I couldn’t breathe, my hands somehow against the hard planes of his chest as he continued. “I would take Dante a hundred times, and beat him a hundred times more to make sure it’s not you.”

A gasp choked from me, and I frantically tried to suck more oxygen in before I passed out. “No!” I cried, finding my anger again and shoving him as hard as I could.

He let me go, because there was no way I could have forced him, and I pressed myself against the wall. “I don’t believe you. You’re just telling me what I want to hear. You’re a fucking brilliant liar; you had me completely fooled.”

Beck scrubbed his hands through his hair, sending the thick dark strands into more disarray. “I don’t fucking lie, Butterfly. I’ve never lied to you.”

Lies of omission were still lies.

His face softened, and it was such a weird expression on Beck’s features that it had me pausing.

“You’re scared,” he said softly.

Fuck yes I was. My life was in shambles, and I’d lost the one safe anchor I thought I’d had.

“You don’t want to believe my words, because then you’ll be vulnerable again. You’re scared to trust us again because then we’ll have the power to hurt you again.”

My temper made itself well known. “Can you fucking blame me?” I was close to screaming. “You fucking assholes almost destroyed me the last time I played happy freaking families with you. I’ve learned my lesson.”

“We are a family,” Beck said, his calm fading. “You’re just delaying the inevitable. The five of us, that is meant to fucking be.”

Today we were both a storm, mingling together to form a hurricane that would destroy everything.

And leave no survivors.

“Please just go, Beck,” I said hoarsely. The moment his nickname left my lips, sadness crossed his face, and for a moment my resolve wavered. I’d called him Sebastian most of our time together. Something he had loved. But right now, I needed the distance. So Beck it was. “I’m not ready to forgive you. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready. You can come in here with your pretty excuses and perfect lines, but in the end, you could have warned me. You could have done things differently. There’s always a choice.”

His gaze devoured me. It was like being burned from the inside out, the heat in my center flowing like lava through my veins. The longer he stared at me, the more my resolve faltered.

I missed him so much.

“Go to bed, Riley,” he murmured. “There will be no solution to this issue tonight. Tonight we just need to survive.”

More angry words were on the tip of my tongue. More accusations and pains I wanted to slash him with, but all of a sudden, I was tired. Not even just tired. Exhausted. Weary. Broken.

For the second time tonight, I crawled back into bed, and closed my eyes. I had no idea what Beck was doing, I didn’t even bother to look again. I just wanted to escape.

15

The next morning I woke in Beck’s arms, and for a split second, right before reality crashed into me, I snuggled closer. Letting my face rest against his chest, enjoying the safety I felt being cradled against him like this. I breathed in deep, absorbing his sexy, masculine scent before the haze of sleep faded and it all came back to me.

Delta. The man I’d killed. The rape attempt.

As carefully as I could given how sore I was, I extracted myself from his embrace and slid out of the bed. Beck was still asleep—possibly the first time he’d ever slept longer than me—and I allowed myself an indulgent moment admiring his sculpted chest and broad, strong shoulders. Of course the devil was beautiful, how else did he lure you into evil?

“You can always come back to bed, Butterfly,” Beck’s sleepy voice murmured, his eyes still closed. It was the dose of reality I needed, though, and I scampered my ass into the bathroom to take a long shower. My whole body ached from the attack, my muscles all locked up and screaming at me, so the hot water was sheer heaven.

Showing up at school today was so far down my list of things I wanted to do, but I’d be damned if I’d let Katelyn think she had won for even a second. So I took my time to wash and blow dry my hair into a silken sheet, then carefully applied makeup to ensure all the small marks—fingertip bruises along my jaw—were covered. My uniform would cover the rest of the damage from kicks and punches and really, I’d survived worse after the plane crash. This damage was mental, and to my frustration that wasn’t something I could cover with concealer.

When I finally emerged from my bedroom, in full uniform with heels and all, Beck gave me a slow once over then nodded his approval.

“Say the word at any point, we can turn around and come home. Ducis Academy doesn’t rule us, we just let them pretend for the sake of appearances.” His words were intended to comfort me, but I just shivered with the weight of my new life. How the fuck was I going to survive this cut throat world?

“You’ve got this, Riley,” Beck said softly, clearly seeing my hesitation. “You’re the strongest person I know.”

I snorted a laugh. “Don’t lie to me, Beck. I’ve met Dylan.” I rolled my eyes and bit back a wince of pain as I brushed past him to grab my school satchel—Prada, of course. Avoiding his questioning gaze, I simply held the door for Beck to exit my apartment. “I guess you’re driving me?”

He nodded, waiting for me to lock up, then made as if to take my hand before thinking better of it. “Yes, I brought your favorite car. A peace offering.”

I pursed my lips and decided not to acknowledge that comment. Yes, we had aired some of our issues last night, but things were far from okay. This was real life. Real, bloody, painful, heartbreaking life. People don’t just magically forgive and forget overnight.

We drove to school in near silence, neither one of us really knowing how to handle this diplomatic truce, so it was a relief when we pulled into the parking lot and spotted Eddy waiting with Jasper.

“Holy fucking shit, girl,” she exclaimed, tackling me into a huge hug when I stepped out of Beck’s Bugatti. “I’m so, so, so, so sorry. I can’t believe they did that. What could have happened if Beck and Evan—”

Her rambling was cut off by Jasper’s hand over her mouth, and she released me in her surprise.