Mason glanced at me and I narrowed my eyes. There was a searching look in him. I lifted my chin. What was he looking for? Then I tried to search inside of him. What was he thinking?

He blinked and the look was gone. The normal unreadable wall was back in place. He threw Logan in front of him and neither seemed to care about the crowd that had formed or who Logan ran into.

Adam seemed frozen in place.

Cassandra's voice came from behind me. I gritted my teeth as I heard her coo, "Logan, are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Logan barked out an ugly-sounding laugh and shoved her to the side. "Back off. You've got no chance."

I tried to suppress a smile at that, but couldn't so I looked down.

"Oh shut up," she cried out in anger. "You do not laugh at me, whore."

My head came up and my eyes widened. Her fury was directed at me. She approached with two steps and a hand in the air. "You dare to laugh at me? Do you know who I am? Or what I could do to you? I would demolish you, slut. I would run your name through the mud so much you'd beg me to let you out of your misery. You'd be—"

Something snapped inside of me and I marched up to her. I knew my eyes were dead when they met hers and she shrunk away, a little bit. "You think you scare me? Nothing scares me. Nothing, Sullivan."

"Whatever…" she tried to laugh it off and turn away.

My hand clasped onto her arm and I whirled her back around. I was in her face and all the hatred I had boiled to the top. "You want all the dirt on me. Here you go. I hope you take notes. My mom's a cheater. She left my dad for another guy and took me with. I was living with two guys who hated me because of that. Then I found out my boyfriend was screwing my best friend and my other best friend knew about it, for two years. Next bombshell—my dad's not my dad. Think it could get worse? It did. I had no one. No friends, no nothing. The guy who raised me all my life couldn't talk to me because of stupid legalities. Now my real dad's in town, my mom's hit me a couple times, and I'm screwing my future stepbrother. You think I'm scared of you?" A hollow laugh broke out of me. "I can handle anything you've got up your sleeve."

There was silence around me and then she belted out a hysterical laugh. "I knew you were sleeping with Logan. Of all—"

I slapped her.

Then I stood there and waited for her reaction. She gasped and reeled back with a hand pressed to her cheek. Her eyes bulged out and she was seething. "You just—"

My face was calm, devoid of emotion. I didn't feel a thing. "I did. What are you going to do about it?"

She watched me, torn for some reason.

My eyebrow lifted. "Are you going to hit back or are you going to tattle on me?"

The tension was thick in the air. I felt it swirl around inside of me and knew she could see the storm inside of me. I wanted her to hit me. I wanted to hit her again…I wanted a reason to unleash my hell on someone…

Her shoulders slumped forward and she looked down as she stepped back.

I clipped out, "Are you backing away from me?"

She looked up. I caught the scared look in them. Then she turned and was swallowed up in the crowd.

I stared after her and started to look around. Miranda Stewart stood there, so did the rest of the Elite. I met all of their gazes unflinching. One by one they looked away. When I got to the last one, I was surprised to see pity in Adam's gaze.

"What are you looking at?"

His chest lifted up and down. "I told you. We're friends. I may hate your stepbrothers, but not you. Never you."

Logan bit out a curse. "Is he serious?"

Mason turned on him. "Shut up." He strode forward until he blocked me from Adam's gaze. His back was to me, like so many other times. "Message received, Quinn. You're not going anywhere, but neither are we."

Adam flinched, but a resolved look came over him.

Then Mason reached behind him and grasped my arm. He turned and led through the crowd, dragging me behind. Logan followed, but threw a few dirty looks behind him. He muttered under his breath, "Gonna bust your face open."

We hadn't gotten to Mason's car before David's voice hollered through the parking lot, "You can't leave, Mason. You agreed for the whole day and tomorrow."

Mason let go of my arm and cursed as he turned back around. Empty cars were parked all around us and a slight chill breezed around us after a soft rain. The cars were wet and small puddles had formed on the pavement. David approached us with a forceful stride. His jaw was clenched tight and his shoulders were thrown back.

He raked his gaze over me, but spoke to Mason, "You can't leave. That's part of your discipline."

Mason cursed at him. "Forget your little agreement. I'm not staying in there where my brother and your daughter get attacked. You've got a bunch of angry pussies on your team. They don't know when to shut up and leave things alone."

David's mouth turned into a frown. I felt his gaze over me again as he asked softly, "You were attacked, Samantha?"

I jerked away.

Mason stepped in front of me again. "Quinn's obsessed with her. That doesn't bode well with the rest of the girls in your school. She should switch to public school. We could protect her there."

David stepped around him and reached for my arm. "Sam, is this true?"

I hissed as I swung my arm away, but I sent Mason a searching look. What was he doing?

"Sam."

"What?" I wheeled to the only father I knew. "What do you want? The guys in there hate Mason and Logan. You were stupid to think this would work out and Mason could last the whole weekend."

David looked down. "I tried to steer him clear from them."

"It didn't work. Think of another plan, but surrounding him with those guys won't work, especially if he's alone. Logan and I were there to support him."

David's jaw clenched. "Who were they, Sam? Who targeted him?"

I wanted to throw my hands up in frustration. He wasn't hearing me. He didn't get it. "No one, but they don't mix. Mason, Logan, and me—we don't mix with this school."

"You've gone here all your life."

"I don't mix anymore."

"You don't want to go to school here anymore?"

Logan stepped forward and brushed me back with his arm. "She's not saying that, sir. Fallen Academy is a good school. Sam will be fine, but she's saying that you can't ask us to get along with your football team. It won't work, sir."