Page 65 of Wicked Brutal

Xander looks back through the glass. “People bought it.” That should make me feel better. It doesn’t.

My phone feels like a brick in my pocket. I can’t text her. Not yet. Not while Roman is asking questions I don’t even know about. Not when I don’t know who the fuck is watching.

So I go to class. And spend the next six hours wanting to crawl out of my own skin.

At three seventeen, Becca’s SUV pulls out of the student lot with Ally in the passenger seat. At three twenty-one, I leave with Iz. At three thirty-four, Iz drops me at my house. At three forty, I take my dad’s car out of the garage. Not mine. At three fifty-two, I pull into the old public docks on the other side of town. At three fifty-seven, Becca’s SUV rolls into the lot.

She doesn’t park beside me. She stops thirty yards away. Ally gets out. Becca drives away. Then my girl walks toward me.

I know immediately that I fucked her up worse than I wanted to. She gets in and closes the door quietly. I lock it. For a second, neither of us says anything. Then I reach for her, and she turns toward me at the same time. I pull her across the console as far as the stupid fucking car allows and wrap both arms around her. She buries her face against my neck.

“I’m sorry.”

Her arms tighten around me. “I know.”

“No. Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Make me feel better because you know why I did it.”

She pulls back enough to look at me. “I’m not.”

“That fucking hurt you.” Her eyes shine. She looks away. Fuck. “Ally.”

“I knew it wasn’t true. I knew the entire time. But everyone laughed.” She looks down at her hands. “And that’s stupid, because I knew Kaiden and Danny and Xander and Iz were doing exactly what they were supposed to do. I know none of them meant it. I know you didn’t mean it.”

“It’s not stupid.”

“It still felt like everybody was laughing at me.”

I reach for her face. She lets me. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

Her eyes close when my thumb moves beneath one of them. “I’ve spent my whole life being really good at not caring when people make me feel small.”

“You don’t have to be good at that with me and I made you do it anyway.”

“For a good reason.”

She opens her eyes. For once, I don’t try to kiss it away. I want to. Jesus Christ, I want to — I want her mouth on mine so I can replace every fucking word I said this morning with something true. But that isn’t what she needs. So I keep my hands on her. That’s it.

“What were you trying to tell me?”

Her expression shifts. Right. The reason she walked up to me in the first place. “Dad asked about you last night.”

Every part of me goes still. “Me?”

“You and the boys.”

“What did he say?”

“He asked why your families keep turning up in everything that’s happened. Pennington. Xander’s dad. Hartley. He mentioned Fiona too.” Ally watches me. “He sees the pattern.”

“Fuck.”

“He asked if I knew any of you well.”

“What did you tell him?”