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“You don’t leave until I say you can leave,” I growl, leaning down so my breath hits her face. “I call the shots around here. Got it?”
I’ve been through this so many times. Little Wren is not the first person who ever needed to be taught the rules.
But she is the first person who hasn’t shown me their fear. There’s no shaking, no trembling, no gasping for air or anything like that. The way it usually is whenever somebody crosses me. Most people know better by now, but there’s always somebody who thinks they can get away with shit. It happens. People forget, or they get lazy, or they think the rules don’t apply to them. It doesn’t usually take much to set them straight. Except for this tiny thing I could snap in half without breaking a sweat.
“Here’s how it’s going to be.” I press her body against the wall with mine, pinning her, almost squeezing the air out of her. “This project? You better know you’re doing all the work.”
“But—” Her jaw tightens when she cuts herself off.
“You’re doing the work,” I repeat, “and we’re getting an A. Do you hear me? Nothing less than an A, unless you feel like facing punishment.”
Her tiny shiver is like gasoline being poured on a fire. It heats me from head to toe, and I can’t help but touch her hair, just to remind her how powerless she is. Winding a soft strand around my finger, I savor the way she freezes and holds her breath. “I can give you a preview of what that will mean, if you want?”
Her nostrils flare when she tries to take a deep breath and fails. “Whatever. Can I go now?”
What the fuck is this? I can’t get a read on her. What’s it going to take to break her? I tug the strand around my finger until she grits her teeth. “I don’t like your attitude. Keep this shit up, and I’m going to have to punish you.”
That’s when she surprises me the most. She lifts her head and stares straight up at me. I can almost feel the heat burning in those light blue eyes, and I don’t hate it. No, if anything, it gets me excited. It makes my heart pound in a way that has nothing to do with hating her and her mother. “You know what?” she mutters. “You can fuck off, Briggs.”
It has to be the shock that makes it so easy for her to get past me. She shoves her palms against my chest and ducks under the arm I threw up to bar the way, but she’s not fast enough. My fingers close around her arm and tighten until she sucks in a sharp breath.
I pull her towards me, my face inches from her ear. “You are so lucky I have more important things to do than punish you right now. Just don’t think this is over.”
Still, I can’t let it go without shoving her hard enough to make her trip over her feet. Somehow, she manages to keep her balance instead of falling the way I hoped she would.
Because nothing about her is the way I hoped. My mind is racing and I’m not going to pretend I don’t feel the way my dick twitches. It senses a challenge. What would it be like to have her wrapped around me, to make her shatter? To show her who holds all the power?
All I can do is stand back and watch her haul ass down the hall. She practically throws herself through the front doors—now she can’t hide how afraid she was, since she wouldn’t be running like there’s a fire in the building unless she was scared out of her mind. There’s something about it that makes the hair on my arms stand on end.
When was the last time I felt this… alive? Like all of a sudden, everything that was foggy and dark is crystal clear. Like I have a reason to look forward to coming to class. I’m not just going through the motions, the way I’ve been doing since my family fell apart. For once, there’s something more than the promise of weed and booze once I get home to sustain me. For once, I don’t want to be numb. I can almost remember what it felt like to be a normal person.
My feet carry me after her without me giving it any thought. I’m already through the doors and out in the bright sunshine when a familiar voice stops me in my tracks. “Damn, that ended quicker than I thought it would.”
I’m almost irritated to find Carter standing nearby, like he was waiting for me. Before I have the chance to ask what the hell he’s talking about, he jerks a thumb in the direction of the girl who just escaped me. I’ve never known anyone with hair as long as hers, a chocolate waterfall hanging all the way down to her ass. So much hair for me to wrap around my fist and hold her head in place. It would be so easy to make those baby blues pop open wide in fear and understanding.
I almost resent Carter for breaking into the fantasy that started building in my head. But really, it’s not like I was going to chase her. For one thing, I don’t want anybody on campus thinking I would chase someone like her. I don’t want them thinking I want to spend time with her. They wouldn’t understand what exists between us.
“She’s going to piss her pants.” Carter chuckles, nudging me. “If I were you, I would make it my mission to make her life hell.”
The venom running through his words leaks into my bloodstream; not that I needed any help hating her.
“I’m going to,” I tell him, and he laughs. “We’re partners on this project for class. She’s going to find out really soon that I have standards she needs to meet. And if she doesn’t…”
“I should sell tickets.” He laughs. “The whole school would watch. Fuck, maybe the whole town. What the fuck does she think she’s doing, going to school with us? She shouldn’t breathe the same air as we do.” He’s my best friend, which has to be why he sounds ready to kill her. It’s for my sake. He knows the damage that’s been done, knows what it did to me.
Carter Wilder has been my best friend since I can remember. His father Paul is the Chief of Police in Wicked Falls and one of the five founding families.
The thought of damage is what makes me check my phone. I’m not the only one who was damaged. “Fuck,” I groan when I realize how late it is. “I’ve gotta go.”
“Talk later,” he calls out behind me, but I’m in too much of a hurry to reply. Fuck me. Another reason to hate Wren Delaney. If anything goes wrong because she distracted me from what I needed to do, she’s going to regret ever being born.
I have to curse myself as I slide behind the wheel of my truck and pull out of the parking lot with the tires squealing. A horn blares behind me when I cut off another car as I turn onto the road. Any other time I might flip them off or at least show my face so they’d know who they made the mistake of honking at, but I don’t have the time. Some things are more important.
Please, let me get there in time.She can’t go home alone today. I won’t let her. There’s a reason I scheduled my classes around the time my little sister gets off the school bus. There is no way to predict what kind of mood Dad’s going to be in from one day to the next. Hell, from one hour to the next.
The past couple of days, he’s been worse than usual. Sort of like a volcano before it erupts. There’s an unsettled time beforehand. Little earthquakes, warnings. He’s been having those, and I think I know why. I’ve heard him talking with a couple of his guys about a meeting that’s supposed to be happening soon with the other four families that rule WickedFalls. He’s stressed, hoping this is when he’ll get a bigger cut of the town instead of running the smallest, least important section. While the rest of the five families not only have bigger territory they also have important positions in the community. My dad simply has properties he is in charge of. It's plenty lucrative to have us live in a huge house and never want for anything, but that was never enough for my dad.
Slamming the heel of my hand against the horn, I swerve to get around an asshole who decided all of a sudden they want to turn in front of me. “Fuck off!” the dude shouts, but I can’t worry about that right now. The bus is supposed to show up any minute. I’m racing the clock.
