Page 16 of Cold and Broken (The Titans of Founder's Ridge 1)

“Damn right I am.”

“What did Mr. Jameson want today?”

“To warn me about you rich pricks and to tell me his door is always open if I need to talk to someone. Apparently you guys chew up and spit out new kids.”

“Sure do.” Of course that asshole would make cast himself in the role of a savior. A safe and trusted individual for her to turn to. The urge to pound my fists into someone’s face is back. Jameson’s face. That fucker is going on notice.

Peasant has her brows drawn together as she dabs my knuckles with the wet cloth. Another section of her hair is in her eyes. I tuck it behind the other ear and she doesn’t look up again but I saw her breath hitch. She doesn’t want to like my touch but she does. I sit in silence while she fixes me up. When she’s done I bend down and softly kiss the corner of her mouth before whispering thank you in her ear. She doesn’t move as I leave her in the bathroom.

I hear her whisperwhat the fuck was thatas the door swings closed. I grab the sanitizer and some towels and clean my blood off the bag and the mats. I wonder how long I was wailing on the bag before she came in here. There is quite a bit of blood around. I watch as she comes out of the bathroom, studiously ignoring me, and walks over to the treadmill. She does some basic stretches before dropping to run through the same calisthenics she did with her dad yesterday. I watch her through the mirror, like the creepy fuck that I am. Her body is impressive, I’ve never been into physically strong women but on her it works. Her muscles are toned and lean, not big and bulky and she still has all the soft feminine curves that make her a knockout.

Fuck.

Stop staring.

After leaving the gym and cleaning up I pop my head in Victor’s study. “I’m going over to Griff’s house for awhile.” He doesn’t even look up from what he’s doing. I should have just left. Fuck him.

I grab the keys to my Bentley and hustle out the front door. I hit shuffle on my playlist and Closer by Nine Inch Nails start blasting out of the stereo. It makes me think about Peasant. Someday I’m going to fuck her to this song. I still want her gone and out of my house but now that she’s publicly stated she does not want me it’s on. Challenge fucking accepted.

Lev’s car is already in the driveway. I walk around the back to Griff’s pool house which he moved into two summers ago. They’re both drinking beer with two pizzas laid out in front of them.

“Hey,” Lev holds his beer up in greeting.

“Help yourself,” Griff says.

I grab a bottle of water and a slice of pizza. As soon as I take a bite Griff narrows his eyes, “Who’s face did you destroy?”

“Just a punching bag in the gym.” I take another bite. “Got pissed and needed to let the aggression out.”

“Hood rat?” Lev asks.

I nod my head and finish chewing. “And Mr. Jameson. Victor. Every fucking one except you guys.”

“Jameson?” Griff prompts.

“He asked Peasant to stay after class. Then they both gave me shit about trying to stay.”

“So?” Griff and Lev say at the same time.

“So, he did his whole ‘you can trust me, the kids at this school are pricks, let me be your safe space’ bullshit to her. Plus warning her about us,” I scoff, “too fucking late dude. We’ve already started hassling her.”

“Wouldn’t it be easy to get rid of both of them if we let him get his hooks into her? Then we just have to tell the headmaster and poof, they’re both gone,” Lev says like it’s the most obvious answer to our problems.

“No one touches Lilith but me,” I glare at Lev.

“Holy shit.” He holds his hands up palms out. “I didn’t know you were into her.”

“I’m not.”

“Evidence to the contrary,” Griff drawls.

“She issued a challenge when she said she would never want me.” I smile. “Then she found me in the gym trying to kill the bag and cleaned my knuckles. Every time I touch her, her body responds to me. She wants me and she hates it. I kissed her and left her all sorts of confused.”

“Are you serious?” Lev scrubs his hand over his face. “This changes our whole plan.”

“Not necessarily, we can just pull back on our outright attack. Let the girls take over while we remain neutral. Also, Jameson is never to be alone with Lilith. We all know what he does.”

“Can I laugh at her sass?” Lev asks. “The chick is fucking funny as shit. I mean, maybe we should just back down completely. She doesn’t seem like the type to fuck your dad.”

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