Make My Move (Hannaford Prep #5) - J. Bree Page 0,26

vow of celibacy there will probably be more complaints of blue balls than anything else.

Fucking Morrison.

Of course he’s fucking fallen for her as well.

I knew she’d do this; I knew she’d ruin everything.

The beatings only get worse when Senior gets back from his meeting.

I manage to keep Avery away from him, and I pay off one of the bodyguards to get more coke for Joey so he’s subdued and mostly out of our sights. Either way, I’m counting down the days until we can head back to Hannaford and I can sleep in my own bed.

Avery thrashes around in her sleep too much.

The first night back at Hannaford, I take two of the little prescription pain pills that Avery’s private doctor prescribes me and I sleep like the dead. I wake to my alarm and Blaise’s snoring because he can sleep through fucking anything if he’s hungover enough. Harley is already gone for the day which is both normal and a good thing, because it takes me three tries to get out of bed. I avoid looking at the damage in the mirror until after I’ve showered, as if the water will dull the bruises and I’ll stop looking so fucking battered.

I look as though I’ve been in a car accident.

I’m sure there are many men who would be hospitalized if they were beaten like this but this isn’t even the worst I’ve had before.

The year I went after Joey for choking Avery… Senior almost killed me too.

I don’t like to think about that time.

My phone buzzes as I’m buttoning up my shirt, my chest tight as I force myself not to flinch or wince in pain as I move because it’ll only make things worse.

Breakfast at the dining hall. Stop avoiding us just because Ash is a dick.

I roll my eyes at Harley’s fucking dramatics. He thinks he’s going to change my mind about her, that throwing us together all of the time will make me see that she’s genuine.

It’s fucking stupid.

I drag Blaise down to breakfast with me, mostly so I have someone to roll my eyes with when Harley starts swooning over the Mounty. The girls are both already there when we arrive, and I ignore the Mounty altogether. It’s better that way and when Harley sits down with a shitty look on his face aimed in my direction, I think about getting in the ring with him just to beat it out of him.

I can barely move though, so he’s safe for today.

A freshman kid next to the Mounty bumps her as he takes a seat and she jolts Avery in the process. The Mounty glances down to where she’s bumped Avery and then death stares the freshman, but he’s a cocky little fuck and just offers to let her blow him as an apology.

Harley doesn’t take that very well.

He threatens him with a butter knife and, though it does the job and I still fucking hate the Mounty, I’m not going to let people around here think that it’s okay to disrespect someone even adjacent to my sister.

I lean forward until I can make eye contact with the asshole, watching him gulp as I sneer at him, “You don’t win the sweep for getting your dick sucked anyway, Javier. You’d have to be able to get it up and slip it in, and we all know you have problems with that.”

The kid leaves the table to the sounds of all of us laughing, except the Mounty, who slides straight back into ignoring us all the moment he’s gone and digs into her breakfast.

Blaise refills the Mounty’s glass with a shit-eating smirk and drawls, “Did you like your present, Mounty?”

Avery grins down at her phone. “She hasn’t even opened it, Morrison.”

The smirk falls off of his face. “Why not?”

She sighs and pushes her half-eaten plate away. “I don’t want to have things bought for me.”

Blaise frowns and stares at her like he’s fucking heartbroken.

Jesus fucking Christ.

“It was a thank you, Mounty. Jesus, I wasn’t bribing you.”

She shrugs and takes a bite of her apple, casually fucking with him like she doesn’t notice how rarely he shares anything of himself and just how deeply this might cut him. “Most people say thank you with words. I don’t want your money.”

Avery spots it though and defuses the moment before it can turn into an absolute fucking brawl, flicking a grape at him and saying, “She threw a tantrum at me last week for buying new sheets for her