Page 65 of Breakaway

“What’s up?” Macy asked as we neared the house. I swear the girl had a sixth sense.

“Someone leaked SnowPoke’s campaign. We’re going to the house to discuss tactics.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“Are you sure? It could be boring. I’m not sure what we can do now.”

“It’s fine. I want to help. I might have some contacts. Plus, Fletcher has me on retainer.”

She winked, though I had a feeling she would’ve helped regardless, but was trying to make me feel better about accepting it.

When I stepped into the house from the back patio, something cold hit my face and froze me in my steps. Sticky liquid trailed down my face as I blinked, my hands raised to stop another attack.

“Oops,” Brynn said as she laughed with her group of friends.

Shaking my head, I took the towel someone handed me and wiped my face. I didn’t have time to deal with her petty bullshit tonight.

“Really, Brynn?” Finley said from behind me, apparently having followed us inside. “Your jealousy is ugly. You need to quit hating the girls who’ve found people to love.”

“You’re all a bunch of greedy sluts, taking all the eligible men!” she screeched, stomping her foot as her hands clenched into fists.

I lifted my eyebrows. Okay, that sounded like a tantrum I didn’t want to be part of. I glanced at Fin, who nodded she had it, and I skirted off to the side, my focus on the door.

The drive to our house was quick, and I was out of the car and in our home within a few seconds. I took a few minutes to change and wash the rest of the soda off me before I entered the dining room. Everyone was spread across the table, several laptops open, and phones held to ears.

I hesitated to pull out my phone, debating whether to see the picture or leave it be. In the end, I decided not to fill my brain with the hateful words of others. I didn’t need to have that running around in my head.

It took a few hours, but with Macy’s help, Fletcher and Keaton got the memes and leaked photos taken down. The official launch was tomorrow morning, but now it didn’t seem like the right time.

“Should we still plan for the campaign to drop?” I asked around a yawn. I glanced at the clock, shocked that it read 3 am.

“I’m divided,” Keaton admitted. “I don’t want the bad press around it, but I don’t want them to feel like they won either. What do you think?” he asked the table.

“Shit,” Macy said, her eyes bouncing up to us.

“What now?” I asked with a whine, rubbing my temples. My head wouldn’t be hitting my pillow any time soon at this rate.

“Polar Garments has just released a new line.”

She turned her computer, showing one of the images from the shoot. But that wasn’t right… looking closer, I realized what I was seeing.

“Wait, who are those people?”

The pose and equipment were similar, but the faces weren’t ours. A sinking feeling opened inside of me. The leak had been a diversion, and with all the removals at a late hour on the weekend, the odds of people having seen our campaign first were limited.

This had been the goal all along. To take our platform where we stood up to the haters and twist it into something else. Now we’d look like copycats, stealing their ideas.

It was clear we’d been underestimating the Society this whole time. They were coming for us, and no one was safe.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Dax

It had taken forever to convince Henley to go to sleep. She’d finally passed out around 5 am, and I carried her to my bed, wrapping her in a cuddle burrito so she couldn’t escape when she woke up.

I’d thought things were slowing down, that we were finally getting a break to live our lives, but that didn’t seem to be the case. If anything, everything before had been easy compared to our current battles, coming from directions we weren’t expecting.

The worst part, I wasn’t great during a crisis. My natural tendency was to run away or hide my head in the sand. It was how I ended up in the shitstorm that was Gareth. But it wasn’t just me anymore. It was Henley, Reed, Fletcher, and Reese. And even outside of those four, all the friends Henley had gathered were just as involved and invested in things now. We’d built a community around us, and I’d never been more grateful for that than right now.

---