“We may not share a Mommy and Daddy, but you better believe I’ll kill for you. If that doesn’t make us family, I don’t know what will.” He turns to leave.
“How bad did I fuck up?” My question freezes Byron with his hand on the door.
Byron spins, watching me with apprehension. “Pretty bad, but you and I both know you don’t give a fuck. Marek sets his eyes on something he wants, he gets it.”
“You going to help me then?” I shrug, not arguing about what he said because he’s right.
“Don’t I always?” He leaves me with that quiet promise I know he’ll die to keep for me.
Chapter Three
Palmer
Music pours from the speakers encircling the club. Aces is always packed on a Saturday. It’s the only club in a hundred-mile radius that doesn’t card the kids from Glass Heart Academy, and everyone takes advantage of that simple fact.
Reed dragged me here last year, and that was the last time I’d ever stepped foot in this place. I promised myself I would never submit myself to the torture again. That was true, until my roommate, and for all intents and purposes, best friend, asked me to tag along with her. There was no way I would let her come out here alone, especially to meet a guy she’s been chatting with on the internet. That’s a quick way to find yourself strangled in a ditch.
Not on my watch.
“Do you see him anywhere?” I hang over the balcony and search the dance floor.
They’re packed in like sardines. The smell of alcohol, sweat, and sex permeates the air.
“He just walked in with his friends.” Delaney points to the shadowed entrance. A group of five or six guys waltz in, carrying themselves with confidence and poise.
“Seriously?” I chuckle. “Delaney, that’s the guy you’ve been talking with?”
“What’s your problem?” She turns on me, pinching her small balled up hands into her hips. “He’s hot.”
“He’s also probably thirty.” I check again, and a rush of familiarity floods my mind. Do I know this guy?
“Experienced is the word I’d use to describe him.” She twists back to the balcony and bounces on her heels. Damn, she is excited about meeting this fool. I’ve never seen her get worked up over anyone.
“Thirty is thirty,” I scoff.
“He’s not thirty”— she blows me a kiss— “and don’t wait up for me.”
Before I can protest, she’s pushing through the crowds. I track her steps, expecting to see her come down the stairwell in the next thirty seconds. When she finally does, she hikes her tits up, adjusts her dress, and rubs her lipstick-covered lips together. She’s looking to kill, and if the grin on the guy’s face says anything, he’s happy to be murdered by my best friend.
As the music switches directions to something slower and more sensual, I can’t stop the sway of my hips. Realizing someone can see me, I set off to find a quiet place to sit. Beneath the same stairwell Delaney took, I find a tiny nook in the corner with a full L-shaped couch. It’s empty and I sit, pulling a book from my purse.
This club, surrounded by people, is the last place I want to be. One thing I’ve learned from being Reed’s sister, is that you don’t turn your back on the ones who always have yours. Delaney’s a constant for me, and I will be the same for her. If she needs me to be standby for her, that’s exactly what I’ll do.
An hour passes, and several times I check to make sure Delaney is still in one piece. If the smile on her face is any indication, I’d say she’s doing just fine.
I take out my phone, skimming through my social media accounts. When I get bored, I scan the space in front of me to make sure I’m alone. All it takes is a few buttons to open the text I received last night. The hard body in the picture is faceless, but I don’t need one to know exactly who it is.
On his right hip, the tattoo peeking out above the white towel is all I need to see to confirm it’s Marek. I’ve spotted his ink several times as he’s walked off the football field after a game, pads and jersey hanging from his hand, and sweat dripping down his chest like it can’t help but touch every inch of him.
“Caught you, Palmer.”
I jump from the intrusion and tuck my phone under my thigh to hide the evidence.
Byron sits on the opposite end of the couch, looking like every high schooler’s wet dream. That is if you dream about being dicked down by your teacher. Where the hell did he come from, anyway? Had I been so stuck in my own thoughts of Marek’s body that he’d slipped right past me? I need to be more self-aware.
He crosses a jean-clad leg over the other at his knee, pulling his pants snug on his thighs. With a tight grip on his shin, he watches me. But does he need to watch me like a lion does a wounded zebra? I shift, uncomfortable being locked under his scrutiny. Never in my life have I ever felt so unsafe as I do now.
“No need to be shy.” Byron winks at me, then breaks his stare.
At the entrance of my secluded spot stand Marek, Breaker, and Dixon, looking like the gods they are. Untouchable and invincible.
“Aren’t you a teacher? Shouldn’t you be trying to avoid places like this?” I grab my phone and stand.
Breaker hops over the table between us, invading every inch of the space in front of me. The back of my knees is pinned to the couch, and the heat from his chest filters through my blouse. His closeness entrances me so much, I miss his hand skimming down my arm and wrapping around my phone. He yanks it from my grasp and tosses it over his shoulder to Marek.
Don’t bolt for it. It will make you more obvious.
“Aren’t you going to come get it?” Marek dangles it in the air between us.
“No,” I say confidently. The only way to survive these four is to feign indifference, and they’ll lose interest. It’s no fun to hunt if the animal walks its chest into the barrel of the gun.
“Let’s see what she’s looking at, boys.” Marek clicks the screen, smirking when he finds a passcode in place.
Ha! Now, who’s smart?
“Six. One. Nine. Four,” Dixon calls out.
“That’s not my passcode,” I say triumphantly.
The only problem is, Dixon’s smile is much wider, like he knows something I don’t.
Marek taps my screen and bites his bottom lip, pulling it tight inside his mouth, then letting the plump skin pop out. Wearing a wild smile, he holds up the phone for me to see his picture.
“It is now.” Dixon sits next to his brother, extending his arms along the back of the couch. Breaker joins him, leaving Marek and me in a standoff.
“What is this? A shake down? Corner a defenseless girl in the shadows?” I swallow, knowing what these four are capable of.
The rumors are just that to everyone else who walks through the shiny gates of our academy. Underclassmen know who to avoid, and upperclassmen know whose dick to suck if they want to survive their education under the gray and black flags of our school.
I was born with a get out of jail free card. My sister. She was this protective shield around me, stopping any threat that could come my way. No one fucked with her, and these four boys are the reason.
Their friendship wasn’t always easy. Freshman year, they nearly broke her, and with the flip of the same coin, they won her devotion and understanding.