Make My Move (Hannaford Prep #5) - J. Bree Page 0,77

get the chance to… fuck, I don’t know what. Tell her I’m fucking obsessed with her? Or that curating the playlists for her is the best part of my day? Maybe I’ll tell her every song I’ve been working on since I first saw her has been about her?

If I was brutally honest, I’d tell her she’s the melody in my head now, the sweet notes that get me through each day, and that Ash, Harley, and Avery have been my family since grade school and yet she tempts me to fucking ruin everything with them just to keep her and that terrifies me.

She’s a fucking trembling mess on the floor but at least she’s alive.

“What are we missing here?” Ash asks, carefully, and she glances over at him with her wide eyes. There’s something between them, something has definitely gone on there, but then she squeezes her eyes shut and starts mumbling in gasping French.

Is this some sort of stroke?

“I’m telling them, Lips. We need their help to fix this, that little fuck Lance needs a beating and we all know I can’t throw a punch to save my life,” says Avery, and Lips nods with a jerk of her head. “Okay. If word gets back to Mounts Bay that Lips has fucked Lance her life is in danger. The Jackal will kill Lance, no question, and he deserves it so fuck him. But there’s a good chance he’ll also kidnap, torture, and rape Lips.”

Holy fuck.

Holy. Fuck.

“What?! Why?” snaps Ash as Harley starts cursing up a storm behind him, regret and fucking loathing rolling off of him.

“Because he’s a sadistic egomaniac who thinks he owns her. He threatened Joey away from her because he doesn’t like to share his toys. He’s waiting her out, playing a game that he thinks he’ll win, and if anyone messes with it he takes them out. If we don’t fix this he’s going to rape and kill her.”

Lips lifts one shaky hand up to her face and covers her eyes, her breath rattling in her chest, and we all just fucking stand there and watch as she composes herself. It’s a sight to see, watching her just piece herself back together on the ground until she’s whole again. We’ve underestimated her.

She’s stronger than any of us.

When her eyes finally open, she looks us all over, radiating calm like a fucking pro.

Harley gives her a nod and turns back to the rest of us. “We need to fix this and we need to do it now. Ideas?”

Well.

That’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? There’s only one real option that will clear her fully. “The bet says proof has to be either a photo or a video. We get our hands on it and prove it’s a fake. No one wants Lance to get the money so it’ll be an easy sell if we can find something.”

Ash snorts derisively, his voice a twisted snarl. “How exactly would that be good proof if no one here has fucked the Mounty before? Who could vouch it’s her?”

“Besides the obvious that her face would have to be in it? The photos last year,” says Harley.

Fuck.

Those fucking nudes. They’d circulated around the school for months and dodging them was harder than it had any right to be. I wouldn’t ever willingly check out revenge porn, and it fucking kills me to think of how many guys have seen them.

Jerked off over them.

Great, now I want to kill everyone just as badly as Ash and Harley do.

“We need to get the photos and pray. Lance is taking photography and advanced digital design. I’m sure he’s got the fake photos damn near perfect,” Lips says, her voice strong and steady even as she rubs her face with shaking hands.

Lance is a dead man walking.

I turn for the door, stalking out as I say, “Give me twenty minutes. I know who’ll have them.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Harley

Lance the Mounty is fucking dead.

Beyond dead, I’m going to torture him in the most horrific fucking ways before I kill him, because he deserves nothing less than the worst fucking death possible.

Avery shoves Lips into the shower while we wait for Morrison to come back with the photos and the second the water cuts on, Ash turns on his sister with a snarl.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell us about this? The fucking Jackal? Have you lost your fucking mind, Avery?”

She huffs at him and turns to walk away but he catches her arm and stops her, gently because