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He stepped forward, looping his arm around me to pull me into a hug. For a moment, I allowed myself to rest my head on his chest. It felt good, the steady beating of his heart helping to ground me.
But it couldn’t last and I knew that. Not if I wanted to take care of the harpies. Not if I wanted to live my best life with my three rogues.
“Don’t worry, you guys, I promise I’m not going to put myself in any danger with the harpies. I just need to teach them a lesson. I need to make them see that they can’t hurt people they way they have been. If it’s not me, then it’s going to be someone else, and you guys know that. These girls are never going to stop and I have to be the one to show them that their way isn’t right. It’s not fair.”
“We stopped.” Kaleb’s voice was quiet but we all heard what he said, and my breath caught in my throat. When I tilted my head back to look at him, the pain on his face almost brought me to tears. “When we realized that what we were doing was wrong, Rose, we stopped. Don’t you think that they can do the same?”
“Amelia tried to kill me when she put kiwi in my water. They shaved my head and broke my nose. They’ve hurt me, you guys. You have no idea how much they’ve physically and mentally hurt me.” I was begging my rogues to listen, and I hated every single word that came out of my mouth. “Then, when that didn’t work, they turned on Harper and Maggie. I don’t think that there’s any good in any of the harpies. They’re all rotten to the core.”
Slowly, I pulled away from Kaleb and looked at the three of them. His fingers lingered on my hip for a moment before he dropped his hand to his side. I needed them to understand, to see that I wasn’t crazy. I needed them to be with me on this.
My heart pounded while I waited for my boys to respond. They had to understand how important this was to me or I’d be facing whatever came on my own. After a moment, Jackie nodded. “We’re with you, Rosita. We just needed to make sure that you knew what you were doing, but it sounds like you do.”
With his words, my heart rose. “Good. Thanks, guys. Now, you ready to go see some dancing?”
“Are you sure that you don’t want to tell us what you’re planning? We can take care of it for you so that you don’t have to worry about being hurt, Rose. Just let us handle the harpies for you, okay?”
I thought for a moment, chewing on my lower lip. The idea of them handling my revenge so that I didn’t have to worry about any backlash was tempting, but it wouldn’t accomplish what I wanted it to, so I shook my head.
“No, thanks. This one is mine. If you guys want to help out in the future, then you can. I just…I need to do this, okay? Besides, it’s done already. All we have to do is go and enjoy it, okay? I just need to enjoy this one, then we can talk.”
“If Mr. Taylor finds out that it’s you…” Kaleb began, but I cut him off.
“I’m honestly more afraid of what will happen if Amelia and the other harpies find out that it’s me. So…let’s just go in there, see what we’re dealing with, and I’m going to handle this. There’s no way that they’re going to make the rest of my time here hell like they did last year, okay?”
What I didn’t tell them, but what I was thinking about, was that I was also doing this for someone else. My mom would never have approved of me carrying out revenge, especially in her name, but I couldn’t worry about that. I had to make sure that these girls learned that you can’t mess with someone else the way that they had and that hurting people’s families was never an option.
Chapter 10
The lights were starting to dim in the auditorium by the time we got our playbills and found seats in the back. The boys wanted me to sit in the middle of them so they could keep me safe and keep an eye on me, but I took the seat on the aisle, wanting to make sure that I not only had a great view, but also that I could easily sneak out if I needed to.
What I hadn’t told them was that I was only here to see how everything played out. They were worried that I was going to do something drastic during the middle of Sara’s performance, but everything was already planned out.
I’d told them that all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the show. Had I not told them that, they would have been more worried about me and what was going to happen, but I also had a sneaking feeling that they wouldn’t have been as willing to come to the competition in the first place. There wasn’t any way that I was missing this, however.
Not when I’d worked so hard all week to make sure that everything was going to go off without a hitch. The great thing about being in voice classes was that I had easy access to the dance studio. Once I got a copy of Sara’s performance music, it was easy enough to use my computer to speed it up.
I was sure that she was going to catch on, but she didn’t. I started the project as soon as the semester began, increasing the speed of her song just a little each time. She never noticed because she preferred to practice by herself without any pressure or judgement from someone watching.
So, by then, I estimated that she had gone from 115 beats per minute up to 135. That didn’t seem like a huge difference, but it really was. For tonight, though, I’d made sure that she had her original music again. Even though she was now prepared and trained to dance fast, her music was going to be much slower, with a beat that was smooth and calm, not frenzied.
It was enough to throw anyone off their game, no matter how great a dancer they were.
Sara wasn’t scheduled to compete until halfway through the competition, so I settled back in my seat to watch. Brett slung his arm around my shoulders, pulling me to him for a snuggle.
“You need to go anywhere? How can we help?” His breath was hot on my ear and made me shiver. Immediately, my mind raced to what else he and I could be doing, but I shook my head, keeping my eyes on the stage.
“I’m good,” I whispered back, trying to keep my voice as low as possible. “I’m just here to watch the show, I promise.” Even though I wasn’t looking at him, I felt him nod and then felt the brush of his lips against the curve of my ear.
“Let me know if something’s about to go down. Tell me if we need to get you out of here, okay, Rose? We just want to make sure that you’re safe.”
Reaching up, I squeezed the hand that he had rested on my shoulder. I was perfectly safe here, especially with my rogues at my side, and there wasn’t any way that I was going to miss this. It was all taken care of, and we could be in my room, or talking in the quad, but I needed to see this.
I had to watch everything fall apart for her.
Dancers came from schools all around the area to compete against Taylor Prep. We were known for not only producing students perfectly capable and ready to run their own international businesses, but also some of the top performers in the creative world. Winning here, at this competition, was a huge honor, and one that I already knew Sara thought she had locked down.
The dancers were amazing, with incredible costumes. Ballerinas in tight buns flitted and floated across the stage while some jazz dancers flashed in shiny costumes. Everyone knew that a ballerina was going to take home the prize today, but I enjoyed seeing all of the costumes and clapped hard for everyone.
