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

did, what I did was fucking wrong, Finn, and I regretted it the minute you walked onto the lot at school. I didn’t do any of this right, and I’ll be fucking sorry until the day I die, but I want you. I need you. Please don’t let this come between us.”

Cocking my head to the side, I study his earnest expression before nodding.

“Okay,” I say softly. “So, what are we going to do?”

*****

After our intense discussion, Colt drops me at my car, follows me home, and then heads to his own.

Laying on the couch, I stare at the ceiling tiredly. I'm angry that Colt couldn’t stay. Once again, my fan is dictating my life, and I’m tired of it. I’m ready for all of this to be over, but I'm stuck with no clue as to who he is. Technically this could go on for years!

Despite my amateurish sleuthing efforts, I’ve only uncovered more bullshit about the devious students around me, none of which is pointing a neon sign at any one person.

However, the depravity surrounding me is appalling.

Nate’s clearly obsessed with winning, but that doesn’t necessarily connect to me, but more his enmity with the other guys. It could very well be Ben, but if so, who was behind the blaring light in the gymnasium?

Seems far too fantastical to create such a scenario to what, throw me off the scent? And if it’s a complete stranger, why hide your face?

Gah. This only leads me in more circles. It has to be someone I know, but who has the power to control all these other students? And how many more does he have under his thumb?

Fuck, it could be all my friends.

With a shiver, I turn my thoughts away and back to today. It was amazing to feel him again and touch him, knowing he didn’t lose interest in me. I know there’s been a lot of bullshit between us, but the way we feel has to mean more because being without him was worse. When he’s not here, my heart feels cold, and only he makes me feel alive.

I can’t imagine sneaking around, but I’ll take it if it’s what I can get. I never want to feel the way I did without him ever again.

I guess we have no choice, with everything so up in the air, but it’s frustrating and scary. I’m walking a perpetual tightrope, and I don’t know how to get the fuck off without falling, and this never-ending state of fear makes me feel helpless, which reminds me of my dad.

The irony isn’t lost on me, I escaped my dad, who was the worst of my fears before this, and now my fan is just another fucked up version, with a need to control and terrorize.

Grumpy, I turn over on my side and stare at the television blindly. I should be doing homework, but I don’t fucking care about my studies when I can’t sleep, can’t function. There are times when I’m wholly immobilized by terror, wondering when the final showdown is going to happen and hoping I make it out alive.

It’s eating at my insides and tearing at my sanity. How much more can I take before I go completely insane? Something’s got to give, I just hope it isn't me.

I’m dozing sleepily when my phone buzzes and jumping out of my skin, I sit up with a gasp and clutch my chest, glancing around frantically.

Since there’s nothing fucking here, I sigh with relief and rub my forehead. I’m so fucking tired that I’m now delirious.

The phone buzzes again, dancing across the table, and I grab it up, opening it absently, still grim in the reality of my mental state. I'm so on edge, I’m jumpy, and it’s taking a painful toll.

Dread curls through me when I see it’s from an unknown number, and blindly I stare at the fucking notification before cautiously opening the message with trembling fingers. Fuck.

At first, I stare unseeing at the image, before it slowly comes into focus and gasping, I drop the phone, covering the cry hovering on my lips.

Fuck me. Please let me be wrong.

Picking up the phone again, I confirm with horror that my fan sent me a picture of something in a thousand lifetimes I never needed to see.

It’s Sarah, with her hands tied behind her back. She’s savagely beaten, her eyes black, her neck covered in a kaleidoscope of purple and blue bruises as she stares at the camera dully, the life beaten from her eyes.

Wherever she is, it’s dark, and she’s partially in shadow.

My gorge rises, and I barely make it to the kitchen sink before I lose what’s left of my dinner, tears dripping down my face as I heave and sob helplessly.

She’s going to die if she’s not found and soon. Fuck there’s a good chance I’m going to die.

How can I fight against this? It’s insanity. I’m doomed. I have no ammunition against crazy. None.

Wiping my mouth with a moan, I lean my forehead against the sink and take slow, shuddering breaths.

Calm down, Finn. Sarah needs you now.

Standing quickly, I grab the counter when the world spins briefly, and biting back another surge of bile, I stumble back to the couch and collapse against the cushions.

The phone buzzes again, and I flinch, sucking in a shaky breath.

“Fuck!” I mutter, angry at my hesitance.

I’ll not let this shit control me - not through fear or anything else. I’m done. He can go fuck himself. Grabbing the phone, I stare at the new message.

If you don’t stop with your Nancy Drew shit, this is going to be you

Typing out a response, I stop myself and take a deep breath. Be smarter than him, Finn. But fuck I want to tell him to go to hell so badly.

Instead, I close out the app and pull up Colt’s number.

He answers on the second ring, “Finn? I thought we agreed-“

In a gruff voice, I whisper, “I got another message.”

“When? Where?” I can hear