Trust Him (Rebels At Sterling Prep #4) - Caitlyn Dare Page 0,1
matter what.
You get one family in life, and mine decided to cast me aside and exile me to Sterling Bay.
I know exactly what they’ll think when—if—they find out about this.
They won’t care.
Because I may as well be dead to them.
Bitter laughter crawls up my throat and spills from my lips. In some ways, my parents are as bad as Donny. Sure, they don’t deal in drugs or guns, but they bargain with secrets and money. People like my father, the elite families of Gravestone County, are only concerned with two things, reputation and the size of their bank accounts.
I should feel lucky I’m free of them, of the life they had all planned out for me. But I’ll never forget what they did to me. The pain, the gaping hole in my heart, will forever bind us.
They broke me.
Irrevocably changed me.
And now... well, now I’m pretty sure I’m in love with a murderer. But I read somewhere once that lost souls call to other lost souls. They seek each other out like glimpses of light on the horizon.
Maybe I was always supposed to come to Sterling Bay. The same way Cole was always supposed to escape his life in the Heights.
Maybe we were fated to meet, to save each other.
I cling to the thought as the fight slowly leaves my body and I finally succumb to the darkness.
I wake with start, the icy fingers of fear wrapping around my throat as I try to swallow. It’s dark still. Darker than before. My mouth is dry and my head pounds.
“Hello?” I croak, aware of someone in the trailer with me.
“Boss said to bring you this.” Ski mask man steps forward. His face is no longer obscured, but part of me wishes it was. An angry, jagged scar runs across his eye and down the side of his face. His eyes narrow when he notices me staring. I instantly avert my gaze.
“You should drink something.” He uncaps the bottle and advances toward me, but I slam my lips together.
He drugged me.
There’s no way I’m drinking anything he—
“Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.” He almost sighs the words, but I refuse to mistake the softness in his voice for regret.
Turning my head, I avoid his proximity until he roughly grabs my face and squeezes my cheeks together, forcing me to open my mouth. He pours the water in, not caring that I can barely swallow.
“Fucking stubborn bitch,” he murmurs.
The second he backs up, I heave a deep breath, aware that my school shirt is wet. His eyes go to my chest, making bile rush up my throat.
He licks his lips, openly gawking at me. “Shame the boss said we could look but couldn’t touch.”
Oh God.
I screw my eyes shut, trying to take myself to another place. Somewhere—anywhere—better than this. But it’s futile. The stale air permeates my thoughts, anchoring me to the cold, dank trailer.
He watches me for a few more seconds before slowly retreating. “Ain’t nobody to blame for this but Jagger,” he says.
“What will happen to him?” The words fall from my lips.
“Your boyfriend will fall in line or suffer the consequences.”
A shiver runs through me. Cole did all this to save Ace, to protect his brother... it doesn’t seem fair.
But I know all too well that life isn’t fair. It’s cruel and hard and messy. I’m only eighteen, but sometimes it feels like I’ve lived too much life for a young girl.
My stomach aches and I want nothing more than to rub it, to place my hand there and settle the nerves wreaking havoc inside me. But the second my mind goes there, I think of the baby that may or may not be growing. If I’m pregnant, I can only be six or seven weeks at the most.
Tears well in my eyes. A baby is the last thing I need, the last thing Cole needs, but I can’t deny the rush of love I feel. After everything I survived at the hands of my parents, it feels like a second chance.
A shot at doing things right.
My captor clears his throat, yanking me back to reality with a thud. My head snaps up in his direction, and he shoots me a dirty smirk. “Who knows, maybe if Jagger fucks up, you and I will get to have some fun after all.”
The memory of his knife at my throat, his body pressed close to mine, floods my mind. I would rather die than become his plaything.