Page 95 of Brutal Little Secrets

“How do you know each other?” Mia asks.

“Elementary school.” Jackson smiles. “She was the pretty blond with pigtails, and I was the kid too nervous to tell her I thought she was pretty.”

I take a breath and turn to meet his dark eyes. Was it all fake? The laughter? The sweetness? He acted like he really liked me, but was it all obsession?

He smiles like we’re old friends. “Honestly, I had the biggest crush on her, but she never noticed me.”

I narrow my eyes on him. He’s not mentioning that summer. Maybe it didn’t mean anything to him. Maybe I was just an available girl.

“She’s currently trying to make amends with her cheating boyfriend. You should convince her she shouldn’t give him another chance.” Mia wiggles her eyebrows.

“I’m okay, really.” I don’t want his attention. Let him focus on Mia.

Mia gives me an odd look but then turns to smile at Jackson. “She’s shy, but I’ve told her that once a cheater, always a cheater.”

“You’re full of all sorts of good advice.” Jackson chuckles, but his gaze strays to me, and there’s an intensity that’s unsettling. Am I just imagining it? I don’t think so.

Something bangs against the boards in front of us. I jerk my gaze and meet Hawk’s green eyes before he spins away from the guy he shoved against the boards.

When I swallow, something settles inside me. They’re here. They’ll protect me. I just have to stay here and not leave the game. He can’t get me here.

But after the game, the guys will go down to the locker room together, leaving me with just Mia as backup. She doesn’t know Jackson might be dangerous to me, but we’re in public.

“I didn’t realize Evan went to your school until my team played yours in a scrimmage.”

Mia looks like she’s buying his sugarcoated words. But she doesn’t know him or about the texts he’s sent me. Should I confront him? Ask him why he sent them?

Would I sound like a crazy person if it’s not him? Because as much as the guys and I believe it’s him, is that because he’s the only suspect? There are people who don’t like me, like Brandt. He might fuck with my mind to get me off my game for the showcase. Olivia definitely doesn’t like me, but she’s already offered to buy me off, so I don’t think she’s moved to scare tactics yet.

It might just be a coincidence Jackson realized I still exist. Maybe he just wants to apologize for frightening me. Maybe he really hasn’t thought of me at all since that summer.

“Are you still acting?” Jackson asks.

I’m not being hunted. This is standard catching up talk. “I direct now.”

“She’s the best at it.” Mia smiles. “I’m one of her actors. She’s putting on Shakespeare and she’s brilliant.”

“She was always the smartest girl in school.” He smiles like he’s remembering.

I try to remember if I ever knew him in school. But I barely remembered him when he started talking to me at the apartment building. He was a cute boy who seemed interested in me. The first boy who ever approached me and seemed to like me.

He didn’t look at me like I was an ant or a have-not. He saw me.

Fuck, I fell into the same trap with Chase. Am I doing the same thing with the Devil’s trio?

They paid attention to me, and I just let them in. Okay, that’s not entirely true.

They came at me hard, but I didn’t exactly cave to them. Not at first, but they made it so hard to ignore them.

“Sorry, she checks out sometimes.” Mia’s words bring me back to the present.

“Sure, it’s not a problem.” Jackson meets my eyes. “There are few people who actually know Evan.”

Yes, and they’re all on the ice right now and not able to claim me in front of him. But I belong to them in ways I’ve never belonged to anyone else. Chase knows about my needing silence, but only because I told him.

Damon takes care of me in a way I haven’t been in years. He makes sure all my needs are met. I lift my gaze and see him on the ice. My heart thumps hard.

Cam knows what it means to be lonely. He balances the other two out.