Wild Girl: A High School Bully Romance (Slateview High Book 2)

by Eva Ashwood

“Yeah, and he hates Luke Carmine. So in a way, you just handed him the perfect excuse to fuck that guy over,” Misael had added. I hadn’t been able to tell from his tone whether he thought that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  Despite the shared sentiment across all three of the boys, their hesitance didn’t tamp down my hope.

  I wanted to tell my mom about the new development, more than anything. Part of me thought that maybe, if I explained things to her, she would see that there wasn’t a reason to continue running around with Mr. Jemison for security. But I knew that if I told her part of the story, I would also have to explain everything else. The arrangement with the Lost Boys, what happened with Flint, this new arrangement with Nathaniel. And at the end of the day, I knew it would cause more harm than good if I brought her into all of this as well.

  Maybe I was trying to protect her too, just like I was trying to protect my dad.

  Or maybe I just wanted to keep this part of my life separate from them. Make it only mine, something they could never touch or take away from me.

  So, I kept it to myself, knowing that once all was said and done, I would also be keeping my mom’s affair from my father. Maybe that was the burden that needed to be born in order to get my family back on the right track.

  The Lost Boys went back to work almost seamlessly—with a little heavier load than usual, which I assumed was Nathaniel’s way of giving them punishment that didn’t involve eye-for-an-eye tactics—and I hung out with Liam and Jessica whenever I couldn’t be with my three boys.

  I found myself grateful for school, since at least we all got to be together there, no matter how busy they were. Everyone at Slateview was aware of our relationship by now, and I didn’t hold back from public displays of affection, kissing them in the halls, sitting tucked against their sides at lunch. They stayed close to me too, touching me in little ways almost all the time, as if it were some kind of instinctual response to my presence.

  All four of us had been more deeply affected by the close scrape we’d had with death than we were willing to admit, but I could feel the reactions reverberating through our small group. The realization that we had almost lost each other made us hold on even tighter.

  “Seriously, they’re gonna slap an NC-17 rating on this cafeteria if you guys don’t cut that shit out,” Jessica joked one day, a week and a half after our meeting with Nathaniel.

  Kace glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, his lips never leaving my neck. On my other side, Bishop’s hand was running up and down my leg, sliding closer to the apex of my thighs every time. I squirmed under their touch, embarrassed at how turned on I was in the middle of lunch, but unable to muster the strength of will to stop them. Misael, who was sitting on Kace’s other side, caught my gaze and grinned, obviously aware of what their touch was doing to me.

  “You’re one to talk,” I shot back, focusing on Jessica to keep my body from doing what it really wanted to—namely, crawling onto Kace’s lap and pulling the other two boys closer until I was completely surrounded by their muscular frames and enticing scents. “You and Liam are all over each other all the time.”

  A wicked gleam entered her eyes, and she glanced over to where he was depositing their lunch trays on the rack to be cleaned.

  “Yeah.” She bit her lip, her gaze sliding over him appreciatively. Then she turned back to me, arching a brow. “But you guys still win the cafeteria porn prize. I mean, fuck, I think I just came.”

  I laughed as Kace finally lifted his head, shooting Jessica an almost offended look—as if he didn’t want her anywhere near our sex life. He rested his hand on my knee, but without his lips on my skin, it was a tiny bit easier to think clearly.

  “Oh, don’t worry, Kace.” The dark-haired girl rolled her eyes, shooting him a fond look. “I get plenty of my own action with Liam, thanks. And you know I’ve never thought of you guys like that.”

  He looked somehow more offended at that, and she tilted her head back, belting out a laugh. Then she glanced back at me. “Damn. I thought tending to one fragile male ego was a challenge. How the hell do you do it with three?”

  I chuckled, poking the boys beside me. In actual fact, they had three of the healthiest egos I’d ever encountered, and it was hard to argue that their self-confidence wasn’t earned. But I couldn’t let them get off without a little teasing. It was good for them. Kept their egos in check.

  “Every day is a struggle,” I said, shaking my head dramatically as Jessica laughed louder.

  “What’s so funny?” Liam asked, returning to our table and immediately pulling Jessica into his arms.

  I shot her a sardonic look as his lips found her neck, and she grinned broadly, molding her body against his.

  “Cora and I were just comparing man maintenance tips,” she joked, and Liam slapped her ass lightly. As they turned to go, she shot a glance back over her shoulder. “Hey, party this weekend at my house. Be there or be stricken from my good graces forever.”

  “Yeah, we’ll be there.” Bishop nodded, his hand still tracking a warm path over my thigh.

  I gave Mr. Tyson my usual nod as I slipped into his class at sixth period. Things around school hadn’t changed much between us now that we knew who he was—we still barely spoke, but his careful observation of everything around him made a lot more sense now.

  Eli glanced at me and then quickly looked away. He never spoke to me anymore either, although the look on his face the few times I caught him glancing at me made me certain that he was holding a grudge against me and my boys close to his heart.

  It was a problem we’d have to deal with eventually, but right now, we were all obeying the “stand down” orders that’d come from above.

  After school, the boys dropped me off at home, and I kissed them all goodbye before grabbing my backpack and heading inside. But as I pushed open the front door, my footsteps slowed.

  Sobs were coming from the kitchen.

  Mom.

  Oh, shit.

  I rushed inside, slamming the door behind me. Automatically, I thought of what could have made her so distraught.

  Had something happened to Dad in prison? Maybe we were about to lose the house. Or maybe it was something worse.

  I dropped my school bag on the floor and raced into the kitchen, going to my mom’s side immediately, my gaze catching hers as I put a hand on her shoulder. Whatever awkwardness and tension had existed between us for the past several weeks vanished in my worry for her.

  “Mom? What’s wrong? What happened?”

  Through her tears, she tried to speak, but the words choked in her mouth. I stared at her, my heart hammering in my chest, and it took me several long moments to realize that she wasn’t crying—not fully.

  She was… smiling. Laughing through her tears.

  “Your father,” she was able to say eventually. “Your father—he’s going to be released. All the charges dropped. Everything we lost reinstated—the house, the cars, everything. We’re going home, Cora.”

  I stumbled back a step, my hand slipping from her shoulder.

  The news hit me, but I didn’t think I quite took it in fully, not all at once at least. Nathaniel hadn’t even mentioned that he’d found a lead, let alone that he had followed it, and certainly nothing close to him doing something about it. I couldn’t help but blink and look at my mom like she’d grown another head.

  The boys would’ve told me if Nathaniel had told them anything. He just… did all of this? Just like that?

  “What—what do you mean?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.

  “Your father, Cordelia.” Impatience seeped into her tone as she turned to look at me, tears still shining on her cheeks. “They’re releasing him. Everything is being put right. The charges against him were dropped. He was arrested on false evidence, planted evidence. It’s all being thrown out.”

  I blinked, shocked. It was too much to take in all at once. “It is?”

  “Yes!” she blurted, her tone almost man
ic. “Abraham Shaw, an old business partner of your father’s, set him up. Tried to make your father take the fall for his illegal dealings. But it’s all come to light. Abraham has been arrested.”

  Her face lit up again as she spoke, as if she couldn’t contain her joy. She pushed away from the table and wrapped her arms around me—the first time she’d hugged me since before any of this had even happened. The gesture felt hollow, but I didn’t fight it, breathing in deeply before letting out a relieved, grateful sigh.

  Luke Carmine and Abraham Shaw had worked together to frame my father.

  There were so many questions I still had. Had the men been partners, or had one hired the other, recruited him to help? Why had they targeted Dad? Simply because he was an easy mark to shift blame to since he’d done business with Abraham before? Or for a darker reason? Some kind of grudge?

  But one thought rose above all those others, settling at the forefront of my mind.

  I knew it…

  Dad didn’t do those things.

  He was going to get out, and he was going to do better. Be better.

  A choked noise escaped my lips as a flood of emotions blazed through me. Though having Mom’s arms around me was a foreign feeling, I couldn’t help but return the embrace, wrapping tight around her in response.

  “I… Holy shit. I can’t believe it. When’s he coming home?”

  “What do you mean, Cordelia? We’re going home. Everything is back in our hands. Obviously we’ll need to replace certain items… track them down, but with your father out of prison and our social standing corrected—”

  “What about school?” I asked, pulling away.

  She scoffed, looking down at me like I was crazy. “What about school? This is a place for mongrels, and certainly not a place for any daughter of mine. We’ll obviously be pulling you out as soon as possible and putting you back at Highland Park Academy where you belong.”

  Back at the academy, where I belonged. Back home.

  Away from here.

  I hadn’t been naive enough to think that things wouldn’t change after my father got out of prison, but the reality of it happening so soon truly struck me for the first time. I had actually gotten attached to things here. To people here.

  The boys…

  My boys.

  I would have to tell them that Nathaniel had made good on his promise to help me, and had apparently done it so thoroughly that we were regaining everything we’d lost when my father had gone to prison. What I hadn’t truly taken into account—what I had never let myself think about for too long—was what I would lose should my father return. It made a lump form in my throat and tears well in my eyes before I could stop them.

  “Good God, Cordelia, what’s wrong with you?”

  I shook my head, scrubbing the tears from my face.

  “Nothing. I’m just… I’m just so happy,” I said, the words only halfway true. “I’m going to—tell my friends the good news.”

  I left the kitchen before my mom could stop me and question the validity of my plans. I hadn’t lied to her. I was going to contact friends—but not the ones she was probably expecting.

  My hands shook as I pulled out my phone and typed a message to Bishop.

  ME: We need to talk.

  Twenty-Five

  The boys were out on a job for Nathaniel when they got my message, but Bish texted back quickly to tell me to meet at his place at nine.

  Mom was fluttering around the house like a hummingbird, full of an energy I hadn’t seen in her even after she’d started her affair with Mr. Jemison. She placed dozens of phone calls, arranging things and making plans, and as I listened through the closed door of my bedroom, I could hear her voice start to change, regaining the imperious quality it’d had for most of my life.

  I was sure she felt like she’d just been reborn.

  So why did a little part of me feel like I was dying?

  I counted down the seconds as the evening wore on, and when nine o’clock finally rolled around, I threw on a jacket and headed out the door without bothering to tell Mom where I was going. I could see lights on at Bishop’s place, and the warm glow in the darkness of the winter night made an ache rise up in my chest.

  His foster parents were almost never home, and I was sure they were gone tonight as usual, so I didn’t even bother knocking, just turned the knob and stepped inside.

  They’d left the door unlocked for me, and all three boys looked up as I entered. Misael and Kace were already there, and I wasn’t the only one of us who seemed down; they all sat in the living room, looking subdued and contemplative. I settled between Bishop and Kace on the couch, quiet for a moment.

  Finally, when I couldn’t take the silence any longer, I sighed.

  “You know,” I said softly.

  It wasn’t a question. They had to. They looked nearly as miserable as I felt, and that was the only explanation for our collective melancholy.

  Bishop nodded.

  “Yeah. Nathaniel told us about it a couple hours ago,” he said, a strange timbre to his voice. “Wanted to make sure we had a heads-up, and also wanted us to pass along the message not to forget about the favor. Your father knows who’s responsible for getting him out of the clink. He’ll be expected to be the one to repay when the time comes.”

  I nodded, numb. Honestly, right now my mind was miles away from debts that needed to be repaid. That seemed like such a far away concern. My current concerns were more relevant and pressing. More immediate.

  More personal.

  Kace put an arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer, letting me nestle against his shoulder.

  “You don’t look so hot, Coralee,” he murmured, his voice rough. “Figured you’d be over the moon.”

  I shrugged, though we were pressed so close together that my shoulder barely shifted.

  “I’m glad my father is out of prison.” I bit my lip, forcing down the sudden tears that stung the backs of my eyes. “I’m… grateful. I’m glad Nathaniel helped. I just didn’t think it was going to happen so soon…”

  “Well, when Nathaniel says he’s gonna get somethin’ done, he gets that shit done. He’s never really been one to beat around the bush.” Kace rested his chin on top of my head, and I felt him breathe deeply. “When… are you leaving?”

  That was the part that hurt the most. Because it truly put into perspective just how little time we had left.

  “A few days,” I told him, my voice cracking. “Apparently, Nathaniel was very thorough in helping my dad get his charges dismissed. We even got all of our seized assets and property placed back in our hands. Mom’s pulling me out of school before the week is out, and then we’re… we’re going back home.”

  Even saying the word home felt fake. This place had become my home. These three boys were my family, my heart.

  And I was leaving it all behind in the blink of an eye. I couldn’t even blame anyone else for the suddenness. It had been my determination to clear my father’s name that had been responsible for this.

  “I see,” Bishop muttered, his voice thick

  “It—it doesn’t mean this is over, right?” I sat up, pushing away from Kace a little so I could turn to face the others too, swiveling my head to meet their gazes as a sudden wave of panic swept through me. “I mean, I know how this started out. There was nothing… romantic or deep about it. But something happened between us—all of us. I don’t want that to go away just because I’m leaving here. I’d never leave the three of you behind like that. You know that, don’t you?”

  The desperation in my voice was heavy, but I couldn’t help it.

  Knowing that I would have to leave regardless of my own wishes was one thing—I could defy my mom by keeping the boys in my life, but I couldn’t outright defy her by refusing to go back home. She had the resources now to make me go, and I was sure she wouldn’t hesitate to use all of them.

  But I needed assurance that my being gone wouldn’t mean this was over. Not after everything
we’d been through. I was moving back to my old neighborhood, but I’d still be in Baltimore. I wasn’t going to a foreign country or anything.

  There was no reason we couldn’t stay in each other’s lives.

  If they wanted that.

  The boys were quiet for several long moments, and my heart seemed to beat slower with every second that passed. I couldn’t even put into words what these three boys had come to mean to me, and I was sure they felt the same. But still, fear closed my throat as I remembered how much they had despised me and my entire family when we’d first met.

  I would be going back to all that. Would they despise me again?

  Kace’s arms tightened around me, but it was Bishop who finally spoke, his hazel eyes glinting fiercely.

  “You really think we’re gonna let you off the hook that easy, Cora?” he said. “Of course this ain’t gonna change anything between us. You’re our Princess. You’re ours. You living it up in a fancy-ass mansion ain’t gonna change that.”

  He sounded so confident.

  I wished I felt half as much faith as he did.

  His words cracked something open in my heart though, and heat sparked low in my belly as a strange sort of determination filled me. I would do everything I could to make his words be true.

  My stubbornness had gotten my father out of jail. It could keep these three boys in my life.

  Because I wasn’t sure I could breathe without them.

  Crawling into Kace’s lap, I hooked the back of Bishop’s neck to bring his face close to mine, my other hand trailing over Misael’s leg.

  “I am yours. I belong to all three of you, and I always will. And you’re mine.”

  Lips and hands descended on me, sharp breaths and groans filling the quiet living room as we gave in to the need that pulsed between us.

  There was no sweetness or gentleness tonight.

  It was an almost violent collision.

  But it was exactly what I needed.

  Later that night, there was a knock at my window.

  My body was pleasantly sore and exhausted, my thoughts and emotions in turmoil, so even though it was well after midnight, I wasn’t asleep yet. I’d been staring up at the ceiling, and when I heard the soft noise, my gaze cut toward the cracked and peeling window frame, my heart leaping in my chest.