“No one’s seen you in a while. People said you were in a mental institution. I was like, ohmigosh, Jesse? No way. But really, Jesse, where were you?”

Wren tried to catch up, but her body was failing her. Shadow and I had the stamina. We were pro joggers. That’s what we did.

Bits and pieces from high school came back to me, falling clumsily into a wonky picture I tried hard to unsee. Wren and I had been cool before The Incident—frenemies who’d played the school hierarchy game. Then she became one of them. One of the people who stuffed my locker with condoms and sprayed the word ‘whore’ across it, and exchanged horrified looks whenever a teacher paired me up with them in lab or PE. My legs sprinted faster.

Shadow was yelping. My brain finally caught up with my heart. I didn’t want anything to happen to him, so I picked him up, all sixty pounds of him, and veered off the course, jumping between the trees lining the Spencers’ estate.

“Hey! Where are you going?” I heard her whining behind me. I knew I was going to regret it as soon as the branches slapped my ankles and my Keds sank into the mud. I felt the sharp burn of new cuts opening on my legs, but I kept on running.

“Bitch, you won’t be able to hide for long!” Her voice became muffled and weak, but there was one thing I heard good and loud. It bled from my ears into the rest of my body, resting on my soul like a deadweight I was going to carry around with me like a scar for years to come.

“Run all you want. No one will be chasing you anyway, you little whore.”

Another thing I didn’t forget: Wren had always been a vindictive brat.

That’s why I wasn’t surprised to find a car parked by the playground next to the track when Shadow and I limped our way back toward the neighborhood, thoroughly muddy.

I couldn’t recognize them from the distance, but they were leaning against the hood of their vehicle, ankles crossed and arms folded over their chests. The kiddie park by the track was deserted, save for their car. A Camaro SS with a paint job made in car hell, black with yellow flames, the headlights set on high.

I was about to turn around and head back to the track on limping legs, but a loud whistle pierced the silence of the night.

“Well, well. If it isn’t Todos Santos’ favorite slut,” one of the two guys sing-songed. “Good morning, Jesse.”

Oh, God. Oh, no.

Fear had a scent. A pungent, rancid smell of cold sweat, and it surrounded me like fog, crawling into my slacked mouth and sucking my soul out.

I put a face to the voice.

Looked up.

Then recognized the other guy who was beside him.

Henry and Nolan.

They wore their uniform of Polo shirts and smug smirks. What the hell were they doing in El Dorado? In the middle of the freaking night? And even more importantly—was Emery here, too? Wren. Wren had let them in. She probably partied with them, they dropped her off, but then they spotted me and couldn’t resist having some fun.

There was vomit lodged in the back of my throat as I tugged Shadow’s leash toward the main road of the neighborhood, praying a patrol cart would breeze through, but knowing that with my luck, it wouldn’t.

“Come on, Old Sport.” My voice was strangled, begging. Suddenly, I didn’t feel the cuts on my ankles, the heavy mud caking my Keds.

“Man, even her dog is fucking handicapped.” Nolan cackled, throwing an empty can of beer to roll on the concrete with a hollow echo. “How’re them legs, Jesse? Still limping?”

I didn’t, but they’d nearly broken my hipbones when they’d attacked me senior year. A violent shiver licked my spine, my heart palpitating so fast I clapped a hand over my mouth from fear of vomiting it.

“White trash girl with a white trash dog.” Henry laughed, pushing off the hood of the car and sauntering over to me. Fear cemented me to the ground like a statue and a blush crept up my cheeks. I felt my whole body coming alive with red-hot rage. Behind him, Wren was pretending to do her makeup in the back seat of the Camaro, ignoring the scene like she had no part in it.

Shadow growled, exposing his yellow teeth to Henry. I tugged him close to my thigh, sucking in air. Shit, shit, shit.

“Where you headed, Jesse? Night shift at the brothel? Let’s have some fun,” Nolan hollered from the hood, flicking his cell phone flashlight on and aiming it at me.

“Yeah, Jesse. You looking for trouble? We can do a round two for old times’ sake. Just don’t tell Emery. Though, really, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. He has a nice, respectable girlfriend now. The kind who doesn’t open her legs so often that she can’t even remember who popped her cherry.”

I didn’t know which part felt worse: hearing Emery’s name, or knowing that he’d moved on without any consequences. Or maybe it was the reminder that the night in the Indian alleyway really had happened. Though I had plenty of reasons to remember it, even beyond the physical damage. Weeks after, Pam had taken me to a clinic outside of town to have an abortion. I’d begged her not to, but she was adamant that “it” would ruin our nonexistent image in Todos Santos.

I turned around and started running toward the main road.

“Stop,” Nolan snarled. His hand burned its pattern on my shoulder. He swiveled me around with enough force to remind me he was capable of much more. Shadow growled again, and Nolan kicked his front leg. My dog collapsed to the ground, whimpering.

Staring at Nolan, I tried to cut myself some slack for not realizing how sadistic he was, sooner. He was boyishly good-looking, with soft blond curls and hazel eyes, now with crow’s feet gathering like an elegant fan around them.

Wholesome. Handsome. Fearsome.

I jerked my arm like his touch was cold fire. I was about to swing my fist directly to his nose and pick up Shadow again when dark, violent energy crackled around me like electricity. A metal-hitting-metal thud and screech penetrated the air and everything stopped like someone hit pause. We both twisted our heads back.

Bane. Clouds of playground sand dancing around his army boots.

Bane. His stony jaw set in anger I could feel all the way down to my toes.

Bane. Holding Henry in a headlock, the preppy boy on his knees, staring at Nolan with horror I could decipher even with only the poor lighting of the streetlamp. Wren was in the car, holding her face and screaming. That’s when I noticed he’d smashed into the back of the Camaro with his truck, and not by accident. The car had slid to the concrete sidewalk bordering the playground. A swing swayed from the impact.

Up, down. Up, down.

I finally picked Shadow, hugging him close to my chest.

“Well, this is awkward.” Bane flashed a wolfish, badder-than-bad grin. “A sober dude crashing his truck into a bunch of sorry-ass tanked teenagers. Wonder who is gonna take the blame for that one?”

You could feel the atmosphere shifting in the small things. Nolan’s body going slack. Wren bowing her head down in defeat. A terrified tear rolling down Henry’s cheek. Nolan lifted both his hands in surrender, taking a step back.

“Stay where you are,” Bane ordered.

He did.

“I believe a trade is in order. This dipshit is of no interest to me, and you have no business touching Jesse Carter,” Bane said, tucking a joint between his lips and lighting it up with his free hand. He tilted his chin up, letting the smoke crawl upwards in a curly ribbon.

Jesse Carter. He knew my name, and probably everything else there was to know about me. Stupid me thought I could escape him by withholding information from him.

Wild relief washed over me when Nolan pivoted to face the big, blond surfer, forgetting all about me. I gathered Shadow into my arms again, watching the golden locks of Nolan’s hair from behind, wondering if I had it in me to grip a handful of them and smash his head against the concrete under our feet.

“Bane Protsenko?” Nolan scratched his smooth forehead.

“C’mere.” Bane curled his ringed fingers that held the blunt, beckoning. Henry was still on the ground, choking on a sob. Bane’s jaw was locked so tight I thought his teeth were going to snap out of his mouth. Nolan walked over to them, coiling into himself as his posture caught up with his pulse.

“What’s going on? We were just having fun.” He sounded like the good boy his mother probably thought he was.

“Was it fun for Carter?”

“Yeah!” Henry yelled, gagging around Bane’s arm. “We know her. We went to school together. R…right, Jesse?”

I shook my head. I may not have had the balls to kill them, but I would never protect them. “I went to school with them, yes, but they’re harassing me.”

I wasn’t sure if Bane was trying to blackmail me or simply do the right thing by me, but it didn’t matter. He was helping me, and I needed him there. Nolan stopped a good three feet away from Bane and Henry.

“What’s up, man? Nothing to see here. I’m sure you have better things to do than to bang up our night.” Nolan’s voice was toneless. He was trying to swallow in the anger he’d felt for being interrupted.

“Snowflake, what should we do with them?” Bane said ‘Snowflake’ like we had pet names for each other and ‘we’ like it was a concept I was familiar and comfortable with. Like we did things together all the time. Like we were friends.

I don’t date. My job doesn’t allow it. Long story. Let’s be friends.

A month after The Incident, I got back to school to complete my senior year and graduate. I saw Henry, Nolan, and Emery every day. I saw them in the cafeteria, and in class, and at whatever events Pam and Darren dragged me to in town in their attempt to fit in. Emery, Nolan, and Henry acted as if I didn’t exist, and they did such a thorough job, by the end of the year, even I’d bought into it. Point was, we always pretended we didn’t know each other. I was tired of pretending it didn’t happen.

It did, and it hurt. It still hurt, years after. It would always hurt, for as long as I lived.

I took a step forward. “What are you doing in Todos Santos?”

Nolan turned his head to me. Henry winced. The silence was pregnant with things I didn’t want to hear.