The onlookers started laughing.
“You stupid bitch!” I heard Nate bark from somewhere in the crowd. “It was your idea.”
And I straightened my shoulders when he stepped forward.
Some people were born stupid.
I cocked my fist back and punched him across the nose, sending him down like a dead deer. He dropped to the floor, holding his bloody nose, and I hovered, ready for his ass to pop back up again.
Madoc pushed through the crowd, his eyeballs damn-near popping out of his head as he surveyed Nate on the floor.
“Are you okay?” he asked, turning his eyes on Tate.
I didn’t hear or see her respond, but Madoc shook his head and looked back down to Nate.
“How did you do it?” Tate asked Piper.
She didn’t respond.
“Your dad’s a cop, right?” Tate asked. “What’s his number?” She held up her phone like she was ready to dial. “Oh, yeah, 911.”
“Ugh, alright!” Piper screeched. “Nate took me to Homecoming and then to Tori’s party afterwards. When we saw you and Jared head upstairs, Nate took his camera phone and climbed onto the balcony. When he showed me the video later, I saw that Jared had left his phone on the dresser, so I snuck back into the room to take it.”
Son of a bitch.
“So the video came from Nate’s phone,” Tate confirmed but was looking at me. “It was transferred to Jared’s before it was texted.”
Our eyes were locked, and a mountain of relief descended on my shoulders.
“Get Jared’s phone, Piper. Now,” Madoc ordered, and I looked down at Nate who was trying to get up.
Once our eyes met, though, he seemed to reconsider when he laid back down.
Piper took a grueling minute to retrieve the phone, and then she threw it at Tate.
“We’re done,” she said cattily and waved her hand, dismissing Tate. “You may go.”
I had a hundred f**king names I wanted to call her, but it would be a waste of time. I was going to take care of this. Piper and Nate weren’t getting away with shit.
Just get Tate out of here.
But, of course, Tate had other plans.
“Piper?” she spoke calmly. “Do yourself a favor, and get some help. Jared is not yours, and he never will be. In fact, he won’t ever look at you again and see anything good, if he even saw anything good in the first place.”
Tate turned to me, but all of a sudden, Piper was yanking her by the hair!
And I stood there like a damn moron, not knowing which one to grab, because they were moving too f**king quickly.
Tate was slammed against the lockers. Piper tried to punch her. Tate ducked, and then smacked Piper across the face. Twice.
Shit.
I caught sight of Madoc waving at me.
“Porter!” he whisper-yelled, urgency etched on his face as I hurriedly grabbed my girl and whispered in her ear.
“Shhh.” I tried to control her, but she was struggling.
Dr. Porter was working his way through the crowd. “What’s going on here?” he growled as he came to the front.
Tate immediately relaxed into my body. I released my hold, and she stood there silently, looking down, while Porter glanced between the whining lump of Piper on the floor and the bleeding heap of Nate next to her.
“Dr. Porter,” Madoc spoke up. “Nate and Piper bumped into each other.”
Sweat poured down my back, and I didn’t know if I wanted to hug Tate, smack Madoc, or…smack Madoc.
“Mr. Caruthers, I’m not stupid.” Dr. Porter looked to the crowd. “Now what happened here?”
I tipped my foot up and put pressure down on Nate’s arm as a warning to keep his mouth shut. He struggled, but I just pressed harder.
I doubted he’d say anything anyway. He didn’t want us going to the cops with this.
I would if Tate wanted to, but I’d rather handle it on my own.
“I didn’t see anything, sir,” my friend, Gunnar, offered.
“Me either, Dr. Porter,” another student followed his example. “Probably just an accident.”
Everyone else in the crowd figured out the game plan and followed suit.
Porter didn’t get anything from anyone, and no one got in trouble.
Tate was safe, and I would be taking her home without any complications.
Rubbing his beard, Dr. Porter looked to Nate and Piper. “Alright, you two. Get up, and come to the nurse. Everyone else. Head home!” he barked.
Nate and Piper stomped down the hall after Porter, although Nate was a little wobbly. The rest of the students departed slowly and quietly. No one laughed behind their hands. No one gave Tate a look.
They knew that the video wasn’t my doing, and if I wasn’t on board with it, they shouldn’t be, either.
People being afraid of you can be useful.
Wrapping my arms around Tate’s neck, I brought her into me where she was safe.
Not that she needed saving.
“I’m so sorry about not trusting you.” Her muffled voice vibrated against my chest. “And about what I did to your car, too.”
I couldn’t care less about the f**king car.
“Tate, you’re mine, and I’m yours. Every day you’re going to realize that more and more. When you believe it without a doubt, then I’ll have earned your trust.”
I knew I didn’t have it yet. Today was the result of the damage I’d done.
“I am yours. I just wasn’t sure if you were really mine,” she said quietly.
“Then I’ll make you sure.” I kissed the top of her head, and the image of Piper grabbing her by the hair flashed through my head.
I tried holding in my amusement at how Tate hauled off and brought her down.
“You’re laughing right now?” She pulled back and looked at me, half-angry and half-confused.
Yeah, I definitely shouldn’t be laughing right now.
“Well, I was kind of worried about my anger issues, but now I’m kind of worried about yours. You like to hit people.” I couldn’t hold back the huge grin on my face.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not angry. She got what she deserved, and I was attacked first.”
I picked Tate up, guiding her legs around my waist and carried her down the hall, unable to not touch her anymore.
I was so afraid I’d never get to again.
“It’s your fault, you know?” she said against my ear.
“What?” I asked.
“You made me mean. And now I pummel poor, defenseless girls…and guys,” she added, and I wanted to laugh again, thinking of the damage she’d done to Madoc.
“You might say that I turned metal into steel.”
She kissed the ridge of my ear, and a shudder rocked through my body.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, you big bully,” she teased.
And I gripped her tighter, hoping I could, someday, right all the wrongs.
Chapter 38
Over the next week, we worked hard to take down the video or report it to the host site.
Tate handled it with a straight face until she read the comments on the video on one of the sites. Some were cruel. Some were twisted. All of them were sordid.
She was ready to torch the entire internet, so I ended up just telling her to leave it, and I’d handle the rest of it myself. Actually, I passed the task to Jax. He knew his way around that shit better than I did. And he’d be faster at it.
Piper’s parents found out about the video and her involvement. They took her out of school for the rest of the year. She’d be home-schooled until she graduated.
Nate was another matter. He’d been MIA since the shit went down in the hallway last week, so I put him on the back burner for now.
But he’d show up eventually, and I wasn’t anywhere near over it.
Tate’s dad, on the other hand, was the hardest part to deal with. He supported our new relationship, but we had to “slow the hell down.”
He and I took Tate to Chicago last weekend to buy the R8 she’d been eyeing online. He wasn’t thrilled with spending that much money on a car for her, but he wanted to see her smile. Keep busy. Focus on another project.
Some people might consider his therapeutic tactics hiding, but it wasn’t. The Nova project he invented for me last year was a way for me to not think constantly. I could get space, distance, and perspective.
It was already working on Tate. I couldn’t believe how quickly she was getting over the video.
“What’s this?” Her curious eyes smiled at the box I’d just placed in her hands.
I sat on my knees on her bed, leaning back on my feet. “Open it.”
Tate had been in bed when I climbed through the tree—and the rain—to sneak in a visit.
I had dragged Jax with me to some outlet mall Madoc told me about. Not normally a shopper, but I’d bit the f**king bullet and asked for ideas.
I wanted to give Tate something special.
She slid the top off the box and picked out the charm bracelet, her eyes sparkling with surprise and a little confusion.
I watched her study the four charms hanging off the bracelet: a key, a coin, a cell phone, and a heart.
I kept my expression flat, still uneasy about anyone knowing how weak I was. How my hopes rested on this girl thinking I was worth a damn.
After a few moments, her eyes widened, and realization hit her. “My lifelines!” she blurted out, smiling, and I exhaled a relieved breath.
I didn’t know, until recently, about Tate’s survival tactics with me. They were things she always carried on her when she went to parties or other social gatherings in high school.
Emergency type objects that she used to escape me if she needed. Money, phone, and car keys.
“Yeah.” I ran a hand through my hair, droplets falling to my face. “When you told me on our way to Chicago about how you always wanted your escape plans when dealing with me in the past, I didn’t want you to see me that way anymore.”
“I don’t—” She shook her head.
“I know,” I interrupted. “But I want to make sure I never lose your trust again. I want to be one of your lifelines, Tate. I want you to need me. So...” I pointed to the bracelet. “The heart is me. One of your lifelines. I took Jax with me today to pick it out.”
I should’ve just gotten her a bracelet with a heart. That’s it. A f**king heart. That was all she needed. I was the one to keep her safe. I was the one she’d run to—if Tate ran to anybody at all—for help or comfort.
“How is your brother?” She brought me out of my thoughts.
“He’s hanging in there,” I offered. “My mom is working with a lawyer to try to get custody. He wants to meet you.”
And he did. My brother’s words, “I wanna meet the girl that’s made you so boring.”
Such a little shit.
“I’d love to,” she said softly, and my heart swelled as I watched her twirl the bracelet around her fingers, studying it with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Put it on me?” she asked, and I tried to ignore the tear that fell down her cheek. I hoped it was a happy tear, and all of a sudden, I couldn’t wait for her father to relax on the rules of how much time we were allowed to be together. I damn well needed to touch her.
And soon.
We were eighteen, but we both respected her dad. But in his head—and probably most father’s heads—eighteen was still too young for the stuff I wanted to do to her.
For the stuff I’d already done to her.
I worked the clasp, fastening it to her wrist, and then pulled her onto my lap so that she straddled me.
Oh, Christ.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, her center grinding on me, and I closed my eyes for second.
It’d been too long.
Okay, only a week, but still.
When you’ve tasted the one thing that fills you up, it’s impossible not to want more of it.