This is exactly what I should have done at the track last night. I should have held her tight, should have used her to center myself and find control instead of using her feelings as a weapon against her. How will she ever forgive me for that? I don’t deserve to hold her in my arms, but for whatever reason, she’s not pulling away.
It’s like coming home. There’s not a damn fiber in my body that tells me this isn’t where I belong, where she belongs. Brielle Ashford is mine, and without a doubt, everything I am belongs to her.
Killjoy melts into me, her head resting against my chest as she holds me like her only lifeline. It’s bittersweet, holding on to her while knowing that the moment she calms herself, she’s going to push me away. I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to hold her like this again, so I soak up every fucking second of it. Because the next time I do, it’ll be because I’ve earned it.
Her tears fall onto my shirt, and I run my fingers through her long hair, giving her whatever it is she needs to remember that she is the strongest woman I’ve ever met. This bullshit isn’t going to drag her down. She will rise above it and she’ll fucking shine while she’s at it. Hell, if she wants to fuck with the assholes who did this to her at the same time, then she knows I’m down for that too.
Bri slowly begins to calm as we lay in dead silence, and the exhaustion of her day begins to claim her. She closes her eyes, her breathing beginning to even out, and all too soon, she falls into a broken, fretful sleep.
It kills me that even in her sleep, the tears still fall down her cheeks, but I don’t dare let her go. Even during this hell, I’m her calm in the storm, and as long as she’ll allow me, I’ll be right here, more than ready to slay every last one of her demons. Myself included.
Chapter 4
BRIELLE
I’ve never feared a set of school gates more than I do now. My car—and by my car, I mean my mother’s car I stole after the douche king wrapped my Civic around a tree—has barely passed through the gates to the student parking lot, and I already feel eyes shooting lasers my way.
I swallow hard and push down the fear rising in my chest. The cops were wrong, and the second I get a chance to clear my name, everything is going to go back to how it was. I can continue being the mystery girl nobody can quite figure out. I don’t want to be this scared, timid creature because the moment they see me as weak, the wolves will descend.
The students of Bradford Private will crush me if they think for even a moment I had anything to do with what happened to Addison. I’ll never be able to show my face again. Jensen is proof of that. One false accusation and he was done. That can’t be my life. I won’t accept it.
Pulling into a parking space, I bring Mom’s car to a stop and do my best to rein in the nerves pulsing through my body. My hands shake and there’s an uneasy feeling in the pit of my empty stomach, one I can’t seem to control.
My gaze shifts across the prestigious school, skimming over the huddled students all looking my way, scowls on their faces and venom in their eyes. Tanner stands up near the front entrance, his gaze locked on my mother’s car as Riley, Hudson, and the twins loiter around him, probably talking shit.
I should have stayed home.
The driver’s side door of my mother’s car swings open, and I jump, more than prepared to drop a bitch. “What the—” I cut myself off finding Ilaria, Chanel, and Arizona standing in my open doorway, their sharp stares locked on mine.
“You better start talking, girl,” Ilaria says, crossing her arms over her chest. “You know I’ve got your back, but if I’m about to go to war for you, then the least you can do is assure me that I’m not fighting a losing battle.”
Arizona’s lips press into a hard line, and she averts her stare as if she can’t even look at me right now. “Yeah, what she said.”
Letting out a heavy sigh, I reach across to the passenger seat and grab my bag before looking back up at them. “Seriously? Don’t you think if even a little bit of it were true, Tanner would have already laid my ass out?”
Chanel’s gaze flickers toward Ilaria’s. “She has a point.”
“A good fucking point,” I mutter, stepping out of the car and closing the door behind me. “This was all Erica.”