Broken Trust A Dark High School Romance - Tate James Page 0,31

reason for my nightmares, and I hated that he was the one who also kept them at bay. At least he was gone when I got up, and I tried not to think about how much my pillow smelled like Beck, indicating we’d spent the night wrapped up together, as always.

Dressing for school felt a little like dressing for a funeral. I was depressed as I pulled on the stupid uniform and slid my feet into my Converse. Fuck wearing heels today. I didn’t even care if I got detention.

My phone beeped when Eddy was out front, and she hugged me hard when I got in. “How are you doing today?” she asked seriously.

I snorted. “Well … they haven’t broken me yet.”

She laughed, but it was strained. “I’m not going to ask you to reconsider again, because I’m starting to realize that you might just be the most stubborn of the heirs, but … let me know if anything bad happens. I have some pull still, and I will not fucking hesitate to cut a bitch. You hear me?”

I shot her a grateful smile. Even after everything, including me trying my best to push her out of my life—out of self-preservation from anything Delta related, and also fear that Catherine would make good on her threat to hurt her—Eddy had been loyal and steadfast. She’d stayed by my side. Accepted my many flaws, and never gave up.

“I love you, girl,” I said, staring out the window because I wasn’t the best with the emotional shit.

“Love you too,” Eddy said. “Even if you are an idiot.”

Couldn’t argue with that.

We were late to school today, and I should have been on high alert with so many students around, but I really couldn’t find the energy to give a fuck. Maybe it was emotional overload, but I was starting to feel a blank sort of acceptance of my current situation. It was depressing, and it hurt worst because I missed my parents more every fucking day. It hurt so badly that I still could barely even think about them.

“See you in chem,” Eddy said when she left me at the door and headed off in the opposite direction.

I nodded, still caught up in my own head. In my own pain.

Maybe if I’d been paying attention I would have noticed the looks. The gathering of students in odd positions, groups that were blocking off doorways and stopping people getting through. Maybe I would have noticed Katelyn, with her evil smirk, standing at the head of the hall, watching me as I stumbled along. Maybe I would have noticed and protected myself before the first fist swung out and slammed into the side of my head.

I stumbled into the crowd on the opposite side as something hit me again. I had to blink for a second as my brain shorted out. What the fuck had just happened? I was shoved again, and then slapped, all of it happening so fast that my brain was struggling to catch up with it all.

“What the fuck,” I growled. Dropping my bag, I tried to face the next threat.

The faces around me were dark and creased in evil intent, and one thing was strongly clear: they wanted to hurt me badly enough that I would be forced to leave.

“You don’t belong here, slut,” a girl shouted as she slapped at me again.

I managed to slam my fist into her nose before she got another word out, but there were too many for me to fight them all. Hands pulled at me, slamming me into a wall of lockers, and then I was pressed against it by a huge body. I managed to turn my head to see him, squinting at the guy. I didn’t recognize him immediately, as he jammed the hard lines of his body right into my ass.

“Stuck up bitch,” he whispered in my ear, dry breath and spit somehow landing on me at the same time. “You’ll give it up for everyone else in this school, but not for me?”

It was then I remembered exactly who he was. That dirty blond hair and watery blue eyes. He was the one who had grabbed me at my first party here, the one who didn’t like to take no for an answer.

Throwing myself back, I kicked and struggled as hard as I could to dislodge him, but he was so much stronger and bigger than me, that I had almost no leverage to move. He continued to press