Chapter 7
N ash
I’d successfully ignored and avoided Vicky since Sunday’s wrestling match.
If I had to listen to her freak out again over the fact I’d pranked Ren, I was going to lose my cool completely.
I just needed to break up with her, and her family could fuck off.
I couldn’t stand listening to her for the rest of my life.
At one point I’d thought I could find someone that I didn’t detest to marry so my father gave up the idea of an arranged marriage, but I couldn’t do it.
I was going to kill her in her sleep and now I was just hanging on to her to screw with Ren.
She was another pain in my ass but for a totally different reason.
Marching down the hall, the students in the way jumped to the side to let me pass.
It was satisfying to know that I scared the crap out of most of the student population.
There was only a handful that didn’t cower at my feet.
Walking into the biology room, I spotted one of them.
Ren was trying to ignore the group of guys standing around her.
The same strange protective urge that I’d felt for her before rose, and I marched toward Axel and his goons.
“Come on, just give us a little peek,” Trey said. I fucking hated that guy. Then again, I hated the entire football team, bunch of arrogant pricks. It didn’t help that Trey was Axel’s best friend. You keep a best friend like that piece of shit, and you were just asking to be hated.
Axel was sitting in my seat, and I growled under my breath as he reached out and gripped Ren’s shoulder. “Come and sit on my lap. I promise it’ll be a good time.”
He smiled, but Ren glared at him like she was contemplating shoving her pen through his eye. “Don’t touch me,” she said and jerked her shoulder away.
Marching across the room, I pushed past the walking jockstrap closest to Ren. She yelped as I picked her up and sat her on my lap. My arm wrapped around her waist as I kept her from leaping right back off.
“If she’s going to sit on anyone’s lap, it’ll be mine,” I snarled at Axel, daring him to challenge me.
“Isn’t she with Myles?”
“We don’t mind sharing her,” I said. Ren glanced at me, and I was shocked she didn’t call me out on the lie.
“So you’re the sharable kind of slut.” Ren tensed. “I like it,” Axel said and ran his tongue along the bottom of his lip. I sat Ren on the desk and tackled Axel all before he could say another word.
We crashed to the floor, my fist connecting with his jaw twice on the way to the ground. There was very little that enraged me more than this fucker, and he’d just given me all the ammunition I needed to let my anger loose.
“Fuck,” Axel managed to say just before my fist connected with his face again. The yelling and cheers of the students were background noise until someone hauled me off of Axel. I knew by the football jacket that it was fucking Trey. I slammed my head back into his face.
“Ah, my fucking nose,” Trey whined like a little bitch as he let me go.
Not caring who I took down, I grabbed the front of the next closest guy who had been bothering Ren and got in two jabs and a right cross before he crumbled to the ground.
Each one was my father. That was who I saw anytime I got into a fight.
He was the one who taught me to fight first, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it would always come down to him or me.
Someone jumped me from behind, but I got myself turned enough that we landed on our sides rather than with whoever was on top of me.
I slammed my elbow back and heard a grunt, the arms around my stomach going slack.
Pushing myself up, I growled at Cliff and kicked him in the gut before stomping toward Axel, who was still lying on the floor.
“Stop, Nash, stop.” Ren ran in front of me, but I pushed her aside, my focus solely on the man on the floor. “Stop it, please.” Ren jumped in my way again, but this time, she wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Let go, Princess,” I said, seething, not wanting to hurt her. I tried to pry her arms off, but she had a hell of a good grip and wouldn’t let go. I looked down into her silvery eyes, and there was a look in them that I couldn’t understand, but I stopped moving.
“He’s not worth getting suspended or, worse, expelled,” she said.
“He’s worth every minute,” I said, glaring at Axel as his friends helped him stand.
“No, he’s really not. He is not worth a second of your time,” Ren said softly, and I took a deep breath.
“Fuck you, bitch,” Axel snarled.
“Shut up, you idiot,” Ren shot over her shoulder at Axel.
Mrs. Grey picked that moment to walk in, and everyone scattered to their seats. “What is happening in here?”
Ren still hadn’t released me, and I smirked down at her.
“I knew you wanted to touch me,” I whispered, and she swore under her breath, making me laugh as she let go and crossed her arms. Myles and Liam were the only two people I knew of until now who would get in my way when I was that angry.
That pint-sized fierceness was going to get her in trouble with the wrong person.
“He started it,” Axel said and pointed at me as he exaggerated his limp toward Mrs. Grey. I rolled my eyes.
“Only because you were harassing me,” Ren said.
“I was only being nice,” Axel argued. “Ask my friends. They saw the whole thing.”
“Asking to look under my skirt in class is not being nice,” Ren growled, and the color drained from Mrs. Grey’s face.
“She lies.”
“Stay right here,” Mrs. Grey ordered and walked out of the room with her phone in hand.
Axel glared at me and then at Ren. I laid my hand on her shoulder and took a step forward. If he wanted to pick a fight with anyone, it would be me.
“Okay, Axel, Trey, Cliff, and Louie, go see Coach. He’ll take care of you there. Nash and Ren to the dean’s Office.”
Ren lifted her hands in the air and let them drop, disgust written all over her face. “Unbelievable.”
“Go, Ms. Davies, or I will put you in detention.” Mrs. Grey pointed at the door, and Ren’s hands curled into fists.
“We’re going,” I said, guiding Ren to her desk to grab her things as she grumbled and swore a blue streak under her breath. I really liked this side of Princess.
“Unbelievable,” Ren said again as we stepped outside of Morris Ward Hall.
“Don’t worry about it. Everything will be fine.”
She turned and glared at me. “No, no, it’s not.” She grabbed my arm, and I immediately wrapped my other arm around her waist. “Don’t touch me,” Ren fumed. Her hair—which was as white as the falling snow—blew around her face and made her look wilder than the icy glare in her eyes.
“Why? We both know you like it.”
“Oh my god. You’re just as bad as Axel.”
“I’m nothing like him,” I said, but let her go. “You need to stay away from him.”
Ren held up her hands and shook her head. “I would love nothing more than to do that, but I didn’t exactly search him out. That doesn’t matter. What I want to know is why you even got involved. I didn’t ask for your help, and now everything is ten times worse.”
“Yeah, you and what army was going to take on four guys?”
“I hadn’t planned on fighting them. Never mind, this is pointless.
” She stomped away and then turned and pointed at me.
I loved the fire burning in her eyes. It was a huge turn- on.
“Oh! And for the record, you, me, and Myles together is not happening. Not ever.” She spun in a flourish, and I took a moment to appreciate her adorable ass walking away.
“You really shouldn’t have said that, Princess. Never say never to me.”
R en
I’d spent more time in Dean Henry’s office since I arrived here at Wayward than I had the entire rest of my school-attending life. He tapped his pen off the desk, his nostrils flaring slightly, giving away his annoyance.
“Ms. Davies, I did not think I’d see this much of you in my office. It is becoming a very unpleasant habit.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t think I’d be in here this much either,” I said, and the dean raised an eyebrow at me. Why did I say that? Me and my big mouth.
“I would’ve thought that tying Mr. McCoy to your grades would have deterred you from trouble.
Maybe I need to add Mr. Collier’s grades to your plate as well,” he said, and sheer panic had my mouth falling open.
No way in hell was I trying to tutor Nash.
I would rather fail every class before I agreed to that.
Nash huffed and leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed. “My grades are great. That’s not much of a threat. You should make it worse.”
I glared at him. Did he just throw me under the bus? I was going to kill him. That was all there was to it, and it was going to be a painful death. Like being dragged across crushed glass and then dropped into a pit of fire ants.
“They won’t be if I suspend you for a few weeks, Mr. Collier.” There was the tiniest of changes in Nash’s face, but I saw the spark of worry. Good, he should be terrified because I was going to rip his balls off if he ended up suspended and I was tied to his marks.
“Respectfully, Dean, I think we should get a chance to explain what happened before you pass judgment,” I said, derailing the staring contest between the two of them.
Dean Henry’s eyes slowly pulled away from Nash to look at me. “Alright, tell me what happened.”
I couldn’t put my finger on what it was about the dean, but he was quietly terrifying.