Dynasty (Boys of Winter 1)

Ember just shrugs her shoulders and I’m left gaping at her. “Sorry girl, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“SHIT. Shit, shit, shit.” I hurry back through the door, desperately trying to remember where I’d dumped my backpack, more than ready to get out of here. If Carver has seen me on a security camera, then I can guarantee that whoever actually owns this place has seen me too.

To be honest, I don’t even know what I’m doing here. One minute, I was racing out of the school, desperate to forget everything that had been going on, and the next thing I knew, I was entering the code I’d watched Cruz hash into the gate yesterday, but damn, it was a long walk.

By the time I got to Cruz’s place, or what I assumed was his place, I’d found the gate for his drive already open and was thankful that he’d forgotten to close it yesterday. I broke in through the side window that wasn’t closed properly, and there I was, feeling that same comfort that I’d felt yesterday.

Fuck, how stupid. What was I thinking coming here? It’s not even his place.

Ember hurries in behind me. “Wait,” she calls. “How long have you been here?”

I shrug my shoulder. “I don’t know. Maybe an hour.”

“Well, then why the hell hasn’t the owner sent the cops to get you out of here? Maybe they don’t care that you’re here.”

I look back at her and scoff. “I highly doubt the owner of a house like this wants some troubled teen fucking around in their home.”

“True, but like … do we have to go right now? I’m kinda curious to snoop around and I bet this place has a killer pool.”

I raise my brow, keeping my gaze locked on hers. “I mean, you have a good point. Surely, if I was being a nuisance, I would have been kicked out of here ages ago, and Carver did tell you to come and find me here. I don’t know, maybe all their families own the house or something. After all, Cruz knew the codes to get in and Carver has access to the security system.”

She shrugs her shoulders. “It makes sense to me while also making absolutely no sense at all.”

As if on cue, a grin stretches across both of our faces. “I mean, this place really does have a killer pool.”

Ten minutes later, I'm sitting poolside with an ice pack against my knuckles while Ember tries to feed me a cocktail through a bendy straw. “You really kicked his ass,” she tells me. “You should have seen it after you left. The whole school was talking about it. After the boys finished off Knox—”

“Wait. What? What do you mean after they finished him off?”

“Once you left,” she clarifies. “I mean, you certainly did a number on him, but he was still left conscious, and that’s not how the guys do things around here. Carver beat the shit out of him until he was out cold while the guys stood back, keeping that circle around them so no one could get in, not even the teachers. It was insane. Knox was left unconscious and the boys just walked away from it, no questions asked or anything. It’s all anyone could talk about, and you were the highlight of the story.”

I shake my head. “I shouldn’t be. I was just doing what had to be done. Guys like that don’t get to cross me without suffering for it. Besides, I wasn’t really doing it for me. I can live with the close call; my whole life has been a close call, but what about all the other girls who couldn’t defend themselves? Someone needed to stand up for them.”

“Exactly, every girl around school was talking about it. Though to be fair, they only understood bits and pieces of the story, but they got enough to understand what happened, and now they look at you like you are some kind of rockstar. You’re their brand new idol. I’m just glad that I get to say that I’m your best friend. But you should be warned, Sara looked pretty pissed that all the attention was on you for a change, but I didn’t get to hang around to see her explode because Carver sent me to come here.”

“I …” I cut myself off, not really sure what to say. I don’t exactly want to be praised for beating someone up, but at least people now know that I’m not someone they want to cross. “What happened to Knox?”

“He was taken away and the school called an ambulance. As far as I can tell, he didn’t say anything, but why would he? What’s he going to say? ‘I got beat up by the chick I paraded in front of a sex trafficker in hopes for a commission.’ Get stuffed. Besides, he wouldn’t dare say a word, not about you, especially when you have Carver and the boys at your back.”