Hate So Good: A High School Bully Romance (The Hate Series Book 2) Nina Lincoln (latest novels to read TXT) 📖

a devilish look, he grabs my hand and pulls me toward the door. “Then let’s get out of here.”

*****

Colt brings us to the lake. It’s a beautiful day, and I look around with appreciation as we walk hand in hand along the shoreline.

I feel alive and more peaceful than I have in a while because Colt, I’ve come to realize is my center, and I’ve been off balance since we parted. I don’t regret our confrontation because it had to happen for us both to realize who we are and what we need, but I’m happy just the same to be here with him now.

So much so, I’m smiling from ear to ear, and I don’t give a damn.

Squeezing my hand tucked firmly within his, Colt kisses my knuckles, smiling into my eyes. Thankfully his wound from his fight with Nate was superficial, but he’s got a nasty bruise forming that hurts my heart.

For Colt, anger bubbles below the surface all too often, and I wish I could take his pain away. Maybe with time, we can heal each other.

“We shouldn’t be seen together,” he says grimly, turning the topic to serious shit.

Nothing with us is ever easy.

The sullen thought makes my chest clench painfully, and taking a deep breath, I say shakily, “I can’t go back to before.”

“Oh, Baby, me either. But I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he says softly, squeezing my hand for good measure.

“Is that why you’ve stayed away?” I whisper.

“Yes,” he says, looking off into the distance. “Tiffany warned me off, and I just, I would die if something happened to you, Finn,” he says fervently, looking me in the eyes.

“I know,” I say softly, “me too. So, what do we do? The fucker is always around. He knows everything.”

“We make him think he’s won,” he says simply.

“But Colt-“ I protest.

“I know, Finn. We’ll find a way around it. I can’t stand the distance either. We just have to get creative,” he mutters, pulling me into his arms.

“How?”

“I’ll sneak over to your place,” he says, wagging his brows playfully.

Laughing, I smack his shoulder but then glance around uneasily. “Maybe we shouldn’t be here.”

“Probably not, but we can stage a breakup tomorrow.”

Sighing, I turn away, “When is this all going to end?”

“Soon Finn, we just have to figure out who this dick is. I’ve been trying to find Ben.”

“Colt, no! He warned me off from doing that!”

“What?” he growls.

“Yeah,” I explain the warnings from my fan about searching out the others, and we drop into a grim silence.

I hate that we have to talk about this shit. I hate that it's defining our relationship. We deserve a moment just to be, but we never fucking get it.

After a few minutes of brooding, I ask, “What did Tiffany say anyway?”

Glancing at me sideways, he shrugs, and I pull him to a stop to give him a fierce glare, “Colt!”

“Finn,” he sighs, running his hands through his hair. “It’s not good. It’s...this dick is scary shit.”

“How so?”

“He threatened to kill Tiffany’s younger sister.”

Holy shit! Blanching, I turn away. I mean, I knew the dude was bad news, but this? Fuck.

“Finn,” he says, grabbing my shoulders. “I don’t think she knows who it is. But we’ll figure this out!” he says fiercely.

I desperately want to know what he did to get the information from her, but I let it pass. I dumped him, and any ties to me didn’t bind him - besides, he did it for me. It doesn’t ease the jealousy, though, nope that sits on my chest like a fucking immovable weight.

Taking a deep breath, I turn my thoughts to more important matters. “Colt, are there any other surprises I need to know?”

He steps away, and I turn to him, my stomach sinking painfully at his cool expression as he says, “No, you heard the worst of it.”

“What about Portia?”

“What about her?”

“Was she pregnant with your kid?”

“What? No! By the time she got knocked up, we weren’t hanging out anymore,” he says passionately.

“And Sarah? You played the game with her? Was anything you did with me to get back at her?”

“Yes, we played the game. But no, Finn, everything I did, fucked up or not, was about you,” he says, running his hand through his hair.

“How did she know? About the crane? The things you said? How did he know about the light? Did you say them to her? To either of them?” I ask hesitantly, not sure I want to hear the answer.

Those words are what I clung to when everything seemed shaky, they felt real to me, and if they weren’t...well, I just don’t know.

“No! I swear I have no idea. Finn, I never said those things to her because she didn’t matter.” His face falls after he says that, and he rushes to explain, “She didn’t make me feel the way you do. Obviously, she mattered. Shit, I mean-“

Chuckling, I step into him and cover his mouth with my hand, relief making me weak in the knees.

Stopping him before he digs himself a deeper hole, I ask, “Why didn’t you tell me it was Sarah who outed your family secrets?”

His face falls, and he says gruffly, “Because she was already a sore spot. I didn’t want her to come between us.”

“What is the game, exactly, Colt?”

Glancing at me quickly before turning away, he says softly, “A competition.”

“To do what?”

“Get the girl - whoever bagged her first won. At least at first,” he says sourly.

“And after?” I whisper, unsure if I want to know, but I can hardly move past anything if I don’t have the full truth.

“Well,” he says, wiping his hand over his face and grimacing, “bagging chicks was too easy after a while. So…it got more…intense.”

“Intense, how Colt?”

“Fuck!” he swears, turning away and hunching his shoulders. “We made them fall in love with us and then dropped them.”

Appalled, I step back a single step before he turns to me with an intense stare and grabs my arms. “What we