Broken Hill Halo (Broken Hill High #2)

by Sheridan Anne

  Both of their laughter is heard again and I have to hold the phone away from my ear until I hear Jesse’s voice loud and clear. “Tora,” he says sweetly. “Our boy won.”

  “I know,” I grin. “Doesn’t he always?”

  “Yep,” he says. “Now, listen,” he tells me. “Whatever bullshit this she-devil has been telling you, it’s not true. I’m a good boy. You remember that.”

  “Oh, come on, Jesse,” I laugh. “I know you much better than that. I sleep up the hall from you, remember?”

  “Shit,” he grunts before another laugh comes flying from his mouth, making me realize that they’re probably already wasted, though, not Nate. He’s sensible when he’s driving, which is generally all the time. It’s the cigarettes I have to worry about with him, but lately, he’s been cutting back a lot and while that’s great, I just hope he’s doing it for himself, not because I don’t like it.

  I hear ruffling before more giggles and then finally Brooke’s voice on the other end. “Can you believe that twat bucket?” she chuckles. “I’m going to get him back for that.” Brooke goes quiet for a second before calling through the phone. “Hey, I got to go. We’re heading out to the party. Are you sure you can’t come?”

  “Ha,” I scoff. “If you can convince Nate that it’s a good idea, then I’ll be there.”

  “No thanks,” she says, slightly horrified by the idea. “You’re on your own with that one.”

  “Thanks,” I grunt.

  “I’ll come around tomorrow. Give you some company.”

  “Thanks,” I smile. “Have fun and remember; sock that wang before you bang.”

  “I know,” she says. “I’ll cover the stump before I hump.”

  “That’s my girl,” I laugh. “See you tomorrow.”

  “Night,” she says before ending the call.

  I put my phone down and get myself comfortable once again before picking up my Kindle. I search for my spot in the book but after all the reading I’ve done over the past week, my eyes feel as though they’re about to fall out of my head.

  I put the Kindle back down and flick on the TV before hitting play on ‘Glee’ and grinning to myself at the guilty pleasure, especially when the little ‘Glee’ jingle plays.

  I lay awake, watching the TV, struggling to fall asleep after not being able to burn any energy and end up watching ‘Glee’ until two in the morning when the door of my room is pushed open and a very sexy man comes through with eyes burning as he watches me.

  “You’re not asleep,” Nate says in surprise.

  I shake my head as I watch him cross the room and pull his shirt up over his head. My eyes instantly drop to his body and take in the show. “Not tired,” I tell him.

  “Really?” he murmurs as he works on his belt buckle, not once removing his hooded eyes from mine. I nod as I fear if I open my mouth I’ll probably start drooling. “I can help you with that,” Nate promises me.

  A moment later, his jeans drop to the floor, clattering against the ground with the weight of his phone, wallet, and keys. He slides into bed beside me and before I have the chance to even mutter a ‘missed you’, his lips are on mine, devouring me.

  Desperate for more, I pull myself up against him, only to have him push me back down, not liking the idea of me moving around. “Please,” I beg, desperately needing to feel him under my body as after the surgery, he’s been treating me a little too precious.

  He shakes his head and I see the wild need within his eyes and know without a doubt he’s craving it just as much as I am. “No,” he tells me, clearly have a shitload more self control than I do. “I can’t. Not yet.”

  I swear, in this moment, I nearly break down and sob. “Please,” I whisper into the dark room. “We’ll go slow.”

  “No, babe,” he says again. “I can’t be inside you and not give you what you need.” I let out a sigh, knowing a lost cause when I see one, but then he goes right ahead and surprises me as he rolls on top of me, being careful to prop himself up on his elbows. He pulls away from my lips and makes his way down my body.

  My eyes practically roll back into my head with overwhelming anticipation of pleasure as he looks up at me with that wolfish grin I love so much. He tugs down my pajama shorts and slowly spreads open my legs like a buffet.

  He wastes no time.

  His tongue is on me a second later, sending a bolt of electricity up through my body and making me gasp out at his touch as I weave my fingers through his dark hair. That gasp is quickly morphed into a low moan as he continues working my body, which is what he does until my moans are turned into me calling his name while he rocks my world.

  My fingers clench into his hair and I feel his grin against my skin, proud of his work as my orgasm sends me into a parallel universe.

  My body relaxes into the bed as I come down from my high and try to calm my racing heart. Nate climbs back up my body and kisses me once before falling to the bed beside me with a smirk the size of Texas.

  I push his shoulder and can’t help grinning back at him as I roll towards him and kiss him. I reach down between us, desperate to feel him beneath my fingers. He catches my hand in his, just like he’s done every other time this past week and shakes his head. “Not until you’re better, babe,” he says for the millionth time. “I promise, when you’re better, you can do whatever you want to me. In fact, I welcome it.”

  Wicked thoughts start circling my mind and I look to Nate with a grin. “Whatever I want?” I question.

  His eyes widen just a fraction before they narrow on me. “Whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no. Unless it’s kinky. I could get kinky.”

  I burst out laughing and he smothers it with a kiss, not wanting to draw his parents’ attention to the fact we’ve been sleeping in the same bed for the past two months. “Come on, Tora,” he murmurs against my lips as his arms wind around my waist. “It’s late. Go to sleep.”

  “Alright,” I groan, giving up on the hope of touching his body, though, at least with him here now, I won’t have a problem finding a peaceful sleep.

  My eyes grow heavy and sure enough, I drift off into a peaceful, well needed sleep.

  Chapter 11

  My phone screeching to life has me jumping awake in Nate’s arms. “What the hell?” I groan into the darkness as I reach across to silence the call, only my arm freezes mid-air as I squint at the bright phone and make out the caller ID. “Mom?” I question.

  “What is it?” Nate murmurs behind me in his sleepy tone as he tries to pull me back into his chest.

  Why the hell is Mom calling? She knows it’s the middle of the night here.

  I grab the phone off the charger with a yank and quickly hit answer. “Mom?” I say as soon as the phone touches the side of my face.

  “Tora?” she demands. “What’s going on? Where are you?”

  “Huh?” I grunt. “I’m in bed.”

  “Where?” she rushes out. “Are you at home?”

  “What? No. What’s going on?”

  Nate props himself up on his elbow behind me as I turn to look at him with my eyebrows pulling down in confusion. I hit speaker so Nate can hear what this is all about. “Your dad’s phone has been blowing up from the security company. They’ve detected activity at home. Someone’s there.”

  “What?” I gasp as my eyes lock on Nate, who’s suddenly flying out of bed.

  “Are you sure you’re not home? Did you forget to set the alarm?” she questions again.

  “Yes, mom,” I say, trying to ease her worry as Nate rips his jeans back up his legs. “I’m at the Ryder’s place. The alarm is definitely set. Remember, I changed the code and all.”

  “Oh, thank god,” she sighs heavily. “The security company has phoned the police and your dad is on the phone with Cade. He’s going to head down there and sort it out.”

  “Ok,” I breathe.

  “Nate. Jesse.” I hear yells from the bottom of the stairs. “Get your asses down here.”

  “I go to g
o,” I tell mom. “Cade’s downstairs ready to go.”

  “What?” she gasps. “You’re not g-”

  “Bye, mom,” I cut her off before hanging up the phone. I throw my phone down as I hear Nate rushing around, already halfway down the stairs and realize I have to be quick. I grab my pajama bottoms off the ground and yank them up my legs before grabbing my phone and hurrying out after them.

  I come out of my room to find Jesse in the hallway who looks like death warmed up. “What the fuck is going on?” he groans before narrowing his eyes on me and rubbing a hand down his face. “Why are you out of bed?”

  “Someone’s breaking into my place,” I explain.

  “What?” he grunts before picking up his pace and helping me down the stairs.

  I get halfway down when I find Nate and Cade at the bottom. “Fuck, no,” Nate growls as he reads the intention in my eyes. “Get your ass back upstairs and get back in bed. No way in hell are you coming.”

  “Bullshit,” I tell him as Jesse continues helping me hobble down the stairs. “It’s my house.”

  “I don’t care if it’s the queen’s house. You’re not coming.”

  “Actually,” Cade says to Nate’s horror. “It’s not a bad idea. Tora knows her home. The police will want to know if anything was touched or taken and who better to ask but Tora?”

  “No,” Nate says, shaking his head. “Why can’t she come back in the morning or in a few days? What if it’s just an animal?”

  I get to the bottom step and walk towards him. “It’s not an animal,” I tell him as he reaches out to hold me up even though I can manage on my own. “We have surveillance. If it was an animal, the security company would have seen it. For them to blow up my dad’s phone, they know it’s a break in.”

  His face scrunches up. “I don’t want you there, especially not if there’s some random person breaking in.”

  “Come on. It will be fine,” I tell him as I try to soothe his worry. “The police will check it out first and you’ll be with me the whole time, besides, the person is probably long gone. This is my home, Nate. I’m not about to sit back and do nothing.”

  He lets out a frustrated huff. “Fine,” he says. “But you don’t leave my side the whole time.”

  I resist rolling my eyes. “Yeah, I figured that out already.”

  He lets out another groan, clearly not happy with this as he leads the way to the garage. We all pile into Cade SUV with Jesse in the back beside me. His leg bounces in anticipation, but it doesn’t last long as we pull up to the driveway of my home.

  The gate is already opened wide and I wonder how it got that way. Whether the guy who broke in knows the code, the security company, or if dad did it remotely for the two police cruisers that are pulled up in front of my home.

  Cade brings the SUV to a stop and all the boys jump straight out. I follow on and watch as three policemen come striding out my front door. One of the cops look to Cade in recognition and walk forward. He holds his hand out to Cade, who accepts it with a shake. “Cade,” the cop says with a quick nod before looking to the boys and then finally me.

  “Mick,” Cade says before nodding towards the house. “What’s the latest? Did you find anything?”

  “At this stage; no. We’ve done our initial sweep and have not found anyone. Nothing looks out of place; however, we’ll be going back in for a more thorough search.” His eyes return to me. “You must be Tora?”

  A shiver takes through my body and I cross my arms around my waist, trying to keep warm. I step forward with Nate’s hand on my lower back. “Yes, that’s me.”

  “Right,” he says. “I’m officer Michael Holden. We’re responding to a call for a break in. Is there anything you think we should know? Or anyone you suspect?”

  I shake my head. “No,” I tell him.

  “Alright,” he says. “Once my men are finished searching your home and deem the premises safe, you may go in and check that everything is in order.”

  “Ok,” I say, latching onto Nate’s hand.

  Officer Holden nods once again before returning his eyes back to Cade. Cade leads him away for a quick moment and I watch as they talk while Officer Holden points out towards the house and the backyard.

  Holden turns on his heel and walks back up the stairs into my home while Cade makes his way back over to our little group. “What was that about?” Jesse asks.

  “So far, they believe the suspect entered the house through the back door,” Cade says. “There were some scratches on the back door but when the door didn’t open, a window was broken with a rock.”

  “Shit,” I gasp as Nate cringes.

  “At the moment, nothing looks to be out of place,” he says, pointing his gaze on me. “But as Mick said, you’ll have to check that.”

  I nod my head as Nate turns to me. “Do you have any idea who’d want to do this?”

  I shake my head. “I mean, there’s always Josh, and Elle has a stick up her ass about all the cheerleader stuff. It could be either one of them.”

  “I don’t know,” Jesse says. “I think Josh has learned his lesson and this seems a little elaborate for Elle.”

  “This isn’t the Josh who attacked you, is it?” Cade questions. “I thought we’d dealt with that.”

  “We did,” Nate says. “The dickhead showed up at a party a few weeks ago, but we showed him the door.”

  “Jesus,” Cade groans. “I can only imagine your version of showing him the door. Please tell me you didn’t put him in the hospital?”

  Jesse grins to himself as I roll my eyes. “It’s a possibility,” Nate admits. “But I don’t actually know.”

  “For fuck's sake,” Cade groans under his breath as he shakes his head. He looks back up at Nate. “You and I are going to talk about this once all this shit is sorted.”

  Nate nods and I focus my attention back on the house. “I’m sure I could figure out how to look up the security footage,” I tell them. “That should help.”

  Jesse scoffs “That’s if the person was stupid enough to get caught on camera.”

  “I’ll help you with that,” Cade says. “I believe we have similar systems. Your father was bragging about his new security system last year, so naturally, I had to beat him and upgraded mine when the latest software was released.”

  I can’t help but laugh. Dad and Cade have been at war since before I can remember. It’s always about outdoing each other, in a friendly way though. Usually, dad would come home and tell me how Cade had bought something and would start plotting what his next buy would be and I’d hate it. I wouldn’t want to know anything about what was happening in the Ryder household, but things have changed… a lot. Now, I’ll probably even help dad, maybe give a few good suggestions.

  Nate grows anxious beside me and I don’t doubt he’s desperate to get inside the house and look for himself. I have a feeling the second the door opens, he’ll be running straight up to my room to check it over before he even considers looking through the rest of the house.

  I can’t help but feel dirty. My home was broken into. My personal space violated. How am I ever to feel safe within the walls of my home again? I’m kind of hoping this was all some sort of misunderstanding, that maybe it was just a prank, but my gut is telling me otherwise. I mean, was someone here looking for me? Was Josh wanting to finish what he started? Or maybe someone was here because of my parents. Maybe dad is involved in something bad. Maybe mom overheard something at the country club that she shouldn’t have.

  I don’t know and that feeling makes me feel sick.

  Officer Holden comes back out with his colleagues and walks down the stairs as he looks at me. “Alright, we’ve done what we can. We’ve searched high and low and there’s nobody in your home, so if you wouldn’t mind having a thorough look around and letting me know if anything is out of place or missing. That could give us some sort of clue who this person is or what the person was after.”

  “Sure thing,” I say.

  “Exc
ellent. We’re going to head back to the station and get started processing reports and what not,” he says before pulling out a card with his number on it. “If you have any information at all, this is my direct line.”

  “Thanks, Officer,” I say as Cade holds out his hand again. The cops move towards the cruisers and get out of here while Nate practically races up the stairs, pulling me along behind him while trying his best not to jostle me around too much.

  “I’ll head to the office and check the footage,” Cade tells me as Nate opens the front door. “Why don’t you start with the bedrooms? Make sure to check all your mother’s jewelry and your dad’s watches. If you’re not sure about something, take a photo and send it to them to double check.”

  “Ok,” I nod. “Anything else?”

  “Um,” he says. “Start with anything valuable. Your mom would have a lot of designer clothes. We’re hoping that whoever was in here was just after something quick and easy to steal to make a bit of cash. Anything deeper than that couldn’t be good,” he adds before taking off down the hallways towards dad’s office.

  “Come on,” Nate says once his dad is gone. “If it was Josh, then maybe look out for little cameras too.

  I nod as Nate and Jesse lead me up the stairs. We hit my room first and have a good look around. Jesse goes through my closet, looking high and low as Nate does a thorough check of the bathroom. I look through my room and ten minutes later, I’m confident that nothing is missing.

  We search through every other room in the house in the same way and by the time we make our way back downstairs, the sun is peeking through the windows and my lower tummy is starting to scream at me, telling me I’ve been doing way too much, not that I’ll be telling any of these guys. I just need to get back to Nate’s place and swallow of few painkillers and maybe catch up on a few hours’ sleep.

  We find Cade double checking the living area when we get downstairs. “Find anything?” Nate asks.

  Cade straightens out as we approach. “No,” he says with a cringe as he looks to me. “I’m sorry, Tora, but while the security system was on, all the surveillance cameras were switched off.”