Page 2

“Oh, that’s the female team starting their drills. Be right back, I wanna see,” I try to step out of Cody’s arms, but he drags me back in.

“For what? You’re going to smash nationals and be the campus star athlete. They’ll probably lose their funding and dissipate before the semester is over.” He rolls his eyes, not one for sports if it doesn’t involve a paintbrush.

“You never know. I might have some actual competition.” I shrug, and this time, I manage to slip free. Cody hangs back as I slip along the hallway, stepping out into the stadium at the bottom of the stands. The women are running around in short skirts like headless chickens, seeming to know nothing about the game, until my eyes land on her.

Her brunette ponytail swings violently, her gloved hands gripping the stick. Shouting commands, her voice cuts through the babbling of others, confidence powering through her long strides. And then, when she missed a goal, she smashed her stick against the goalpost, cursing in a furious display. My chest tightens so fast, it catches me off guard.

She’s everything I am not allowed to be. Everything I have learned to bury. All fire and conviction. I don’t even know her name, yet I want to. I want to know everything about her, how she came to be so viciously carefree. A noise behind me signals the swishing of the door. I turn to watch it close, Cody’s figure disappearing as he walks away. Shit, did he see me gawking at her?

“I don’t understand,” Cody grunts. Gone are the days of sly smirks and soothing touches. Gone is the fun in sneaking around. Now, every time we meet up, it’s a clash of wills and lips, aggression being funneled into sex. We’re not boys with a crush anymore. We’re lovers with secret lives that have no place in our real ones.

“She’s been found, Cody. They found her,” I ramble on, my eyes glued to the news anchor on the TV. Elbows braced on my thighs, I clasp my hands before me, rewatching the same clip each time it’s played. Ever since I arrived at the stadium for an early morning practice and found Meg’s blood coloring the walls, I’ve been unable to sleep. Unable to function.

She was the epitome of independence. She was a law unto herself, succeeding against all odds. Then, one night, someone crept onto campus and stole her as if she were an object to be owned. They ruined everything, but finally, she’s been found, and she’s coming back home. She’s coming back to me.

“So you want me to, what?” Cody seeks clarity, pushing up from the sofa beside me to pace. “Admit myself to a mental institution so I can spy for you?”

“It’s a rehabilitation clinic,” I scowl, pushing up to my feet as well. “I’ve already found which one they’ll send her to. I just,” I huff a breath, dragging a hand down my face. “I need eyes on her. I need to know she’s okay.”

“She isn’t okay,” Cody bites back. “She was kidnapped.” The words hit me in the chest, dragging me back to the blood on the walls, the smell of metal and bleach, the brutal knowledge that someone took her because none of us were around to stop it. Guilt consumes me, and I drop back onto the sofa, my lungs failing to expand. Cody just stares at me as if he wishes he could hate me.

“And what about me? Am I supposed to have some intervention whilst I’m there? Maybe they’ll fix the gay out of me.”

“Don’t do that.” I reach out and catch his wrist before he can walk away, my thumb pressing to his pulse. For a second, we’re sixteen again, hoping desire alone will heal the bruises. Tugging gently, Cody allows himself to drop onto the cushion at my side. “I’m asking because I trust you.”

“No,” he replies too quickly, knocking my hand away as I try to stroke his tattooed arm. “You’re asking because you know I love you too much to say no.”

Shame washes through my veins. Cody knew of my feelings for Meg long before I did, but he didn’t become jealous until the Fresher’s party. I didn’t expect Meg to seek me out, nor did I think she’d be so forward in sleeping with me, but I didn’t stop it either. She’s the only woman I’ve ever been with, and Cody doesn’t hide his jealousy of that.

“Code,” I whisper. “Please. I know you don’t like it, but I can’t go to the rehab myself. I need to uphold this image to keep you safe. To keep us together.” Reaching for his hand, I bring it up to my lips and press a kiss to his talented artist’s fingers.

“Is there even an ‘us’ if you care so much about her?”

“There will always be an us. I get that it’s weird, but I can’t explain why she means this much to me.”

“Well maybe whilst I’m away, you can figure it out.” Snatching his hand away, Cody stands and leaves, not bothering to look back before slamming the door to my frat house closed. My eyes drift back to the TV where the clip of Meg huddled in the back of an ambulance plays again.

Between Cody’s departure and Meg’s rescue, my heart tears itself in two. I’ve just asked the man I love to walk into hell for the woman I can’t stop needing. A physical slice of agony carves through my chest, tears pricking the backs of my eyes as I desperately try to hold onto my image. Cold-faced, unattached, tediously perfect. That’s who I have to be.

Chapter One

“Meg?” Counselor Stevens calls across the room. “Did you want to share with us today?”

My gaze slides to the girl sitting opposite me. She’s thinner than before, much paler, which makes the dark circles around her sullen eyes appear even more pronounced. A shell of the girl she once was, although I’ve always kept my distance. Getting up close and personal was Everest’s thing.

Leaving her brunette hair up in a scruffy bun, her shoulders are curled within a grey hoodie as if she can disappear into the fabric. I don’t think she realizes she’s doing it until called upon, her posture stiffening as she remembers herself.

“Nope,” Meg states, raising one unimpressed brow at the counselor. Every session is the same. Meg refuses to speak, refuses to join in, keeping herself distanced from the other dozen hollow-eyed patients in identical gray sweats sitting around her. As if we’re the scum beneath her, giving pieces of ourselves in return for ticks on a checklist. Getting admitted to this facility was surprisingly easy. I just had to slit one wrist in the parking lot. Being released, however, isn’t such an easy feat.

The counselor’s smile does lessen, and that irritates me almost as much as the preppy collar sitting outside her green sweater and the stupid tassels on her stupid smart shoes. She is the ideal person for this career, believing we’re all puzzles that need piecing back together. Living, breathing trauma she can diagnose and cure.

She looks at me with the same empathy, although I’m saved from the grilling. My paperwork states I’m mentally and emotionally unstable, only to be spoken to if I initiate, or I might be triggered into another episode. Technically, only some of that is a lie. The rest is just convenient, saving me from being interrogated and my real motive for being stuck here being revealed.

I am here because Everest asked me. Because I’m weak for the stepbrother I’ve never been allowed to have. As always, I do whatever it takes to keep him happy, even if that means watching him fall for a girl with pale blue eyes and infuriating tenacity.

He wants me to watch over her. To judge her mental state and report back. He did not tell me to let her rot here until Hollowbrook forgets her name, which is all I want to do. Alas, neither Cody Calloway nor the persona of Reid Wilder gets what he wants.

Counselor Stevens leans forward, forearms braced on her thighs. Apparently today she’s going to push on, no doubt following orders from higher-ups.