I STRODE along the hallway and lifted my gaze to the towering guy waiting outside the door of AP class.
“Took your time.” Gio gave me a wink. “Didn’t think you were coming for a while there.”
I looked away as heat rushed to my cheeks. “Sorry, got held up.”
“Oh, yeah?” he followed me in, taking the seat behind me. “Anything interesting?”
“Okay, settle down everyone,” the teacher called out, and motioned for the voices to settle.
For once, I didn’t hear them. I didn’t notice anything. Not the laughter or the chatter, or the way that heavy feeling grew on the back of my neck under Gio’s stare. I was still back in that car, with excitement and shame moving through me. I couldn’t believe I’d just done that…
Oh, fuck…what have I done?
“Hey.”
I snapped back to reality and turned my head.
“You okay?” Gio scowled, his gaze serious. “You seem k-kinda out of it.”
I forced a smile and nodded. “Sure.”
But that was a lie…just like my entire life, it seemed. I tried to focus on the class, but I was still back there, my body quaking as I came under Nick’s stare. I hadn’t wanted to do that. I shouldn’t have done that. That wasn’t me…the good girl everyone saw. I lifted my gaze to the class, felt the weight of Gio’s stare, and tugged my hair down to cover my face. In the wake of desire, fear pushed in.
I needed to stop it, whatever this was with Creed’s sons. My pulse sped at the thought. It was wrong.
My mind was heavy, weighed down by the desperate need to figure this out.
Gio met my stare, giving me a confused smile before I turned away. My mom had divorced my dad without me even knowing…and now was marrying a man I barely knew, a man whose sons wanted nothing more than to torment and play with me. I needed to get out, needed to stop this before whatever this game they were playing was got further out of hand.
The bell rang before I knew it. Chairs scraped against the floor as the other students rushed out. I followed, my heart thundering…until the crash. I wanted them. That’s why I was so conflicted. I wanted them and I liked what they did to me…a little too much.
“You want to walk to History?” Gio asked, his tone low and careful.
I pulled my thoughts away from them and glanced at him. “Sure.”
“You’re not pissed at me or anything, are y-you?”
I met his gaze as we walked out of the classroom and along the hall, following the herd. “No, of course not. Sorry, my…my mom told me she was divorcing my dad last night.”
One brow lifted in surprise. “Whoa, that’s heavy.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“No wonder you’re distracted. I thought it was me for a moment, thought those Banks assholes had said something about us standing together yesterday.”
“No.” My mind was trapped by the D word. “They don’t even know.”
“Oh?” He flinched and glanced my way. “I just figured—”
“Figured what?”
“That you’d do whatever those assholes told you.”
Open your legs, show me…Nick’s demands rose in my head. I need to make sure my little sister is satisfied. “No,” I answered. “Not everything.”
“Good. ‘Cause I was hoping you’d still want to go to Hanna’s party this weekend.”
I stepped around a group of others and thought about it. It’d be a way to break away from this hold they had over me. A way to make some friends. I glanced toward Gio. Maybe even more than friends.
Gio caught me looking, and a spark brightened in his gaze as he motioned to the class-room up ahead. “What?”
“Nothing,” I muttered.
“You checking me out, Ryth?”
I flinched. “No.”
His green eyes grew wider. “Yeah, you w-were. It’s o-okay.”
His stutter grew worse when he was embarrassed. Maybe I was checking him out, maybe I was a little desperate, desperate to get away from Creed and his sons. I stepped into the classroom, only this time Gio sat beside me.
I barely heard the chatter in the class, capturing just enough of the teacher’s lecture to take notes on the laptop Creed had bought me. I guess I had to expect that now…him being my stepfather and all.
“So I want a three-thousand word paper on my desk by Monday on this.” The teacher’s words wrenched me from my thoughts. I jerked my gaze to the gray-haired professor wannabe with his glasses perched on the end of his nose.
“What?” I muttered.
“What?” Gio snapped, then the entire class groaned.
“Don’t ohhh me,” the teacher snapped. “You all knew this was coming. I gave an entire lecture on this last week.”
“But I wasn’t here last week.” I searched the faces of my other classmates.
But it didn’t matter, they didn’t hear me. No one did under the muttered swearing and pissed-off groans.
“I don’t care…” The teacher shook his head. “Three thousand words on legislative social reform of the nineteen twenties,” he called out as the bell rang and we all rose and shoved our chairs back. “And it better be well researched, it’s going to make up twenty percent of your overall grade!”
Twenty percent?
Twenty goddamn percent? The classroom seemed to blur under the weight of my panic.
“Ms. Castlemaine.”
I froze at the sound of my name, halfway to the door, and turned. Heads turned toward me and I caught a glimpse of snarls from a few of the girls, and in an instant, that mark on my cheek started to burn.
“Yes?”
“I expect you to be able to catch up,” Davidson, or whatever his name was, said. “I won’t be giving any special favors, even under the circumstances.”
“Yeah, that she lives with the fucking Banks. Stuck-up bitch,” someone called out.
I jerked my gaze around the room, scanning those who were looking at me. But they just stared…until Gio stepped in. “Enough. Come on.” He motioned me forward.
“What the hell was that?” I glanced his way, unable to comprehend what had just happened. “What were they saying?”
“Nothing.” He didn’t meet my gaze, just ushered me out of the room.
Something was happening though. There was a shift…a dark, hateful shift happening all around me. I hadn’t noticed it before, maybe I wasn’t looking. But I felt it now, felt the anger and their stares. I glanced over my shoulder as they glared. The moment I stepped through the door and into the hallway, I was hit from behind.
“Get out of the fucking way, you traitorous cunt.”
The impact slammed me off balance. I stumbled sideways and glanced toward them. But they were gone, striding through the crowded hallway filled with students.
“Jesus.” Gio grabbed my arm, pulling me toward him. “You okay?”
“Fine,” I answered. “What the hell was that about?”
“Nothing. Come on.” He tried to pull me forward again, until I jerked from his hold.
“You keep saying nothing, but there’s clearly something. What’s going on here, Gio?”
A tortured look rose in his eyes before he pulled me gently, guiding me through the students toward our next class. The moment we were inside the classroom, he stepped in front of me. “Look, some of the students here are friends with the Rossis.”
The Rossis?
The blood drained from my face.
Dad…that’s what this was all about. It was about dad betraying them. I slowly shook my head. “But that’s got nothing to do with me.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he muttered, and glanced over his shoulder. “Not to them. Which is why you need to stay with me, okay?”
I glanced around his body. “All of them hate me?”
“Not all.” He met my gaze.
I knew then, knew why he was so insistent for me to sit with him in class and at lunch. But what I didn’t understand was why him…and why me?
“Okay, let’s settle down,” the female teacher called out.
She glanced my way as I turned, my fingers pressed against the throbbing ache in my forehead, one that was starting to grow. I sat there, catching glances my way from the other students and feeling like the entire world was against me…
Until finally, the last bell rang.
“Come on.” Gio rose from his seat beside me. “Let’s get you out of here.”
But once I’d seen their hate the first time, it was all I could see. Not everyone looked at me, but there were enough. I grabbed my laptop, lingered long enough to stay out of the rush, then made my way to the front of the school.
Rumble…rumble…rumble…
I glanced up, finding that dark, midnight beast waiting for me at the curb. I’ll meet you here…and don’t be talking to any boys this time. Nick’s warning filled my head.
“I’ll walk with you for a bit,” Gio offered.
I just shook my head, scattering that pounding roar throughout my head. “No, thanks, I got it.”
I left Gio behind and strode toward the waiting Mustang, feeling that throb in my head grow barbs. Nick was watching the other cars when I yanked open the door and climbed in.
He wasn’t chatty this afternoon, not demanding and snarly. Thank Christ for that. He shoved the car into gear before I had a chance to grab the seatbelt. And before I knew it, I was thrown hard against the door as we turned. Agony roared through my head as I slammed into the door, then clawed for the seatbelt and snapped it closed around me.
I waited for the snarl…
Waited for demands and the degradation.
I waited for him.
But he was silent all the way back home. The moment he pulled into the driveway and killed the engine, he turned to me. “Ryth…”
“Just leave it,” I muttered, and shoved the door open. I couldn’t deal with this, not any of this. Not dad, or mom…or my new predatory stepbrothers and now the kids at Duke who hated me. Nothing ever changed for me. Nothing. I clenched my fists, fighting the overwhelming urge to lash out or run, and I gripped the laptop to my chest and strode toward the house.
“Wait,” Nick barked.
But I didn’t, just shoved through the front door and made for the stairs.
I barely registered that the rest of the house was silent as I hit the top of the stairs.
“Ryth!” Nick roared, yanking me around to face him. “What the fuck is your problem?”
A bedroom door opened beyond me…the thud of heavy steps followed as Tobias stepped out. “What the fuck is going on, Nick?”
A chill rose along my spine as Tobias’ glared at Nick. “Brother. You and I need to talk.”
