Prologue
Trix
I knew her. I knew her. Goddammit.
I ground my teeth together as I watched her move above him, giggling and flipping her hair around. She was a senior at my high school—obviously eighteen, or they would have never let her into the clubhouse—but she went to my fucking school.
My stomach clenched in self-pity. I’d gotten my driver’s license today, and I’d been feeling like pretty hot shit as I drove my little brother, Leo, around town before dropping him off at our house. He’d thought I was pretty hot shit, too—probably because he knew I’d drive him to his friends’ houses whenever he wanted just so I could take my new Honda out on the road.
I’d practically strut my way through the forecourt, grinning back at the guys who’d smiled indulgently at me for driving my car over when I could see the garage from my front porch.
God, I was such an idiot.
A few of the guys had tried to pull me into conversation as I’d walked toward the front door, but I hadn’t let them distract me from my goal.
I was at the clubhouse I’d practically grown up in for one reason.
Cameron Harrison.
And he was currently getting what looked like a lap dance from a senior in my high school.
Motherfucker.
I stood frozen as she ground all over him, a part of me unable to comprehend what I was seeing. She was wearing a short, flowery skirt that swished with every movement of her hips and a grey tank top that barely covered her small breasts.
I sighed. At least my boobs were bigger. I had that going for me.
After a few moments spent standing dumbly in the doorway, I was knocked out of my daze by the sounds of men’s voices arguing cheerfully at my back. They were coming in behind me, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that if I didn’t move from the door, I’d be greeted with long, pitying looks the minute they saw me.
I took one step forward, and then another, until I was moving swiftly through the room. It didn’t take me long to reach the couch I’d sat on a hundred times before, but never would again.
“Are you kidding me right now?” I asked thickly, making the girl’s head spin in my direction. Her name was Abbie. Fucking Abbie.
“Excuse me?” Abbie asked with a snicker.
I swallowed hard as my eyes automatically met his, then felt seething fury and overwhelming hurt build inside my chest. His face was completely void of emotion.
“We’re busy.” Abbie made a shooing motion with one hand that I ignored.
“Is this how it’s going to be?” I asked him, tucking my thumbs into my palms to stop myself from fidgeting as I heard conversations around the room go quiet. “She goes to my fucking high school, Cameron.”
He raised his eyebrows, the expression so condescending I could barely breathe. It was as if I was boring him, as if he didn’t give two shits about me.
As if he didn’t know why I was bothering him.
My heart began to pump loudly in my ears as my pop, gramps and uncles came walking into the room, their voices cutting off abruptly when they saw me.
Berating a member in the clubhouse. Berating a member like I was his nagging old lady and not a seventeen-year-old girl with absolutely no rights to him whatsoever.
The feeling in my chest grew and grew until I could barely breathe past it.
In that moment, the tramp did something incredibly stupid.
Turning her face back to Cam, she asked loudly, “Why the hell is she still standing there?”
I don’t think I could have stopped myself if I’d tried.
I took one step forward, grabbed a handful of her mousy brown hair and ripped her ass off his lap and onto the floor.
I heard a loud, “Oh, fuck!” from across the room, but I ignored it.
I also ignored Cameron as he stood, quickly buttoning his pants and buckling his belt. Oh, God. His pants had been undone.
Instead, I watched as the mousy haired senior got to her feet and rushed toward me. She shouldn’t have done that. Things would have been so much simpler if she’d just fucking left it alone.
As she reached for me, I felt tears of humiliation blur my eyes. Then I leaned away as she tried to hit me, using her momentum to grab hold of the back of her head and slam her face into the edge of the pool table on my right.
The room was completely silent for a full thirty seconds as she slumped to the floor.
“Little Warrior!” I heard my pop yell, his voice growing louder as he ran toward me.
“Bea,” I heard softly spoken. “What the fuck?”
I met his eyes as the first tears fell down my cheeks. My humiliation was complete.
“Fuck you, Cam,” I rasped. “Don’t ever come near me again.”