Chapter 47 The Truth
The Truth
Harper
Fuck. Nico said he’d bring it up. If I wanted.
I’ve already had one heavy conversation today. Remembering my dad and the thought of dealing with Luke’s dad with only Luke by my side was more than enough to worry about.
Other than that, things were light. And honestly, I was pretty sure I was gearing up to get an orgasm tonight. But then Nico had to bring up Rebecca, and now everyone would be invading my house.
Which my mom will be able to see on the security cameras the guys installed.
Fuck my life.
We’re in the living room, and I can’t sit still. So I pace as we wait for the others to get here. My eyes go to the camera in the corner again. She’s going to ground me for real this time.
“Jack looped the cameras, little nympho.” Caden grabs my arm as I pass him for the fourth time. He draws me down onto his lap, running his hands over my back. “Calm down.”
I blow out a breath.
The other part is I’m not sure I’m ready to hear how they destroyed another girl.
Not ready to listen to what they might have planned for me.
Will they actually be honest? Will they tell me the whole story?
Or will they sugarcoat it and make me think that I’m different?
Will I believe them if they tell me I’m different?
Caden tips my face his way, and his green eyes meet mine. “Nico isn’t the only one who’s heard something. What have you heard?”
My gaze flits to Luke, who watches me closely. He’s been quiet since he told everyone to get here. I exhale and search Caden’s eyes.
I promised Caden the truth. Even if it hurts.
“When you first targeted me, Kenz told me that something similar to my situation happened sophomore year with Rebecca Forester. The rumor was that you guys didn’t let up until you took her virginity. It was so bad she transferred schools.”
“You’ve known that from the beginning though.” Caden searches my eyes with a stern look. “That’s not what’s bothering you. What else, little nympho?”
“A couple girls in the bathroom the other day.” My eyes go to Luke’s. “They were talking about how they thought you guys being with me was all a setup and wondered when you’d get to the punchline and humiliate me in front of the whole school like you did Rebecca.”
“Harper—” Luke sighs.
I interrupt him. I want to trust them. “Even though I don’t want to believe it, it’s hard.
For years I’ve avoided you, which means I was never front and center for the things you did.
But I know you’ve done some fucked up things.
One of the girls said she almost couldn’t get off because of Rebecca’s expression when Eli fucked the girl in front of Rebecca. ”
My hands are shaking. They could lie to me and tell me everything is fine and then turn around and do something like that. My stomach twists. Could they do something like that to me? It would have been horrifying early on. Now it would be devastating.
“The girls figure it will be a month before you guys do whatever you plan to make me fade into obscurity again.” My words kind of fizzle out, and I lift my gaze to Caden’s. “And then they can be with you.”
I don’t need to tell them about how those girls want them. We all know that.
“It’s not my story to tell, little nympho.
” He holds my chin when I try to look away.
His green eyes are intense as he meets mine.
“You’re mine. If I thought any of us would do that to you, he’d be pissing blood.
We’ve done fucked up shit because we were bored or because someone got out of hand.
Sometimes we don’t, but usually we have a reason for the things we do. ”
His hand snakes around to the back of my neck, and he rests his forehead against mine. “There was a reason for her. Not you. Never you.”
My breath catches as he searches my eyes to make sure I understand. My heart pounds. Caden may not have championed me in the beginning, but he always promised to protect me. He’s always the one talking me off the cliff. My heart pounds erratically. He sees me.
“Do you understand, Harper?”
“Yes.” The word is soft, and the warmth buzzing inside me isn’t lust. There’s something more here. Something I don’t want to explore too closely.
“Listen to what the others have to say. They won’t bullshit you, but it’s not pretty.” Caden straightens.
“I had my reasons, kitten.” Eli sits in the armchair. I didn’t even hear him come in. The others are arriving too. Jack kisses the top of my head before sitting on the other side of Caden.
Nico meets my eyes and gives me a small, acknowledging nod. Luke holds his hand out to Nico for their complicated handshake.
“Thank you for bringing this forward and not letting her dwell on it.” Luke’s words hit me hard. He knows Nico did this for me. I don’t meet Luke’s eyes as he returns his watchful gaze to me.
“I’m curious too. I’ve been out of the loop. The things you did to gain power will affect me because I’m one of you. It’s already affecting Harper. Those guys are targeting her because of something you did.”
Luke nods and reaches out for me. My gaze lifts to his. It’s not a command. Caden is comfortable, and he makes me safe. But Luke needs me. I don’t understand it, but I need him too.
Moving gently because of Luke’s side, I slide between him and Caden, resting my back on Caden and my head on Luke’s shoulder. Luke lifts my legs across his lap.
I look at Eli. It’s time. Even if it hurts. “She wouldn’t even look at you when she served us at the diner. When she didn’t answer your question, you didn’t do anything. That’s not like you.”
Eli runs his hands through his dark hair and leans his elbows on his knees. He looks up at me with his dark eyes. “Sophomore year was a shitshow from start to finish.”
My sophomore year was spent going from one dark corner to the next. That year the horsemen had their mission and started tagging girls right and left.
“Everything was fine at home until it came out that my mother had an affair. They went to counseling that year, but every day became a fight at home. Mom blamed Dad’s work schedule. Dad blamed her for wanting too much.
“It’s nothing like the silent battle they’re waging now that they’ve decided to bury their feelings.”
I want to go to him, to comfort him, but Luke puts his hand on the outside of my hip and holds me where I am. Not sure why, but maybe this is easier if Eli’s not touching me, and I’m not touching him. For now, I’ll trust Luke. “I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for you.”
“I don’t deserve your sympathy, kitten. It doesn’t excuse that year. Just setting the stage.” Eli’s foot taps on the ground. His lips press together, and his head hangs. The urge to slide my hand into his hair is strong. To give him what comfort I can.
Caden rubs my back. “She needs the truth.”
“Fuck.” Eli stands and walks away before coming back. “Rebecca was a stuck-up cheerleader who flaunted the fact that she was so fucking pure. But it was a fucking act. She’d given at least one guy a blowjob that we knew about.”
“She played nice,” Jack says. “Nice to your face and mostly nice behind your back. But she and a few other cheerleaders decided to pick on some freshman girls. It was before we put our rule of no freshman girls in place. The cheerleaders were jealous of the attention we gave them. Called them whores and sluts and ruined their reputations. One girl ended up in the hospital after her parents found her cutting herself.”
“Was she okay?” My brow furrows. No one talks about that. What other things happened in our school that I don’t know about? I was too busy hiding myself.
Jack nods. “She got counseling and changed schools.”
“Rebecca wasn’t the ringleader. Some older girls led the charge. But Rebecca talked the most shit because of her virtue, like that gave her the right to look down on those other girls,” Caden adds in. “Because Rebecca hadn’t given in to a horseman.”
“We made a decision to take her out. To make her a hypocrite.” Eli sits on the coffee table in front of me. “She was our first claimed girl, meaning no one else could touch her until the guy that claimed her was finished.”
I swallow down the hurt. This is the past. They’ve claimed a lot of girls over the years. Just not together. “So you claimed her?”
“No,” Luke says. “I did.”
My eyes widen. When I start to pull away, his hand tightens on my hip. I meet his pale blue eyes and see the ice forming there. But there’s something else. Something that settles me.
“Sidney didn’t like that Rebecca was getting so much attention from the varsity cheerleaders. She wanted Rebecca brought down a peg or two.” Luke’s eyes meet mine. “It’s not a pretty story, princess. But it’s all in the past.”
“The problem wasn’t that Luke claimed her.” Eli’s eyes lock with mine. “The problem was she became interested in another horseman.”
“You.” My voice is small. My insides twist even knowing this is all in the past. I’ve seen the way he interacts with her. Eli doesn’t want Rebecca and she sure as hell doesn’t want him. Not now.
He nods. “She wanted me, but we made rules.”
“No one else could touch her until Luke finished with her.” Those were the rules they told the cafeteria when they claimed me, except for me it was all of them.
“Right.” Eli exhales. “She fought against it. She decided if she wanted a horseman, she should be able to decide which one she should have.”
“If you just wanted to take her virginity, then why not?” I’m not seeing the problem. They wanted to discredit her by taking her virginity. Any horseman would do, right?
“She also thought she could keep her pristine reputation by being a fucking martyr.” Eli locks eyes with Luke. “She thought no one would know she wasn’t a virgin anymore.”
“Wait?” I missed something. “If Luke didn’t take her virginity, who did?”
“It was a party.” Eli meets my eyes and holds them.
His eyes plead with me to listen. “My parents had been arguing again. I got drunk. Caden and Jack were off with some girls. Luke’s father wanted him home that night.
Everyone knew Luke was supposed to do the deed.
Rebecca saw her opportunity, and I wasn’t in any shape to refuse her. ”
“She took advantage of you?” I twist in my seat so my feet are next to his on the ground, needing some contact. There’s a burning in my chest. This need to protect Eli swirls inside me, which is fucking hilarious thinking a horseman would need my protection.
“I didn’t exactly try to fight her off, kitten.” Eli smirks, but there’s an edge of regret. “I don’t remember much of the actual night, but she got me talking about my parents and things just escalated.”
I don’t know how to feel about any of this. “So you broke the rules.”
“Luke had been working on her. Wearing her down. Had her almost begging for it, but she kept holding out on the actual act.” Eli runs a hand through his hair. “She just wanted to get one over on us.”
His eyes look haunted. “We decided she should be punished—fuck, I can’t.”
“It’s better you tell her than some jealous bitch.” Caden’s words chill me. There’s something more to this. Something they don’t want to tell me. Something Eli doesn’t want to tell me. “She can take it. She’s ours and we’re hers. Flaws and all.”
“I let Rebecca believe she was my girlfriend for a week.” Eli doesn’t reach out to touch me or anything. That truth just hovers in the air around us. Because this part of the story is sounding hauntingly familiar.
Eli gives me a self-conscious smile. “Understand why I didn’t want to tell you, kitten?”
“So you let her believe she was your girlfriend and what? Fucked some girl in front of her to prove a point?” Yeah, that sounds like something the horsemen would do. Fuck, I’m so fucking stupid.
I try to stand but Luke holds me in place. I huff out my impatience, but he holds me.
“No, princess. She went around telling everyone she was Eli’s girlfriend.
” Luke brushes my hair over my shoulder and I shiver, betrayed by my own body’s cravings for him.
“We leaned into it. But he never asked her or told her it was okay to say that. Everyone thought we’d gone easy on her since I’d claimed her, and now she was dating Eli. ”
“It had to be brutal, kitten.” Eli leans back, his hands on the coffee table similar to the way he did on his bed. I swallow the lump in my throat, because nothing he’s said is making me run. I should be appalled.
Instead, all I can think about is that bullied freshman girl who hurt herself to escape the words Rebecca cast into existence. Because why? “She was jealous of the freshman girls? Who slept with them?”
I look around, and Jack and Eli raise their hands.
“So she wanted Eli and didn’t have the balls to go after him until Luke made his move?
” I’m not sure this will make any of this better, but I’m trying to make sense of it.
I’m trying to understand who Rebecca really is.
The nice cheerleader who everyone liked was just a myth.
She destroyed someone else’s life because she was jealous those girls could have what they wanted.
“Maybe.” Eli pushed his hand through his hair. “I invited her to a party. Fucked her in one of the bedrooms and left after. When she came downstairs, she found another girl riding my dick in the middle of the party. Rebecca cried and left.”
Even ripping the Band-Aid off doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. “You’ve had sex in the middle of a party?”
With that girl in the bathroom. I didn’t see her and I’m not sure I want to ask who she was.
Eli smirks. “Most of us have, kitten. We’re not shy about our bodies and some girls really get off on it.”
“Rebecca came to me the following week.” Luke brushes his hand over my hair. He blows out a breath. “I fucked her and then cut her loose.”
“The girls were hard on Rebecca, and we didn’t do anything to stop it.” Jack shrugs. “She got what she deserved. More than she deserved, honestly.”
“That isn’t something you’re planning with Harper.” Nico’s tone is confident.
Five sets of eyes fall on me. I meet each of their gazes before Luke holds me locked in his.
“You haven’t done anything but hide for years. The only thing you’re guilty of is being the last.” Luke’s thumb trails over my lower lip, sending sparks through me.
“The last virgin.” I blow out my breath.
“No, princess, our last.”