Page 78 of Savage Elites

“I know.” He turned left and drove up the slope leading to the hideout.

The lights were on, meaning he had probably driven earlier in the day to start the fire and make the place comfortable. Hadn’t he told Miss Claymore the hideout had been built in her honor? It had touched her heart and melted the last of her reservations, and now the place had a similar effect on me.

“How do I know I’m not another challenge?” I asked.

“Willow,” he said in a tone that implied I was fishing for compliments.

My hands curled into fists. It was hard to go from being known as the dumpy mule only good for sticking her nose in books to being the girlfriend of two, potentially three of the best-looking boys in the school.

Anyone looking at my situation from the outside would call me a fool for falling for the kings, but the only experience I’d ever had with boys was Jerome from Computer Science, and that had ended with Ashley seducing him.

I huffed out a breath. This whole dating business was new to me, and I had no one to confide in — no one who wasn’t biased for or against the boys to help me think things through.

“I’m serious,” I said from between clenched teeth. “It happened to Corrine, Miss Claymore, and even Ashley. Maybe it’s my turn?”

“It isn’t.” Sebastian got out of the jeep, walked around its front, and opened my door.

Cold air swirled between us, making me cringe. “Why am I different?”

He crouched in front of the open door, the jeep’s inner light softening his eyes. “Because I’ve learned that toying with other people’s emotions is deadly. It twists people into knots they can never unravel. It’s worse than grief, worse than heartbreak, because it’s not a natural disaster or a fate.”

A long breath heaved out from his lips. “When some ruthless bastard plays games with a person’s hearts, they deserve their victim’s full retribution.”

“What happened with the Porsche?” I whispered.

“The brakes failed.”

My heart flip-flopped. “You’ve got to report—”

“I deserved it. And worse.”

“But she tried to kill you.”

“I didn’t put two and two together until today. It’s best left alone. She’ll be under investigation for the more recent things she did to you. I don’t want to press charges against her unless the police fail at making the other charges stick.”

I held my silence. If Ashley decided to hurt the boys who had played the game on her, I probably wouldn’t lift a finger to warn them.

Standing to his full height, Sebastian offered me his hand as though to ask if I wanted to stay or go.

I let him pull me out of the jeep and into his arms. He felt warm and strong and full of remorse. I walked alongside him around the back of the treehouse toward the stairs.

I asked, “What did you say when Miss Claymore confronted you about the game?”

“That I’d never meant for the game to go that far.”

“Did you ever love her?”

“Not like a girlfriend, no.” He ascended the stairs.

I took the stairs at his side. “A mother figure, then?”

He reared back and scowled. “No! A mentor.”

Leopold’s words floated up to the surface of my mind. Had Miss Claymore’s inner muscles really been that strong?

I shook off those thoughts. She was out of the picture now. Hopefully, getting fired and reported to the police would make her realize how far she had fallen into madness.

The interior of the treehouse was warm and welcoming as usual. I inhaled the soothing, menthol scent of burned pine cones and took in the four-poster bed constructed out of living branches.