Rescue Me: Dark High School Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Sapphire Bay High Book 2)

by Naomi Martin

  “Or with all three of them.” Katie chuckles.

  Her dad shrugs. “Contrary to popular belief, you can have too much of a good thing,” he warns. “Anyway, your mom wants to know if you want to order some food.”

  Katie arches an eyebrow, giving me a sly look that makes me suddenly suspicious of her.

  “Actually, I think we’re going to go down to Patty’s,” she says. “If that’s okay?”

  “Okay by me,” he says.

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Love you, punkin.”

  “Dad, please.” Her cheeks burn with embarrassment, but I can tell she likes being daddy’s girl.

  After he leaves, Katie grabs me and hauls me to my feet. Her sudden urge to go down to Patty’s makes me feel like she’s up to something, which leaves me feeling equal parts curious and uneasy.

  “Come on, let’s go get a milkshake.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “So, why are we going to Patty’s for dinner?”

  Katie grins. “It just sounded good. I had a sudden craving for a milkshake.”

  “Liar.”

  She laughs and grabs my hand, dragging me down the street to the diner. The bell chimes as we step inside and I feel my heart immediately drop into my shoes as the reason Katie wanted to drag me down here becomes crystal clear. Sitting in a booth in the back of the diner are none other than Ryan, Xavier, and Lucas. Together. Laughing and talking like the best of friends.

  I turn to Katie, eyes wide, nausea roiling in my belly. “You knew they were friends?”

  She shrugs and laughs. “I figured you’d find out sooner or later.”

  “Oh my God, I hate you so much right now.”

  Katie squeezes my hand. “I honestly didn’t know how much you liked them until tonight. I didn’t know it was a thing.”

  “Katie, I talk about them all the time.” A nervous laugh spills from my mouth.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t know that anything would really come of it,” she argues. “I thought you were just kind of messing around.”

  “Oh my God, Katie. Why did you bring me here if you knew they’d all be here?”

  She gives me an awkward smile. “I thought you’d want to know they all knew each other.”

  “And this was your solution? You couldn’t have just told me?”

  “This way is more fun.”

  “You are evil incarnate.”

  She spreads her hands out in front of her. “Honestly, I wasn’t thinking—I just wanted to show you.”

  “Kill me now, Katie. Kill me now,” I mutter. “How in the hell did you even know they’d all be here tonight, anyway?”

  She shrugs. “It’s Friday night. Those three have been coming here on Friday nights for as long as I remember. It’s one of their traditions.”

  “Super.”

  I want to be mad but I’m too nervous to be that upset. Besides, I don’t think Katie was deliberately withholding information from me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about her, it’s that when it comes to guys, Katie is kind of naïve and clueless. And I don’t believe for an instant that she’d purposely screw me over. When she says she didn’t think about the fact that the guys were friends, I believe her.

  “Maybe we can sneak out before they notice us,” I whisper.

  “Too late,” Katie whispers back.

  “Hey, Tatum, what are you doing here?”

  “Shit.”

  I turn at the sound of the voice to see Xavier stepping over to me. He flashes me a smile then turns to Katie.

  “Hey, what’s up, Katie? I didn’t know you two were friends,” he says.

  “Thicker than thieves,” Katie assures him.

  He turns back to me. “Good to see you, Tatum.”

  “Yeah, you too,” I mutter.

  “Why don’t you guys come sit with us?” Xavier offers. “We’ve got the big booth in the back and—”

  “Oh, no, that’s okay,” I say. “We just kind of want to have a quiet dinner—”

  “Hey, I didn’t know you guys knew each other,” Ryan cuts in.

  He and Lucas join our little circle at the front of the restaurant and I find myself suddenly wishing the ground would open up and swallow me whole. Katie looks at me like she’s about to say something, but then turns and bolts over to the counter where a couple of her friends are sitting. My mouth falls open as I watch her go, abandoning me with the three of them. She looks back at me and mouths the word “sorry.”

  “Yeah, this is the girl I was telling you about.” Xavier was speaking to Ryan. “The one I met at the mall?”

  “Dude, you never told me her name was Tatum.”

  “I didn’t think about it,” Xavier says.

  “Wait, you two are talking to her, too?” Lucas finally chimes in.

  The three of them stand there chatting with one another as I turn and slowly start slinking toward the door. But then a hand falls on my shoulder and spins me around. I find myself looking into Ryan’s eyes. Rather than furious, as I feared he might be, he looks… amused. In fact, Xavier and Lucas look amused, too, both of them with grins on their faces.

  “I think you should come back to our booth,” he says. “I think the four of us have some things to talk about.”

  A small squeak escapes me as I let him lead me back to the booth. Ryan puts me in first and slides in after me. Xavier and Lucas slide in on the other side, trapping me between them in the middle of the round booth.

  As they look at me, their eyes press down on me with an almost physical weight and I shrink beneath their gaze, turning my own to focus down on my lap. It’s silent at the table for a long minute and then all three of them start to chuckle. I look up to find them grinning at me.

  “I never pegged you as a player,” Ryan says.

  “A girl as gorgeous as her?” Xavier says. “Shoulda seen it.”

  “I’m not a player,” I argue. “I’m really not.”

  “I believe you,” Lucas says.

  “Thank you, Lucas.”

  He grins. “Of course, that does beg the question of how all three of us ended up with your number.”

  Xavier and Ryan nod, making me sink even further into my seat.

  “That is an excellent question,” Xavier says.

  “It really is, isn’t it?” Ryan chirps.

  I look over at Katie, who is watching us. She shrugs and I bury my face in my hands, suddenly positive that it is, in fact, possible to die of humiliation. My face is burning so hot, I’m sure it’s going to burst into flame at any moment. Lucas pops a french fry into his mouth and chews, looking at me thoughtfully, and I find myself wondering what’s going on in that mind of his.

  It’s not hard to see the dynamic at work among these three. Not even ten minutes with them and I can see why they all fit together so well. Ryan is the ringleader, the most outgoing of the bunch. Xavier is more low-key, but a solid second. He’s not always “on” the way Ryan is. And Lucas is the quiet one of the group, more thoughtful and studious. But I can see that he’s intensely loyal to them both.

  “Did—uhhh—you guys grow up together or something?” I ask.

  Lucas nods. “We did.”

  “Known each other since kindergarten,” Xavier adds.

  “Closer than brothers,” Ryan agrees, earning nods from the other two.

  “And yet, none of you guys knew that the others were talking to me?” I question.

  They exchange glances and grins. I pluck a fry off Lucas’ plate and pop it into my mouth, doing my best to exude an air of cool confidence as I chew on it. It’s not easy to do, since everything inside of me is churning like a tornado.

  “She’s good, you know. Clever.” Lucas grins at me. “She’s managed to turn this all back on us and dodged the responsibility for playing us all. And you clowns didn’t notice.”

  “That’s why we keep you around,” Ryan replies. “You notice things like that.”

  “Somebody needs to do the mental heavy lifting,” Xavier s
ays.

  “I wasn’t playing you guys. I’m not like that,” I say. “If you want me to be honest, there’s something about each of you that I liked. That really clicked with me. I can’t explain it, and I didn’t mean to make you feel like I was playing you. I really didn’t.”

  They all exchange looks, expressions of amusement on all their faces. They know I’m uncomfortable and they’re enjoying tormenting me. The bastards.

  “Okay, just so we’re all clear—you didn’t mean for it to happen, but you like each of us.” Lucas is looking directly at me.

  I nod. “Exactly. I didn’t—”

  Lucas hushes me and grins. “And you want to go out with all three of us.”

  “Well not all at the same time,” I stammer. “But, well, yeah.”

  They exchange looks again, and I can see the silent communication passing between them. That sort of ability only comes from people who know each other very well, and for a very long time. I find myself envying them for the fact that their relationship with each other spans years upon years. I don’t have that level of comfort with anybody.

  “Well, I only see one way out of this mess,” Ryan says finally.

  Xavier turns to him. “And what is that?”

  “We each take her out and let her decide which one of us she likes the most,” Ryan replies. “Simple.”

  “Well, we can probably call it off right now,” replies Xavier. “I mean, it’s obviously going to be me.”

  “It’s never a good idea to count out the quiet ones.” Lucas grins. “You know what they say about the quiet ones.”

  “That they’re all psychos and nobody expected them to have fifteen bodies in the freezer?” Ryan laughs. “Look, I suggested this whole thing just to make you guys feel like you’ve got a fighting chance. I mean, you don’t, but I don’t want to make you feel bad about getting kicked to the curb, either.”

  We all share a laugh and the three of them continue to talk about turning our current romantic triangle—well, I guess it’s more of a square, really—into some reality show dating contest. But I can tell that while they are deeply connected as friends, they are pretty competitive, too. They like to push and prod each other. And this whole dating game is just another extension of that.

  Having apparently hashed out the details of our little reality show, the three of them turn to me in unison, expectant looks on all their faces.

  “So?” Xavier says. “What do you think? Are you in?”

  “In for… what, exactly?”

  “Just what Ryan suggested,” Lucas explains. “You’ll go out with each of us and then decide who you like best.”

  “And when you pick me,” Ryan adds, “we’ll start to see each other and the other two will be salty bitches for a while. But they’ll get over it.”

  I laugh and shake my head. “No way. There is no way I can do this,” I cry. “There is no way I am going to play this dating game with you guys.”

  “Why not?” Lucas asks. “It seems fair.”

  “Hardly,” I argue. “How is it fair to me to have to pick between you guys?”

  “Well, frankly, I don’t think being fair to you factors in,” Lucas admits. “I mean, we’re in this mess because you played us all to begin with.”

  “I wasn’t playing you guys. I swear it.”

  “Well, playing us or not, this is where we are,” Ryan says. “And I think it’s only fair that since there’s something about each of us you like, that you go out with each of us so you can find out that you like me the best.”

  I laugh and shake my head. “This is ridiculous.”

  “Maybe so. But it’s not a bad idea,” Xavier counters.

  “And how am I supposed to pick between you guys?”

  “By going out with each of us to see which connection is the strongest,” Lucas says. “My money is on you preferring the intellectual type. Your dalliances with field hockey notwithstanding, you seem like an intellectual.”

  “No way,” Ryan says. “She’s a girl who likes to walk on the wild side.”

  “Actually, I think she seems more like a girl who prefers to walk the middle ground,” Xavier offers. “She can be a bit edgy, but she plays it safe.”

  I hold my hands up and can’t stop the laughter that bursts from my throat. They all fall silent and look at me, smiles on their faces. It’s perverse and twisted, but they are actually relishing the idea of this contest. So, fine—if it’s a game they want, it’s a game they’ll get.

  “Enough,” I say. “Okay, I’ll play your game. One condition, though: the two I don’t pick can’t suddenly ghost me. I like you guys as people, not just as a romantic interest. And I’d like to remain friends no matter what.”

  The three of them exchange looks and nod before turning back to me.

  “You have a deal,” Xavier says.

  “I’m in,” Lucas adds.

  Ryan flashes that cocky grin at me and my heart stutters in my chest despite my best efforts to keep it under control. I can’t believe I’m doing this. I simply cannot believe I have agreed to turn my interest in these three boys into a reality television-style competition.

  And yet, given the circumstances of how these three came into my life, I guess it’s all somehow fitting. I return Ryan’s smile—though mine is far less cocky—and nod. He gives me a wink.

  “Then let the games begin,” he announces.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “This is so stupid,” I grumble. “I can’t believe I agreed to this.”

  Katie laughs. “Frankly, I can’t believe you agreed to it, either.”

  I look over at her, eyes wide. “Fat lot of help you were in there!”

  “What was I supposed to do?”

  I grin. “Pull me out of it. What kind of wingman are you?”

  “Not a very good one, I guess.”

  She looks down at the ground and frowns, actually seeming a bit disappointed by that admission, so I take her hand and give it a squeeze. When she looks up at me, I smile, showing her there are no hard feelings and that I’m not blaming her.

  “It’s my fault. I got myself into this mess,” I tell Katie. “It’s up to me to get myself out of it.”

  She gives me a gentle smile. “It’s not a bad spot to be in, you know. Three gorgeous guys fighting for your attention?”

  I laugh. “There is that. But how am I supposed to choose between them? I mean, what sort of criteria do I use to judge?”

  “Your heart,” she replies. “Your heart will tell you which one is right. Which one of them you have the strongest connection with.”

  I grimace. “Yeah, my heart and my brain don’t often see eye to eye on the subject of boys. My heart usually overrules my brain and goes straight to the one who’s the worst for me.”

  “The good news is that even the worst one of this bunch is still a really good guy.”

  “That’s true.”

  We fall into an easy silence as we walk down the tree-lined residential street. I look up at the moon that seems to be darting in and out of the clouds above us. All around, a fog is rolling in off the ocean, dimming and diffusing the streetlights and leaving the world dark and hazy. To be honest, it’s kind of creepy and I’m wishing now that we’d taken the boys up on their offer to drive us home rather than opting to walk.

  “It reminds me of something out of a horror movie,” I say.

  “Good thing you’re a fast runner.”

  I frown. “Not fast enough to keep Renee from clobbering me out on the field.”

  “Well, there’s field-hockey speed and then there’s ‘run for your life or the guy in the mask is going to cut you to ribbons’ speed.” She grins fiendishly at me. “Two totally different things.”

  The fog is growing thicker and it’s making the typical noises around us seem somehow darker. Creepier. It’s as if every single thing I hear—the dog barking a few streets over, the car door slamming, the laughter of somebody standing on their porch talking to their neighbor—has so
mehow become sinister and evil.

  I really need to stop reading so much Stephen King and watching horror movies.

  Giving myself a shake, I turn to Katie and smile, doing my best to banish the dark thoughts and change the subject.

  “We need to find you a boy,” I announce.

  Her laugh is sharp and brittle. “We really don’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “You see how I am when we’re dealing with your harem of boys,” she says. “There’s absolutely zero evidence I’d handle a boy of my own any better.”

  “By the same token, there is zero evidence you’d handle them worse.”

  Katie grins. “Well, look at you, little miss silver lining.”

  “That’s me!”

  “It’s all a moot point anyway, though. There aren’t any boys interested in me.”

  Her voice carries a hint of sadness that rings through loud and clear. She looks down and kicks a small stone that skitters along the pavement ahead of us. In the silence that follows, I hear something that freezes my blood. I stop and turn around, trying to peer through the unhelpful mix of fog and darkness.

  “What is it?” Katie asks.

  “I thought I heard a noise behind us,” I reply. “Like somebody’s shoe scuffing the sidewalk or something.”

  “It’s the fog. It tends to carry and distort sound,” Katie replies. “Plus, you’re already freaking yourself out so, of course, you’re going to hear something ominous out there.”

  A nervous laugh escapes me. “Think so?”

  She arches her eyebrow as she grins. “Sapphire Bay is one of the safest places you can live. People don’t just get snatched off the street.”

  “Until they do.”

  She laughs. “You’ve lived in the big city too long. Makes you paranoid.”

  I cast one last look behind us but don’t see any nefarious shadows creeping through the darkness and decide that I’m probably being pretty silly, after all.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  “Of course I am.” Katie replies.

  We turn and start walking again but I keep an ear open anyway, listening for sounds behind us. I guess that old saying is true—you can take the girl out of the big city, but you can’t quite take the big city out of the girl. At least, not entirely. I decide the best thing I can do to shake the case of the willies gripping me is to get the conversation moving again. Give myself a distraction.