Unmask: A Dark High School Romance, page 15
“But we are involved,” Maddox said, stepping in behind us. “We’re crew. Always have been. We don’t let each other fall, and I’m not about to let you break up the crew over a girl.”
“That wouldn’t happen,” Kreed muttered, his lips turning into that brooding frown.
Mason flicked my nose. “We seem to be breaking all kinds of rules for you, kitten.”
“Dad won’t like this,” Maddox added, glancing down the hallway like Donovan might step out of the shadows.
“I’m done following his rules,” Kreed said simply.
I became too aware of the number of eyes on us as the Corvo boys ushered me through school, and despite my attempts to break ranks and sneak off into the crowd, they seemed to always know, blocking me off.
Maddox clapped a hand to Kreed’s shoulder. “Then you’re not doing it alone. That’s not how we work.”
“For once,” Mason said, sobering slightly, “he’s right. Crew is crew. We do this together. Even when it’s a disaster. With or without Dad.”
Maddox risked death and slung an arm around my shoulders. “So that means we’re staying too.”
I’m sorry, what? I held up both hands like I could halt a freight train and stopped dead in my tracks. It took only a second for me to have three brooding Ravens glaring at me. “Absolutely not. I can’t have all of you squatting at my cousin’s house. This isn’t some kind of crew stakeout.”
Kreed removed Maddox’s arm from around me.
“Why should it only be Kreed?” Maddox asked, tilting his head in that careful, observant way of his.
“We should take turns,” Mason added, the glint in his light-green eyes pure chaos. “Fair is fair. Equal opportunity and all that.”
Kreed’s expression was flat and lethal. “As if I’d trust either of you alone with her.”
Let Raven mayhem rain.
The boys started bickering with snarky remarks, growled threats, and shoulders squaring as if the school was suddenly a battleground. I groaned and shoved myself between them. “Does anyone care what I want?” I snapped.
Maddox snorted.
Mason huffed. “How much do you know about keeping someone alive? It’s not as easy as it seems. Trust me. We know.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you implying I’m a difficult case?”
“Yes,” the three of them replied in unison.
I snapped my mouth shut as the bell rang. I was supposed to be in class.
Kreed rubbed a hand along his jaw, glancing over at Maddox and Mason. “I need at least one of you at the house. I want ears on the ground. Dad’s been quiet…too quiet. He’s holding something back about who the Viper informant is. I can feel it. He’s got something on the bastard. We need to find out what and, more importantly, who.”
Maddox tilted his head, smirking. “Still think we should rotate. Keep it fresh. What do you say, menace? You and me? A proper sleepover?”
We stopped at my locker, and I turned the dial. “Drop dead, Maddox.”
Maddox’s lips twitched. “That’s my girl.”
Kreed pressed his back into the locker beside mine, shooting his brother a cold scowl. “She’s not yours.”
Maddox shrugged one shoulder, completely unfazed. “Yeah, so you’ve said, but you’re not the only one who gets to claim her.”
I was starting to think agreeing to this was a bad freaking idea. “No one is claiming me. Is that clear?” I shoved shit in my bag, uncertain it was the right stuff. I turned to look at each of them one by one. Mason with his lazy charm, Maddox with his calculated grin, and Kreed with his unreadable storm cloud gaze. “I’m not property. I’m not a prize. I don’t belong to anyone.”
The words hung between us, brittle and daring someone to challenge them, but none of them did. Instead, they all smirked, amused, like I was theirs anyway and they didn’t need to say it out loud to make it true, and damn it, part of me hated how that didn’t make me want to run.
It made me feel…anchored even if they drove me crazy. Even if they made me want to scream and punch walls and possibly commit actual crimes. I had them, and in a world like this, where loyalty was rare and betrayal was a currency, that meant everything.
The bigger question was, what the fuck was I going to do about them?
12
KREED
Practice hadn’t even officially started, and already I was on edge. I sat on the bench beside Maddox, Mason, and Nash, watching the team warm up on the field. I didn’t want to be here. Football no longer held the importance it once did or the release. I couldn’t stop playing last night over in my head. The idea that someone had been lurking outside, someone who probably expected Kaylor to be alone, nagged at me the entire day. If I’d had a clearer head, if I hadn’t indulged in so much alcohol, perhaps I would have been able to catch them before they were able to run off or hide.
“She needs security at school,” Maddox said, his helmet dangling from his fingers, sweat glistening on his forehead.
Coach yelled across the field at Dylan, one of our defensive ends, as he landed flat on his back. “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, my mind only partly listening to Maddox.
“You weren’t here yesterday.”
My spine stiffened, and I slid my eyes to him, getting this bad feeling that I was about to get pissed off. “So?”
“Well,” Maddox continued with a shrug that was far too casual, “there was an incident. With Kaylor and a few guys from the team.”
My jaw clenched hard, muscles ticking as a slow burn crept beneath my skin. I didn’t like where this was going. “Define incident.”
“We handled it,” Mason assured, leaning forward on the bench, elbows resting on his knees as he let his helmet hit the ground.
Something was definitely up. I scanned the field, and that’s when I saw them, Bodie, Dawson, and Keenan leaning against the bleachers with bruises blooming across their jaws. The sight flipped a switch. “Is that why their faces look like roadkill?”
“They’re lucky it wasn’t worse,” Nash muttered. “If it had been you who found her—”
My hand curled into a fist. Blood pounded in my ears. “What the fuck did they do?”
Mason toyed with the strap of his helmet. “Don’t freak out.”
Too late. “You’re telling me not to is only going to make things worse.”
“Shit,” Nash mumbled under his breath, and I sensed not a single one of them wanted to tell me what happened. If it was that bad, why hadn’t Kaylor mentioned it?
Maddox sighed. “They cornered her in the guys’ bathroom,” he said, straight to the point. “We got there before it went too far, but it scared her.”
I was up in an instant, a buzzing vibrating in my ears. “What the fuck. Why am I just now hearing about this?”
“Because,” Mason gritted out, “we handled it. The last thing she needed was you going full-blown psycho and ending up suspended. Or worse.”
“Don’t dodge. I asked for details, not damage control,” I growled, the familiar heat of anger coursing through my veins.
Mason got to his feet, leaving his helmet on the ground. “And I’m telling you—we were keeping you from going nuclear and getting suspended.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “Guess that plan failed because now I’m exactly there. I’m about to make sure none of them can walk again unless one of you starts spilling details. Or I can just ask Kaylor.”
“I’m surprised she hasn’t already told you,” Maddox said.
My fingers curled. “We haven’t had a lot of time to talk.”
Mason smirked. “Oh, I just bet. Who has time to talk when your lips are otherwise engaged?”
I didn’t even dignify that with a response. “Give me their names. All of them. Or I’ll just start picking the team off one at a time.”
Nash looked at me. “I thought we were done killing people.”
Tugging off my pads, I tossed them to the ground. “They should have considered that before laying a hand on her.”
No one said anything, and I’d run out of patience. Fine. If they weren’t going to volunteer the information, I’d take matters into my own hands. Someone was going to start talking, and I wasn’t going to wait for permission.
I shoved off the bench and stormed across the field, vision tunneled. Dawson didn’t even see me coming. Perfect. I launched at him with everything I had, tackling him like a battering ram straight into the turf. His helmet tumbled off his head as he hit the ground hard, a startled gasp tearing from his throat.
The entire field stopped. My knee pinned his chest, and I grabbed the front of his jersey with one hand, the other locking around his throat. “You ever lay a hand on her again,” I snarled, my voice low, “and I’ll fucking kill you.”
“What the hell, Kreed? What is your problem?” he wheezed, fighting for air.
“You know damn well,” I seethed into his face.
He tried to speak, but I squeezed just enough for the message to land. “I figured you didn’t give a shit anymore,” he struggled, hands trying to push me off him. “You never cared in the past.”
Everyone else on the field knew better than to interfere unless they wanted to end up on their asses. I didn’t have to think twice about watching my back because my crew would. “My personal business is mine. And even if I had lost interest, she’s off-limits.”
His eyes widened as I squeezed, just enough for him to understand I meant it.
“That goes for all of you,” I added, projecting the threat loud and clear over the field. “One hand. One word. One fucking breath in her direction, and I’ll bury every one of you.”
A shrill whistle tore through the tension. “Break it up!” Coach roared from the sideline, storming toward us.
I released Dawson and stood slowly, breathing hard but steady. My gaze flicked to the rest of the team, who looked like they had just seen death walk across the field.
I didn’t say another word.
I didn’t need to.
I turned and stomped off the field, fire in my blood and one singular vow in my head: They would never touch her again.
Practice had just wrapped up, and a light dusting of snow began to fall, frosting the field in a thin white sheet. My breath fogged in the cold air as I headed toward the bleachers, slinging my gym bag over my shoulder.
That was when I saw her.
Kaylor sat in one of the middle rows, scowling down at her phone as if it had personally offended her. She was breathtaking, fat flakes of snow drifting slowly around her, giving her this frozen princess aura.
My lips curved downward, and I slowed my steps, drawn to her like gravity. “What’s got you frowning so deeply?” I asked, dropping down onto the bench beside her, her nearness and scent expelling some of the fury churning within me.
She startled, her shoulders jerking. It took her a second to orient herself, blinking up at me like she forgot where she was for a second. Cute. She shook her head. “What?” She finally glanced up, her eyes landing on me. “Oh, it’s you.”
I wavered between amused and annoyed. “Who were you expecting?”
“Anyone but you,” she replied, glancing out over the field at the snow.
“Liar.” Little white flakes stuck to her long lashes, and I stared at them, my lips twitching. “You never answered the question. Who’s making you frown, little raven?”
She sighed heavily. “It’s Rusty.”
My entire body bristled at the name. I didn’t even try to hide the way my eyes narrowed. “What does he want?”
She shrugged, peering back down at the screen. “Just checking up. Making sure I’m okay. Telling me again what a mistake this is. Same shit. Different day.”
I bit back a curse, my fists curling against my thighs. I didn’t trust Rusty. Never had. Something about the guy rubbed me the wrong way, something slick beneath the surface he tried to hide, and it was more than him being the rival. “How very parental of him,” I grumbled, settling my bag on the bench at my feet.
She rolled her eyes. “It’s no secret he didn’t agree with me coming back here,” she added, a trace of guilt in her voice. “He’d rather have me tucked away in some cabin in the middle of nowhere, and he is doing his damn hardest to convince me.”
I grunted. “That’s not concern. That’s control. Creepy as fuck, little raven.”
Before she could answer, a noise snapped through the stillness, a crunch of boots on fresh snow. My head whipped toward the sound instinctively, my senses flaring to life. Without thinking, I reached for her hand and pulled her up from the bench. “We need to go.” Those texts from Rusty were more than just checking in. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was confirming where she was. She might believe his concern was friendly, but my instincts pointed to somewhere else. He’d gone to such lengths to take her from us. He’d do so again.
She noticed the tension in my body, but smart girl that she was, she didn’t question it. She followed my lead as I quickly walked, but not suspiciously, toward the school building. As we neared the side entrance, I leaned down, my mouth brushing her ear. “Someone’s watching us. Don’t react. Just keep moving.”
Her body tightened against mine, but she didn’t so much as flinch. Fucking proud of her for that.
We approached the maintenance building, and I spotted our opportunity, yanking her behind it and pressing her back against the freezing brick wall. Her eyes widened, about to complain, no doubt, but I shook my head and put a finger to her lips. Silent. Stay still. I tried to convey both with my eyes.
Two shadows appeared at the perimeter of the field, moving purposefully. I recognized the tattoos on the side of their necks immediately. Vipers. Fucking Rusty.
My heart hammered, instincts screaming to act. I could fight. I could take them, but it wasn’t just me. I had Kaylor to think about, and if one of them even touched her, even for a second, I’d never forgive myself. It’s what I would do if I were them… Use a distraction to grab the prize.
I needed a different play.
Voices echoed from the side of the building as a group of students spilled out, laughing and shoving each other, heading toward the parking lot.
Perfect.
I pulled Kaylor into the stream of kids, moving fast, keeping her tucked to my side, but not before one of the Vipers started to look our way.
Think fast.
Without hesitation, I grabbed Kaylor’s face and kissed her. Hard.
She stiffened for a fraction before melting against me. I cupped the back of her head, angling her so her face was shielded from view. I didn’t care who was watching. I didn’t care if it was the whole damn world. All I cared about was keeping her safe, and maybe I let myself enjoy it for a beat longer than I should have.
Her hands fisted in the front of my hoodie, clinging to me like she didn’t know where I ended and she began.
God help me, I don’t want to stop.
But I forced myself to pull away, keeping my body angled between her and the Vipers as I slid my hand down her arm, lacing my fingers through hers. “Walk,” I murmured against her temple. “Now.”
She nodded, her face flushed, but she stayed glued to my side as we merged deeper into the crowd of students. I kept my senses honed, tracking the Vipers out of the corner of my eye. They lingered by the edge of the field.
Too late.
We slipped into the building, the door swinging shut behind us. I didn’t stop until we rounded a corner and ducked into an empty stairwell, finally out of sight. Only then did I let myself breathe.
Kaylor shoved at my chest lightly, her brows furrowed. “What the hell was that?” she whispered harshly.
I dropped my forehead to hers, needing the contact, needing her to understand. “Until we find who the traitor is, I don’t trust anyone. Whether you want to believe me or not, I’m trying to protect you,” I said roughly. “They were looking for you.”
Recognition sparkled in her eyes. Fear. Anger. The edges of both. “Vipers,” she said quietly. “Why would Rusty…” Her voice trailed off. “I’m sure they were here to persuade me to come back to the shop. Rusty did say he wanted to send a couple of guys to watch the house. That protection probably extends to school.”
“To keep you away from us.” I tightened my grip on her hand.
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard.
For a second, I just stood there, forehead to hers, listening to the thunder of my heart trying to crack through my ribs. “Is that what you really want, little raven? To never see me again? To never have me touch you?” I swept the pad of my thumb along the inside of her wrist.
“You don’t play fair, Kreed.”
The use of my name was deliberate, knowing how it churned me up inside. I still couldn’t figure out what it was about my name on her lips that made me so damn hard. Even now, under a stairwell probably covered in cobwebs, hiding, I wanted her. “It’s the only way I know,” I murmured, dragging my eyes from her lips.
“I’m not saying being cautious isn’t wise, but I’ve known Rusty my whole life. He was my dad’s best friend. He wouldn’t hurt me. It’s you who hurt me… Who I can’t trust.” Her voice was a soft tremor.
It wrecked me.
I moved fast, backing her into the wall, my hands slamming down on either side of her head, boxing her in. “You can trust me because of this,” I growled, right before I covered her lips with mine. The kiss in the parking lot had been nothing compared to this. That had been a taste. A tease. This was a goddamn claim.
Her lips parted under mine, soft and eager, and the second her fingers curled into the front of my hoodie, yanking me forward like she needed me just as badly, I surrendered.
My hands found her waist as I pressed into her, chest to chest, thigh between hers, every inch of my body demanding contact. One hand slid down her side, fingers fisting at the hem of her shirt, and I was on the verge of losing myself entirely.
She gasped into my mouth, and I took it, swallowing it.
The kiss turned messier, hungrier. Desperate.
Our teeth clashed. Tongues tangled. Breath shattered between us like glass underfoot. She clawed her hands up into my hair and yanked, just hard enough to punch a groan from my throat. I pushed harder, needing her to feel everything I couldn’t say. That I hadn’t stopped wanting her. That the emptiness inside me had only gotten worse without her.
