Chapter 28
The Blackmail
Harper
I’ve never been more tempted to straddle Luke’s lap than when we get into his car. He teased me and tormented me all through breakfast. I’m going to explode if he doesn’t fuck me.
We get out of the car and he puts his arm around my shoulder as he leads me to the guys. Well, the guys minus Caden. Eli and Nico look tired. But Jack looks completely wiped.
I search his blue eyes as we get close enough. “You going to make it through the day?”
He grins. “I have an energy drink, but I’m planning to sleep a few periods today.”
“If you need anything—”
He closes in and claims my mouth. Hot and definitely not helped by the fact Luke left me all hot and bothered already. I whimper and press against him.
When he draws away, he rubs his thumb over my lips as I open my eyes to his.
“I’ve got some things to give you later.” His lips touch mine. “And I might fuck you too.”
I give him a questioning look as he draws away. Luke reclaims me and leads me into the building. I glance behind us.
“Where’s Caden?”
Eli steps closer. “He’s in the office with Ava.”
“Oh.” That makes sense. Fuck, my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders yet. Maybe I should have brought more coffee.
We head to the lockers. When we stop, Luke kisses me.
“I’ve got to go talk to someone. See you in first.”
Before I can ask anything, he’s off down the hallway, disappearing into the crowd. I shake off the weird feeling of being incomplete.
“Kitten.” Eli takes my hand and pulls me over to Caden’s locker. He opens it and helps me with my books. “We’re all tired today, but we’ll get through it.”
I smile because last night was messed up. I’m nervous about seeing Sidney today even though she didn’t really do anything to us. Except she took Luke’s laptop and admitted to being involved in whatever the bigger end game was.
The guys escort me to first period. I drop into my seat next to Kenz.
“Hey, are we hanging out with the girls again today?” Kenz asks.
I shake my head. “I need to have a nap before I go to Luke’s for dinner.”
Kenz’s mouth falls open. “Dinner with his dad?”
I nod and rest my head on my hands. It’s going to be a long day.
Luke
I asked the sophomores to meet me outside the school. We can’t be certain if anyone can access the school videos or might have set up surveillance. And I need this to be discreet.
“What’s up, my man?” Logan strolls from the side of the building with Carter and Reeves behind him. He holds his fist out to me and I bump it.
I greet Carter and Reeves similarly. “Glad you could make it.”
Carter smirks. “Getting a favor from the horsemen is worth waking a little early for.”
I glance behind me at the doors to the school. “Where’s your girl?”
Logan chuckles. “She’d punch you in the throat for calling her that. She doesn’t belong to us. She’s one of us.”
“Okay, then where is she?” I arch an eyebrow at him.
“She’s here.” Zoey comes out of the doors. “Sorry, cheerleading meeting. What can we do for you?”
She watches me as she moves to stand with her boys. I don’t care that they say they don’t belong to each other, it’s clear they do.
“Ava Ross starts classes today. We have our hands full with our girl. I need people to protect her from Tanner Lewis and anyone else who might be after her.” I lean against the building and study them.
This time they don’t bother to look at each other. They also don’t appear that surprised.
“Ava?” Reeves rubs his jaw. “You put this idea past her?”
Zoey smiles. “Reeves might have had a crush on Ava a few years ago.”
I blow out a breath. “You over that?”
Reeves smirks and shrugs. “Probably.”
Caden’s going to kill me. “Fine, play boyfriend. I don’t care. I just need her under your protection so she doesn’t get caught up in whoever is after us.”
Reeves smiles broadly. He’s almost as big as I am and he’s only a sophomore.
The doors open behind me. Caden steps out, leading Ava. Her green eyes widen when she sees who’s with me.
“What is this?” Ava tries to back up, but Caden grabs her arm.
“It’s called you want to go to school here, then you need people to protect you.” Caden holds her next to him and looks over the guys and Zoey. He grunts and looks at me like this is it?
“I have Cassidy and Beth. I don’t need anyone else.” Ava’s gaze lingers on each of the guys. Her cheeks flush red and I’m not sure if it’s embarrassment or anger.
“If she’s going to be hostile about it, we’ll need two favors.” Zoey crosses her arms and glares at Ava.
“Deal.”
“What the fuck, Luke?” Ava looks at me like I just sold her for a goat.
Caden lifts Ava’s chin. “You want to go to this school, you take what we give you. Otherwise, I’ll tell our parents you’re in danger here and they need to find another solution for you.”
Ava glares at Caden and it looks like she wants to stomp her foot, but she controls it. “Fine.”
“Great.” Logan’s sarcasm is thick. He shakes his head and rubs his chin while looking Ava up and down. She’s got on a skirt and t-shirt and sneakers. “So, do we get to publicly spank her to claim her? Or is that just a you guys’ thing?”
Caden growls and grabs the front of Logan’s shirt. “Watch your mouth.”
Logan laughs like he didn’t just provoke a beast. “Calm down. We’ll take care of your sister.”
Caden releases Logan. “If she gives me any reason to pummel you—”
“Look.” Zoey walks over to Ava and wraps her arm around her shoulder. Ava flinches from the touch, but Zoey only smirks. “If she gets out of line, how about I volunteer to bring her back in? That way you don’t rearrange my boys’ faces?”
Caden narrows his eyes. “Don’t think I won’t hurt them if she gets hurt.”
“Caden, you can’t seriously be considering this.” Ava ducks out from beneath Zoey’s arm. “I have friends. I’ll be fine. Tanner is a dick, but he doesn’t get to me anymore.”
“You want to stay here, these are the terms.”
Ava looks at the guys waiting to hear the verdict. Her eyes narrow on each of them before she sighs. “Fine, but only for a while.”
“To be determined later.” Caden glances at the guys. “Don’t fuck this up.”
Reeves grins and steps forward to put his arm around Ava’s shoulders. She grimaces.
Caden meets my eyes, but he knows this is the best option. Ava won’t have classes with us. We can’t watch her the way we can Harper. He needs a clear head to stay in the game. Ava isn’t part of this yet and maybe distancing himself from her will lessen the target.
“Within reason, two favors.” I don’t look to Logan. I look to Zoey. She’s the one in charge here.
She holds her hand out. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
I’m ten minutes late to first period. I don’t bother to stop and talk to the teacher, just walk to my seat behind Harper. The urge to tug on her ponytail is too strong, so I don’t resist.
She makes a muffled noise before turning to glare at me. I smirk, feeling a little lighter. If I can find solutions for our other problems, we’ll be golden.
Mr. Wick clears his throat, but continues with his lesson for the day.
I made Harper a promise this morning that I fully intend to keep. But for now, we need to stay focused and sharp.
Surveying the room, I note a few football players, a couple of cheerleaders, and at least one girl I fucked, Olivia Miller. She’s a junior. Her bright blue eyes lift to mine. Her cheeks flush pink.
I fucked her off-and-on last year. I’m not sure when I grew bored with her. When she stopped being interesting. She turns back to the front.
The list of women I’ve fucked is short, but I didn’t include halves for blow jobs like Eli. The women were eager and wanted to, so why say no? My gaze gets caught on the nape of Harper’s neck.
A mark peeks out of her neckline that I’m sure I left there. I made sure she’s still using the cream on her marks on her ass. I don’t know how to feel about them. They weren’t as bad as the ones I’ve had in the past.
The mark on her neck marks her as mine, but the belt marks make me feel nauseous.
Even in the moment, I hesitated and finally dropped the belt because I couldn’t keep doing it.
Even though she didn’t tell me to stop. Didn’t say no or her safe word.
Even if Caden and Eli were there to hold me back, it felt too much like abuse and less like pleasure.
My intent wasn’t abuse though. And I don’t want to be that to Harper.
I love playing with her and disciplining her, but I didn’t know I’d have a line. Hitting her and clear abuse, yeah, that’s not even a question. But playing with discipline, I have a limit. A hard limit that I’ll never pass again. I brush my knuckles over the nape of her neck and she shivers.
She’s responsive to pleasure and to pain.
I have my list of girls I’ve fucked. Ready to give it to Harper, but part of me doesn’t want to give it to her. None of them mattered. But she’s ours. I know everything we’ve done to each other and know that all five of us have done it to her.
Harper is the last name on it. This list is the end. I can’t see myself adding to it. I can’t see a future without her in it.
Harper
Tanner is absent from art class. I hope Caden had nothing to do with it, but it’s a relief all the same.
Nico holds my hand as we walk outside for lunch. Caden trails behind me.
“If you don’t want me to flirt, little nympho, you’ll need to find different clothes to wear because I can’t think of anything when you wear skirts like that.” Caden growls low when I swing my hips a little.
My insides are already boiling hot. We make it to the bleachers and when Caden lifts me off my feet, I release a little squeal.
“Such a fucking tease today.” His lips press against the nape of my neck. “I might need you to sit on my cock while we eat.”
Fuck, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Fire blazes hot inside me.
“Put her down, Caden.” Eli shakes his head and holds out his hand to help me up the bleachers.
Caden’s growl rumbles against my back, but he lowers me onto the first bleacher. I take Eli’s hand as he helps me up to where we’re sitting. The cafeteria is too toxic and we might be overheard, so we decided lunch on the bleachers made the most sense.
My skin pricks with awareness as I sit and look at the field where they kissed me for the first time. Caden sits on the bleacher below me and strokes his fingers up my calf, sending sparks cascading through me.
I glance at the surroundings. The school is a little over the hill, so no one can really see us here unless they walk over. My insides buzz. Would anyone be able to tell if I sat on Caden’s cock out here?
Like when we studied, just sat in his lap with his cock stretching me open. I shift in my seat and Caden smirks at me knowingly.
Jack and Luke join us. Jack grins like he can read my dirty thoughts.
Luke captures the back of my neck and tugs me into a smoldering kiss. I’m soaking wet and ready for whatever they want to do, but I know this is more of a working lunch.
Luke leans into my ear. “Next period, princess.”
I clench my thighs together against the ache caused by the promise in his voice. Mr. Flack will let us both go to the bathroom. As long as Sidney isn’t there this time, I’m okay with it.
Luke adjusts his cock as he sits down. Jack passes out lunch from the tray he brought. I grab my lunch bag and hand a sandwich to Caden.
“First thing, Sidney.” Eli hands me an apple.
I blow out a breath. “She’s queen bee. How do we take her down?”
Jack smirks. “Check your phone, sweetheart.”
Okay? I lift my phone and open it. There’s a new file on my screen. I click it and open a file and screenshots along with pictures. I barely taste my sandwich as I take in what I’m looking at.
“That’s everything we have on Sidney Brown.” Jack nods as I set my phone to the side.
“Why haven’t you used it before?” They’ve said they have files on everyone.
Luke shrugs. “She was willing to play ball. She’s a power we know. If we take her down, someone will rise into the vacuum and we don’t know who that might be. We can control her or we can blow her up. That’s what that file can do.”
I swallow. “Why do I have it?”
“Because she came after you, princess. Now you get to decide whether she stays or goes.”