“Well, shit …”
“Yeah. It’s the same for all of us, except we all expect to take over for our fathers in another thirty years when they retire, but even then, they’ll still be breathing down our necks. Colton just got thrown right in the deep end without a life raft.”
Damn. No wonder he’s so fucked up right now. He has the weight of the world sitting on his shoulders and even though I should be hating on him right now for being such an ass, I can’t help but hurt for him.
Why am I so fucked up when it comes to Colton Carrington? I should be stronger than this. Hell, I grew up in Breakers Flats. Bullshit like this should have been squished the second it came to light except now I’ve allowed it to grow into some kind of beast, one that I no longer have the power to tame.
“Yo,” comes a voice from the crowded bodies behind us. “Did you do it?”
“Ignore them,” Milo mutters under his breath.
The voice comes again, this time with a snicker that has my blood turning cold. “Yo, babe. Did you hear me? Were you fucking around with the billionaire? Couldn’t get your claws into Colton so you tried with daddy? Hoping for a payday now that he’s gone?”
Milo’s fingers curl around my wrist with a strong grip, trying to keep me in check. “Babe,” he warns in a low tone. “Don’t you dare entertain his bullshit.”
A water bottle slams into my back and I stop in my tracks as laughter erupts behind me. “Stop fucking ignoring me, bitch. I’m talking to you.”
I spin around so fast that the group of students struggle to stop so suddenly and slam into each other. I find the guy who’s been talking by the sick grin on his face while distantly aware of the way Milo releases his grip on my wrist, more than on board now that I’ve had a bottle thrown at me.
“Oh, fuck,” Milo mutters. “Shit’s about to get real.”
I narrow my gaze on the asshole who stands proud among his group of douchebag friends. They all laugh at my reaction, but quickly sober as they take in my gaze. “What did you just say to me?” I demand, stepping forward and making a few of them take a hesitant step back.
The guy laughs as Milo steps into my back, always ready to back me if I need him. “You heard me. Were you fucking the old guy? Or was Colton in on it? He’s had a boner for you since the day you got here. I bet the two of you were in on it, right? You got Charles out of the way so you could have it all. Makes sense for a girl like you.”
“A girl like me?” I question, stepping forward again and watching as a weariness creeps into his eyes. “What exactly is a girl like me?”
His friends push him on, encouraging him to be the spokesman of the morons, and luckily for me, he takes the bait, giving me every excuse to kick his pathetic ass. “Trash,” he says, raising his chin. “Girls like you are fucking whores. You come from nothing and try to take what’s ours. You’re a fucking leech. Just like your mother. You all are.”
I see fucking red.
No one talks about my mother. Period.
If he was talking about just me, I might have found the will power to ignore him and keep walking, but after the weekend I just endured, he couldn’t have picked a worse time to fuck with me.
This is more than just me. So much more. Not only did he bring my mother into this—a woman who has fought so damn hard over the past few months just to keep us alive—he’s referring to my whole damn community. Every last person I grew up with, all the people who made me the person I am today. He’s referring to my boys. Nic. My whole damn world and nobody gets away with disrespecting that.
He will be punished, and I sure as hell will enjoy every last second of it because this is who I am. I grew up fighting on the streets, I grew up fighting for my rights, and I grew up with respect for those of us who are doing it hard. The people in Bellevue Springs don’t know what it’s like, but this guy is about to figure it out the hard way.
I run at him, throwing myself in the air until I’m coming down over him. His eyes widen with the split second of warning before I’m climbing him like a tree. He tries to push me away, but my hands curl into fists and slam down hard against his jaw as his pathetic attempts of saving himself are rendered useless.