“Deke came over tonight. He, Austin, and Cole had dinner with us. He’s dating your sister.” My mother had told me during a phone call last week.
I tried to brush it off by telling her that I was done with him. I laughed it off that they belonged together. But after I hung up, I cried. I laid in my bed and sobbed. Mainly because of what he did to me. But also that he’s with her. They’ve made it official. They wanted it to get back to me.
After he and the sharks cut me, I sat on my bedroom floor with a bottle of vodka, and I drank the entire thing until the pain subsided and the skin was numb. It hurt like fucking hell. I eventually passed out.
I woke up, knowing I needed a plan. I can’t win him back. That’s long gone. Now I want to kill them both. All the GWS.
“What are you doing here?” Shane demands, coming to stand in front of me.
I don’t answer. He’ll die slow and painfully. He betrayed me! Why didn’t they carve his neck up? Because he has a dick? Or maybe it’s because he has murdered with them. He knows too much about them for them to turn on him.
A brunette I’ve never seen before clings to his side.
“Hi,” she says with a tilt of her head, her high ponytail pulling her hair back tightly. “I’m Brynn.” She introduces herself like I give a fuck.
Her gray eyes twinkle at me. She’s too bubbly. Too fucking annoying. She’s dressed in a pair of skinny jeans with a pair of black heels, and a black and white shirt that hugs her small frame.
I instantly hate her.
She reminds me of myself. Back before the sharks ruined everything I had.
He whispers something in her ear, and she bites her lip before nodding like the good little slave she is. They all have one. Each of them feeds off a helpless, willing victim. Fulfilling their need for sex and blood. He pulls away from her, and she turns, all but bouncing away.
He reaches up and pushes my blond hair behind me ear. I slap his hand away. He lost the right to touch me when he told one of my secrets. I wonder if he knows the other.
What would he do if I told them what I know? What would Deke do if he knew about Bennett? That’s why I went to the clubhouse the other day. To blackmail Bennett. Boy, did that plan backfire on me. They always seem to.
“Becky, you gotta get over it,” he says.
I place my hand on his chest and push him away from me. He backs up, and I jump off the counter, almost tripping over my own heels.
“Whoa.” He reaches out for me, but I shove him away.
“Leave me alone.”
He doesn’t know what it’s like to love someone who you don’t really know. To have that one person betray you in the worst possible way.
None of them do—the GWS. They’re all just a group of spoiled-ass rich boys who have always been allowed to do whatever the fuck they want. In a town of people who either fear them or take payment from their parents to look the other way.
I always thought they were harmless.
Stupid girl.
I, of all people, should know that nothing is what it seems.
I fake a lot of shit. I learned it from my mother. Angelica Lawrence is the perfect model for a broken soul under flawless makeup and a fake-as-shit smile. People will only see what you show them is her motto.
I know I’m a hypocrite.
A liar.
A slut.
I’m what everyone whispers behind my back. I’ve never had any real friends. Not until Austin Lowes came along, and I was even forced into that friendship. But I managed to fuck that one up too.
I thought I could outsmart all of them. Thought I could play them at their own game. Told myself I could keep up with the lies and wouldn’t get caught.
Turns out, I was wrong.
The worst part? Deke has always had a part of me, since the first time he kissed me on a hot and sunny day by the football field of Collins High. After he took my breath away, he gave me his back and walked away. I let him go. Even then, I knew I couldn’t keep him. Not much later, he was standing in front of me again. It didn’t matter that I was unavailable at the time. No one tells Deke Biggs no. He wanted me, and I swore I could use him for popularity. To get into a crowd that could make me more than the spineless bitch I was. I would use him the way he and his friends used others. But I promised myself I would not fall for him like all the dick-whipped girls in our school.
Fuck, I fell to my knees so fast. Like I was a sinner in church who was shown the light and needed to repent.
But instead of forgiveness, I got burned alive at the stake.
It was bound to happen. No one lies and gets away with it like the GWS. There was a frenzy of them and only one of me. I was never a shark. It was a loan. I played nice with Cole’s girlfriend, Austin, while fucking his best friend—I was supposed to get a pass.
Instead, I got fucked without the benefits of the actual orgasm. Well, I guess I can’t say that. Deke knows his way around a woman’s body. But it’s not like the bastard hadn’t had any practice. I may not have been innocent, but I didn’t have half the experience he did. He flashed his pretty blue eyes and panty-dropping smile at me, and I was gone. Just like all the others before me. And the ones to come after me.
I never had a fucking chance. Just like everyone else who goes up against any of them, failure was my only option. They come together and rip you to shreds before you can even blink. Then they step back and watch you bleed to your death. They find a sick pleasure in watching you wither in pain. They thrive on it. Feed off it.
They’ve always liked to play a little game of dare. They may have called it quits, but I’m about to call their bluff. And what’s a game if not everyone plays?
I’m gonna show them that Becky Holt can play just as ruthlessly. Deke Biggs is my target, and he’ll never see me coming. I’m gonna put on my makeup and my mother’s smile. I don’t care who you are—no man can resist a painted face and scandalous dress with a pair of heels as tall as the sky.
He may be a shark, but I’m about to show him that the bait can be just as threatening.
“Becky?” A hand grips my upper arm and spins me around.
“Get the fuck off me, Shane,” I snap.
He grips the back of my neck, and I cry out as he shoves me through a door into a room. He lets go and I bend over, my hand flying to the back of my neck over the cuts he just grabbed. Tears fill my eyes, and my breathing has hitched.
“Listen.” He grips my hair and yanks my head back. “You belong to us, Becky. Do you understand that?”
“Fuck you,” I hiss.
He lets go of my hair and cups my face with both of his hands. I bare my teeth, ready to bite him if need be. “You think I want you?” he asks, arching his dark brows in amusement.
“Are you saying you don’t?” I growl.
“If you’re doing this to piss off Deke, it won’t work. He doesn’t care about you anymore, Becky.” He leans and whispers. “Those cuts were a warning, baby, to always watch your back. You never know when we’ll be there.” He lets go of me. “You’re lucky to still be alive. So enjoy your life and go fuck someone who doesn’t know what kind of whore you really are.” With that, he pulls away and walks out the room. I exit behind him and see him find the brunette standing by the wall with two drinks in her hands. She hands him one and sips from the other.