I ignore Jack. “It didn’t matter that we were respectful. I didn’t know it, but Tanner started flirting with Ava. A secret flirtation that went on all summer, until Ava came crying to me.”
Harper takes my hand and squeezes it, trying to give me strength maybe. Comfort possibly. But right now, my insides are numb. The events play out before me as I describe them to her.
“Ava was shattered. Tanner slept with her and then dumped her. Worse than that, she found him with another girl, and they both laughed at her for thinking Ava and him had something special.” My fingers dig into the arm of the chair remembering her tears. She was crushed.
“They hadn’t used protection, but she was afraid to talk to anyone about it. I wanted to take her to a doctor, but she refused, saying Mom would find out. I got her the morning after pill, but they aren’t that effective, especially since she didn’t tell me until a few days after.” I wanted to kill Tanner. Hunt him down and gut him like he gutted my sister. The guys talked me down, saying it was consensual. Ava made that decision.
“She begged me not to go after him. Even after all that, she still thought she loved him.” I can’t imagine being that ignorant.
“But you went after him?” Her words are tentative.
“It’s not the end of the story, princess.” Luke breathes out.
“Fuck.” Nico pushes his hand through his hair.
“It’s not that easy. Life never is.” I close my eyes as I tell the next bit. “Ava found out she was pregnant. She tried to tell Tanner it was his. He called her a lying whore and gave her a thousand dollars to get rid of it. Not only had she loved him, but she thought he might still want her ifshe was having his baby. She refused to tell our parents. She was fourteen years old and pregnant, and the only one she trusted was me.”
I draw in a breath and open my eyes, letting Harper see my pain. She wraps her arms around me and squeezes me tight, like she can hold me together.
“I took her to the doctor, and then she left for boarding school, heartbroken.” My voice cracks. I don’t know if I can continue the story. Ava is still at the boarding school this year. Over the summer, she traveled with our parents, so she hasn’t really been home with me except on the holidays.
“Mia came to us,” Jack fills in. “She wanted to take two guys. We fucked her and thought everything was fine until she dressed to leave.”
Finding my voice, I say the rest, “She told us her brother saw her flirting with us and went after my sister as payback. She laughed about it. Said how stupid her brother was when we hadn’t even fucked her. Yet.”
Luke leans in. “That’s when we made their lives hell, princess.”
CHAPTER 29
The Yield
Harper
My chest aches for Caden and his sister. I don’t know where to put everything I’m feeling. Anger. Hate. Sadness. I straddle his lap and hug him to me like I can fix this. Except the damage is long done.
His hands rub my back as if he’s comforting me, and that’s when I realize my tears soak his shirt.
Sitting back, I swipe at the tears, angry they’re falling. Caden helps me wipe them away.
“He needs to pay.” The words come out of me from deep inside. Tanner can’t get away with what he did. It’s disgusting and so much worse than anything these guys have done. He led on a girl who definitely wasn’t old enough to make that decision.
Caden’s lips curl into a smile. “I knew I liked you, little nympho.”
“I’m serious. It’s not enough. Whatever you’ve done isn’t enough.” A tear slips out, and Caden captures it with his thumb and brings it to his lips, kissing it away. My heart aches a little harder.
“We took away his social status. He got kicked out of football on his own.” Caden smiles deviously. “Well, after someone let Coach know he had drugs in his locker. That got him a month of suspension. He would have been expelled, but he passed a drug test.”
“Even we have limits, princess.” Luke stands and paces to the door. “We have dirt that could ruin him, but it would also ruin the lives of the girls in the videos with him. He has a collection.”
My chest burns. He has a collection of videos?!
Luke turns, and his eyes burn with hatred for Tanner. The fire inside me answers his, wanting vengeance. Needing it.
Caden tips my chin back his way. The fire burns softer as I lose myself in his green eyes, so open and unguarded in this moment. “I know he lied about tasting you, Harper. Because if he’d had a taste, there’s no way he wouldn’t have made you his. You’re addictive.”
Awareness shivers through me, pushing away the darker thoughts, making me notice the hardness pressing between my legs. But also realizing now isn’t the time.
Not after that story.
