Touched By The Devil (Boys of Preston Prep 3)

“No, you agreed! I don’t like secrets.” Vandy steps toward me, pitching her voice low. “Carlton got word this morning that Sebastian is supposed to fight tonight. Some awful thing his brother set up. Georgia tried to talk him out of it earlier, but he won’t talk to her. He swears up and down that there’s no way out of this.”

“For me,” I whisper, putting a voice to the suspicion that’s been nagging at me since our meeting before. “I think he’s fighting because of me.”

Again, the girls share a look. “What are you talking about?”

“That day, after we…” I swallow, “After we had sex, but before everything went to hell, he and Heston were bickering in the kitchen. Heston mentioned something about this weekend and Bass said he wouldn’t do it. I didn’t connect the dots at the time, but then later… in the car, on the way home, he kept getting all these vague texts from Heston. Talk about a winter transfer. Someone’s ‘poor dad’. A scholarship, and how they can be ‘fussy’. Someone’s tits. And then…” God, I just feel so stupid for not realizing it all sooner. “Something about needing a fix for his sweet tooth, and tasting it for himself.”

Vandy face screws up. “Because your name is Sugar.”

“Yeah,” I say, eyes rolling. “After that one, Bass completely shut down. I’m thinking… I’m guessing it was a threat.”

Aubrey winces. “Fuck, no wonder he freaked out.”

“But I don’t understand,” I say, shaking off the uneasy feeling. “What do Sebastian and Heston have to do with Georgia?”

Aubrey looks over her shoulder, checking that we’re alone. Once she’s sure we won’t be overheard, she leans in, eyes serious as she explains, “She’s going to the police to report him for that fucking video. And she’s going to try to get Sydney to go with her.”

I let this sink in slowly, rolling it around in my mind. I flash back to yesterday—her insistence that she could never do such a thing. I’d wonder what changed her mind, but there’s no need.

Devils protect their own.

A waiter passes and I put my glass on his tray. “Let’s go.”

“What?” Vandy asks. “Where?”

“Georgia needs us right now,” I say, gathering up my things. “Not just for support, either. We need to convince Sydney to do the right thing. If G’s going to try to take down Heston Wilcox, then it’s going to take more than the two of them to do it.”

If Sebastian, the strongest, most protective man I know, is afraid of Heston, then it’s going to take all of us to bring him down. And even then, it may be too late.

31

Sebastian

It’s been a while since I’ve been down to Ormewood Park. It’s a little different in the winter, all bare and bony, a grim skeleton of its warmer self. I sit in my car, blowing smoke out the window as I observe it. The last time I was here, I got my ass beat. There’s just no sugar coating that shit. It was a dirty play, my brother riding my ass to stoke up the fight, making me talk all that shit to the guy, only to end up tossing him a goddamn bat. It was a dirty play for the guy to use it, too.

But it’s all dirty around here.

My phone dings with a text and I don’t even need to check the screen to know it’s him.

Heston: Tick tock.

Your ass better be here.

I hear your girl has a little thing tonight.

Looks like there’s a lot riding on that.

She’ll probably be there late and leave alone.

Don’t test me.

I shove the phone under the seat, knowing I can’t take it in the ring with me. God, that fucking art exhibit. Just figures I’d go through all this trouble to make sure it looked like we were nothing to each other, and she goes and shows them the exact opposite.

Because there’s no mistaking what those pictures are.

They’re a love letter.

At first, it seemed like a love letter from her, which was baffling as fuck. You don’t get your heart stomped on the way she did and still…