Trust Him: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Rebels of Sterling Prep Book 4)

by Caitlyn Dare

  Trust Him

  Rebels at Sterling Prep Book 4

  Caitlyn Dare

  Copyright © 2020 by Caitlyn Dare

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Caitlyn Dare

  Chapter One

  Hadley

  My eyes strain against the darkness. Light streams in through a small crack in the windows that look as if they’re boarded up. I pull against the bindings around my wrists and ankles, fear races up and down my spine.

  “Ugh,” I cry into the silence.

  I’m alone.

  I’ve been alone since they brought me here after swiping me from school. From what I can make out, it’s some kind of abandoned trailer.

  Tears pool in my eyes again, but I blink them away. Crying isn’t going to get me out of this mess. Although, right now I’m not sure anything is.

  I’m bound and alone, and everything hurts.

  If only I hadn’t lingered after practice. If only I had followed the other girls back to the main school building, then maybe he wouldn’t have snatched me.

  The man in the ski mask had come out of nowhere and grabbed me from behind, jabbing me with something sharp before pulling me down the hall and out of the emergency exit just as the world went black.

  I woke up in the back of a van with nothing but a headache and my hands tied.

  The door creaks open and I hold my breath, pressing myself into the chair as if it might somehow make me disappear.

  Footsteps sound on the rickety floor, and eventually a man emerges from the dark shadows.

  “Hadley, it’s nice to meet you.”

  “I wish I could say the same,” I spit at Donny Lopez. I don’t need an introduction to know who this man is.

  “I’m sorry for the theatrics, but it seems those Jagger boys have trouble following simple instructions.” He scrubs his jaw. “I needed... how do you say, some gentle persuasion.”

  I press my lips together, swallowing the urge to scream.

  This can’t be happening.

  I can’t be here, at the mercy of Sterling Heights’ drug lord. Yet, that’s exactly where I am.

  Oh, Cole, what have you gotten me into?

  “You are quite the enigma.” He paces the small space before me. “Hadley Dove Rexford, only child of Harrison Theobald Rexford and Tamara Marilyn Rexford.”

  My blood turns to ice, the color draining from my face.

  He knows who I am, where I come from.

  “What I can’t quite understand, though, is why Mommy and Daddy shipped you off to Sterling Prep.”

  Relief slams into me, but it’s short-lived when I remember that I might be pregnant.

  “Please,” I whimper, “let me go.”

  “You think I want to do this?” Donny crouches down to look me in the eye. “You think I want to hurt young, naïve girls? I take no pleasure in it. But the Jaggers must be taught a lesson. You cannot make deals with the devil and expect to just walk away.

  “He killed him, you know. Your boyfriend murdered his uncle in cold blood.”

  My breath hitches at the bluntness of his words. “It was a test. A test Cole passed with flying colors.”

  Bile rushes up my throat as I stare into his soulless eyes. I thought Cole had darkness inside him, but Donny makes him look like a teddy bear. There isn’t even a glint of remorse or shame in his hard stare for the life he chooses, the lives he destroys. It’s too late for a man like him, but it isn’t too late for Cole, no matter what he’s done. He deserves more, so much more than a world that, until now, has chewed him up and spit him out.

  My heart clenches but I sit straighter, refusing to cower.

  Donny steps back, rubbing his jaw. “The sooner your boyfriend sees sense, the sooner this will all be over.”

  “What will you do to him?”

  Donny clucks his tongue. “It’s not what I will do to him, but what he will do for me. I’ll have my men bring you some water.” He slinks back into the shadows, and I sag against the chair. My back aches, and my wrists are sore from the restraints. I don’t know how long I was out for after the man in the ski mask grabbed me, but it’s getting dark, so I’ve been gone a few hours.

  Cole will know I’m missing by now. Everyone will. I can’t help but wonder if my parents will care... they sent me to Sterling Prep without so much as a second thought. I’d embarrassed them, brought shame to the family name. I was no good to my father now.

  Used goods.

  That’s what he’d called me.

  A fresh wave of pain crashes over me, but this is different—this is betrayal of the worst kind. Betrayal by those who are supposed to love you, no matter what.

  You get one family in life, and mine decided to cast me aside and exile me to Sterling Bay.

  I know exactly what they’ll think when—if—they find out about this.

  They won’t care.

  Because I may as well be dead to them.

  Bitter laughter crawls up my throat and spills from my lips. In some ways, my parents are as bad as Donny. Sure, they don’t deal in drugs or guns, but they bargain with secrets and money. People like my father, the elite families of Gravestone County, are only concerned with two things, reputation and the size of their bank accounts.

  I should feel lucky I’m free of them, of the life they had all planned out for me. But I’ll never forget what they did to me. The pain, the gaping hole in my heart, will forever bind us.

  They broke me.

  Irrevocably changed me.

  And now... well, now I’m pretty sure I’m in love with a murderer. But I read somewhere once that lost souls call to other lost souls. They seek each other out like glimpses of light on the horizon.

  Maybe I was always supposed to come to Sterling Bay. The same way Cole was always supposed to escape his life in the Heights.

  Maybe we were fated to meet, to save each other.

  I cling to the thought as the fight slowly leaves my body and I finally succumb to the darkness.

  I wake with start, the icy fingers of fear wrapping around my throat as I try to swallow. It’s dark still. Darker than before. My mouth is dry and my head pounds.

  “Hello?” I croak, aware of someone in the trailer with me
.

  “Boss said to bring you this.” Ski mask man steps forward. His face is no longer obscured, but part of me wishes it was. An angry, jagged scar runs across his eye and down the side of his face. His eyes narrow when he notices me staring. I instantly avert my gaze.

  “You should drink something.” He uncaps the bottle and advances toward me, but I slam my lips together.

  He drugged me.

  There’s no way I’m drinking anything he—

  “Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.” He almost sighs the words, but I refuse to mistake the softness in his voice for regret.

  Turning my head, I avoid his proximity until he roughly grabs my face and squeezes my cheeks together, forcing me to open my mouth. He pours the water in, not caring that I can barely swallow.

  “Fucking stubborn bitch,” he murmurs.

  The second he backs up, I heave a deep breath, aware that my school shirt is wet. His eyes go to my chest, making bile rush up my throat.

  He licks his lips, openly gawking at me. “Shame the boss said we could look but couldn’t touch.”

  Oh God.

  I screw my eyes shut, trying to take myself to another place. Somewhere—anywhere—better than this. But it’s futile. The stale air permeates my thoughts, anchoring me to the cold, dank trailer.

  He watches me for a few more seconds before slowly retreating. “Ain’t nobody to blame for this but Jagger,” he says.

  “What will happen to him?” The words fall from my lips.

  “Your boyfriend will fall in line or suffer the consequences.”

  A shiver runs through me. Cole did all this to save Ace, to protect his brother... it doesn’t seem fair.

  But I know all too well that life isn’t fair. It’s cruel and hard and messy. I’m only eighteen, but sometimes it feels like I’ve lived too much life for a young girl.

  My stomach aches and I want nothing more than to rub it, to place my hand there and settle the nerves wreaking havoc inside me. But the second my mind goes there, I think of the baby that may or may not be growing. If I’m pregnant, I can only be six or seven weeks at the most.

  Tears well in my eyes. A baby is the last thing I need, the last thing Cole needs, but I can’t deny the rush of love I feel. After everything I survived at the hands of my parents, it feels like a second chance.

  A shot at doing things right.

  My captor clears his throat, yanking me back to reality with a thud. My head snaps up in his direction, and he shoots me a dirty smirk. “Who knows, maybe if Jagger fucks up, you and I will get to have some fun after all.”

  The memory of his knife at my throat, his body pressed close to mine, floods my mind. I would rather die than become his plaything.

  Cole will come.

  I want to believe the little voice. But when you’ve been betrayed by everyone you ever cared about, it’s not easy.

  “See you soon, pretty girl.” He slips into the shadows and the trailer door creaks open before slamming shut and plunging me into darkness once more.

  I’m so cold and tired, still weary from whatever drug he gave me. But I can’t slip under again. Not if I want to survive this. I need to stay awake. I need to be ready for when someone comes for me. Because I have to believe they will.

  I have to believe that Cole and his brothers are out there, looking for me.

  Because if they’re not... then I have nothing.

  No hope.

  No one.

  Chapter Two

  Cole

  My eyes are still locked on the image of Hadley on my cell, and just one word repeats in my head.

  Pregnant. Pregnant. Pregnant.

  My hand trembles as the world around me tilts on its axis.

  This can’t be happening.

  It has to be a dream. Or at the very least, one very sick joke. A way of getting back at me after her attack. She’s punishing me, showing me just how much I needed to get out of the life I’ve found myself in.

  But I know it’s neither of those things.

  This right now is very much real.

  The fear that’s lacing through my veins. The panic that’s squeezing my chest to the point I’m struggling to drag in the air I need. It’s all very real.

  And the photograph before me? That’s equally as real.

  That motherfucker has my girl.

  He could… he might… “Fuuuuuuuck,” I scream, launching my cell across the room.

  “You need to come right now.” The sound of Remi’s equally panicked voice fills my ears, and when I look up, I find her eyes wide and face pale as she holds her cell to her ear.

  “We’ll wait here. Be quick. Please,” she begs down the line.

  She hangs up and drops her arm, letting it dangle uselessly by her hip.

  “Ace is coming. We’re going to fix this, Cole. We’re going to find her and everything will be okay.”

  Her words register in my head, but I can’t make myself believe them.

  Donny has her. Nothing about this is okay.

  “Y-you said…” I stutter but soon trail off, not able to even say the words.

  “I don’t know, Cole. She told me last night that her period is late. It-it’s probably just a false alarm but…” It might not be.

  She doesn’t say the words, but I hear them loud and clear nonetheless.

  Stumbling back, I hit the wall with a thud before sliding down until my ass collides with the floor.

  I shouldn’t just be sitting here. I should be out trying to find her, to save her, but as my head continues to spin, I can’t get a grip on reality, let alone consider what my first move might be.

  He could have taken her anywhere.

  She could already be… “No, no, no,” I chant, needing to hear the words. He wants me, not her. Killing her wouldn’t get him what he wants. He’s just trying to draw me in.

  He’s planned this. Knowing Donny, he’ll have planned it well. We need to go in with a plan of our own, one that’s going to result in all of us walking away unscathed while Donny dies a slow and painful death for trying to mess with us.

  I have no idea how much time passes as I sit there with my forehead resting on my arms, but eventually I hear two pairs of feet race our way before both Ace and Conner come barreling into the room.

  Lifting my head, I find their wide-eyed, panic-stricken faces, but unlike me, they seem to be holding it together.

  “Where’s the picture?” Ace asks the second he comes to a stop, clearly knowing what he’s doing.

  Remi hands him my cell, which she must have collected from wherever it landed after I launched it. I’m surprised the damn thing still works.

  “Motherfucker,” he grunts—I assume at seeing Hadley bound, gagged and completely useless—but the next words out of his mouth make me think he’s already got a plan. “You two, pack her a bag, whatever you think she might need, and get to the house. You,” he states, looking down at me. “You’re coming with me.”

  I scramble to get to my feet. “W-where are we going?”

  “To go and get your girl back.”

  “But where? How?” My heart pounds. “She could be anywhere.”

  “Yeah, but she’s not, is she?” My brows pull together at the riddle he seems to be talking in. “Are you just going to stand there looking confused, or are you coming?”

  After giving Remi a kiss to her forehead and throwing his bike keys at Conner, he takes off.

  “Please be safe,” Remi calls after him.

  “Always. I love you, Princess.” If the situation were any different, I’d expect Conner to say something about Ace’s show of affection for his girl. As it is, when I glance at him, he just slaps me on the shoulder in a way of support before pulling a terrified Remi into his arms as I race off behind Ace.

  I catch up with him as he exits the building.

  “You got the car keys?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good, let’s go.”

  The two of us sp
rint toward the parking lot, and before I even get a chance to think, Ace is in the driver’s seat and wheelspinning the heap of junk out of Sterling Prep.

  “You gonna tell me where we’re going anytime soon?” I ask as he makes a sharp right, throwing me into the car door.

  “How closely did you look at that photo Donny sent?” His voice is so steady and calm. I wish I knew how that was possible in this situation. I feel like I’m about to explode at any minute.

  “Not very close. I got the gist of it pretty damn fast, though.”

  “Look again,” he demands, passing my cell back over.

  I do as he suggests and fight against my need to crush it to tiny pieces when the image of her fills the screen once more.

  There should only ever be one reason why she’s bound and gagged, and it has nothing to do with Donny or any motherfucker other than me.

  The only person’s mercy she should ever be at is mine, but she should know that only pleasure will come out of it.

  Ripping my eyes from Hadley, I look at her surroundings.

  “Motherfucker,” I grate, now seeing all the things I missed before. “So she’s in our old trailer. What are you suggesting we do exactly? He’ll be expecting us. We can’t just march in and demand her back.”

  “I haven’t entirely figured that out yet,” he admits with a heavy sigh.

  “And here I was, thinking you knew what you were doing,” I mutter.

  “I’m sorry, but this isn’t exactly a daily fucking occurrence for me. We just need to get there, is all I know.” He takes another corner way too fast, but I sense it coming this time and hold on as he leans into it. “We’ll go around the back, get a sense of what’s going on, and then we’ll make a plan.”