Page 461 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

“What?” I murmur on top of Harper’s trembling, “Why?”

Wayne turns his head but keeps his back to us. Like he’s afraid I’ll have another go at him or something.

Diana faces us with a manic grin on her Botoxed lips.

“Camp Joy,” she says. “Heard of it?”

Oh, God.

I step back, shaking my head. “Are you serious? No. Dad, please?—”

“It’s lovely there, you’ll see,”Diana spits out. “They’ve gotprogramsfor kids like you.”

But I know it’s not lovely there. That place is hell on earth. I’ve known guys who went there. They came back shadows of their former selves. Some never came back at all. Fuck knows why. It’s like the earth swallowed them.

“Dad, please?—”

“Don’t sulk.” He turns, his hand a fist at his side like he’s making a point of not touching his bruised jaw. “They have an excellent sports program.”

He pushes away from the island, not looking at either of us as he heads out of the kitchen. “They’re coming to collect you first thing in the morning.”

Chapter 61

Harper

I can’t sleep although, honestly, I haven’t really tried. I’m just lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for dawn. I packed a bag like Wayne told me to. But it’s going nowhere near Camp Joy, wherever the fuck that is.

Neither am I.

Now I’m trying to work up the courage to get Jude on board. It makes sense for us to run away together. At least, for the past two hours I’ve been running this plan through in my head, it seems that way.

We both hate it here. We both want to escape. We can survive out there...together. I could even do it alone if I wanted.

It’s getting late. I don’t want to risk having to wake him up if he does manage to go to sleep. That would be mean.

And I think we’ve both had just enough of that.

I let out a quiet laugh and slip into my pink silk robe. I don’t want him thinking I’m trying to seduce him again. I couldn’t bear the shame, not after all the shit that went down last night.

Knocking quietly, I open his bedroom door and peek inside. My heart sinks when I see he’s not inside. Did he have the sameidea as me? Is he already halfway to wherever the hell he’d go if he was running away?

Didn’t he say something about a lake house?

I sneak down the stairs, my stomach twisting tighter and tighter as I approach the screening room.

Dare I go in? The doors are closed like they were the day my world came crashing down. I don’t know if I can go through that again.But that shit’s over. It has to be, right? We used up all our ammunition.

I push open the door, and the frantic roar of a football game washes over me.

I don’t know if it’s better or worse than the other stuff I’ve seen in here. This takes me back to Friday’s game when I drugged my stepbrother.And then came home and let him do thosenastythings to me.

Loving every second?—

Fuck that. I close the door and wrap my robe tighter around myself as I walk down the sloped floor to the recliner Jude’s sitting in.

“Did you know the nickname for the player picked dead last every year in the NFL draft is Mr. Irrelevant?” Jude asks.

The hair on my arms stands up. How did he know I was in the room? It’s like he has a sixth sense about me or something. I still have to ask him how the hell he knew where to find me.

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