She meets my eyes and I’m considering having her in my lap still. My cock buried inside her. I don’t even need to fuck her, just feel her slick heat surrounding me.
A myriad of emotions flow through her eyes, but then her lips press into a stubborn line.
“I’m not releasing this to the student body.” She looks out over the football field. A little shiver rushes through her. “No girl deserves that.”
She’s thinking about that picture again. If I discover who did it, I’ll take them out. I hate to tell her but it might have been Sidney who released it. Would that change her mind? Or would she still take the higher ground?
How would I feel if she didn’t take the higher ground?
“You don’t have to release it to anyone to use it to your advantage.” Eli studies her intensely. “But if you threaten something, you have to follow through. Or no one will respectyour word. If you say you’ll send it to the whole student body, if she doesn’t do what you want, you have to send it.”
That’s the messed up thing about leadership and control. I can’t just threaten to beat someone up. If they don’t comply, I have to beat them up. Eventually, people take you at your word and fall in line. They don’t test your resolve as much. But Harper’s going to need to put on her big girl panties to take down the queen bee.
She sighs. “It has to be me. I know that, but I don’t like it.”
Nico strokes his hand down her back. “Then do something you can live with, sunshine. Start small and work your way up.”
“You can do this.” I know she can.
She stares off into the distance again. “How do I set this up?”
“She’ll be in the girls’ locker room after school. Don’t go alone.” Luke leans forward, clasping his hands between his knees. “Take Kenz with you and have a chat with her. Start small, but you can’t be afraid to go big if she balks.”
Harper exhales. “What do we want? Besides Sidney to back off.”
“Who was she covering for?” Luke’s brow furrows. “What she meant by being a distraction and who helped her? My laptop didn’t just disappear.”
“We may need to remove her from her position.” I scratch my chin and look at Jack. “But that would mean putting someone else in power and Sidney would be less appealing to Zach.”
“Which makes you his target if you aren’t already.” Jack meets Harper’s startled gaze.
“Why would I be a target? He wanted to devirginize me and that ship has sailed.” She looks between all of us. “I don’t have anything else to offer him.”
“Power.” I blow out a breath. “You may not be queen bee with the popular girls, but you have our attention. We’ve shown themyou aren’t just a pawn in our game. The guys will follow who controls you.”
She swallows. “I wouldn’t?—”
Eli catches her chin and searches her eyes. “We know. You’re ours. But he might think he can take you from us.”
I scoop her up and put her on my lap. Not to fuck, but I want her close. I want to comfort her. I lower my chin and meet her brown eyes. “No one will take you from us, little nympho. No one.”
Luke
I take Harper’s hand to help her down the bleachers. We all move as one toward the school. Everything is shifting like sand beneath our feet. If I’d known all this shit would go down, would I have still claimed Harper?
She squeezes my hand and my heart throbs as she leans against my side while we walk. It’s not even a question.
When we approach the school, for a second, I want to take her away from all this. Bundle her up and all of us just leave. Go somewhere we can be safe from everything. But we need to finish high school, deal with our fathers, and go to college to make something of ourselves.
Even though Caden, Eli, and I might be cool leaving our parents behind, Jack, Nico, and Harper want to hold on to their families. If Harper is our future, we aren’t going to fuck this up.
“There you are.” Penny walks out of the building.
I still don’t know what to think of these girls, but Eli says they’ll be useful. I draw Harper closer to me. She smiles at Penny.
“Problems?” Eli steps between us.
She stops and blinks her eyes a couple times. “Uh, no.”
