Page 27 of A Little Bit Reckless

Tucking my feelings down, I waited. Wolf tipped his chin at Dorian. I assumed he was passing this off to him.

Dorian scrubbed into his blond hair. “Wells and Bow used to be friends.”

My mouth parted. “What?”

“They actually used to be thick as thieves.” Wolf made his own lap a seat for his girl. He wrapped his long arms around the curves of Fawn’s waist once she sat. He frowned. “Until that girl died.”

“Died?” Sloane looked at me, but I was already looking at her.

“What happened?” I asked, and Dorian pushed a breath through his nose. He told us a story about how Wells was lifeguarding one summer. Apparently, it was something all the guys used to do before Sloane and I moved into town. Dorian explained it was during that summer that a terrible accident happened.

“That girl died on Wells’s watch, and he’s never forgiven himself for it,” Wolf said. Sloane, Fawn, and I were silent while both guys spoke, and I think equally stunned. All this happened before the three of us came into the picture. The Ambroses,Reeds, Mallicks, and the Prinzes had all been friends for a very long time.

Wolf wet his lips. “His focus had been on Bow and her friends at the time.”

“Wells believed Bow had been drowning. She’d been underwater, and it was an honest mistake,” Dorian explained.

I shook my head. “It wasn’t Bow’s fault, though. It wasn’t Wells’s fault either.”

It wasn’t anyone’s.

What happened was tragic, but it was one hundred percent no one’s fault.

Wolf faced Dorian. “Tell that to Wells.”

So much was starting to make sense now, and, though I didn’t know what part of what I said Wolf addressed, I had a feeling Wells definitely believed what happened was Bow’s fault. He treated her like crap, but I also knew something else. He’d come to her rescue tonight, and he looked absolutely terrified.

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

Bow

My phone pinged, and I opened the message.

I wanted to be sick.

It was a video of me on a balcony at that party, but it wasn’t the video itself that made me sick to my stomach. It was the message underneath, and I knew who it was from, even though, I once again didn’t recognize the number.

Unknown:I’m assuming he caused you to do this. You see how toxic he and your other friends are? If they cared about you, they’d protect you from him. Come back to me, Bow. It’ll be different this time.

Shaking, I deleted the message. I immediately pulled up Sloane.

Me:Hey, can I stay at your place again tonight?

I never thought I’d be asking her that so soon after staying there. I spent exactly one night at my brother’s place and left the next morning before anyone woke up.

I couldn’t face anyone.

Feeling sick again, I waited for Sloane’s text. I really didn’t want to text her, but I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t feel safe at my dorm by myself. I mean, he knew where that was so…

Sloane:Sure!

Relief swept me, but then, Sloane texted me again.

Sloane:Dorian and I aren’t home though. We’re back in The Heights visiting my parents. Ares and Fawn came too.

Crap. Maywood Heights was my hometown.