Page 7 of The Ruthless Note

A few days later, she stood me up.

In all that time, I didn’t know I was the idiot in the middle of Cadence’s elaborate web.

My teeth gnash together as my fingers climb up to the high-pitched notes.

Cadence was probably laughing it up while I ran after her like a lovesick fool, my tongue hanging out, ready and willing to do whatever ‘Redhead’ wanted.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.

I went crazy over a figment of my imagination and the only girl who challenged that obsession was Cadence herself. She was everything I wasn’t supposed to want, but she dug deep under my skin. Made all the wrong feel right.

I craved her in a different way. It was raw and forbidden and a hell of a lot stronger than I expected. I couldn’t stop backing her into walls, feeling her soft curves against me at every opportunity.

I couldn’t stop hesitating.

She made me question myself.

Made me bend.

Agony.

Turmoil.

She put me through it.

Because when every part of me wanted Redhead, there was a side of me that wanted to get under Cadence’s short little skirt too.

All that back and forth… for nothing.

She made me the biggest fool Redwood Prep has ever seen.

I’m going to ruin her.

I make a downward swipe of my hand and strum pure air. When I glance down, I realize my guitar is gone. Sol is standing to my left, clutching the neck of my electric in his hands.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I growl.

Sol doesn’t waver an inch. His brown eyes are steady on me. Steadier than they have a right to be. It’s like he sees the chaos, the destruction boiling to the surface. Maybe a part of him recognizes it.

My gaze travels down his jacket sleeves that are scrunched back far enough to reveal the scars on his wrists. They’re mangled, ugly scabs that have only started to heal. The blade went deep.

Finn and Zane step into line beside Sol. It’s not a show of solidarity. It’s a warning. They’re prepared to tackle me if I come after him to get my guitar.

They don’t give a damn if I want to harm myself in this downward spiral, but they’ll tear me to pieces if I attack Sol after everything he’s been through. Everything we put him through.

I breathe hard, my chest heaving. For a moment, my panting is the only sound that shatters the long, tense silence.

It’s enough of a wake-up call to see Zane’sdon’t do itface. My brothers don’t stand against me. Ever. If they do, it’s because I’ve really gone off the deep end.

And maybe I have.

Redhead and Cadence are the same person. Dad is prowling the hallways of Redwood for reasons that can’t be anything good. And cops are sniffing around Christa like hyenas on a carcass. If she starts singing like a canary, it won’t be long before the authorities find out we fudged with Cadence’s grades.

It’s all culminating in a big, freaking mushroom cloud of a bomb.

I need to punch something.

“What’s up with you?” Sol asks pointedly.