Page 214 of Broken by my Bully

Bastian, leaning against the wall like he owns it. Like he owns this whole room.

Like he ownsme.

My nipples harden under the silk, and I quickly force my gaze away.

Straight back to Kai, my enemy.

But his eyes aren’t on me anymore. He’s staring behind him, head bobbing as he searches the crowd.

…for whomever I was looking at.

Bastian’s words come back to me, darkly ominous.

…he likes you…

Milo was just some guy at a taco stand. What the hell is Bastian going to do when he discovers Kai was my childhood friend? That he was indeed the one who bruised my jaw. Marked my neck. Who left me so traumatized I blacked out and came to him for help?

I can’t wait to find out.

Bastian

My hand is over my mouth. To anyone in the crowd looking in my direction, I’m as appalled as the rest of them at Haven’s fiery speech.

Truly, I’m hiding a smile.

Haven has never been just another grant student. Ever since her application landed on my desk, I’ve been utterly fascinated with her.

A ditch-poor Riversider with the face of an angel. Capable of writing an outstanding essay on this town’s glaring socioeconomic divide, but utterly incapable of pulling herself out of the gutter.

No obvious drug habit.

Hadn’t resorted to hooking yet.

She’d thrown everything into the opportunity for a fresh start…and everything in her application reeked with that desperation.

I still remember the day we awarded her the grant. Her wide blue eyes, the blush when she realized she would have to go up to the podium to accept her shiny new prize. I was supposed to be the one awarding the grant, but I deferred to Mr. Callahan, AHC’s biggest donor. If it weren’t for our money, the Social Change grant wouldn’t even exist.

Haven never even knew I was there.

For months I’ve been watching. Waiting. Orchestrating. Moving pieces on a board she doesn’t even know exists.

My money. My grant.Mygirl.

But she didn’t need to know that yet. She still doesn’t know I paid for her entire education just to get her in my classroom. There’s stillsomuch she doesn’t know about me.

None of these pathetic fucks do.

It’s so easy to keep someone in the dark when you’re the one controlling the lights.

I’m particularly proud of the fact that no one knows Haven’s real address. Not when she was living above the grocer, nor when I assumed she was couch surfing or sleeping in her father’s car. License and registration state it still belongs to him. No insurance, not that it’s any surprise.

AHC has been sending all Haven’s correspondence to some crack den in Riverside. No one will bother to return it. They’ve probably burned everything for heat already.

It’s so easy to keep someone in the dark when you’re the one controlling the lights.

Pests and nocturnal creatures forced to live in the dark learned to thrive in it. I’m sure Haven’s been living in squalor her entire life, but who knows how deep the shadows inside those moldy walls were?

Will she thrive in this darkness…or succumb to it?