“Yeah but… I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right. Wendy is… a head case but sending those kinds of messages to Poppy. I don’t know. It just doesn’t sit right with me.”
“W-what are you saying?” I ask, needing to know that we’re on the same page here.
“Oh come on, you don’t think this has Hellburn’s name all over it.”
“But how’d he…” I trail off as I realize that the details don’t really matter because he’s right. “Fuck.” Slamming my foot on the accelerator, I do as he suggested before and jump the next few lights in my need to get to the school quicker.
“She’s here. Look,” I say, pointing to Harley’s car that’s parked haphazardly in one of the bays.
“Come on.” We take off running, our eyes scanning all over trying to figure out where we’re going to find her.
Time seems to slow as we run around looking for evidence. If it weren’t for Harley’s car sitting in the lot then I’d say it was a lost cause but I know she’s here somewhere.
“Call her,” I demand before Jake pulls his cell out and does as I suggest.
We stand with our chests heaving as we wait. After two seconds a cell starts ringing… above us.
I tilt my chin up, my eyes running up the bricks of the gym. “Up there,” I say but when I look down I realize it wasn’t necessary because Jake is already halfway to the entrance.
The door crashes back against the wall before he disappears inside. Picking up the pace, I run after him, my heart in my throat and dread lacing through my veins.
If this is as we suspect, what the hell is he playing at?
I’m not focusing on where I’m going by the time I get to the top of the stairs, being blinded by the last afternoon sun doesn’t help and I almost crash into the back of Jake where he’s frozen at the top of the stairs.
“Ah look, the cavalry has arrived. Are you ready to party?” His cold, evil voice sends a shiver down my spine before I get a look at the terrified set of eyes that bounce between me and Jake begging us for help.
32
Poppy
My head really fucking hurts is my first thought as I come to. The sun burns through my closed eyelids as I try to remember where I am and what the hell happened.
I try to pry my eyes open, but they resist.
Attempting to move my arms, I find them pinned together behind my back. I try my legs but find the same thing.
What the fuck is going on?
“Ah, good. My little toy is waking up.”
Every single muscle in my body locks up at the sound of his voice seconds before everything that’s happened this afternoon slams into me.
Being at the house.
The messages from Mom.
I’m at school on the gym roof.
But why is he here?
Finally, I find the strength to drag my eyelids open and the first thing I see is him, sitting on the edge of a chair in front of where I’m laid out on the rough roof, staring down at me like I’m a piece of shit.
“Where’s my mom?” I manage to force out past the giant lump in my throat.
He laughs like a fucking maniac.
“Oh, Poppy, Poppy, Poppy. You’ve always been so easy to play.”
I narrow my eyes at him but it just makes him laugh harder.
“You mean this?” He pulls Mom’s cell from his pocket and throws it at me. It hits my shoulder before crashing to the floor beside me.
“How’d you get that?”
“I’ve been inside your house more times than you can probably imagine. It wasn’t hard,” he sneers, sending fear lacing down my spine.
“It-it was you wasn’t it? You called the police?”
A wicked smile pulls at his lips, confirming what I already knew.
“I thought it was brilliant. I made you a promise, and I sat back and watched as I achieved it and you were carted off out of Rosewood like the piece of trash that you are.”
“You think getting my parents locked up has ruined my life?” I ask, my own laugh falling from my lips despite the fact that any of this is funny.
His eyes hold mine for a few seconds and I use the time to try to sit up but the second I’m almost up, he pushes from his chair and his booted foot comes flying toward my stomach.
All the air is forced from my lungs with the force of the hit.
“Stay down there, bitch.”
“Fuck you, Preston. You’re not going to get away with this.”
“Really?” he asks, an accomplished smile pulling at his lips. “Who do you think is going to find you up here? I hate to break it to you, Poppy. But no one is coming to your rescue this time. There is no Zayn, no Jake. There is no one but me and you.”
“Fuck you.”
Reaching out, his fingers grip my hoodie and I’m pulled from the ground as if I weigh nothing more than a feather before the knuckles of his other hand connect with my eye socket.
“Watch your fucking mouth, Poore.”
I smile at him and he snarls, baring his teeth.
“Seems you didn’t do your research very well, Hellburn,” I spit, earning myself another punch, only this time it’s to my jaw and the coppery taste of blood instantly fills my mouth.
“I’ve ruined your family. Your life. You have nothing.”
“My parents were shit. Taking them away means nothing. They were nothing,” I seethe, using the words he’s spat at me time and time again.
“But—”
I shake my head at him. “Looks like you should have spent a little more time stalking me, asshole. I guess I should be thanking you though.”
His brows pull together, waiting for what I could possibly want to thank him for.
“If you didn’t ruin my life, then I wouldn’t have discovered the truth.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I’m not Poppy Poore. The sad and pathetic girl you seem to think I am with nothing to lose but who holds the keys to the one thing you really want.” His eyes narrow. “I know for a fact that no matter what you do to me, you’ll never get what you want. You’ll never make captain, you’ll never own the school because no matter how important you think you are, Rosewood is run by Thorns. And I, you piece of shit, am not Poppy Poore, I’m Poppy fucking Thorn. And we always win.”
I don’t see his fist coming this time and I go flying back toward the asphalt when he releases me.
My head ricochets off the rough roof as a blinding pain races down my spine from the hit.
“Motherfucker,” I grunt.
“You’re lying,” he states as if he really believes that.
“Whatever, Preston. I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, especially not you. He’ll be here. There will be only one loser here.”
“No,” he states again, his eyes beginning to get a little wild as he’s losing his control of reality. “No one is coming for you, Poore. You are mine.”
He drops down to his haunches, his fingers threading through my hair and tugs so hard that I think he’s going to pull it from my scalp.
I have no choice but to roll onto my back when he encourages me to do so.