Page 57 of Noxious Boys (Groveton College)

I realize with horrifying clarity, she wants to escapeme.

Not until I find out who did this to her.

I leap forward, hooking my fingers through her inner elbow, snatching her back, she tumbles into me, unsteady on her feet. Igrip her chin, angle her head back, she shakes her head, trying to get out of my hold, but my arm’s around her waist, my other on her face, holding her still. She has no choice but to look up at me.

“Poppy,” I say lowly, trying to keep my anger in check. “Who did this to your face?”

Her scowl is etched into every feature, but her eyes glisten with tears that threaten to break me. Tell the rest of them to fuck themselves and let me keep her, protect her,from them.

I'm so fucked up.

I. Am. So. Fucked. Up.

She scoffs loudly, even though the sound cracks in her throat, “This is a joke,” she scoffs, her finger stabbing at my chest. “Lynx,” she clarifies, “but then, I'm sure you already knew that, seen the videos, the pictures.”

I blink, brow pinching, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

She laughs, loud and deep, shaking her head, snatching her chin from my hold, “Don't pretend like you don't know, and then look at me like youcare,” that last word curls off of her tongue like she's spitting venom. “You're all done with me, Lynx delivered the message when he smashed my head into a wall, and you're here for what? Just to further the mindfuck? Is that what this is?”

I blink again, cracked lips parted, mouth dry. There's no way Lynx would hurt her like that, she looks like she's gone ten rounds in the ring. I shake my head, words of defense for him on my tongue. I swallow, open my mouth to speak, but the words die as she hefts her jacket back up her shoulder, straightening her bag straps.

“Stay away from me,” she trembles as she says it, something more than hurt in her words, a scary tremor of fear there too.

I release her, stepping back, looking at her without really seeing anything, because she's telling me the truth. She's telling me the truth and my best friend fucked her up. Hebruisedher.

Poppy's gone when my ears finally stop ringing, my heart a dull thud in my chest, an ache rumbling in the rest of me. I don't know what to think, there's really nothing but shock burrowing inside my marrow as I take empty steps towards Flynn's office. My mind a mess, I don't knock, letting myself inside, drop into the leather chair opposite his desk.

I look up at him, blinking like I'm not really sure I'm even here. His lips twist up into a slow smirk, hands clasping behind his head of black curly hair, blue eyes flashing in the dark as he leans all the way back in his chair.

“Ah, she got to you too, didn't she?”

Chapter 26

BENNETT

It's been a long fucking day in the office, and I'm still in my shirt -sans tie- pressed slacks and dress shoes. I toss my suit jacket over an empty bar stool, sliding up to sit on the one to its left. Lifting my hand up at the bartender, I signal for my usual.

Graves is dead, as it usually is on a Friday night when there's a frat party happening. I'm not a college kid anymore, but I was once, and there's something comforting about drinking here after a shit day at work.

Drumming my fingers against the sticky bar top, a glass of bourbon is placed down in front of me, no coaster, no napkin beneath, just the glass straight on the wood.

That's why I like this place, there's nothing fancy about it, there's no pretenses, anyone that walks in can feel comfortable because there's nothing to make you feel inferior. And I've felt that way a lot of my life. Even now, sitting in the top office of a sixty-floor building I own everyday, I don't always feel good enough. I've worked fucking hard to get to where I am, I've had to do some less than legal shit to get here too, but the point is, I did get here.

It's for my dad, my mom, all of this is for them, my brother. To protect them.

I would, and do, do anything to protect my family, that extends to my three other brothers too, no blood is shared between us, but that means nothing. Our bond is something else. Other level.

The final step has always been to destroy the man who tore apart my family, and now, even that ball's rolling. In the form of the slouched woman at the opposite end of the bar.

Poppy slumps against the far wall, ass barely hanging on to the cracked, leather cushioned stool, face propped up on her curled fist, elbow atop the bar. She swirls a short black straw around in her glass of melted ice, staring at it like it holds all the answers to the world's problems. The bartender places another drink down in front of her, a subtle dip of her chin is her acknowledgement, but she doesn't move to touch it right away.

I watch her slowly make her way through three more drinks after that, as I remain on my first. The place is still dead, no one sits between us on the seven empty seats available, until the door opens at my back as I'm sipping my second bourbon. Still watching her without her seeing me as icy wind whips through the bar, cooling my back, the door banging shut with the arctic wind howling beyond.

The guy that enters passes at my back, like he knows his intended destination before he even stepped foot in the place. I watch with narrowed eyes as he sits down on the stool directly beside Poppy, who doesn't so much as flinch at his sudden appearance. He turns fully towards her, dipping his face close, and my hand tightens around my glass as I watch them.

She doesn't push him away, ask him to move, she doesn't seem to make a sound as the guy speaks to her, something I can't hear over the low humming music. But then the guy gets up, steps back, and Poppy, her eyes on his, head still restingon her fist, she sits up, wobbles to her feet. Using his forearm for balance, they walk towards the hallway that leads to the restrooms.

I squeeze my glass so hard it shatters in my hand. I don't even feel it, the jagged shards piercing my skin, the blood running down the inside of my wrist, soaking into the cuff of my white button up. I think of what she's doing, who he is, why they're together.

---