Page 87 of Defiant
Jacob did not pull out; instead he leaned his sweaty forehead against mine as he whispered, “You drive me crazy, Jaz.”
I managed a smile. This time, it was a real one. “Tell me something I don’t know,” I muttered, smacking his ass before releasing my hold on him.
His lips met with mine for one fast, hard kiss, and then he pulled out. After cleaning himself up, he crawled back on the bed, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close. He held me against his naked chest, his skin still flushed from our quickie, and I let him hold me, let him trace circles on my lower back.
Once my heart rate slowed down, once I was able to focus on my breathing and relax, I actually fell asleep in his arms.
If only I didn’t have to go home. If only I could lay here with him forever, I would. I would forget all of my other responsibilities and simply exist here in Jacob’s arms. That was the dream, the wish.
In Midpark, everything comes with a price. I’d soon find out that my price was not the deaths of Ryan’s friends. No, my price came the day before the dance.
Chapter Twenty-Three – Jaz
My nerves were getting to me. Mostly because everything was just crazy around here. I had nothing to worry about today; today was Friday, so all that was left to do was go through classes, and let Bobbi’s friend in the office take care of the ballot for king and queen. As far as I knew, Ryan was still in the hospital, still in a coma, though I knew it wouldn’t be long until something happened to him.
No, I wasn’t going to think about Ryan or his friends today. The police had left Dante alone, because they had no evidence, no witnesses. Yet another reason why Ryan had to be taken care of soon, before he could tell the cops what his attacker looked like, but I would not let myself go wandering down that dark path. As long as Dante was fine, I would be fine.
Me, wanting to protect a killer. Go fucking figure.
Silly me thought the day would go on fine, but that was before I got to homeroom and saw that Archer wasn’t in his seat. Odd, because the boy was always there before me, every single day, without fail. I stared at his empty seat as I sat down, wondering if he was busy in the halls, maybe talking to his bitch of a girlfriend.
He wouldn’t ditch. Not the day before the dance—that meant he wouldn’t be allowed to go to the dance, which would mean Brittany would probably kill him. Since he seemed to do everything she told him to, I doubted he would.
That’s what I thought, and what I continued to think…until the tardy bell rang to signal the beginning of first period. The announcements came on soon after, and some girl started talking about how the teachers were now going to pass out the ballots. Someone from the office would be by to collect them before first period was over.
I was confused as the teacher passed them out, slow to turn my eyes down to the small rectangular paper on my desk. Two lines labeled King and Queen of Winter. The ballots were write-ins, which Bobbi’s friend in the office would tally and fudge the results of.
But Archer wasn’t here, which meant he couldn’t go to the dance…which meant he couldn’t win Winter King. If there were any votes for him, they wouldn’t be counted. The crown would automatically go to the next boy with the second most votes.
Well, Brittany wasn’t going to be happy about that, was she?
Once the class was done voting, the teacher gathered the ballots up and placed them on the corner of his desk. Someone from the office showed up about ten minutes later, awkwardly knocking and interrupting his lesson, to which he could only roll his eyes and hand over the ballots.
All throughout class, I couldn’t stop glimpsing at his empty seat. Was it normal for Archer to miss a day? I couldn’t remember him ever missing a day before, though it wasn’t like I’d been here forever. I didn’t have that much past experience to judge him on, but still. Something just didn’t feel right, but I had no idea what that something was.
I wouldn’t find out what happened until fourth period, as it turned out. Until I sat down and spotted Bobbi from across the room. The moment her gaze landed on me, she hurried to my side. She pulled us to the back of the classroom; we had probably fifteen or so minutes before Ms. Haber ventured out of her office. That teacher was never on time, even though we were on the same set schedule every day.
Bobbi’s long brown hair was up in a low bun, looking cute even though it was messy. I looked like a swamp monster when I tried doing a messy bun, but that was beside the point. “Jaz,” she whispered, “did you hear?” Before I had the chance to respond, she shook her head. “The shit around here really is hitting the fan.”
I blinked. “What are you talking about?” Did Ryan wake up?
“My dad got a tip yesterday about Mr. Vega,” Bobbi explained. “Apparently Mr. Vega has a thing for underage girls. Whatever was given to my dad was enough for the police to arrest him and charge him.”
The world around me stopped. Archer’s dad was arrested for liking underaged girls a bit too much? What did that mean? Did that mean the police had evidence Mr. Vega had done something with a girl under eighteen? Did that mean someone was blackmailing him or…
My eyes widened.
Did Vaughn do this? Vaughn told me he was going to dig up the dirt on Archer, but this was…this was more than that. If Vaughn had fabricated evidence—as was done to Jacob three years ago, so I knew it was possible—it was more than getting back at Archer.
It was literally tearing his family apart.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered, feeling cold. So very cold, all the way down to my bones. This…I was in way over my head. I shouldn’t be doing any of this. I shouldn’t—
“Don’t get cold feet about the dance,” Bobbi quickly said, noting my expression. “Even if Archer’s not there, Brittany will still want her crown. We’re still going to take it away from her.” She sounded so sure of herself, so certain of our plan, like nothing could go wrong. Like, finally, the villains were getting what was coming to them.
Why didn’t any of this feel right? Why didn’t I feel good, knowing I was helping to undo the bullies who’d nearly had me gang-raped twice, the people who had ostracized me, used me, and thrown me aside like trash?
I forced myself to nod, saying, “You’re right.”
