Except she wasn’t. I never saw her alive again after that night.
I’dneverthoughtmuchabout that memory until talking to Eli and Rand. Dad would accuse Mom of cheating all the time and honestly, I wish she had. I used to daydream about finding out Dante wasn’t my father–but there was no mistaking our similarities. We had the same nose, the same hair color, and the same temper.
Thinking of Mom and what she went through made me sick.
I’d never been so sure that she wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. Dad killed her. She wanted to leave so he killed her.
He was going to pay for what he did to us. To all of us.
Chapter 33
Dani
Iwaslivingina nightmare.
Not only was I bound to follow orders from Gio and Dad, I also had an entire motorcycle club up my ass, wanting me to pull someMission Impossibleshit to get them information to prove Dad’s a rat.
Which he totally was. I knew it. Everybody knew it. But we needed infallible proof.
My first order of business was to pretend like everything was normal–easier said than done after becoming a social pariah at school in the matter of a day. I didn’t give a fuck what people thought about me, but the attention I was getting was too much for me to handle right now.
“Just ignore them,” Finn said as he sat next to me at lunch. I decided to forgive him for handcuffing me, putting a bag over my head, and abducting me, but only after delivering a swift throat-punch that knocked the wind out of him. We were friends again, which was good since the person I usually spent lunch with was moping at a table with her brother and his friends. The guys acted as they always did, like everything was sunshine and rainbows.
“I am,” I replied as I sifted through my salad. My stomach was in no condition to eat.
A group of football players were gathered at a table with Lauren and her friends. They were laughing and looking at me. Could they be any more fucking obvious?
“Bunch of assholes,” Finn muttered under his breath.
“I’m not really hungry,” I said as I stood up from the table. “I’ll see you later.”
I went inside to my locker to waste a few minutes. Just as I opened it, it slammed shut. Lucas and two of his friends grinned at me, all of them tall and brooding, blocking my path to leave.
“Move,” I spat as I tried to pass them.
“We heard you were into gangbangs,” Lucas said, licking his lips. He took a step closer into my space. “We want to take you down to the fieldhouse and have a little fun.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I sneered, ignoring the other two stooges who had goofy grins on their faces.
I cringed at Lucas’ sour breath on my face and turned my head. His hand slid under my skirt and roughly grabbed my crotch. “Don’t pretend to be shy and innocent now. You didn’t turn me down before.”
Suppressing the rage building inside of me, I smiled. “Oh Lucas,” I said right before I slammed my forehead against his nose.
“Motherfucker!” He hissed as he held his nose and stumbled back.
“Miss Dutton!” A teacher yelled from the end of the hallway. “Go to the office immediately!”
“Suspension.Twoweeks.You’llbe expected to complete your coursework and stay in contact with your teachers, but you will not step foot on this campus for two weeks,” Headmaster Kitts said with a scowl.
“Why am I suspended when I was defending myself? I was cornered by three huge football players and Lucas had his hand up my skirt. Was I supposed to sit and take it?”
“The boys said the behavior was consensual. They said you and Mr. Matthews had arelationshipof some kind prior to this.”
“Hegrabbedme, Kitts. It was anything but consensual,” I huffed. I shouldn’t be surprised to not be believed–again. It was kinda my shtick at this point.
“You broke his nose, Danica. He’s heading to the ER right now,” Kitts sighed as he took his wire-rimmed glasses off and tossed them on his desk.
“What about the camera footage? You’ll see that I didn’t want him anywhere near me,” I pleaded. Not that the thought of spending two weeks away from this place wasn’t appealing, but having another suspension on my record wouldn’t bode well for me.