Luckily, Mom wasn’t home.
Despite being worried for Rory, I’d been happy to have Jensen back in my arms.
For a second, I was glad she was gone.
How fucked up was that?
After a day or two though, I’d spent the next two goddamn months worried about her.
I’d laid awake at night, wondering if she’d been bashed in the showers.
If she was on her own and scared in her bunk.
I was even worried about the girls in there finding out about her past trauma with sexual assault, and using rape as a weapon towards her.
Had they touched her?
Prison had done something to her, I could see it in her pretty blue eyes.
She seemed to forget that we’d grown up together and I could read her hidden emotions like a book.
She was drowning in emotional pain, but she tried so well to hide it from everyone.
I had no idea what she was doing with that Jade chick, either.
Rory didn’t just make friends, so it was strange that she wanted her to hang out with us.
I was kind of annoyed that Jensen hadn’t chased after me when I’d stormed off from school, too.
I stalked through the front door at home, and Mom gave me a surprised glance at my sudden entrance.
“Are you staying home tonight? I really don’t like you spending so much time with Jensen Gilbert. I see the way he looks at you, Lukas. It’s disgusting.”
I ignored her comment, grabbing a can of soda with a grunt.
“Rory’s home.”
“Why did they let her out? She murdered people! Stay away from her!” She hissed, making me shrug.
“It’s hard to avoid her, Mom. She didn’t kill them anyway. It was proven to be a false accusation.”
“I don’t want you going anywhere near her. She’s dragged her name through the mud, and I don’t want her dragging yours down with it. Imagine what people would think of you! Besides, she doesn’t want you, she wants your money. She’s collecting all of you boys and you don’t even see it,” she snarked, making me glare at her.
I might not have been happy with Rory, but I hated it when Mom called her a gold digger like that.
Rory never used anyone for their money.
“I don’t care what people think. She’s innocent and should be treated as such. Also, Rory’s never used anyone for their money. She grew up with me and wouldn’t even eat the food I offered her out of my lunchbox in middle school. She’d prefer to starve than ask for a hand-out.”
“I want you home tonight for a family meal. I don’t ever see you anymore, and you know I don’t want you running off on me. You keep your ass home for a few nights, you hear me, Lukas James?” She demanded, my stomach twisting as the anxiety took hold.
One day I’d get her to release her hold on me, but until then, she fucking owned me.
I hated that I loved her.
Rory
“Rory, it’s so good to see you!” Josie beamed, hugging me tightly the moment I walked through the door.
Caden was lucky to have such a sweet, caring parent.
I loved her and was forever grateful to have her in my life.
My mom would have liked her.
“You too, Josie. You don’t mind me hanging around here a little, do you? I was hoping to use the pool. This is Jade, by the way,” I smiled warmly, stepping back from her hold and meeting her eyes.
“Nice to meet you, Jade. Rory, you know to treat this place like home. I’m on my way out, but make sure you stay the night soon and we’ll do Chinese for dinner and watch some movies, alright?” She ordered kindly, kissing my forehead.
“Sounds good. Thanks,” I smiled softly, waiting for her to leave the room before I turned to Caden.
“Let me know what night you want me to stay, and I’ll be here.”
He snorted, appearing to be amused despite having a sad tone to his voice.
“How about every night? You know I miss you living here.”
I tucked myself under his arm and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“I know. I’ll try to hang around more. Okay, rich boy?”
“You’d better,” he grinned, walking out the back door to the pool without another word.
Tyler and Jensen grabbed everyone a beer, and Jade watched with surprise as I shimmied out of my jeans, yanking my jacket and shirt off.
“You’re swimming in your underwear with all these guys here? Won’t your boyfriend get mad? He looks scary as fuck,” she asked with a squeaky voice, but Skeeter chuckled from behind us, making her jump.
“She doesn’t have a boyfriend. She dumped us last time she had a dramatic episode. She’s a hard woman to please, you know?”
I scowled, swatting his arm as if he were a pest.
“Hey! I’m not that hard to keep happy, Skeeter Maddox!”
Jade’s blue eyes went wide as she finally understood what we were talking about.
“She was dating all of you?”
Skeeter smirked, loving every second of her surprise.
Fucking asshole.
“Yeah, then she changed her sexual preference to women in prison. Speaking of your prison wife, I don’t like her in the slightest, but if you wanted to tell me about…”
“I won’t give you dirty details about my sex life with Lexi, Skeet,” I cut him off flatly.
Take that, fucker.
“Selfish bitch,” he grumbled, climbing into the pool and swimming over to the others at the far end of the pool.
Jade stripped down to her underwear, but she hesitated when she noticed my gaze scanning over the scars on her thighs.
She’d battled her own demons at one point if the scars told me anything about her.
I’d almost bet money on the fact that she’d carved them into her skin herself to drown out her emotional pain.
Most people knew how to handle the physical pain more easily.
I knew a broken person when I saw one, and Jade Winters was almost a mirror image of myself when I looked into her eyes.
She was still fighting despite the world closing in on her, and I admired that.
“What are you staring at?” She snapped, but I could hear the small amount of fear in her voice at the thought of me judging her.
“It’s not my business. Everyone deals with demons in their own way,” I replied lightly, but her face turned as red as her hair, her voice becoming blunt and angry.
“It was stupid, and it was weak.”
“Most ways of coping are stupid, but it doesn’t make you weak. I’ve got scars all over me from Skeet,” I shrugged, her voice going quiet so the guys couldn’t hear.
“He hurts you?”
“Only in the ways that I like. It’s a sex thing. He’s really handy with his knife,” I waggled my eyebrows.
“Oh,” she frowned, watching me strangely as I went to climb into the pool.
Tyler wolf whistled, drawing my attention from where he was treading water.
“Hot damn, babe. That’s some sweet ink.”
I glanced at Caden who was frowning hard, and I gave him a fake smile.
“Don’t you like it, Holloway?”
“The ink’s nice, baby, but what the fuck happened to your side? Those scars are new,” he stated, but I shut down and ignored him, making Skeeter snort.