Page 60 of My Brother's Best Friend

“I do, Maddie,” he said with a sigh. “I just … you might think I’m good with this relationship stuff, but I refuse to lose you. I’ve liked you for years now. I saw what he put you through, and I had seen the way you used to look at him, like he was your world.”

Gently stroking his face with my fingers, I stared into his eyes. “I don’t look at him like that, now do I?”

“No, but …” He paused for a long time and ran a hand through his hair. “Never mind.”

“What is it?”

“It’s stupid.”

“What is it, Alec? Tell me.”

“You don’t look at me like that,” he whispered, eyes becoming glossy. “Through all the girls at Redwood and all the years I’ve known you, I’ve only wanted you to look at me the way you used to look at him. I’ve dreamed of that for so fucking long.”

My eyes widened slightly, and I had the urge to slap that boy. He didn’t know that he had been the only one getting me through those years, the only guy who I’d kept hoping would make a move while I was with Spencer.

All those eyes I had made at Spencer meant nothing.

They were fake. They were what Spencer had forced me to do if I didn’t want to be screamed at and controlled as badly later on in the night. They weren’t real; they were never real. The only time I had felt something real was with …

Alec Wolfe.

“You might think that you want me to look at you the way I did with Spencer, but I don’t want our relationship to be anything like mine was with him,” I whispered, resting my forehead against the center of his chest. “I can’t allow that. I can’t be controlled like that again. You didn’t see what he did to me outside of school. I didn’t look at him like that then.”

Alec picked up my face. “He hurt you, worse than what he did at school.”

I balled my hands into tight fists, all those suppressed memories flooding through my head. Months ago, I had buried them and vowed to never reopen that part of my life, but today, at school and seeing Spencer again … it fucked with me.

Part of me wanted to believe that Spencer was the man behind the videos today, just to mess with me more, but I knew that it wasn’t him. I knew that it was whoever the hell had been sending me those text messages—probably that bitch Sandra.

And right now, I just wanted to forget it all, especially this pain.

“Yes,” I whispered. “But I can’t talk about it now. It brings back too many nightmares.” I grasped his hands, then my house keys, and walked out of the house toward Alec’s car. “Let’s go on a drive. I don’t want to be here when Oliver gets home either.”

If Oliver found out that Spencer had paid me a visit today too, he would pack me up himself and send me to another school where Spencer would never be able to find me. Or he would do something much, much worse.

After all, this was Redwood.

CHAPTER37

ALEC

Gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white, I slammed my foot on the gas and drove through Redwood’s brightly lit streets in the heart of the rich neighborhoods. Every so often, I peered into the rearview mirror to make sure Spencer—or anyone else from Redwood—wasn’t following us.

My thoughts were scattered, my mind racing. I should’ve done something to Spencer back at the house, but all I could think about was getting Maddie out of there. After she had told me what he did to her and that look on her face when I walked into the house …

She was terrified.

And if I hadn’t shown up, what would’ve happened? The same thing that had happened to me at Oliver’s bash a couple of weeks ago? Fuck that. I wouldn’t ever let Maddie be in that situation. Never fucking ever.

Once we had driven down every last street, I gritted my teeth and turned onto the main road that led toward the beach. One of these fucking days, I would kill Spencer Katz myself for ever messing with Maddie the way he had.

“Are you okay?” Maddie asked softly.

“I want to kill them,” I growled.

Her eyes widened. “Who?”

“Spencer, for what he did to you, and whoever the fuck posted those pictures,” I said.

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