Page 74 of Kade

I couldn’t help myself. His grin was contagious.

Axel laughed, shaking his head.

“That’s it!” Aurelia seethed. “I’m going to call my father.”

“To do what?”

Her mouth opened and closed, but she said nothing.

I rolled my eyes. “What? You lied about my grandfather. The business is just fine.”

She got red all over again and huffed. “My dad—”

“Your dad’s saying a lot of shit that’s false. You need to shut the fuck up. I can’t stand liars, and that’s what you are. Just another fucking liar.” I gave her a onceover. “Ugh. Girls like you. Fake. Insecure. Needing to lie to make yourself feel better. You have to do that because you’ve got no substance. Nothing good. Just…fake. All fake.”

Nea and Amber had gone still.

Axel slowly dropped his hand from Aurelia. He was no longer shielding her.

Her shoulders hunched as she continued rubbing at her throat. “That was assault. Icanpress charges against you.”

I snorted. “Please. My godfather has his own law firm. Besides, you press charges against me and guess what that makes you look like?” I didn’t even need to finish, because she only needed to look at the guys. It was in their eyes, all three of them. Only one word would come to their minds, to everyone’s mind when she got to school the next day.

Snitch.

It’s what everyone would whisper in the hallway. She paled as she realized it too. I watched as the fight drained out of her. It happened so fast. She succumbed because being popular was what Aurelia cared about. She didn’t care about standing on her own. She should go to the police. I had assaulted her, but I hadn’t really hurt her. That’s what everyone would talk about. Just what I did. It would be a different story if I had actually hurt her. More people would rally around her. I never understood that. Why people only cared if there was physical evidence ofharm? The emotional harm was done. That was the worst part. That’s the injury that would linger. The physical would heal and go away. Not the psychological. That’s what I wanted to inflict on her. I mean, yeah. I wish I could’ve left evidence on her neck, but I wasn’t altogether so rash that I didn’t think it through.

No mark. No evidence. The point went to me.

I’d done more than just violate her personal space. I showed her who would fight for her. No one. Her friends were too scared to approach me. The guys separated us, but that was it. They were amused by me. I surprised them. Guys like Traine, Axel, and Steele were catered to all their life. The same girls climbed into their bed. Cried. Whined when they were kicked out. I watched them in school, how the teachers catered to them there.

I wasn’t that type of girl. I was different.

I won. Plain and simple.

Her shoulders folded down. Her arms hugged herself. She stifled, turned away, but this battle was done. She’d come at me again, after she licked her wounds and probably in school. I had no doubt she’d try to bully me through other girls. Maybe spread rumors about me?

I couldn’t wait.

Maybe moving to Fallen Crest hadn’t been such a bad thing.

I missed Max.

28

MASON

Isat and waited for my stalker to wake up. He’d started to move around while Taylor was working on him, so we’d used some medication to knock him out.

My phone buzzed.

Sam: Nash is home. Nolan is here. Maddy is not.

I frowned, standing to call her. When she picked up, I asked, “She’s gone?”

“Yeah.” There was some rustling on Sam’s end before her voice came back clearer. “She texted earlier asking where everyone was. She got left behind when Malinda and David took the kids to the movies. I asked if she wanted to hang out with us at Manny’s, but she said no. I’ve not heard from her since.”

“Did you check her phone?” I was going to lose my shit on my daughter real soon. She’d been grounded for two days. She’d violated it both days. If she’d left without her phone, she was on my last nerve.

---