Broken Hill Hearts (Broken Hill High 4)

Ashley practically throws herself at Nate and I hear her through the microphone as she smooshes herself into his side. “Oh, my god. Nate. This is so embarrassing,” she says with a giggle. “I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

Nate just grins and reaches for whatever is thrown over his shoulder. As he holds it up and hands it across, my eyes widen in surprise. It’s the jacket. “Here, babe,” he says, just loud enough for everyone to hear. “I’ve been holding onto this for you.”

She grins as she takes it but her attention is solely on Nate, it takes a moment for her to look at the burned jacket between her fingers and when she does it’s like the fourth of July. There should be fireworks going off right now because this moment is so damn satisfying.

Her eyes widen and her panic is visible from here. Her eyes start flicking around as she works out how the hell she’s going to play this, but she knows she done for. This is Nate Ryder and in that one simple gesture of handing over a jacket, her life has been destroyed. From here on out, he’s just playing with her.

The cops being here suddenly makes sense and I can’t help but look across at them, standing closer to Nate, both with their hands on their hips, the amusement on their faces completely gone as what’s happening now is strictly business.

I stand in my chair and start scooting across to the stairs. I want front row seats to this hot mess.

Ashley goes to make a break for it, but Nate hasn’t had his fun yet and casually throws his arm over her shoulder, keeping her right by his side.

“As you all know,” Nate says into the microphone as Ashley starts looking like she’s about to start hurling up her guts. “After I dumped this sorry sack of shit, I started dating Tora Roberts, and honestly, she’s fucking amazing, isn’t she?”

The students start cheering and calling out to me and my cheeks go bright red. I hurry to the bottom of the stairs doing my best to concentrate on that rather than the wolf whistles echoing around the field. I get to the bottom and stand by Jesse. At least I can kind of hide behind him if Nate decides to pull that shit again.

“That’s right,” Nate continues. “I got the hottest girl in the school and if any of you douchebags even think about her in a less than respectable way, you’re going to have me to deal with.”

“Get on with it,” Jesse calls out.

Nate grins and I realize he’s not just doing this to tease and embarrass me, he’s doing it to rub salt in Ashley’s wounds. She’s jealous of me and Nate and he’s doing everything in his power to make it so much worse.

“Alright, alright. Keep your pants on,” Nate says, still holding Ashley close by his side. “Anyway, two months ago, I nearly lost that little she-devil in a fire. And yes, before you idiots start rambling about it, there are a lot of rumors about that day. Many of them so far-fetched it’s ridiculous, but I’d like to set the record straight.”

“About time,” someone calls out but quickly shuts up when Nate narrows his eyes on him.

“You see,” Nate continues. “Tora and I were in the boat shed discussing what a douchebag I’d been that night when the shed was lit on fire. The door was locked from the outside and we were trapped. Tora passed out in my arms and it wasn’t long before I was out too.”

“I woke in the back of an ambulance not knowing if she had survived. I later found out we were both given CPR and she was taken away moments before I was. Nearly losing her was the worse day of my life and I promised her that I would find out who did this to us and that’s exactly what I did.”

Eyes start shooting around, but most of them look towards Ashley in suspicion. After all, Nate wouldn’t drag her up there and keep her there against her will if she didn’t have something to do with it.

“The boat shed was burnt to a crisp and the only piece of evidence we had was a burned jacket of the person who had set the fire.” Nate plucks the jacket from Ashley’s hands. “This jacket to be precise.”

Murmurs start going through the students and the cops take an intentional step forward. All they have is Nate’s word. They need more than that. They’re after a confession and I have a feeling that’s exactly what Nate plans on giving them.

“I started this by telling you I had caused an injustice, and that injustice was to Tora. We both nearly lost our lives that night and I should have done this the second I found out who was behind this.” Nate looks to me and a softness seeps into his dark eyes. “She has had to wait months to get justice and I’m not the man she needs if I make her wait a second more.”