“What are you doing?” I hissed, my eyes darting around the room as I realized how much attention we were drawing.
He grinned before stretching back in his chair. He didn’t have a book, or computer, or fucking pencil in sight. “I’m on Riley duty today.”
I must have looked like a stunned idiot as I blinked at him, but I couldn’t quite figure out what he meant. “Riley duty? Why?”
Reaching out, he ruffled my hair, that smirk he did so well firmly in place. “Because you belong to us now.”
The teacher walked in before I could refute that claim.
Facing the front of the room, there was this odd feeling in my chest. It was warmth, and for the first time since my parents died, a little piece of me felt … okay. When Evan saidusI knew he wasn’t referring to Delta in that situation. He meant them. I was one of them now, and … IfuckedBeck.
Damn. I had no idea how that was going to go, but hopefully we would both just pretend it didn’t happen.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out before checking on the teacher. She wasn’t paying us any attention, so I quickly read the text.
Dante: I’m out front. I need to head back to Jersey for a few days, but I wanted to say goodbye first. It’s been too long since I got a Riley hug.
The bell rang then, and even though I knew I’d be late for my first class, I rushed out the door and headed toward the parking lot. Despite the light hearted nature of that text, I was worried. When Dante took off abruptly, it usually meant something was going down with his gang. Since Eddy’s words about him being a leader, I was now even more stressed about what his absence meant. The dangers he would face.
Evan caught me just before I made it down the stairs, sliding in front of me and blocking my path. “You need to get back in school, it’s not safe out here for you.” For the first time he was serious, the smile gone, and his eyes much darker than usual.
“Dante is waiting for me,” I said shortly. The Delta heirs might have been scary as fuck, but I wasn’t letting them walk all over me. Not today. Not. Ever.
Evan shook his head. “I don’t give a fuck, girl. It could be God himself waiting for you, and I’d still be here stopping your ass from walking out into danger.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I said, getting irate. Maybe it had been a bad idea to befriend these controlling fucks. “I’ll be five minutes.”
Shaking him off, I tried to step around him, but he was much larger and moved a lot quicker than my injured ass. Before I could start screaming, and I was pretty damn close to that, a shadow washed over us, and Evan swung around, his body moving into a defensive position. He placed himself in front of me, and I wondered if maybe I’d underestimated how dangerous it was here in school. I mean, I hadn’t forgotten that someone had forced our pilot to blow up the plane, but I’d thought I’d be okay in public.
Evan was acting like we could be taken out at any moment, and a trill of fear raced along my skin.
This time though, it was only Dante, dressed all in black and wearing a fucked off expression. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, getting right in Evan’s face. “If you step in front of Riley one more time, I’m going to end you. I don’t even care who your family is.”
Evan was a few inches shorter than Dante, but he didn’t look remotely intimidated. The memory of the boys stealth missioning it in the forest was strong in my mind, and I feared for my best friend. He had no idea how dangerous Delta was.
Edging around, I tried to slip in between Dante and Evan, but before I could, strong hands wrapped around my biceps and lifted me full bodily out of there. Beck’s face was awash in fury as he maneuvered me behind him.
“What the hell?” I shouted, slamming my hands on his back, and getting … stinging palms in return. I legitimately wanted to hurt Beck, but he didn’t even turn his head.
“What are you doing here, gangbanger?” he said, his voice low.
I’d heard this sort of lethal tone from him one other time, and it turned my blood to ice, because I knew Beck was pissed. I glared and edged toward Dante. “Leave him alone, he did nothing to you.”
Dante was smirking at them, taunting them, because that was his style. But he had no idea how dangerous they were. Especially Beck.
Dylan, who I hadn’t even noticed until now, stepped forward. “I think it’s time you left town. Permanently,” he advised Dante. “We’d hate to have to send you back … in pieces.”
The look in his eyes was making me nervous. Sucking up as much courage as I had, I met each of their dark stares. “If you touch one hair on Dante’s head, I will hunt you assholes down and cut your balls off. Right the fuck off!”
I waved my hands to emphasize my point.
For the briefest moment, it almost looked like the corner of Beck’s lips twitched, but I knew I was wrong when he turned those dark as sin eyes on me, because I could see nothing but pissed.
“Did Evan tell you not to leave the building?”
I blinked. “Well, yes. He said there was danger.”
Beck stepped into me, and I fought against an urge to back up. “And you decided not to listen?”
