Page 44 of Giving In

Her head snaps up from her bag to me and she looks worried for a split second but quickly goes back to neutral. “Jake doesn’t own a gun.”

“Yes, he does. I saw it.” I shiver at the reminder before I focus back on Rose.

“I got you out of a shit situation, Goody. It doesn’t mean we’re friends and we’re gonna share our deepest secrets. I don’t know what led you to think my brother owns a gun, but I’d suggest you keep the information to yourself. That includes talking to me about it. Trust me, I’m telling you this for your own good.”

She gets up, grabs her bag, and walks past me, out of the locker room. I give a glance at her locker and my stomach twists in guilt again. The girl just saved my ass and I stole her burner phone to spy on a guy she hates.

Am I just as bad as Jake?

CHAPTER 9

‘You run through me like bad drugs

Tearing me to pieces, preying on my weakness’

Bad Drugs – King Kavalier & ChrisLee

Jake

I’m sitting on the couch, coding a website on my laptop when the door of the pool house bursts open, and Ozy walks in. Okay. She’s mad.

She looks around and I know she does that when she’s checking if we’re alone. I can feel she’s going to tell me something she only wants me to know and I go to stop her. “Wait–”

“Did you pull a gun on Jamie Williams?” She cuts me off.

“You did what?!” Chris’s voice comes from behind the kitchen counter as he gets up from under the sink.

I close my eyes, taking a moment to accept that Rose just blurted out information that is going to get me killed within a few seconds.

“Ugh, fuck,” she mutters. “You should have said.”

I open my eyes and give her an annoyed look. “I fucking tried, idiot.”

Chris walks around the counter, holding a heavy-duty wrench. He was fixing the kitchen sink that no one knows how it broke since we barely ever use it. I get up from the couch and turn to him, knowing perfectly well I just earned myself a fucking long conversation.

“Jake, did you actually pull out a gun on her?” Chris says calmly. Too calmly.

“‘Course not,” I lie.

I did much more than pull a gun on her and it’s too wrong for me to say it out loud. Let’s call a spade a spade: I crossed the line and went so far beyond it that I’m surprised I even found my way back.

I went home that evening and spent the whole night having flashbacks of what my previous foster dad did to me to trigger my ‘survival instincts’. He put a darkness in me. I spent the last three years acting like a good boy, following Chris’ advice to stay under the radar, but Jamie brings something back up that I thought I had under control.

I had never gone that far into intimidating someone, but I have seen it plenty of times from the people I lived with. My actions were straight out of the gangster book and I’m a huge hypocrite for doing something I always claim I’m against. Scaring people to keep them quiet. That’s just not how I should be acting.

“So, if I call Jamie right now and ask her what happened Friday night when you both disappeared, right after I told you about Sam, she’s going to say you just took her home, right?”

“She’s the one who told you about Sam? I didn’t even know.” Wow, it must be ‘lie to your best friend’ day.

“Spare me the fucking lies,” he growls.

“Can you put the wrench down?” I ask.

Rose chuckles behind me and I want to turn around and punch her. Did she have to put me in so much shit?

“No, I can’t because I think I might have to split your head open to check if you actually have a brain,” Chris replies.

“I can explain, there’s no need to get violent.” God knows I can hold my ground in a fight. Hell, I probably can fuck up most guys in this town, but Chris, I’d rather stay out of his way.

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