Page 1 of Forever Relentless

Chapter 1

Briar

“You’re going to regret this.”

“I’m already shaking,” he sniped angrily. Noah Matthews was a big guy, and my bravado hadn’t affected him at all.

“Good,” Mason growled in response.

I hadn’t even seen my brother coming up behind them. Mason was as tall as Noah and just as intimidating to look at.

“Because you’re the first one I’m knocking out. Get your fucking hands off my sister.” Mason’s eyes flicked to mine as they all turned to look at him. I gave him a slight nod to let him know I was okay.

“You’re Mason Sterling,” Dante said brightly, and looked happy about it. “We’ve been looking for you!”

“Why?” My brother and I asked at the same time.

The dean’s daughter turned to look at me, her expression assessing. “Do they know who you are on campus?”

How did they find me?

“No more questions,” I told them. “Unless we’re asking them.” I walked around them and stood beside my brother. “Why are you here?”

For a second, I had the bizarre thought of imagining looking at this group across the field. The glacial stare from the quarterback, the eager look of a challenge from the wide receiver, and the dark stare of menace from the imposing linebacker. I almost stepped back. I knew which one I would avoid.

Mason shifted his arm slightly, too subtle for most to notice. His arm brushed mine, letting me know he was here, but the quarterback saw it, so did the linebacker, both too tuned in to reading their opponents to miss anything.

“Is there somewhere we can take this conversation that isn’t on the street?” Dante asked calmly.

Mason sniffed, his eyes flicking between Noah and Dante. “Nah.” He grinned, but it wasn’t friendly. “Less to break out here unless it’s bones.”

Jesus, Mase.

“Fighting? Really?” The reporter’s curious gaze swept over my brother, her hungry look making me more nervous than either of her friends. “Is that why you were kicked out of Wrighton?”

“You’re here about that?” I asked them all, inching closer to my brother. “Why?”

“I’m also here for you,” Dustin told me, his look as cold as his friends’. He had a reputation as a flirt and a playboy, but in the few interactions I’d had with him, he’d been easy to get along with and pleasant.

He was definitely not being nice now.

“Me?” Why me?

“Yeah, you. I want to talk about—”

“We definitely need to be inside for this conversation,” the dean’s daughter said firmly.

Mason looked over all of them. “I said no.”

Noah Matthews stepped forward. “We can do this out here, but if you want to talk about sexual assault — charges that were never pushed forward but could be — and how your sister likes to invade privacy, then I have absolutely no fucking problem talking about this right here, and loudly.” He folded his arms across his chest, legs slightly spread. He looked like a bouncer. “So . . . how did you get off for sexual assault, Mason?”

His voice was loud and clear, and he was right; he had zero fucks to give.

“We’ll talk in the garage,” I mumbled, more to my brother than to them.

Mason resisted for a moment, then, with a grunt, stepped aside to let the others pass.

Noah grinned at him. “Don’t trust us behind you, Sterling?”