His face drops, realizing that he’s just been played. He rears back from me. “That’s fucked up,” he roars and I hear Milo’s breath of relief. “I can’t … FUCK.”
Colton flies to his feet and within moments, he’s slamming his way out the door with a pissed off Charlie right on his heels. Spencer meets my eyes and shakes his head before following and then I’m left with Jude staring down at me.
He doesn’t say a word, just starts walking away as though he never did a thing. “This isn’t over,” I call after him, glad that he’s just witnessed how fucking crazy I can be. “I’m going to take you the fuck down, Jude, and when I do, you’re going to wish you never met me.”
He slams through the door but I know that he got my message loud and clear.
“Colton was right,” Milo says, dropping to his knees beside me. “That really was fucked up.”
“I know,” I say with a cringe. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to scare you like that, but I’d already started and I wasn’t going to back down.”
“Scared?” he laughs. “Girl, I wasn’t scared. That was all acting. I saw the breath you took the second you broke through the water. You made a fool of him, but you better be armed, he’s going to come back swinging and when he does, you better be prepared.”
Chapter 21
I sit cross-legged on the sunbed while looking down at my stupid math textbook. It’s been yet another shitty week. The sun has just set on Saturday night, taking my boys away with it, though I shouldn’t have been surprised. Saturday nights are their time to shine. It’s when the Black Widows come out to play and they can hardly do it while chilling out in Bellevue Springs. I mean, who would scare the teenagers into obedience if they’re not there to do it? It’s not like Nic’s father is actually going to go out and get the job done. He’d rather send his son into shitty situations.
God, I hate that guy. It’s hard to believe someone so vile could be related to Nic. The only thing they share is their looks, everything else is completely different. He’s the type who would willingly throw his men under the bus just to save himself. He’s a real asshole.
I bring my attention back to the textbook. I’ve only been staring at it for fifteen minutes, but it’s been a long fifteen minutes. Usually, my struggle to concentrate comes from my lack of interest in the work, but tonight, it’s Colton.
Lately, it’s always Colton.
He’s having a party in the main house and all of Bellevue Springs must be here. There are people lingering everywhere. It’s so not my scene. My idea of a fun Saturday night is chilling with my boys back at home. We’ve always kept away from the party scene. Bad shit always went down at parties and the more people at a party, the more witnesses there were. In our town, witnesses meant jail time.
Music thumps heavily through the property and despite how badly I’m itching to go over there and take a quick peek, I keep my ass parked on the sunbed. Hell, I don’t even care if I actually read one damn word in the textbook tonight. It’s open on my lap and that’s all I need. It’s my distraction, and if someone comes creeping out here, I have all the right to tell them to fuck off and to quit disturbing me. Though in all honesty, the textbook is more of an excuse. Without it, I’d just look like a jealous idiot who didn’t get invited to the popular guy’s party.
Tune it out. Tune it out. Tune it out.
I don’t care about a stupid party.
I’m a big girl. I can handle a night of resistance. Besides, Colton has gone out of his way to make my life a living hell. Especially in the last few days since the whole pretending to drown thing. Let’s just say he’s a little put off that I was able to pull one over on him. He makes such a show of not caring, especially in public and when that facade was challenged, he wasn’t happy. Since then, it’s like he’s been Colton 2.0. Everything is more. More scowls, more hate, more taunts. I’ve never heard ‘the help’ or ‘Jade’ so much in my life.
Colton hates me, that much is clear, but there’s also a small part of him that cares and it drives him insane. He doesn’t know why he cares and quite frankly, I don’t know either, but it makes for great entertainment.
“There you are,” comes a familiar voice sailing high over the noise of the party. “I’ve been looking for you all night. No way did I expect you to be hiding out here.”