find her soaked through her panties. “Looks like you’re a whore, after all.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” She reaches up and brushes the floppy ends of my hair, then bends down and grabs her shoes, swinging them from her pinky finger. A wild, devilish grin forms on her lips. “And the only reason I’m wet is because you were watching.”
“Sweet dreams, Palmer,” I call out to her as she’s hitting the steps to leave. She holds up her middle finger as a parting gift.
I’m the one who has the sweet dreams, though. With Palmer the main focus in them, I wake up, angry and frustrated that, instead of hating this girl like I should, she’s wiggling her way into every dark corner of my mind.
“How’d last night work out for you?” Breaker knocks on the doorframe and steps into my room before I have a chance to piss. “Your plan was fucked from the beginning, and you know it. What the hell did you think was going to happen?”
“What plan?” Byron stops at my doorway. Last night, when we got home, neither of us said anything as we passed him on our way to our rooms. Some things Byron doesn’t need to know. He grows agitated from our silence and crosses his arms over his chest, grinding his teeth. “If something happened, then I need to know what it is, in case it directly affects the plan.”
“Don’t worry, your precious plan is still in place.” I throw my covers off and stand from the bed. “We just tried to intimidate Palmer last night, and we crashed and burned.”
Exasperated from the whole run-in, Breaker points at me. “What he means to say is, the girl didn’t seem all too afraid of us. She practically fell in my lap when Marek dangled me in front of her like a juicy steak,” Breaker explains.
I eye him, silently telling him I’d preferred for that shit to stay secret. He shrugs, dismissing my worries. He stormed off last night because he knew both my and Palmer’s motives were fucked from the beginning. I wanted to see if she’d actually go through with it, wrecked at the idea of her hand being on someone else’s skin, but not enough to stop her.
Watching her tear up every preconceived notion this world has for a girl like Palmer is a drug to me. Witnessing something uninhibited and raw creates a high, like an out of body experience, and yet, I can feel every touch her fingers laid on Breaker’s skin.
“She’s proven sex isn’t a weapon capable of bringing her down, more times than not”—he knowingly watches me— “so let’s go for something that will hit her deep.” Byron smirks, too happy to be dreaming up ways to torture this girl.
“What exactly did you have in mind?” Breaker sits on the edge of my bed, concern etching the corner of his eyes.
We both know what he means. There’s nothing in this world Palmer cherishes more than her sister and her friendship with Delaney. One has already been taken care of for us. Our only option is isolating her further from the world around her. The student body is simple. We say jump, and they will always ask how high.
“She’s going to be difficult. It won’t be easy,” Breaker says, as if he knows the inner workings of Delaney Chambers.
“No one said it had to be easy, but is it possible?” Byron smirks, knowing damn well Breaker will do what he says. Breaker nods, answering him. “That’s my boy. Now, it’s time to lay on the charm.”
We each have our limits. Byron’s are blurred beyond repair, compared to the rest of us. As always, if he has a plan, we know it’s going to be messy.
Delaney doesn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Eleven
Palmer
What do you do when the four most popular boys to ever grace campus set their eyes on you as some sort of punching bag?
You avoid them at all costs.
Despite trying my hardest to drop Byron’s English class, the guidance counselor claims I’m unable to switch my schedule. Having their attention on me for an entire hour and a half, first thing in the morning, is unnerving. They no longer take up the seats around me, choosing to sit at the top of the class, looming down at me from their corner. I try my hardest to pay attention, but that means my sole focus is Byron, and he smirks every chance he can get, proving he knows how destroyed