“Take Bianca to class.” Jace’s tone is clipped. Threatening. “Now.”

“Are you serious?” Bianca groans as Cole shoves her messenger bag at her and Oakley takes hold of her elbow. “I’m not a bab—”

Jace sends a sharp kick to his adversary’s stomach. It’s so brutal I wince as he slumps down the locker. “Get the fuck up—”

“Stop,” I interject before Jace rams his foot into Declan’s abdomen. The guy is already on the floor, curled up in a fetal position with blood oozing from his lip…pleading with Jace to end the torture. Enough is enough. “I’m pretty sure he got the memo.”

Those piercing dark eyes flick to me. “F—”

“What the hell is she doing here?” Bianca interjects.

Aside from stating the obvious, I’m not really sure how to answer that.

Bianca takes several steps forward until she’s standing directly in front of me. “Haven’t you done enough?”

The venom laced in her words makes me inwardly wince. We didn’t hang out much given our age difference, but we were always cool with one another.

Or so I thought.

Before I can ask her what her issue is, she edges forward, getting uncomfortably close to my face. “Stay the fuck away from my brothers, you backstabbing little snake. Or so help me God, I w—”

“What in the world is going on here?” someone shrieks behind her. “Are you okay?”

When I look up, I see a stern-faced woman who’s visibly fuming. Her gaze keeps ping-ponging between Declan, who’s still on the floor, and the rest of us.

“Crap,” Sawyer mutters under her breath. “That’s Mrs. Beck.”

Perfect. At least now she’ll know why I’m late.

Jace yanks Bianca toward him. “Go to class.” He looks at Cole. “Both of you.” His attention shifts back to Declan. “I’ll handle this.”

They start to walk away, but Mrs. Beck halts them. “No one will be going anywhere. Not until I speak to Principal Ryan.” She pulls out her cellphone and brings it to her ear. “Sorry to bother you, Principal Ryan, but we have an urgent situation in the hallway by the science lab. It involves an injured student and the Covington boys.”

She practically spits out their last name as though it were rancid food.

“Nothing happened. I’m fine,” Declan tells her before she hangs up.

The teacher doesn’t buy it. “No, you’re no—”

“I was in a rush, so I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. I ended up running face first into an open locker and busting my ass.” Rising from the floor, he juts his chin toward Jace, Cole, and Oakley. “They stopped to see if I was okay.”

As if on cue, the three amigos nod.

“It’s the truth,” Cole exclaims with a shrug. “Just wanted to make sure my teammate didn’t do something stupid and permanently injure himself.”

“Word,” Oakley chimes in. “It would be a damn shame if something terrible happened to poor Declan before the big game on Friday.”

“Before or after the game,” Jace grits between clenched teeth.

Irritated, Mrs. Beck turns to Sawyer and I. “Tell me what really happened?”

“We don’t know,” I blurt out, gesturing to my new friend. “We were in the bathroom the whole time. We didn’t see or hear anything.”

Beside me, Sawyer sighs. I can practically feel the disappointment radiating off her. “Yeah…what she said.”

I don’t like to lie, but I also don’t like to snitch. If Declan doesn’t want to tell Mrs. Beck the truth, it’s his prerogative.

Plus, there’s also a small part of me that doesn’t want Jace to take the fall for protecting his little sister. Even though he went too far, and it’s clear she hates me.

The teacher doesn’t look convinced, but it’s out of her hands when Principal Ryan and the nurse arrive on the scene and Declan reiterates that he ran face first into a locker.

“All right, if that’s the case, there’s nothing I can do here.” He throws his hands up. “You’re all free to go.”

We start to disperse…but not before Bianca calls out, “I meant what I said, bitch.” She lunges in my direction. “Hurt one of my brothers again and they’ll need dental records to identify your traitorous corpse.”

Jesus. The girl isn’t just holding a grudge again me…she’s devising a plan for my murder.

As much as I’d like to blow off her threat, I can’t…because I have no idea why she’s pissed off in the first place.

I never hurt her brother. Unless you count me moving away abruptly, but that wasn’t my fault. I tried to reach out to him, but Jace ignored me.

All this fury the Covingtons are harboring for me doesn’t add up.

I’d never betray them.

“What’s your pr—”

“Enough, Bianca.” Jace steers her down the opposite hallway. “You need to chill.”

Sawyer waits until they’re out of earshot before she speaks. “I know it’s probably none of my business, but I have to ask. What’s the deal with you and Bianca? Why does she hate you so much?” Her eyes go big. “What did you do to her brothers?”

“I have no idea,” I tell her honestly.

But I intend to find out.

Chapter 12

Jace

“You going to Christian’s tonight?” Oakley asks as we head to our cars. “Rumor has it he’s throwing a back to the hellhole, so let’s get drunk bash at his place.”

I’m not surprised. Christian will find just about any excuse to throw a party. And given his parents are gone most of the time and have a huge house, he’s got the perfect set up to do it.

“I’m not sure.” The words I’m about to spew taste like poison on my tongue as I approach my Lexus. “Depends what Britney wants to get into later.”

That earns me a strange look from my friend. “I thought you two seemed extra close today, but I figured it was because she blew you before school.” He lights a blunt and takes a quick pull before passing it to me. “But it sounds like things are getting pretty serious.”

I take a long drag as I conjure up my response. Technically, he’s not wrong. Britney and I are getting serious…but not because I’m interested in her for anything more than getting my dick wet.

I just want to hurt Dylan.

No. More than hurt.

I want to torture her until she feels even a small fraction of the pain she’s caused me and my family.

And because I know my buddy so well, I know her Achilles heel.

Every time she sees me with Britney…it will gut her.

Whenever she thinks about all the dirty things I do to her nemesis when we’re alone…it will dig the knife in that much deeper.

Until finally…she won’t be able to take it and goes back to wherever she came from.

It occurs to me I never found out where exactly that was, because my brother’s horny, one-track mind interrupted the convo.

“Why is she here?”