Forbidden: A bully romance (An Academy Twin Rivalry Series Book 2)

by Taylor Blaine

  I backed away. He wanted to die. He was going to make sure his plan was carried out no matter what. It didn’t matter what I said or did. He was hell-bent on dying.

  Blinking repeatedly to erase the image from my mind, I turned to escape before being caught. A nauseous feeling crawling toward the back of my throat warned me I wasn’t going to be able to erase that image of my dead friend from my mind as long as I lived.

  I sprinted into the woods, leaning against a tree once I’d found the safety of the shadows. Bending over, I threw up the little bit of food in my stomach. I had to crash and get some sleep. No one could face what I was dealing with without taking a moment to breathe.

  How much more would I be expected to deal with? I just wanted to breathe for a minute without facing loss and pain and fear. Just one minute.

  Clutching the laptop in my hands, I ambled deeper into the woods, certain I was going to get caught while another part worried I wasn’t.

  Would it be so bad, if I was arrested again? I’d have privacy, food, and warmth. I could also be safe from Braddox’s game for at least a weekend. But something told me this wasn’t just a game for Braddox and the people he controlled like marionettes. There was something deeper at play.

  And the most worrisome part was tied up in the fact that Crenshaw had said “she”. A woman had a role in the destruction I’d just witnessed. I wasn’t aware of a lot of women with power in Shores. Any who had been in power had lost it recently or given it up.

  The laptop gift couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Maybe there was information in the videos that would lead to something.

  Then again, maybe not.

  I needed to get to a phone and a place with electricity and wi-fi. The only place that was open that early was the breakfast café just past Linda’s.

  I might not have started out that night with plans to walk all over Shores, but there I was, seeking answers to questions I hadn’t known needed to be asked.

  One way or the other, I had to warn Olivia that Braddox was out with my phone and he might try something. I also needed to dive more into the mess Crenshaw had died over.

  I couldn’t watch a friend die and not do anything. That wasn’t me. That wasn’t how I played any game.

  Whoever was doing this would find that out soon enough.

  Chapter 19

  Olivia

  Two pops that sounded suspiciously like gunshots and flashes of light followed Stephanie as she ran toward the border of the yard. Except she wasn’t running fast enough as she limped and stumbled and at one point fell to one knee before she got back up and hobbled toward the tree line.

  I could have thrown up in my mouth, I was so scared. My eyes were wide and I had my hand clamped over my mouth to keep me from yelling out to Stephanie as she ran toward the perimeter.

  Her hair whipped around her shoulders as she pumped her arms, one hand full while she did her level best to get her butt out of plain sight. Her head swiveled side to side as she looked for me.

  When she hit the bushes about twenty yards from me, she turned back, staring at the house. She had to be looking for me. I knew she was because that’s exactly how I imagined I looked when I’d reached the line.

  “Stephanie.” My whisper carried to her but only because it was quiet where we were and there was utter chaos ensuing at the house.

  She flipped her hair behind her as she whirled toward me. Relief covered her face and relaxed her shoulders when she recognized me and saw I was out. Rushing to my side, she reached out, gripping my hand and puling me deeper into the shadows. She continued to watch the house, wariness in the hard set to her mouth.

  Her hand holding mine shook.

  I opened my mouth to question what had happened, but she clamped her hand on my mouth, her eyes wide as she looked back at the house. Her whisper was barely audible. “Don’t. They saw me. They know I know. We can’t go back to my house.” Her chest rose and fell as she glanced in the direction of the secret opening to the wall directly behind me.

  “They know? Staci and her mom?” I swallowed, glancing at the house with more lights on. What would happen to Stephanie? What would they do?

  Stephanie’s entire body moved like she was going into convulsions as silent sobs shook her shoulders and her chest. She closed her eyes, dropping her hand to my arm again, clutching me in fear.

  Fear. She was genuinely afraid.

  Something clenched my shoulders tight and I hunched forward as if I could protect myself from the fear collecting in my stomach. I reached out to steady her, swallowing against the constriction in my throat as I realized that Stephanie who was never afraid of anything was terrified of whatever had just happened in the upstairs of my old house.

  Maneuvering her back even further into the trees and up against the ivy-covered wall, I whispered. “What happened? What’s going on? Why are you so afraid of Staci and her mom? There are grown boys in there.”

  But the night was silent. There was no evidence of any guys following the screaming and the sound of shooting from the house.

  “They saw me. I don’t care about Staci or her mom. They… the men. The boys are dead.” She pressed the back of her hand to her lips and dragged in a ragged breath. She shifted her eyes from looking toward the house to focus on me. “Dead. They… it was awful. I was in the office. I…” She closed her eyes and shook her head.

  Whatever had happened, she needed a minute to recover. I had to think. We needed to get out of there, but Stephanie said we couldn’t go to her house. Where, then, did we go?

  “Did they see me? Do you know?” If they hadn’t seen me but had only seen Stephanie, then we might have an out. I searched her face, but she started to shut down. Her eyes dimmed and she sagged against the wall.

  Taking her by the shoulders, I shook her. “Stephanie, listen to me. Let’s go back to my place. You can have the room next to mine. Come on. Stay with me. We have to hurry. We have to get into my car before they start looking for you at your house.” Urgency filled me as I realized just what it was I was saying.

  We had to get out of there.

  Immediately.

  I straightened and pushed her toward the entrance. She lagged, her shoulders slumping forward.

  I jerked her around, grabbing her chin. “Steph. I need you to snap out of it. Do you hear me?” She only stared at me; her eyes glazed over.

  A shout from the house rang out behind me. I glanced behind us, turning back toward Stephanie at the sight of two men scanning the yard. I pinched the inside of her arm and she blinked, snapping out of the daze she was heading into. “Get to your yard and into my car. We need to get out of here now.”

  Stephanie nodded, her eyes flicking from me to the men in the yard. She turned, fleeing as quickly as she could, her movements surprisingly quiet as she ran.

  “Check over there!” The raspy yells grew louder behind me.

  I didn’t bother looking back as I rushed through the brush after Stephanie. I swallowed back my grunt and groan when I hit the rocks protruding on the outline of the doorway with my knee and shin. I couldn’t care. I had to keep myself quiet.

  What if Ryan’s friends were dead? What if Staci and her mom were dead?

  What if they wanted Stephanie dead next?

  I could smell the early morning chill off the ocean or maybe it was late night. I couldn’t be sure how to make that distinction. It was dark as sin and all I wanted to do was get to my own bed and hide under the covers.

  Stephanie’s soft footsteps created a pattern ahead of me.

  I broke free from the hidden doorway and burst into a full-on sprint. I’d left the keys in the ignition because who would steal from Stephanie’s front drive?

  The house lights hadn’t changed from when we left them what felt like a lifetime ago. I pumped my arms, pushing myself past the pool in her backyard, past the greenhouse, the garden that was more like a well-landscaped flower fest from the United Kingdom, and around the side of the house toward t
he front.

  Light glowed from inside my car as Stephanie opened the passenger side doorway and climbed in. She reached up and locked her door, staring at me with impatience and fear etched into the lines of her face.

  I ran as fast as I could, slowing enough to come to the end of the car and get to the front driver’s seat. I had to get inside. I was almost there. Pulling open the door, I slid into the front seat and something pinged on the front windshield, leaving a distinct hole inches from the top of the steering wheel.

  I turned the keys, refusing to give into my fear.

  “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy. Shit.” Stephanie muttered next to me, hunched down in her seat, gripping the armrest on the door next to her.

  I shifted into drive and pressed my foot on the gas, ignoring the shadows coming after us from the tree line. They were slowly morphing into men and I wasn’t going to give them the chance to get close enough to see them better.

  Driving around the upper curve of the drive, I hit fifty miles an hour before I even hit the road. I took the turn faster than I should have and hit three decorative rocks on the other side of the street.

  We sped off. They would have seen my mom’s car. Maybe the registration still pointed toward East Shores.

  Stephanie hadn’t stopped muttering the redundant curse. Her eyes scrunched tight. She had a grip on the chest strap of the seat belt that left her knuckles white and her arms shaking.

  I gritted my teeth, speeding faster toward the O’Donnell place. “It should be safe at Jaxon’s. No one in their right mind would mess with Trenton.” I wasn’t sure what it was he did, but he had a lot of money. That had to mean something like he could afford a good security program or something. Anything.

  I just wanted to feel secure.

  As I tore down the street in the dark, I suddenly just wanted to be with Jaxon. Even if we didn’t do anything more than hold each other. I needed to feel the safety and the heat of being around him.

  I turned into the O’Donnell driveway, parking in the garage and closing the door. Shutting off the engine, I leaned forward and rested my forehead on the upper curve of the steering wheel.

  Stephanie seemed to sense that we’d hit some kind of safety because she exhaled on a whoosh that ended in a sob. As if her crying triggered something inside me, I started to cry as well.

  My friend pushed herself to a more seated position, leaning on the door and pressing her face to the glass. “She just shot them.” Hot puffs of air from her mouth left foggy ovals on the glass as she gasped for air.

  I blinked as her words clicked through what I was hearing. I shook my head and wiped under my eyes. “What? You mean he just shot them.” Wasn’t that what she’d said? Or maybe that’s what I remembered hearing.

  Turning damp eyes my way, Stephanie shook her head and sniffed. “No. Staci’s mom. She… two guys popped out of nowhere. I was in the closet off the office upstairs. The one your mom called an office but was more of an exercise room that had stuff dumped in it?” She waited for my confused nod and then continued. “Yeah, the connecting door was left ajar. She was in your old room. They were… the guys were naked.”

  I closed my eyes and turned my face back to facing toward my feet as she continued.

  “There were some other guys in the office, too. I didn’t know. One of them stared at me until I noticed him. I didn’t know what else to do. I ran through the adjoining door and snatched at Staci’s mom’s hair and it came off in my hand!” She huffed, trying to catch her breath.

  She squeezed the seat edge in her hands, the sound of leather creaking giving away her actions. “There was… I don’t know how to explain it. Her hair came off in my hand and she screamed. One of the guys our age, I think it was Justin, Ryan’s friend, I’m not sure though, stared at her and started yelling or something and she reached over to a dresser and pulled out a gun. She shot him. Right in front of me. Right in front of Staci. In front of all of them.” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

  I turned my head, opening my eyes so I could see her as she stared at me in the same position I was in.

  My friend looked younger than she was, scared and lost. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. She… just…” She shook her head the small amount her knees would let her where she rested her head. “Staci didn’t even seem fazed. I fell down the stairs and then ran out as fast as I could. I didn’t even know where you were until you called to me.” She reached across, obviously choked up. “Thank you for calling to me.”

  I didn’t pull my hand away. I needed her comfort as much as she needed mine.

  What was I supposed to do now? “What if they saw the license plate? What if they know I was there, too?” I blinked at her, suspicious of the tears coursing their way down my cheeks and across the bridge of my nose.

  I was scared and I had no way to express it. I wasn’t the scared type. That and my dad had always made a point to say it was okay to be scared. It just wasn’t okay to cry or whine about it.

  My lower lip quivered as I looked at my friend who I’d always thought of as the strongest girl I knew.

  But we were both wrecks. We both had witnessed things we shouldn’t have.

  Her even more than me.

  I squeezed her fingers in mine and then took a deep breath. We needed to get ourselves together. “Okay, we need to get inside and get some sleep. Are you hungry? Let’s eat something. Everything will look better in the morning.” Could I convince myself of that as well?

  I nodded at her as if to offer some reassurance that I wasn’t even sure I could really promise to myself.

  She nodded back and we climbed out of the car. Stephanie followed me to the house from the attached garage where we stopped in the kitchen and grabbed some chips, dip from the fridge, and a pint of ice cream.

  Upstairs in my room, we ate, but didn’t say anything.

  After just a couple bites, Stephanie shook her head and pushed the dish of ice cream away from her. “No, I don’t want any of this. I don’t feel good.” She looked around the room and then back at me. “Can I crash? I’m sorry, I would love to do the whole girls’ night thing, but…” She didn’t need to say anything else. I was there. I’d seen the horror she’d gone through.

  I nodded, staring at her as if I could somehow comfort her with my gaze. “Of course, I get it. Come on.” I stood from where we’d flopped onto opposite ends of the couch in my room by the window and held out my hand to help her up.

  Reluctantly she took it. She wasn’t one to take help from anyone, but lately she seemed to need more and more from me. Not that I minded helping her. I was just worried more about what was happening to my friend. I worried she was losing herself to the circumstances around her and I didn’t want that to happen.

  I stopped in the walk-in closet connected to my room and flicked on the light. Inside had been placed numerous boxes with my name on them.

  Cocking my head to the side, I retrieved a robe, some leggings, and a t-shirt for Stephanie to borrow. I left the light on as I returned to my bedroom and led the way from my room to the one next to it.

  Stephanie followed me, quietly subdued. When we got to the room, I turned to her, holding out the clothes I had to offer. She took them, a sad smile on her face. “Do you think they’re going to try to kill me?”

  Considering they’d already shot at us, at least I was pretty sure they’d tried shooting at us, I wasn’t sure how to tell her that anything was possible at that point. “I don’t know. I don’t even know if we’re safe here. Lock the door and if you need anything, just let me know. We can’t do much without getting sleep.”

  Stephanie nodded, smiling weakly. “Thanks. I’m just going crazy. I’ll see you in the morning?” She looked at me, half expectantly and half like she wanted to make sure I wasn’t going anywhere.

  I smiled and nodded. “Of course. I’m right next door, if you need anything.” I shut the door softly behind me. Curiosity overrode my shock at the events of the l
ast few hours. I closed my own door and turned back to my closet.

  Focusing on something besides the things that flooded me with fear was a safer place for my sanity.

  Why did I have moving boxes in my room? Mom probably had them brought up after sorting through everything, but why hadn’t she said anything? Normally she wouldn’t wait to tell me my things had gotten to the new place. At least when we had so many of our own things missing.

  I carefully moved boxes around, opening tops and filtering through what had been tossed unceremoniously inside.

  Under a stack of dresses, my hand hit a hard edge. I pushed the material aside and pulled out the shoe-size box Braddox had given me on our date. The same night he’d gone and screwed Staci.

  I held onto the box with both hands, sinking to my butt on the ground in the closet, with my legs Indian-style.

  The lid had been snugged on tight. I pulled it off and stared at the neatly stacked bills.

  Hundreds of dollars. Thousands, according to Braddox.

  He’d given me the money to strip for him. I still hadn’t wrapped my brain around that one. Why would anyone give someone else that much money to strip? I couldn’t help wondering just what I was supposed to with all that money and the way it made me feel.

  I was dirty. He’d paid me for something. Wasn’t that what a prostitute was? He’d paid and when he would he expect to collect? I was sure the way I’d danced for him hadn’t been what he’d had in mind.

  I knew it wasn’t what I had in mind.

  Slowly, I tucked the lid back on the box, leaning back in the closet and staring at the wall across from me.

  I’d never felt so alone. I pulled my phone from my pocket, while staring at the wall. What was I supposed to do? I was all alone. Stephanie was asleep next door, or maybe she was up worrying.

  I worked my bare toes into the carpet. Taking a deep breath, I leaned forward, bending my knees up. I rested my chin on my knees. What was I going to do? I could be safe in my closet. At least right then, right there. I could be safe.