Page 25 of Pretty Lies (Watch Me Burn #1)

If we partied, she was there, which meant Tyler and I weren’t railing girls for fun anymore. I saw it in his eyes, he had a major hard-on for her, and he had no interest in fucking anyone else while she was in his sights.

Lukas had always been a little bit of a bitch, but she’d rocked up and blown what was left of his balls to hell. His eyes tracked her every move, his concern for her almost suffocating us.

I swore she was all he talked about.

The biggest surprise of all was Jensen’s acceptance of her.

At first, he’d done well to act nice and keep his bullshit at bay, but he wasn’t acting anymore. Ever since she’d spent the night in his bed, all he saw was her.

My boys were fucking brainwashed, and I had to snap us all out of it before it was too late.

Jensen was right, she was stupid for trusting us because we were going to tear her to shreds.

I just had to make sure the guys were still on board with the plan.

Mom had called earlier to beg me to come home, and it sounded like she was crying. I hated it when she cried, but I was glad she felt like shit for sending me to Dad’s house.

It was a long apology, and I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be sending me there again.

Rory squealed as Jensen laughed, drawing my attention to the pool from my place on the sunbed to see him splashing her playfully.

The last girl he’d had in the pool, he’d almost drowned. She’d been blowing him under the water and he was close, so he held her under until he finished.

She hadn’t been back.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Tyler asked as he sat on the sunbed beside mine, his eyes on Rory. “I don’t think he’s pretending anymore.”

That made me snort, turning to face him. “Says you. You’re obsessed with her.”

“She’s hot, sue me. I fucked Claire’s friend the other night since cockblocker ran off with our entertainment.

I’m not hooked on her like he is,” Tyler scoffed, and my jaw clenched at his lie.

He never lied to me, he was my best friend, but he’d sulked after Jensen had taken Rory away from us, then he’d gone to bed alone.

“Who, Mandy?” I asked lightly.

“Yeah. She’s got nice tits,” he answered as he stared at Rory, my hands balling into fists. Mandy hadn’t even been at the party, her family was in Hawaii all weekend.

“We need to deal with her soon,” I replied as I grabbed my phone and scrolled through social media, feeling his eyes land on me.

“Mandy?”

“Aurora,” I grunted, lifting my gaze to his. “That is, if you still want to?”

“Yeah, bro. You know I’ve got your back,” he smiled, but it looked fake. “Do you think Jense will still be on board though? What do we do about Lukas? He’ll never let you hurt her.”

“They can pick a side if they want, but I’ll be making sure they know where they stand with me if they choose her,” I murmured, trying to focus on the nudes in my messages from girls I didn’t even know. None of them did anything for me, and I almost threw my phone in the fucking pool.

I had to finish what we started before I lost my goddamn mind.

Jensen

After thinking about it all night and most of Sunday morning, I decided I needed to tell the guys about Rory’s past. I’d been lying in bed for two hours, contemplating the right way to approach it.

I couldn’t let them fuck her on Friday night when she was wasted, and I knew both of them were pissy at me for taking her away from them, but they didn’t know what she’d already gone through.

She’d been fucked up on cocaine and whiskey, so she could’ve pulled the rape card on them if she’d woken up naked in their bed and panicked. I didn't think she would, but with how intoxicated she’d been, she would’ve had every right to.

There was no way she’d been clear-headed enough to consent.

I’d done them both a fucking favor, but they didn’t see it that way.

I needed her to fuck off back to the Heights where she was safe.

She might have been able to hold her own there, but my boys were on a whole different level.

They didn’t beat up girls, they weren’t like that, but the psychological shit they did to people was almost worse.

Rory was already fucked up from her own emotions and trauma, so they could do some serious damage to her.

I didn’t know why I gave a shit, but I didn’t want her to go through more trauma, and Ashburn Valley Academy was a cesspit of it.

My fingers raked through my hair with frustration as I realized I was looking forward to school in the morning for the simple fact that I’d get to see her again.

It was as if I had a girl sidekick who just so happened to be fuckable.

She was tough, I’d give her that, but that worried me too because that meant the guys would push harder to break her.

Even if my boys left her alone, Skeeter’s interest concerned me. He’d played it cool on Friday night, but I could almost hear his dick spring to life as he’d imagined all the fucked up shit he could do to her. Lucky for us, she wasn’t the type of girl to go for a guy like him.

He’d scare her away, if anything, and he wouldn’t even need to take her pants off to do it.

The front door closed quietly, the small sound seeming loud in the silent house. My dad had decided not to come home for the second month in a row, so Lukas usually showed up to hang out in the evenings. He’d spent so much time here in recent years that he basically lived here.

Dad had built his empire on his college football career, stocks, and investments, before building his own law firm with one of his buddies. He was one of the best in the business, and even I could admit that he’d gotten us out of some shit in the past.

Gilbert & Jennings Lawyers was not going to be my future, much to my father’s annoyance.

He only usually stopped by the house for a few hours or maybe even a night when he wanted to make me feel bad for my life choices, but he never stayed longer than that.

I didn’t completely hate the man, but growing up with the pressure he’d put on me to succeed made me stressed.

Lukas’ head poked around my bedroom door a few minutes later, a big smile on his face as he pushed his black hair out of his eyes. Most people saw him as weak, but he could fight as well as the rest of us, even taking down Caden when we’d first met.

It was how we all became such good friends.

“Thought you’d be up here. You want to order pizza tonight? I’m fucking starving .”

I shrugged, moving over on the bed to make room for him. “Yeah, I guess. Can I ask you something?”

He sprawled out beside me, kicking his shoes off and letting them drop to the floor.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Should we try to talk Holloway out of this bullshit game with Rory? I mean, I don’t think he hates her as much as he says he does, but if he knew the truth about her, maybe he’d cut her some slack?

” I suggested, making him turn to watch me.

He didn’t know everything that Caden had planned, but he knew enough, and he didn’t like it.

He was silent for a while before sighing, his face falling as he spoke.

“I think the whole thing’s stupid and I don’t want any part in it.

I can’t hurt her again, Jense. I only just got her back.

I think Caden needs to just admit that he likes her.

So what if we let a girl into our group?

She’s tough, hot as fuck, and loyal. She’s a nice chick. ”

“You still love her, don’t you?” I asked quietly, his shoulders drooping in defeat.

“Of course I do. It was just me and her for a long time. She was basically the other half of me until Max went and fucked it all up.”

Devastation poured off of him in waves, and my heart hurt at the thought of hurting him by hurting her. It wasn’t puppy love, I could tell he loved her deep in his fucking soul, and I wanted that for Lukas.

I had to find a way to make Caden see sense, which meant we had to tell him the truth about her past.

“We need to tell them, you know that, right?” I finally answered, making him groan.

“I don’t want to get involved. She’ll kill me if I tell her private shit to someone else.”

“She told Caden that we could tell him and Ty. We’ll just get her to give us permission on the day so no one gets in trouble. We can sort it all out tomorrow at school, but for now, I want that pizza you were talking about.”

Lukas was my best friend, hands down. I knew that I’d grown up with Caden and Tyler, but Lukas and I connected right from the start.

I remembered his mom dropping him off on his first day of high school, waving her money around, and acting like the fucking Queen of Ashburn Valley, which meant I instantly felt like I understood him.

He was fucking miserable, just like the rest of us rich assholes.

Money didn’t mean happiness, it meant absent parents, scandals, and nice cars to replace the love our parents didn’t give us. People envied us, we were some of the richest kids at the Academy, but we were also the most damaged.

It had been a shitty week for all of us the week that Lukas had arrived.

Caden and his dad had gotten into a fistfight because his dad had threatened to beat-up Josie for leaving him, Tyler’s parents decided not to return home at all anymore, meaning he was completely alone, then there was me.

My mom had taken off when I was younger, and she’d gotten in touch with me that week and wanted to see me. She’d never shown up though, and all Dad had said was that he’d told me so.

Last I’d heard was that she’d shacked up with another rich asshole who was fifteen years younger than her. It really went to show how superficial love could be.

It seemed stupid, but Lukas and I just ended up relying on each other for comfort from then on.

The thought of not having him in my life was painful, so I didn’t think about it.

I knew he wasn’t going anywhere, mainly because he’d have to live with his mom all the time again, and that would be enough to push even the strongest person over the fucking edge.

Karen James was a complete cunt, and she was in his face all the time, trying to feel youthful by having all of us around and belittling Lukas in front of us. She was a homophobic bitch too, regularly reminding him how wrong it was whenever we’d all spend the night at each other’s houses.

After two weeks of us tolerating her bullshit, we stopped regularly hanging out at his house. Lukas didn’t blame us. He loved her, but she was toxic for him.

I hated her for that.

I had no idea if he was into guys, he’d never told me if he was, but it would never change our friendship if he was.

I had his back one hundred and twenty percent, and I hoped one day he could get away from her and live however the fuck he wanted.

It wasn’t like Karen was that important to society, she fell into money when she’d married Lukas’ dad, never having to work a day in her life. He’d killed himself when Lukas was a baby, leaving his fortune behind for the grieving widow and newborn son.

Lukas ordered pizza while I set up a movie, both of us ending up on the couch with a beer and our dinner. It was nice just the two of us, and I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he kept checking his phone.

“You waiting for a call or something?” I asked, and he shook his head.

“No. I’m just wondering what Rory’s doing,” he mumbled, lifting his gaze to mine. “She hasn’t tried to speak to me since Friday night.”

“She thinks you’re mad at her, so she’s probably avoiding you,” I offered, a sigh leaving him.

“I was mad. She was so careless getting that wasted.” He was quiet for a moment before continuing. “I was also mad at myself for wanting to sleep with her anyway. The fuck is wrong with me?”

“Bro, we all want to sleep with her. Don’t beat yourself up, I made sure she went to bed with her pants on. If you like her, tell her. She’s not a mind reader.”

“You like her too.”

“So? Maybe she’d want to sleep with both of us? She’s banging Holloway while letting Ty mess around with her,” I pointed out, discomfort crossing his face as he turned back to the TV.

“The difference is, they’re just having fun. I don’t think she’d be into dating more than one person. You don’t know her like I do, and she hates relationships in general. She’d definitely never get married, she doesn’t believe in it.”

I chuckled, patting his leg. “Slow down, we’re talking about banging her, not marrying her.”

“I’d marry her.”

He didn’t look at me again, so I dropped the conversation, leaving him to his thoughts.

I wasn’t going to ever get married either, and I sure as fuck wasn’t having kids. I wanted the Gilbert bloodline to end with me, and any money I had left would go to charity or something.

It was the only time that money made a difference.