the school in the first place.”
He rolls his eyes. “Who do you think you’re looking at?”
I stare blankly.
“Assistant Coach? They gave me a key last week.”
Ah. Well, that’s handy.
We hop out, and I follow him to the side entrance, and he sticks the key in the hole… then frowns.
Super frowns.
“What’s wrong?”
He glances at me. “The deadbolt didn’t slide. I think it was already unlocked.”
A weight lands on my chest. I can still breathe, though, and I prove it to myself by inhaling sharply. My lungs expand. I let it out bit by bit.
“It’s probably nothing,” he says to himself. “The janitor might be in here cleaning…”
“Right.”
We head for the athletic wing. It’s a shorter trip from this entrance, and soon we’re at the locker rooms. I think for a second that Eli will leave me outside, but he follows right behind me.
And I really appreciate that.
The lights take a moment to flicker on, and my attention zeroes in on my keys on the floor. The water bottle is on its side, just behind it.
Nausea rolls through my stomach at the sight of it.
“You look pale,” Eli says. “You good?”
“She’s probably coming to the realization that wandering around the school after hours is a bad idea,” a voice says behind us.
We whirl around, and I relax.
“Kaiden, what are you doing here?” I ask.
Kaiden West, Noah’s friend, sticks his hands in his pockets and saunters closer.
Eli’s only reaction is to shove me behind him.
He’s always been a bit protective, I tell myself. It’s an excuse, though. Kaiden in the women’s locker room on a Saturday is all sorts of wrong—Eli and I both know that.
But Kaiden is my brother’s best friend. He wouldn’t hurt us.
“You know, Riley, I was starting to think you wouldn’t get it.”
I tilt my head. “I’m not following.”
“Well, no. You were the followed.”
I latch onto Eli’s arm. “You?”
Kaiden shrugs. “Sometimes. Other times, it was my cousin. A bit of initiation for us.”
“Initiation for what?”
Eli grimaces. He keeps walking us back, inch by inch, until my shoulder bumps one of the rows of lockers. “Stop asking questions.”
I glance up at him. “Why?”
Kaiden grins. “This is the fun part, Eli. It’s where all the skeletons are brought out of the closet. But I don’t think this is the best place to have this discussion… don’t you think, Uncle?”
Someone grabs me from behind. Their arm winds around my neck, effectively cutting off the blood supply to my brain.
Learned that in defense class in gym...
I claw at my assailant’s forearm, only able to get out a squeak of alarm before they squeeze again.
“Don’t move, boy,” the person behind me orders Eli.
Eli looked ready to charge a second ago, but now he lowers his fists. The man—his voice is too deep to be anyone our age—chuckles. It vibrates his chest, and I feel it through my spine.
“Don’t hurt her,” Eli says.
“Don’t…” The man laughs louder. “I will admit, this is a fun surprise to have you here with her.”
He drags me backward, and I stumble before regaining my footing. He doesn’t slow down until we’re back in the hall, moving across it and into the dark gymnasium.
The man shoves me, and I fall to my hands and knees.
Foreboding winds through me, but I can’t tell what I’m hoping for—divine intervention or a quick death?
Eli lifts me, and we move away from the man and Kaiden.
“Ms. Appleton, I presume,” the man says. “We haven’t been properly introduced.”
Eli stares hard at him, but his expression gives
away nothing.
He has tattoos crawling up his neck, peeking out from his crisp black collared shirt. The sleeves are rolled to just below his elbows, revealing full sleeves of tattoos. They stop just before his wrist bone—able to hide in plain sight, I suppose.
But it’s the gun strapped to his hip that my attention trips over.
“Grabbing a girl from behind isn’t the best way to properly introduce yourself,” I say, rubbing my throat.
Smart? Probably not.
But it sure does feel good.
“Do you know who I am?” He ignores my comment.
I focus on my heartbeat. Now is not the time for a stupid panic attack.
“I don’t think so,” I say.
I wish Eli wasn’t here. If he wasn’t, I might not be so afraid. But as it is, the man has a gun. He has us alone—with Kaiden, of all people.
I don’t understand it.
He tuts, coming closer. “Because your daddy tried his best to shield you.”
“What?”
Eli pushes me behind him. “What do you want?”
The man frowns. “Eli Black. I suppose it’s fitting that you wound up with us… you were a culprit in my brother’s imprisonment, too.”
He straightens, and my jaw drops.
“What?” I whisper. “You—”
“Lawrence West.” His hands are in his pockets, which should seem non-threatening. He manages to make it look the opposite. The name isn’t just familiar—it’s terrifying.
It echoes around my head like a grenade about to explode.
Lawrence continues, “But if you don’t know me, you might be familiar with my brother-in-law, James Courier.”
I stop breathing.
So does Eli.
This is it. Where my sins finally catch up to me.
31
Riley
One Year Ago
“Riley!” Jackie is coming toward me, sunglasses perched on top of her head and a giant, expensive purse on her arm. “Oh my gosh, it’s been so long!”
I stare at her.
She stops in front of me, ignoring my confusion. She leans in and kisses the air next to my cheek, then the other one.
