2. Gathering the Troops
Gathering the Troops
Harper
Luke, Eli, and Jack all give me kisses goodbye as we separate to go home to our respective families. Or in my case tag along with Caden to his house. It makes the most sense. He already has a closet filled with clothes for me, and who’s going to find me in that huge house?
I wish we could all stay together, but it’s not reasonable on a school night.
Caden’s quiet on the drive. It’s just him and me, but the air is thick while we wait for the next thing to crash down on us. He ran the bug detector over his car, but it still doesn’t feel safe to talk about anything.
“Do you think your room will be bugged?” I ask quietly.
“They better hope it isn’t.” Caden turns onto his street. He glances my way and softens. “I’ll double check. No one needs to hear or see what we do in the dark.”
He winks, and my body flushes with heat. Yeah, we should keep that to ourselves.
“Are you going to even tell your parents I’m staying?”
They’re home right now since Ava came home. I don’t know how they’ll feel about Caden moving his girlfriend into his room for an undefined amount of time. Something tells me they aren’t quite as open-minded as my mom, or as kind.
Grinning, Caden pulls into the garage and shuts off the car. “Nah, little nympho. I’m going to keep you all to myself.”
He opens his door and grabs our bags from this weekend out of his trunk while I get out. He jerks his head for me to follow him. We don’t go to the basement like usual or even to the front door. He takes me around the other side and keys a code into the pad. The lock snicks as it disengages.
“Open that for me?” He nods, and I hurry forward to open the door.
I follow him into the house, down the hallway, and up a set of stairs I don’t think I’ve been on and climb to the second floor. This house was made to lose yourself in.
He opens the door to his bedroom, and I follow him in. After he sets our bags down, he sweeps the room for bugs. His bedside lamp is broken on the floor. He steps over to it, and the device lights up.
“Fuck.” He turns to me. “In my bag, silver on top.”
I open his bag and pull out what looks like a silver baggie. I bring it over to him and he gestures for me to open it. When it’s open, he picks up the little camera and drops it in the baggie.
He takes the baggie from me and runs the detector over it. “Eli’s a fucking genius.”
He finishes his sweep and tosses the detector on the couch. He lifts me up into his arms, and I squeal as my hands go to his shoulders.
“Feel free to be as loud as you like, little nympho.” He claims my lips, kissing me deeply as I wrap around him, longing to lose myself in him.
“Caden?” a female says. The door opens behind me, and I pull away.
“What, Ava?” Caden arches an eyebrow at me like why am I not still kissing him.
“Oh, I didn’t know—” She sounds almost like she screeches to a halt. “I’ll come back later.”
“Nope.” Caden sighs and lowers me to the ground. “Later won’t be better. Out with it.”
I sit on the couch and pull my bag over to take out my school books, trying to give them a little space.
Ava glances at me and then at Caden and then at me again with her eyebrows up.
He chuckles and sits beside me, drawing me onto his lap. “Whatever you have to say, you might as well say in front of Harper. She’s mine.”
Her green eyes roll in disgust. “Fine.”
She lowers into the chair across from us.
“Call off your bodyguards.” Ava glares at Caden. “They’re worse than a pack of wolves. Constantly sniffing around me. If a guy talks to me, they start hanging on me like they own me.”
“Can’t do that.” Caden draws me to lean back against him. “I can’t focus on protecting Harper if I have to protect you too.”
“I don’t need protection,” she says through gritted teeth. “I need to have some autonomy that isn’t controlled by Zoey Turner. If her little mutts aren’t all over me, then she is.”
Her expression turns mulish, but Caden laughs.
“It’s not funny.” Ava leans forward and whispers, “I think she might be into girls.”
That makes Caden laugh louder. “Good. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about you getting pregnant.”
“Like I want to have sex after what that asshole did to me.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
“Tanner doesn’t give a shit about you, but he wants to get back at me.” Caden leans forward with me. “You and Harper are fucking targets for him, and that’s all. Until I’m sure he’s no longer a threat, Zoey and her guys will be watching over you. End of story.”
Ava pouts. “Can you at least tell them that they don’t have to keep every guy away? I’d like to go on dates with normal guys.”
Caden smiles. “You don’t need to date, Ava. You need to focus on your studies.”
“Ugh, you suck.” Ava stands. She glances at me. “Sorry, Harper.”
I shrug. He’s being a little unreasonable, but I get it now.
“One more thing.” Caden wraps his arm around my waist. “Harper’s staying for a while. If you don’t want me to tell our parents about your drinking, can you keep that to yourself?”
She arches an eyebrow.
“Really?” she says, disbelieving.
Caden groans. “Maybe I’ll tell your wolves to let up on you a little. If you talk to me before going out with anyone. I’ve got enemies.”
“I don’t want to date anyone who’s associated with you.” Ava brushes her dark hair over her shoulder. “I’m over athletes.”
“Good.” Caden rests his chin on my shoulder. “Harper isn’t safe at her place. And I don’t want our parents to know she’s here. There’s shit going on.”
“Fine, but tell the bulldogs to back off a little.” Ava shakes her head. “Zoey is fine. She’s not as bad as the guys.”
Caden nods, and Ava smiles.
“If you need anything, let me know, Harper. I’m down the hallway.” Ava leaves and shuts the door behind her.
“We need to sign on,” I say as Caden rubs his stubbly chin against my neck, leaving sparks in his wake. The others will be waiting for us to show up online.
Caden growls low. “Okay, but you’ll owe me, little nympho.”
I open my mouth to tell him off, but he turns so he can capture my lips again. I fall into his kiss and let him make everything else fall away.
Jack
I haven’t talked much with Emma since we claimed Harper, but it doesn’t mean I don’t care about her. We had fun together, and it wasn’t always about the sex. It’s hard straddling the line as bi sometimes, but Emma was someone who would let me talk shit through.
We’ve had a lot of discussions about sexuality and what it means to us. She’s open and honest about sex, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she wanted to experiment. But things went horribly wrong.
Sighing, I park my car behind hers in her driveway. Emma’s dad has a good job, and her parents spoil her when they can. But I know she won’t open up to them. Especially about this.
Harper’s offer to come with almost convinced me to bring her, but this isn’t the right space. I don’t know that Emma would open up to her the way she usually opens up to me.
I walk to the door and ring the bell.
Mrs. Garcia opens the door with a grin. “Jack! I haven’t seen you in ages. Come in. Come in.”
Their house is warm and inviting. I duck my head as I enter. “How are you?”
“Good. Good.” Her smile catches a little. “Emma isn’t feeling well, but she always likes it when you come over.”
I glance toward the stairs. I was hoping to ask her to come outside and talk.
She pats my arm. “She’s in her room.”
Mrs. Garcia walks back into the family room, and the sound of the TV comes on. I blow out a breath. I’m sure if it had been me, Emma would have come over to see how I was. Even with things a mess between us.
I take the stairs two at a time and find her door closed. I knock lightly before letting myself in like I always used to do.
“Mom, I don’t—” Emma turns on the bed, and her brown eyes meet mine. She turns away. “What are you doing here, Jack?”
I close the door behind me and sit on the edge of her bed. “What happened?”
“You didn’t hear?” Her fingers toy with the yarn fringe on her afghan draped over her.
I breathe out. “You were at a party. You left crying.”
“Does it matter?” Her voice is flat like she’s given up.
“Fuck, Emma. Yes, it does. You matter. I may not want to fuck you anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.” My frustration bleeds through in my words.
“It doesn’t matter.” She doesn’t even look at me.
“They ganged up on you.” A few texts gave me most of the story, but I hoped to hear it from her. “You’d been drinking and bragging about taking Caden and I. You went in to a room with a few guys. You were drunk and when you changed your mind...”
I want her to fill in the details. The stories are all over the place, because no one but the participants knows what happened in that room.
Emma’s shoulders shake a little and she sniffles. Fuck.
“If they...” My heart hurts for her. I can’t say it out loud, but I will make them pay if she said no and they didn’t listen.
Harper will forgive me this. She’ll understand. I touch Emma’s shoulder. We’re beyond what we agreed to at the beginning, and this is for comfort.
“You need to report them.” Even as I say the words, I know she won’t. They’re rich boys with deep pockets. And she’s always been seen as a promiscuous girl. It’s not fair.
“Why are you here, Jack?” She rolls over and her eyes are red-rimmed from crying, but she’s flinging her anger at me, needing a target.
“I’m here as your friend.” I let my hand drop to the bedspread.
“You’re just worried your girlfriend will be next.” Her eyes spit fire, but I know Emma. She needs to push me away when I get too close. Because under that fire is fear.
“I’m here because someone told me you left a party crying. I’m here because I’ve known you since we were kids.” My hand slides through my hair. “I’m here because you got hurt, and that shouldn’t have happened.”
Emma rolls onto her side to face me, tucking her hands beneath her head. She looks at the pillow next to hers. I roll my eyes, but lie down facing her. When we were young and everyone else started having sex, we would talk to each other like this. Wanting to be close but not cross that line.
Even as sexual as we both are, we waited until we were truly ready to make that leap.
“It was fine at first. Two guys, not nearly as big as you and Caden.” She rolls her eyes. “When they invited the others in, I thought they just wanted to watch. Not usually my thing, but I’m all for experimenting. I figured they’d take turns. I thought it might be fun.”
I brush her hair off her face. “Then what?”
A tear falls down to her pillow. “They all crowded in, and I told them to give me some space.”
I draw in a breath to cool the rage welling inside me.
“It hurt, Jack. There were too many of them. I didn’t say no or stop, but I didn’t want that.
” Her watery gaze holds mine. “They didn’t care.
Hannah found me and got me out of there with the help of Mike Cook.
” She smiles softly through her tears. “He’s a nice guy.
You know? Mike. He made sure they left with more than a few bruises. ”
He’s the kind of guy who’s respectful and takes things slow. Not usually Emma’s speed, but he would make a good hero.
“I’m glad he was there for you.” If we’d been there, that shit never would have happened.
“Mike stopped by this morning to make sure I was okay.” She picks at her blanket. “Asked me to Homecoming.”
There’s a softness in her voice like she might actually like Mike. We’re both very sexual by nature, but it’s hard to let someone get close enough to become emotionally attached.
“Did you say yes?” Something settles in me because I know Cook is one of the good guys, even if we aren’t sure about him being loyal to us. He’s the middle kid with older sisters and younger sisters. He’ll treat Emma well or his sisters will collectively kick his ass.
“Yeah.” Her smile falls, and she looks up at me through her lashes. “These guys weren’t playing. They were aggressive about it. If Hannah and Mike hadn’t stopped them, I’m not sure what they would have done.” Her gaze locks on mine. “I don’t know if I’ll be the last one they try it on.”
“Do you know who was in on it?” I blow out a breath.
“Zach and his crew.” She flinches. “Zach didn’t participate, but he told his guys what to do. He wanted it to hurt.”
I smooth my hand over her dark hair. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Emma. We’ll do what we can to make it right.”
She nods and gets this far off look.
“Will you stay a little while?” Tears fill her eyes as she raises them to me. “I haven’t been able to sleep today. I keep expecting them to show up.”
“Yeah, I can stay a little while.” I send a quick text to the group chat.
“I’ve missed this,” she says softly after a few minutes. She opens her eyes and meets mine. “You and me. I miss being your friend. I get that you’re with Harper, but I miss you.”
“We’ll work it out, Em.” Because she is my friend. There’s no threat to Harper here. Sometimes it can be really lonely when you’re different than others. When you want things they don’t understand. “Go to sleep. I’ll make sure this gets taken care of.”