Hate So Good: A High School Bully Romance (The Hate Series Book 2) by Nina Lincoln (first color ebook reader .txt) 📗

“Wait. What? How many times? Finn!”

“I’m sorry,” I flush. “I didn’t know what to do, and we were barely talking…”

He glances away and clenches his jaw, staring out the window before he turns back to me with a sigh, “I’m not angry with you, Finn. I’m fucking pissed some piece of shit is doing this to you.”

Wiping my face, I nod miserably, and he pulls me into his arms, caressing my hair softly. “It’s okay, Love. We’ll figure this out.”

“I think it must be someone we know,” I say against his shirt.

It feels so good to be in his embrace, and I pray nothing comes between us again.

Pulling back, he stares at me grimly, and I see the truth behind his eyes, he’s thinking the same thing.

With a shiver, I turn away and look out the window at the students wandering by. It could be any one of them, and until somebody catches the fucker, I’m a walking talking victim.

Hayden’s dark hair comes into view, his lazy smile and cold as fuck eyes easy to see from this distance. Nate lurks nearby, with a morose expression on his face.

“Tell me about Portia,” I say, turning back to him.

“What about her?” he asks dubiously.

“Well, you all liked her? Fought over her? Why?”

He turns away with a frustrated sigh. “She was one of us a long time ago. Back then, we were just kids, and when we all decided we liked her, we made her choose. It was ugly and stupid.”

“And?”

Giving me an impatient look, he says, “And nothing, Portia chose me. We dated for a while, but like I said, we were young. It didn’t last.”

“What about Nate and Hayden? They were angry?”

Slowly he nods, “Yes. At the time, it became a big competition to win her over. At first, she wasn’t willing to choose, and so we fought over her, and she liked it.”

Ugh. So silly, Portia’s actions created a divide that those boys never came back from.

“Do you think they got over it?”

“How so?”

“Well, Nate still seems angry about it?”

“Nate’s a fucking douche. He’s always been the one to take things to the next level. When Portia chose me, he lost his shit. It wasn't pretty,” he says grimly.

“And Sarah?”

“Finn,” Colt says in a warning tone, but I ignore him with my expectant stare.

“What about her?” he says with a sigh.

“Did Nate like her or date her? Did you all fight over her before?” Talking about any bitch dating Colt makes my skin crawl, but I have to go there if I want answers, even if it makes Colt uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, it also doesn't sit well with me because we’re so new in so many ways, and I’m not sure how far I can go before he backs away.

It’s a shitty notion that.

“No, Nate never dated her that I know of unless it was after me,” he says with a shrug.

Studying his noncommittal expression, I ease a little, but I’m still stuck on the coincidences. “And Hayden?”

His head whips around, his eyes narrowing icily. “What about him?”

“Did he date Sarah before you?” I ask with a shiver, dropping my gaze to my lap.

Sighing, he grabs my chin and drops a kiss on my nose, to which I smile shyly.

“No, Love. Hayden dated Sarah after me. Why? I don't know. Maybe he liked her. I know he did fuck her while we were dating, though. Maybe he wanted my sloppy seconds,” he says sourly.

“That doesn't make sense. Hayden doesn't care about any girl in particular.”

“I don't know why. Maybe you should ask him,” he says irritably.

Grabbing his bag, he looks at me expectantly, and I follow him from the truck, the sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach confirming he’s hiding something. But what? What could possibly matter now?

Colt grabs my hand and pulls me toward the door, bypassing Hayden with a grim expression, and I give him a nod, to which he returns with a curious look. I feel better knowing there are a few people out there looking out for me, but I don't know if those are the same people of whom I should be wary.

We’re eating lunch after a tiresome day of classes when Hayden turns from where he’s sitting and says grimly, “Yo, did you see the news?”

“No?” Colt says, giving me a saucy wink to which I smile feebly.

He’s been quiet since this morning, he’s pulled back in his head, and it hurts my hurt to feel the distance between us.

“Sarah’s missing,” Hayden says.

“What?” We both say in unison, turning to him with matching incredulous stares.

“Yeah, her parents reported it a few days ago. She left for school a week ago and never came home. Never made it to school either. Police are looking for whoever saw her last.”

“A week ago?” I whisper.

It wasn't long before that she showed up at my house, freaking out and waving a knife in my face.

Colt is grim beside me, sharing a look with Hayden I can't decipher, and I look between them expectantly, but they offer no explanation.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing,” Colt says heavily.

“What? No way. Tell me,” I demand.

“It's just,” Colt runs his hands through his hair, “it just reminds me of Portia.”

“Oh. Do you think it could be related?”

“Probably not. That was several years ago,” Hayden says dismissively, but I see the tic around his eye.

What are the chances two girls both Hayden and Colt dated would disappear? I mean, it seems a little too coincidental to me, but what did that mean for them and me? Were they getting letters and grotesque gifts also? Or am I climbing up the wrong tree?

“Who else did Sarah...date?” I ask.

Hayden snorts, “Who didn't she ‘date’? She fucked half the student body of Northside High and was well on her way through South.”

It doesn't go unnoticed that he’s referring to her in the past tense. Glancing around uneasily, I say, “Did she, maybe, get notes or something? Did she have a secret admirer?”

Colt stands from the