Fallen Crest Public (Fallen Crest Series) (35 page)

“Finally.” Logan pressed a button and his window went down.

Ethan, Strauss and Derek broke away from the crowd and crossed the street. A few from the front yard watched them, but no one followed.

“Yo.” Ethan led the way around to Logan’s side. He held onto the Escalade’s top and leaned against it. “What’s the plan?”

Logan glanced at me.

I leaned forward. “You guys got all your things ready to go?”

Ethan looked to the other two, and they all nodded. “Looks like. That was the plan we hashed out at Nate’s. I didn’t know it was going down tonight.”

“It is.”

“Okay. Sounds fine to me.” A cruel grin came over him. “I love butchering little shits.”

Derek snorted in laughter. Strauss nudged him out of the way, hitting his shoulder into Ethan’s harder than necessary.

“Ouch, man.”

Strauss ignored him and addressed me, “I thought you were waiting another day.”

“This idiot,” I pointed at Logan, “got caught getting a blow job on camcorder.”

Ethan and Derek burst out in laughter. Strauss grinned, but reached inside and punched Logan’s shoulder. “Should I congratulate you or call you a moron?”

Derek snickered. “Depends on who the girl is.”

A fresh burst of laughter came from Ethan. “Did she deep throat you?”

“Could she?”

They kept laughing.

Logan cursed and slammed his hand against the car door. “Shut the fuck up.”

“Shit.” Derek straightened away from the vehicle. “I thought this was a topic we could laugh about. You would be if it happened to one of us.”

“You better run, Streeter,” Logan threatened, his hand going to his door handle. “I’m going to beat your ass until—”

“Enough.” I stepped out and slammed my door. As I rounded to their side, I asked Ethan, “Kate’s inside?”

“Not yet. You called her?”

“Yeah. I told her to bring everything.”

“You think she will?”

I shrugged, glancing at Logan from the corner of my eye. “She knows I hate Tate.”

Derek snorted. “And she thinks the two of you are tight again.”

“Yeah.”

Strauss slapped his hand to Derek’s chest and pushed him back a step. He moved in front of me. “Kate stopped sniffing around us when she thought the two of you were good again. Is that going to be a problem?”

“No. We just need proof she was coming around before that.”

“We got that.”

Logan got out of the Escalade as I told Strauss, “You and Derek stay up top. We’ll do this downstairs.”

“I cleared it out when I got your text,” Ethan added.

“Good.” I glanced at Logan. “Where’s Tate?”

He checked his phone. “She’s inside. I’ll tell her to hide in a room downstairs for now. You know Sam’s probably headed here too.”

Everything was falling in place, except for that.

As we started for the house, I told Strauss, “Sam will figure out where we’re at. She’s got too many buddies from FCA here. Don’t stop her, just let her through. We’ll have Tate play interference when she gets into the basement.” I didn’t like it, but she was coming no matter what. “And don’t let anyone touch her. She’s still hurting. A lot.”

Strauss asked, “What about the other girls?”

“Kate and Parker can come down with us right away. Hold Natalie and Jasmine back.”

“But what about the stuff? They need to hear it, don’t they?”

“We’ll text you when to let them hear. Ethan, give yours to Streeter. He can play it for Jasmine.”

Swapping phones, Ethan smirked at the other guy. “Good luck with that. She’s going to go nuts on you.”

Derek paled, but jerked around to me. “What do we do then? He’s right. They’re both going to flip.”

“Then let them through.”

Logan remarked, “That’s the whole plan, dumbass.”

When we crossed the street, people stopped what they were doing on the front lawn. A tackling game paused. Conversations halted. People looked up, but no one said a word as we walked past them. It was the same effect inside. The music continued playing, but the partying halted until we were downstairs. As we descended the stairs, I glanced around to find the best room, but Logan tapped my arm and pulled me into a corner. Ethan got the gesture to stay back and he did. Tate came down the stairs a second later, but he pulled her over to him.

Logan waited to make sure she wouldn’t head to our corner. He lowered his voice then, “What are you going to do if Kate goes to Broudou? She’s going to get mad. She could tell him the truth about who Sam is.”

I shook my head. He was right, there was a chance. “There’s people in Broudou’s camp that are covering for her. He saw Kate and me. We both know he doesn’t trust other people’s word, just what he sees for himself.”

“And when he does whatever he’s going to do?”

“Channing said he’d let us know. We’ll call the cops.”

“She won’t go to the cops. Kate hates being the victim.”

I flashed him a grin, though my eyes were dead. “We’ll make a personal call to her uncle. We both know how protective he’s been.”

“He’s going to hurt her bad. We’re okay with that?”

Thinking about what Kate did to Sam and knowing it could happen again, but by Budd Broudou reaffirmed everything for me. I didn’t care what he did to her. I was too dead inside to care. “He was going to hurt Sam. All we’re doing is giving him a different target. You know that.”

Logan nodded with the same darkness coming over him. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah.”

Another look passed between us. An image of Sam in that hospital bed flashed in my mind. It haunted me. All the bruises, dried blood, how frail she looked in that bed would haunt me for the rest of my life. This was what I needed to do to make sure it didn’t happen again.

I headed to Ethan’s rec room and went to the far wall. Logan filled Tate in on her part of the plan. She disappeared into a separate room. Then he came to stand beside me while Ethan took position next to the pool table in front of us.

The door was left open, but it wasn’t long until I heard Kate’s voice.

It was go-time.

Cars were lined around the block, as well as the next block over. When he pulled into a back alley, there were a few hidden spots open behind Fischer’s house. Cutting across the backyard, a lot of people waved at Mark. I recognized a few people from Academy spread out throughout the yard, but when we went up the back porch, the Elite had taken their spots. From how they were sitting, with everyone beneath them, it looked like they were perched on their thrones, reigning over the lower class. All of them were there: Miranda was on Peter’s lap; Amelia; Emily; even Adam was sitting with them. When I turned to go inside and make my way to the kitchen, Cassandra was pushing her way out. Both of her hands held cups of beer. A sneer came over her when she saw me. “You really need to get over this stepbrother thing. It makes you look like trash, but then again, you are trash.”

“Does Adam know that you finally gave up your obsession with him? Or is it not public knowledge you’re stalking Mark now?”

Mark laughed from behind me.

Cassandra sucked in her breath, and her hand raised. I was waiting for it. It wouldn’t be the first beer thrown at a party.

Adam swooped in. His hand covered Cass’s and he took the cup from her. “Thanks, Cass. I owe you.”

“Yeah,” she said, raking me up and down. “You sure do.” Storming past me, she would’ve rammed her shoulder into mine, but Mark stepped right next to me. She would’ve ran right into him, but growled as she was forced to go around him instead. I waited. She rammed her shoulder into his. Mark’s laugh was cut off, but then he started chuckling again.

Turning to us, he rubbed at his shoulder. “The girl can hit. If she can do that with her shoulder, I’m excited to find out what else she can do in bed when she’s angry.”

Adam frowned, but shook his head. “I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Screwing Cass?”

“Dating Cass.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not like that.”

“You will be. Before you know it, you will be.”

I was still wondering what happened with Amelia, but I caught a glimpse of Logan. He was walking past the kitchen door. “I have to go.”

“Sam,” Adam started.

His hand caught mine, but I shook him off. “I’m fine.”

“Sam.”

“I am,” I reassured both of them before turning and following Logan.

Kate walked past the kitchen door, too. The rest of the Tommy Princesses followed behind like ducklings, but there were too many people between us. I couldn’t get to the living room fast enough. When I did, it was full of Fallen Crest Public people, but no Mason. All the people I wanted to see were nowhere to be seen.

“Sam?” Jeff stood up from a couch. His arm had been around a girl, and he grabbed her hand, pulling her with him as he crossed to my corner. “What are you doing here?”

A light bulb was flickering as I stared at his girl. She looked familiar—wait. Adam. Basketball game. “Your name is Kris. I saw you at the basketball game last week.”

“Oh.” A faint smile came over her small lips. Her hand was pulled from Jeff’s, and she wrapped her arms around her petite frame. “I didn’t see you there.”

Jeff threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her against his side. He announced to me, “She’s friends with Jessica and Lydia, but I’m trying to make her see the error of her ways.” He sent her a pointed glance. “Sam would know. They were best friends with her and …” he flailed, closing his mouth. “Never mind. So you’ve met Kris, huh? Quinn’s trying to court her, too.”

She gasped, and her head jerked down.

I gestured to the girl. “You embarrassed her.”

Her shoulders stiffened, but she didn’t correct me.

Jeff’s smile was blinding as he squeezed her again. “It’s like you 2.0, except I have a clean slate and I’m hoping without the Kade part. I can’t hold up against your …” He cringed. “I need to stop talking tonight.”

“Yeah, you do.” Kris nudged him with her elbow.

He laughed, squeezing her again.

I sighed. “Young love. Too bad you’re going to get screwed over. It’s inevitable.”

Jeff dropped his arm from her shoulders and they watched me with pity. I could detect that look from a mile away now. He asked, “You okay, Sam? I tried getting my ‘friends’ to help you, but they all said you were handling yourself fine.”

“Uh. Yeah.” I pointed to my face. “It’s not porcelain skin underneath all this make-up.”

“I know.” His mouth dipped down. “I meant that I tried, you know. I told you at Nate’s party that I’d try to get them to help.”

This conversation was going to a bad direction. He was talking like I had died, and I still had fight in me. I needed to find Kate. I had a whole lot more fight in me. “Where’d they go?”

“Who?”

I snorted. “You’re a bad actor, Jeff. You might’ve been able to lie to me before, but I’m smarter now and I hang out with liars who are in the professional league. Tell me where they went.”

“Sam, don’t do this.” He reached for me.

My arm swung away from him. “Don’t.”

“It’s not going to end well. We heard about it.”

“Where are they?”

“She’s been all over him this week. Even if it’s not over between you two, it’s,” he hesitated, “it’s over, Sam. He’s back with her.”

I was getting really sick and tired of hearing this. “You tell me where they are, or I’m going to give a character reference to your new girlfriend.” I bared my teeth at him. “And it won’t be a good one, if you know what I mean.”

“They went downstairs. That door right there.” He pointed at a door behind me. It was closed with Jasmine and Natalie guarding it. Strauss and another guy stood with them, but I marched over anyway.

“No. No way—” Jasmine started to say, raising her hand at the same time.

Strauss caught it and twisted it behind her back. The other guy opened the door for me and stepped so he was blocking Natalie from me. I sailed behind both of them without breaking stride. As the door closed behind me, I heard Jasmine cry out, “What?”

As soon as the door clicked shut, I stopped on the other side of it. The stairs were in front of me, but I grabbed the railing and held onto it. I couldn’t move. Everything in me was trembling. I felt them kicking me. Hitting me.
Shut up and get her
. Kate’s voice came back to me. Images flashed in my head, and I flinched with each one. I felt every hit and every kick all over again. I was back in that bathroom. It was dark, like it is now. They were coming for me.

“Hey.”

I cried out, shooting my hand out. They wouldn’t hurt me. Not again.

“Bitch,” someone hissed at me.

My eyelids flew open—when had they closed? My hands jerked up, ready for an attack. It never came and I was staring at Tate. She was pressed against the far wall, rubbing at her throat. She cursed at me. “You hit me. That hurt.”

“Oh.”

We stared at each other, and no one said a word. She snorted then. “Of course you’re not going to apologize.”

Waves of anxiety were still crashing over me, but I wouldn’t have even if I was fine. She knew it. I knew it. Why lie about it?

“I’m in this mess because of you, you know.”