Mercedes
PAIN LIKE I NEVER knew existed was searing through my eyeballs. The sunlight beaming through my window only made the already horrible sensation a million times more unbearable.
Slumped in the passenger seat of Rourke’s truck on our way to school, I remained perfectly still, afraid that the slightest movement might cause my already upset stomach to turn mutinous against my body.
“You good, Six?” Rourke asked with an annoyingly upbeat voice as he drummed his fingers against the steering wheel.
“Uh, not really,” I confessed, hugging myself and wishing for some divine intervention. I was a good kid. In seventeen years, I’d only gotten drunk twice. I didn’t think I deserved to suffer a hangover of this magnitude. “Actually, do you think you could drive me home?” So I can die in solitude.
Rourke frowned. “We’re here now.”
“Oh.” Shit. “Okay.”
Rourke pulled into his usual parking space in the student lot. Killing the engine, he leaned back in his seat and turned to look at me, his brows creased in concern. “I’ll take you home if you’re really not up to school,” he offered, eyes searching mine.
“No,” I said wearily. “It’s fine. It serves me right for drinking on a school night.”
I expected Rourke to laugh or tease me for my outrageous behavior last night.
He did neither.
Instead, he leaned across the console, and cupped my cheek with his hand. “I called Molly,” he said softly, leaning close. “She agreed to drive your car to school for you.”
“You did?” My heart fluttered at his thoughtfulness. “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing,” he replied, blue eyes still locked on mine. “If you feel sick during the day and want to bail, just text me and I’ll make it happen.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but Rourke leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, effectively shutting me up. “If not, I’ll meet you at home after school,” he whispered against my lips. “We can hang out.”
Hang out?
Christ… “Okay,” I breathed.
Rourke
“I HEARD A NASTY little rumor today,” Bear announced as we loaded our gym bags into the trunk of my Chevy after football practice on Friday evening. “Wanna hear about it?”
“Nope,” I shot back. I didn’t give a shit. “Couldn’t care less, man.” Bear never gave a shit about idle gossip, which was why I was confused as to why he was bringing this up to me now.
Closing the trunk, I walked around to the front of my truck and climbed into the driver’s seat. “You coming?” I called out, thrumming my hands against the steering wheel. I was anxious as hell to get home and hadn’t planned on having to drive Bear, too. Of course, knowing Six was there waiting on me was a hugely motivating factor.
“It’s about Mercedes,” Bear explained, climbing into the passenger seat.
That got my attention.
Cranking the engine, I slipped my truck out of gear and gave my friend my full attention. “Let’s have it.”
“I hooked up with Clary Fisher during lunch today.” He looked a little embarrassed as he spoke. “You know; the cheerleader with the huge rack?”
I nodded in acknowledgment. Clary Fisher had been born with a pair of tits that were made to motor boat. I had no doubt that’s exactly what Bear did during lunch – in between screwing her, that is. “What about her?” I asked.
“Clary said Britt told her it’s over between you guys because you hooked up with your, and I quote, “dirty skank of a stepsister” behind her back and she gave you the uh, gift that keeps on giving.”
My entire body stiffened. “Are you fucking serious?” Was Britt honestly spreading shit about Six having herpes? I slammed my hand on the steering wheel in frustration. “What a bitch.”
Bear held his hands up. “Hey man, don’t shoot the messenger. I’m only telling you what I heard. Ain’t like I believe it or anything.”
“One, Six is clean,” I snarled, dragging the shift into gear. “Two, I haven’t touched her.” Fuck this. I couldn’t sit here. Slamming my foot down on the gas, I tore out of the student parking lot like a bat out of hell. “And three, the only person likely to be walking around with an STD is Britt.”
Bear shrugged. “Yeah, I figured you’d lose your shit over this.”
Lose my shit?
I was beyond that.
I DROPPED BEAR HOME before heading straight to Britt’s place. By the time I reached my ex-girlfriend’s house, the anger that had been rising steadily inside of me since Bear’s declaration was spilling over.
Fuck this. I had just managed to win Six over to my way of thinking. The last thing I needed was my ex-girlfriend spreading her venom around the school and fucking up the one good thing that had happened to me since… since I didn’t even know how long.
Britt’s shiny red Audi was out front in the same place she always parked it. Alongside it was a black Lexus with a ‘Jefferson Jaguars Rule’ sticker on the back bumper.
Unable to see past the red haze of rage, I killed the engine of my Silverado in the familiar driveway and climbed out. Stalking up to the house, I didn’t bother knocking on the huge, shiny red door.
Like always, her parents weren’t at home. It was something we had once bonded over. We both had absent parents. Not now though. She’d crossed the goddamn line.
Not bothering to scope out the downstairs – I knew full well she wouldn’t be down there – I quietly climbed the staircase, moving in the direction of the bedroom I knew almost as well as my own.
Like a bad dream on repeat, I placed my hand on the handle of her bedroom door and braced myself for the inevitable.
The phrase been there, done that, got the t-shirt flickered through my mind when I pushed Britt’s bedroom door open and was met with the sight of my ex on her knees, blowing Shane Clarkson – Jefferson’s V1 tight end. Britt was completely naked, her head in Clarkson’s lap, paying his dick more attention than she’d ever paid mine.
Lovely.
Fucking lovely.
Last time I’d caught her with a guy in here, it had been Jefferson’s quarterback Daniel Westbrook.
I cleared my throat and Clarkson’s head shot u in surprise. “Mind hurrying it up, Britt. I need a word. Now.”
The squeal of surprise that tore from her was almost comical. Even more hilarious was the pathetic way she began to apologize to me. “Omigod, Rourke,” Britt wailed, scrambling away. “I didn’t know… I wasn’t…I…”
“Cut the shit, Britt,” I shot back dryly. “Put something on and come downstairs. I need a word with you.”
Shit,” Clarkson growled. “Thought you said it was over between you and Owens?”
Clarkson’s wide eyed expression told me he was expecting me to kick his ass. That’s what I would usually do if I caught Britt messing around with some other guy. Shit, that’s what I had done on more occasions than I cared to admit.
Not anymore though.
“It is,” I offered in a bored tone. Right in this moment, the only urge I had was to get this conversation over and done with so I could get home to Six. “You can have her back just as soon as I get done talking to her.”
Without another word, I turned around and walked out of the room. I wasn’t getting myself into any more shit over Britt, and Clarkson? He wasn’t worth the energy it would take me to throw a punch.
Asshole.
“YOU DIDN’T CALL,” Britt said warily when she joined me downstairs a few minutes later. “You always call before coming over, Rourke.”
“Didn’t need to.”
Shoving my hands into my jeans pockets, I looked down at the girl who had held some serious power over me for a very long time.
“We’re not together anymore,” I added coolly. “I don’t need to forewarn you I’m stopping by anymore so you have time to hide the guys you’re screwing behind my back.”
Britt didn’t even have the decency to flinch – or deny it.
But then again, I knew she wouldn’t.
“Then why are you here?” she asked, looking up at my face with angry green eyes.
“I’m here because a little birdy told me you’ve been spreading shit about Mercedes.”
Britt looked up at me with a heated expression. “Yeah, so?”
“So, I want you to stop,” I shot back coldly. “Immediately.”
“I knew you liked that little bitch.” She threw her head back and laughed humorlessly. “The second you took her side at that party, I fricking knew you had something going on with her.”
I didn’t deny it; there was no point.
I had no plans on hiding Six.
Britt would hear about us soon enough.
“Leave her alone,” I said instead. “She hasn’t done shit to you, B, so back the hell off her and stop spreading your lies.”
“Hasn’t done anything to me?” She glared at me with a mutinous expression. “She stole my boyfriend!”
“You and I both know how differently you define the word ‘boyfriend’ to the rest of the world,” I shot back heatedly. “Considering you had another guy’s dick in your mouth less than five minutes ago.”
“You broke up with me, Rourke,” she reminded me in a terse voice.
“Because you cheated on me,” I snapped, losing my temper and allowing a lot of old hurt to creep back in. “Repeatedly. For two fucking years, Britt.”
“We were together for five years, Rourke!”
My brows shot up. “Oh, so because you were faithful for the first three, I should just forget about the last two, is that it?”
“I loved you.” Britt flushed a dark shade of red. “I still do.”
“Not enough,” I bit out. “You never loved me enough, B.”
“Are you serious about her?” she demanded.
I bristled. “That’s none of your business.”
“To hell it’s not,” she shot back, furious. “Give me an answer, Rourke. I deserve one.”
I ran a hand through my hair, desperately trying to calm myself down.
What the hell did this girl want from me?
“I gave you all I had,” I hissed out hoarsely. “Fucking everything. Five years, Britt. Never once in that whole damn time did I look at another girl. I was fucking loyal to you. I goddamn listened to you over my friends – took your side over people that have been in my life since I was a baby. And even when I knew you were on me, when they told me what you were doing, I took you back. I gave you chance after chance. Again, and a-fucking-gain. And what did you do? You fucked me up, B.” I tapped my temple with my fingers, trying to emphasize to this girl just how close she came to breaking me. “And now I have the chance of actually moving on with my life and getting over you, you want to keep me down? Why?” My chest heaved. “Why can’t you just leave me be?”
“Because you’re mine, Rourke Owens!” she screamed. “You will always be mine, and that skanky, fat bitch doesn’t deserve you.”
“Leave her out of this,” I snarled. “Don’t look at her. Don’t speak to her. Hell, pretend you never fucking heard of her.”
“You can’t tell me what to do, Rourke,” Britt countered. “It’s like you said; we’re not together anymore.” Shrugging, she added, “I don’t need to do shit for you.”
Anger coursed through my veins. “Keep your mouth shut about Mercedes,” I hissed, voice low and threatening. “I’m warning you, Britt.”
“Or what?” she shot back, jutting her chin out.
I leaned closer. “Or you and me are gonna have a problem.”
“You think I’m afraid of you?” Britt threw her head back and laughed. “Rourke, I’ve known you since kindergarten. You would never hurt me, or any girl, for that matter.”
There’s a first time for everything, I wanted to say, but I refrained, knowing it wasn’t true.
She was right. I would never hurt her. But I could make life harder for her. And I would if she didn’t back the hell off and leave Six alone.
“Keep spreading shit about Mercedes, and I’ll take everything from you,” I warned her. Britt must have heard the sincerity in my voice because she paled. I smirked in victory. “Your status at school? The one you claimed from being with me? Your father’s sweet little number at my company? The very fucking ground you’re standing on? Push me and I’ll take it all from you.”
“Rourke,” Britt spluttered, clearly stunned. “You wouldn’t…”
“Don’t tell me what I would and wouldn’t do, Britt,” I hissed, backing towards the front door. “You don’t know me anymore.”
Maybe you never did.
Reaching for the handle, I swung the front door open and stepped outside.
“Do yourself a favor and stay the hell away from her,” I called out over my shoulder. “I won’t warn you again.”