Page 95 of My Brother's Best Friend

MADDIE

While I had sprinted into the room, ready to swing at Spencer’s stupid fucking face, I stopped mid-swing and stared at one of my best friends on top of Alec. The bat slipped from my hands, the tears building in my eyes.

“Piper,” I whispered in disbelief. “Wh-what are you?—”

Alec stared emptily up at the ceiling, lips trembling and tears streaming down his cheeks. I sprinted toward her, grabbed a fistful of her hair, and threw her halfway across the room by it, so hard that she slammed against the wall and fell to the ground.

“What are you doing?!” I shrieked. “He’s my boyfriend!”

“I-I’m sorry,” she cried. “I didn’t mean it.”

“You were about to fuck him!” I growled, lunging at her again.

But she made no move to fight back, and I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her. I had no problem hurting the man who had basically raped me for a year and a half, but Piper … I had … told her so many of my secrets, had given her so much of me.

For the second time tonight, I stopped midway and dropped my fist. “It was you.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, her hair shielding her face. “I’m so sorry.”

“Look at me!” I screamed. “Look at me and admit it! You raped him at Oliver’s party.”

Piper gazed up at me through trembling eyes. “I did.”

My hand moved before I could stop it, and I smacked her across her face so hard that my palm turned red and stung like a motherfucker. Tears welled in my eyes, betrayal rushing through my veins.

“How could you?” I scolded, shielding Alec from her. “How fucking could you?!”

“I didn’t want to do it, but my father …” Piper started, hiccuping. “My father …”

“What? What did your father do?” I screamed. “Because he’s not the one who drugged and raped my boyfriend at a party. He’s not the one who lied to me for weeks, who threatened me over text, who acted like nothing was wrong!”

“He made me do it,” Piper sobbed.

“How’d he make you?—”

“She’s not lying,” Nicole said suddenly.

I snapped my gaze to her and realized that she, Vera, and the guys were the only others left in the room with me. Even Spencer had vanished. But I didn’t have time to worry about him right now. Not after my best friend was about to fuck my boyfriend in front of me.

Nicole paused, swallowed, and glanced down at Piper. “Your father is an officer, right?”

Piper nodded.

After another moment of silence, Nicole lifted her gaze to me. “There’s a sex trafficking ring. I don’t know if you know about it, but Imani and Allie do. The police traffic high school girls and force them to do things for information.”

“How do you know?” I asked Nicole.

Tears trembled in her eyes. “Because I am—I waspart of it since I was thirteen.”

My chest tightened, and I didn’t know what to say to her.She’s been sex-trafficked since she was barely a teenager? What the fuck is wrong with the people in this town?! How screwed up are they?

“Is that what this is?” I asked Piper. “Is that why you slept with Alec? And that teacher …”

“I know I fucked up,” Piper cried. “But if I didn’t, they threatened to hurt you and Vera.”

“That’s why you spent so many nights with your father? When you couldn’t hang out and told us that he was teaching you to code?” Vera asked, lips trembling. “He was forcing you to … to sleep with people in Redwood for information?”

“It’s more than just that.” Piper sniffled. “There are videos, pictures, people …”

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