Page 22 of Heartbreak Kings
“Trust you?” I stared at him, shaking my head. “How can I? You’ve made it clear you don’t give a shit what happens to me.”
I saw something flicker in Marcus’s eyes then he sighed. “I need to ask you something before anything else happens. What are you planning to report on this meeting tonight?”
I let out a high laugh.Unbelievable. So that’s why he’s been nice.“The truth.”
“I was worried you’d say that,” he sighed as Blake harrumphed, irritated, and Daniel appeared taken aback. “I get that Jude’s not coming out looking too good.”
“You write one word about me, bitch, and I’ll sue you,” Jude growled.
I laughed at him. “I don’t have to name names,” I pointed out. “But the behavior of the group is not above reproach. And I’m reporting what you said, how you treated me, and how obvious it was that you’re playing some kind of fucked-up head game.”
Marcus drew a sharp breath. “Okay, granted, I don’t really care if you’re happy here or not, because you shouldn’t be here. But that doesn’t mean we’re the bad guys. We’ve just been honest—”
I stood up. “No. You’ve been manipulative.”
I considered all of them. “Jude here is just a woman-hating dick with a lumberyard on his shoulder. He doesn’t care if I end up dead in a ditch, just as long as he gets his precious sausage party of a campus back. But he’s also the only one of you being honest at all.”
Jude closed his mouth with a small snap, eyes widening in shock.
“Nathaniel mostly stares at me like I’m a fucking lab animal. I honestly wonder if robots socialized him. When he says he doesn’t care if I come to harm, I believe him. When he claims to show interest in my situation and motives, I don’t. To him, I’m just something interesting to study until I’m driven away from this university.”
Nathaniel’s eyes widened slightly. Then he shook his head and glanced away.
“Daniel’s charming enough, but the only real thing he’s doing right is mostly staying quiet. I can’t trust a word out of his mouth any more than I can trust it from the rest of you, unless it’s Jude showing his ass again.” I glowered at Daniel, who seemed to wilt slightly in his seat. “And then there’s you two.”
Marcus stiffened as I turned to him. “You pretend to be chivalrous and sweet, but you’ve already shown your damn hand. You don’t care what happens to me as long as I don’t expose you for what you really are. But guess what? That’s my fucking job. You invited me here knowing I would report on the results. You knew I wouldn’t pull any punches. But you and Blake were more interested in playing with my head than anything else. You think I can’t tell? You think I’m stupid?”
“No,” Marcus blurted. “I don’t. It’s just you’re disrupting everything—”
“I’m not disrupting shit. If you fucking infants would stop hassling me, I would just go to class, write blog posts about how pretty the campus is and how my classes are going. It’s not my fault that so many guys around here lose their shit when someone without a dick walks into your precious safe space.” I picked up my purse.
“And as for you…” I turned and stared into Blake’s steel-gray eyes. He was scowling at me. I didn’t give a shit. “It is not enough to pretend to be noble while being a scheming, manipulative ass under a thin veneer of decency. You say I’m going to be safe? I don’t fucking trust you. I may not know what game you’re playing with me, but you’re playing one. And I’m done putting up with it.”
“Nobody will believe your smear campaign,” Blake warned me, and I laughed.
“What smear campaign, asshole?” I turned and walked out, grabbing my coat and putting it on as I stared through the living room at them. “New York’s a one-party consent state. I’ve been recording this entire conversation and sending updates remotely.” I patted my cleavage. My phone was actually in my pocket, but I didn’t want to point it out in case one of them came after me. “I get any more shit from you or yours, I’ll release the entire conversation. Got it?”
I relished their horrified stares before I walked out, slamming the door behind me.
Don’t you cry,I ordered myself while stalking off down the street, heading across campus.
Don’t you dare. None of them deserves a single tear.
I didn’t know what the hell their game was, but I could tell when I was being played.
I can be pissed off.
I can think about revenge.
But one thing I wouldn’t do right now was let those bastards make me cry.
My eyes stung. I hated it.
I gritted my teeth so hard that my jaw hurt as I dashed off into the night with my cheeks dry even as they burned from the cold.
Chapter 9
Daniel
