Page 53 of Did They Break You

Remi’s arms tighten around me.

“I don’t,” I tell Storm honestly. “But she does.”

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

CORTLAND

I shootStorm a glare as we walk into our white, two-story house just off of campus. I had my arm around Remi the entire time and as we walked, she slumped against me, stumbling near the end to the point I practically had to carry her ass in here. Now, she stands by the doorway, leaned against the wall, her palms pressed behind her, a drunken smile on her face.

She hiccups, kicking off her white Chucks, and for a second, as I glance at them, my heart stops.

I remember them that night.

Pulling at the laces.

Storm closes and locks the door behind us before he comes to the foot of the stairs, just in front of me and Remi.

She hiccups again, then clamps a hand over her mouth and I glance at her, see her golden gaze on mine.

A smile curves her lips as she drops her hands.

She shouldn’t be drinking so much without supervision.

Storm covered my ass as I dragged her out of the party, ensuring Sloane didn’t see her and checking on her as he did. She was still straddling that boy in the living room.Shitty friend.

I turn my head to Storm. “How do you think thattalkis gonna go?” I ask him.

His eyes are locked on mine. “You know you didn’t want to talk,” he says quietly, sliding his hands in the pockets of his black pants. His black hoodie is etched with a skeleton, and I think about him at West. The running back, he never really loved the game. But he was a wolf all the same, and in high school, we got away witheverything.

We could probably do the same still.

That’s exactly what Storm’s light blue eyes seem to be saying as he stares at me now. I glance at Remi, and just as I do, she stumbles toward me, her hands coming to my chest.

I open my arms and let her rest her head against me, hugging me tight.

My entire body tenses.

I think of her in my truck, just a few hours before everything went to hell.

When we were both sober.

Mom was away for work that night. Dad was on the road, like usual. Being a trucker meant we got very few nights together. Tristan was back up in West Virginia with Dad’s brother, my uncle, Clave.

And Remi’s stepdad was gone, too.

It was the perfect setup. We didn’t get many entire nights together. Dating her was a challenge, because she was always scared of asking her stepdad to go out. It’s like she hid our relationship.

I didn’t mind. I’d take her any way I could get her. I loved her quiet disposition, her golden eyes, that easy smile on her face. She never relished in the spotlight, unlike Maya, and she was justkind.

I’d always planned to sleep with her that night.

It didn’t go quite how I wanted it too, butit definitely didn’t go how she said it did.

She giggles against me, and my throat constricts as she picks her head up, looking up at me through her long lashes. “We gotta tell Sloane,” she mumbles, “Sloane and Van.”

I arch a brow, looking over at Storm, who shrugs.

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