“You ass**le!” I screamed, shoving Damien back with all my might.
It sent him stumbling into Jackson. I stepped around Lukas, putting myself in front of him.
“Get out of the way, Charley,” Damien hissed. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“You want him, you go through me.” I beat a hand against my chest.
He narrowed his eyes.
“Come on, Damien!” I cried disdainfully. “You can beat up a freshman, two juniors against one freshman kid, but you won’t lift a hand against a girl? That’s a f**ked-up set of principles.”
“I won’t warn you again. Move, Charley.”
“You want Lukas? You’re going to have to hit me to get to him.”
“Charley, don’t,” Lukas grunted, and I felt movement behind me as he tried to sit up.
“Move out of the way, Charlotte,” Damien took a step toward me, “or I will make you move.”
“Dude,” Jackson didn’t seem so sure, putting a hand out to stop him.
Damien shook him off. “She’s on their side. Brett’s dead, her boyfriend saw to that, and this kid is smart-mouthing us about it and she’s trying to protect them both. She’s a traitor to this town. She deserves what she gets.” He moved toward Lukas as Lukas stood but I pushed Jake’s brother behind me, jutting my chin out in determination.
“I mean it, Damien,” I warned him. “You’ll have to fight me first before I let you touch Luke. And I fight dirty.”
“Bring it.”
I braced myself, ready to take a beating so Lukas wouldn’t have to.
In the end I didn’t have to either because suddenly Alex was there, fury on his face as he shoved Damien away from me. “Are you crazy!” he shouted, pushing him harder.
Damien stumbled, shock and betrayal in his eyes. “They killed Brett, man.”
“Fuck you, Damien. I was there. So were you. Brett fell on his own knife. It’s not Jake’s fault and it’s definitely not Lukas’s and,” he dropped his head, getting in Damien’s face, “it’s definitely not Charley’s. She tried to save his life, remember? I swear to God, if I ever see you come at her again, I will kill you.”
The two friends started to argue in quiet voices so I turned to Lukas, cradling his left side. His nose was bleeding and his right eye was swollen shut.
The anger caught in my throat again and I glanced up across the parking lot to the security cameras. Those bastards were going down. Without saying a word, I grabbed Lukas’s bag and held his arm, gently asking him to follow me. He did, his head bowed in humiliation.
“You have nothing to feel embarrassed about, Luke. They’re bigger and older than you and it was two against one. They’re the pathetic ones.”
“Where are we going?” he sucked in his breath as he tripped on the curb. I winced in sympathy.
“To see Sheriff Muir.”
“Uh, why?” he stopped.
“Because if we report it to the school, the likelihood is that Coach will try and talk the principal into letting Damien and Jackson get away with it. I tell Sheriff Muir and also give him the heads-up that the school security cameras caught the whole thing, he’ll make sure Principal Watts does something about it.”
“It’s fine, Charley.”
“It’s not fine, Lukas,” I snapped. “Jake gets dragged through the mud and he’s completely innocent while those ass**les are the biggest bullies I’ve ever seen and they get away with it. Even now … Brett is the one who pulled the knife. It’s tragic what happened but he did it to himself. Not Jake. And I won’t have Damien and Trenton Thomas try to say any different, or bullying people into believing different. Not in my town.”
Luke cocked his head to the side, giving me a small, weary smile. “You’re hot when you’re mad, Charley Redford.”
Affection and tenderness and anger for what had been done to him warred within me. “I’m sorry that they did this to you, Luke.”
He winced and hobbled beside me. “Don’t. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. You’re, like, one of the best people I know.”