The Rivals - Dylan Allen Page 0,286

when you shouldn’t even have been here. You should at least apologize.”

He steps back like I slapped him.

“I thought he was hurting you,” he says, his little hands balled into fists.

“No, not at all. What we were doing is what boys do with girls they like.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” Stone asks and I frown, my brow furrows so deeply that it gives me an instant headache.

“No, honey, I...” I have no idea how to explain this thing between me and Weston.

Weston hefts himself up with a grunt of pain. “We’re fucking and that makes me much more than her titty sucking boyfriend.”

I wish he’d act like people on tv when they got stabbed and pass out, or something. “Shut up,” I snap.

“You shut the fuck up, you bitch,” he grits out, his finger pointing menacingly at me. His face is contorted by outrage as he staggers toward me. I’m not scared of him, but I take an instinctive step back.

“Stop saying bad words to her,” Stone yells.

“What are you, five years old?” Weston taunts, raising the pitch of his voice in a mocking mimic of Stone’s.

“I’m ten and a half,” he levels a contemptuous gaze on Weston. “I’m glad I stabbed you, you dirty mouthed jerk,” And then, he lunges at him with so much force that he manages to drag me forward a few steps before I can stop him.

Weston’s howl of pain before he falls to his knees makes me jump back in surprise. He drops to his side on the floor clutching his balls and moaning in agony.

Stone’s little face is grim, his eyes wide and on glued to Weston’s now prostrate, writhing body. “I kicked him,” he says like he can’t believe it himself.

I reach out to him. He eyes my hand warily, but when I cup his shoulders and pull him into a hug, he comes willingly. He wraps his arms around my waist and hugs me tight.

Even in the midst of this disaster, affection and love overwhelm everything else, and I hug him back. “You don’t have to be afraid,” I murmur into the top of his sweat-dampened hair.

“Like hell. If he’s still here when I get up, I’m gonna skin that fucker alive,” Weston grits out, spittle foams in the corners of his grotesquely contorted mouth.

“I thought he was hurting you,” Stone roars suddenly and pulls away from me with a violent jerk of his little body.

We all jump at the same time when the sound of the emergency vehicle siren rips through the quiet air. They’re closer now.

“You called the cops?” Weston groans and starts to stand, but he slumps back in his chair, pale and sweaty.

“No, I didn’t call anyone.”

I rush to the window and peer out at the long stretch of Wilde Way. In the distance, I see the unmistakable flash of lights. Like the proverbial deer, I’m momentarily frozen by fear even as my mind races to think of how to salvage this.

Stone can’t be caught here. He’ll be expelled. And my grandfather will kill me if he knows I’ve been giving aid and comfort to a Rivers.

“You have to leave.” With my heart in my throat, I grab Stone by the shoulders and turn us toward the back exit. When he digs his heels in and won’t move, I lean down and bring us face to face. “If they find you here, you’ll be in a lot of trouble,” I plead.

The anger and hurt in his eyes so raw and naked, that it steals my breath.

“You lied to me, Regan.” He wrenches out of my hold.

“About what?” I ask, bewildered and anxious at the same time.

His chest is heaving, and his lip is trembling. He blinks and squeezes his eyes closed sending tears spilling out of the corners of them.

The sight of this sweet, thoughtful, sensitive soul who I’ve grown to care about over the last few months, crying because of something I did, intentionally or not, hurt him brings tears to my eyes.

“Everything was perfect until you ruined it. I love you, but you like him. Even I can tell he’s a bad man. I wish I’d never met you.”

The force of his outburst hits me square in the solar plexus and I have no clue how to respond to what he just said.

Stone, on the other hand, has no problem saying what he thinks. He glances at Weston, and his lip curls in disgust.

“I should have let him choke you to death with his penis,” he