“But I?—”
“No. You want to thank me for breakfast? Give me a kiss on the cheek.” I turn so my cheek faces her.
“You’re so weird,” she murmurs before kissing me lightly on the cheek.
“Webcam today and tonight. All night,” I stress.
She waves me off as she backs away. “I’ll text if anything happens.”
She spins on her heels and leaves the restaurant. My gaze falls on Luke.
“It’s just how she said it happened. We slept in the same bed, but that’s all. We slept.” Luke takes a drink of his coffee. “Don’t we have a meeting with Coach today?”
“You go last next time,” I say.
“I went last the first time,” he points out as we all stand.
“No harm. No foul. Harper seems fine.” Eli wipes his hands. “It was probably a good thing Luke went over there. We might not have gotten the story at all.”
Eli’s probably right. That doesn’t sit well with me. How are we supposed to protect our girl if we don’t even know what’shappening to her? I can at least figure out who didn’t travel to the game and make a short list of people holding a grudge against us.
If it was just some kids messing around, fine, but if someone’s coming after what’s ours, I won’t pull my punches.
CHAPTER 24
The Strategic Confinement
Eli
Same shit, different day. Tonight the party is at the head cheerleader’s house, Sidney Brown. We’ve fucked around with her group of girls for years. I’m confident they believe they’re in a holding pattern. Waiting for us to take Harper’s virginity and then everything will go back to normal.
Because I don’t want them to traumatize our girl, I haven’t disillusioned them. Yet. Besides, it’s not like they don’t have other guys they hook up with. None of us have been exclusive with anyone since we became sexually active.
We’re sitting on the couches in the corner of Sidney’s living room. Dance music pounds out of speakers on either side of the room. The furniture is along the walls, and the lights are low, with a few colored lights spinning from the ceiling like a fucking disco.
Luke, Caden, Jack, and I are putting in our appearance, making our presence known. Caden thinks someone who wants to get back at us is targeting our girl, but I don’t know anyone with big enough balls for that.
To go against the four of us without fear of retribution?
I haven’t met a guy like that in our school. A few get their panties in a twist when we humiliate them or Caden beats them up, but they fall in line. Like good little ducks.
Some senior girls are dancing together in front of us, rubbing up on each other like that’s going to do it for us. A couple girls look like the hangers-on who followed Harper to our table the other day.
Ashley Kim, Emma Garcia, and Hannah Wilson work their way through the crowd to us. The only one missing is their boss bitch, Sidney. Ashley has black hair and dark eyes. She’s Korean and tall. We’ve hit it quite a few times. She likes me being rough with her. Emma Garcia is a Latina with long brown hair and dark eyes. She’s sweet on Jack, but I know that she’s played with both Jack and Caden together. Hannah is possessive of Caden and his cock. If Emma were just with Caden, Hannah would probably rip her a new one. Both Hannah and Emma are tiny things but strong. Hannah is black with naturally tight curly hair and hazel eyes that stand out. I’d buy tickets to see a drag-out, end-of-the-world catfight between Emma and Hannah.
I lean back and cross my ankle over my knee so Ashley can’t climb on my lap like she tends to do. Possessive little things. The other guys do the same.
“Can we help you, ladies?” Luke tips his beer back and takes a long drink.
“Where’s your new pet?” Ashley looks around the room like Harper will magically appear. “Why isn’t she here playing with you?”
“Did you already grow bored with your new toy?” Hannah asks with a fake-ass pout.
“Or can the virgin not come out to play?” Emma cocks an eyebrow at us.
“We gave her the weekend off for good behavior,” I say with a smirk. These girls bore me. They keep trying to claim us, but we aren’t down for that.
“Does that mean you all are free and clear to party?” Emma sticks her tits out and grins at Jack.
