Heartbreak Lover (Broken Hearts Academy #2) - C.R. Jane Page 0,50

a quick hug and jumped off the bed. “So…should I bring the phone back here?”

I opened my mouth and then closed it, not sure what the answer should be. I told myself a thousand times over that Jackson and I were done, and yet I always ended up here. I didn’t think I could ever trust this new easiness between us, because it had happened after he read my journal and found out the truth. If he hadn’t found it, things would have continued on.

And even though the hate sex had been life-altering, the fact that Jackson’s actions had reminded me every day that who I was wasn’t enough for him was something I couldn’t get over.

“I don’t know,” I finally said.

“She’ll be here,” came Jackson’s voice. He stepped into the room, holding an icepack to his bloodied knuckles. Evidently, that noise earlier had been the sound of his fist hitting the wall.

“Excellent,” Lane said excitedly, and I rolled my eyes.

Jackson and I locked gazes then, as Lane waved and hurried out of the room.

A million words were exchanged in that silence, and all of them were laced with I love you…

“Why don’t you get cleaned up, and after Lane gets back with your phone, I want to take you somewhere.”

“Where?” I asked suspiciously. He was looking at me like I was the sun, the moon, and everything in between.

He rolled his eyes. “Just shower,” he ordered. “I have to go run a quick errand, but I’ll be right back.”

I resisted the urge to ask him where he was going like the needy girl I was unfortunately turning into. I watched as he went into his closet for a few seconds before coming back out in a tight-fitting black T-shirt and jeans that left little to the imagination.

I stuck out my tongue at him, even though what I wanted to do was lick him, and then walked stiffly to the bathroom. I was feeling a lot better, but man, if I needed one more reason to never do drugs, this was it. The after effects were killer.

I heard the garage open and close beneath the floor, and I turned on the shower, hating myself because I already missed him.

Jackson

“Do you have him?” I asked Kyle, a starting linebacker on the team.

“Yeah we picked him up at his dorm room. We checked his phone, and the fucker had been trying to get in contact with Everly for hours.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Want us to start?”

“Nah, I need this to be very personal.”

Kyle laughed darkly, knowing exactly what I meant, and we hung up.

Landry Evans was a dead man.

There was a football house a few blocks away from campus. Unlike the frat most of us were a part of, this was a house the alumni had bought the team, where the more clandestine shit went down. The hazing we didn’t want to get reported, the assholes various members of the team needed to deal with…all the stuff the administration didn’t need to know about.

I hadn’t really had a need for the house until now.

But blood was about to be spilled. And I didn’t want any additional eyes on what I was about to do.

I walked inside the ostentatious brick colonial that was the “football house.” It was way too much for a bunch of college students, but nothing’s too good for Rutherford Academy’s football team. Our alumni had more money than Midas, and they were very generous with the team.

I’ve been grateful for the top-notch stadium, coaches, and training facilities since I’d been here. But today, I was very grateful for this house. Especially the basement portion of the house, which currently housed the cockroach that was Landry Evans.

The air got stale as I walked down the stairs into the basement. A few members of the team that I was close with stood watch, and they had Landry trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey in a fold-up chair in the middle of the room.

It was a little bit too mafia looking for my tastes, but I guess whatever got the job done. As soon as I’d heard what Landry did to Everly, I’d arranged for him to get picked up. My body had been craving violence on Everly’s behalf ever since my fight with Caiden. It was like my body idiotically thought that it could prove its worth to Everly by destroying as many of her enemies as possible.

Everly had goodbye in her eyes, and it was all I could do to hold