“What is this?” Parker asked as her eyes got even bigger. They were bulging out of her face as she thrust the phone at Kate. “What the HELL IS THIS?”

She pressed a button, and the volume rose so everyone could hear.

“Come on, Nate, Parker doesn’t have to know. Come on. I’ll make you feel good.”

“Get away from me, Kate. I know you’ve been going to the other guys, too.”

“Only you. You help me. I’ll help you.”

“You can help me by telling me where the video is.”

A seductive laugh came next. “There’s no video, but there could be. Of you and me. If you’d like.”

“There’s no video?”

Her voice grew louder, as if she had taken a step closer to him. “You’re hurting. I know Parker hasn’t come to see you since the accident. I’ll make you feel good.”

“There’s no video?”

“No—”

The recording stopped after that, and Parker remained holding it in the air. Her hand gripped it tightly as her chest lifted up and down. She was seething as she stared at her friend. A strangled laugh came from her next. “Were you with him? Nate’s mine. MINE. You went to him and—” she choked off again.

Kate jumped back, as if expecting to be attacked. She hissed first, “I needed help. I had to find it from somewhere. I had to create it. We had nothing. I didn’t think beating her up was going to be good enough. We needed something to make sure she stayed away. I did it for us. I needed him to help us get something on her. We needed to destroy her.” As she said the last word and her lip curved in a snarl, she looked at Sam. Everyone knew who she meant. “She took him away from me. She took all of them away from us. I had to do something. We were nobodies in school again. I did that for you, too.”

“You bitch—”

“He didn’t believe you about the tape. He wasn’t going to help, but I needed help from somewhere. It’s the only reason I went to Nate. I promise. That was it. You would do the same thing …”

A door banged shut in the hallway.

They were coming, but I said first, “You did it for power, Kate. Don’t delude yourself. You wanted to make Sam’s friends turn on her so I did it to you first. I just used what you were already doing. I didn’t blackmail you. I didn’t have to threaten you, drug you, or video you. I didn’t have to do any of that. You handed it to me on a silver platter.”

“What else did you do?”

She snarled at me. She shouldn’t waste the energy. She would need it to run from her friends. “You went to each of the guys: Nate, Ethan, Strauss, even Derek. You tried it with each of them.”

“I didn’t do anything with them.”

“But you tried, even after they reminded you about your friends. Nate hooked up with Parker. Ethan and Jasmine used to do the same. I know Natalie’s fond of Strauss. You went after their guys.”

“They weren’t exclusive.”

I grinned at her. “I doubt they feel the same.”

Then the door flung open and Jasmine stood there. She locked gazes with Parker, who said heatedly, “She hit on Nate. She hit on Ethan too?”

“Yeah,” Jasmine clipped out.

Ethan stood behind her, a Cheshire Cat grin on his face. “It was a nice little recording.”

“Guys.” Kate began to back up.

The two joined forces and started after her.

Kate continued to back up. Her hands lifted in the air. “Come on, you guys. I needed their help.”

“NO,” Parker barked out. “It’s just like Mason said. You wanted power and you went crazy for it. Fuck you, Kate. You lied about the video and then you hit on him? Did you suck him? You made sure to tell me to do that. You said it’d make him do whatever I wanted. That he’d be wrapped around my little finger. It didn’t work, did it?”

Her voice rose on the last statement, but it didn’t matter. Kate shoved past them, past Ethan and up the stairs. The two took off after her.

The room remained in silence for a beat. Then Tate started laughing. She stood next to Logan and hung on him, bending over as more laughter spilled from her. Shaking her head, she tried to calm down, but couldn’t. More and more kept coming until Logan was holding her up. She clung to him and then took a deep breath, tears rolling down her cheeks from the laughter. “Oh my god. I can’t believe that happened. You just ruined her life, Mason. Holy shit.”

Yes. I had.

Sam’s hand tightened around mine and she moved closer to me.

Glancing down into Sam’s eyes, I’d do it again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Mason took me home that night. He parked in my dad’s driveway, but there were no other cars. I knew there wouldn’t be. I texted David to stay at Malinda’s and that I’d be with Mason. We were there, and it was time to go in, but I couldn’t bring myself to open the door. So many emotions and thoughts were swirling through my head.

“What is it?”

There were no back lights on so we were in complete darkness. The moon shone down, casting a soft glow over us. It matched his soft tone, but I couldn’t get what he’d done out of my head. He’d been ruthless and knowing what more was coming to Kate, I didn’t know what to think anymore.

I glanced at him. He was watching me. He was always watching me. I was coming to realize it would never be the problem if he wasn’t going to be there for me, but what wouldn’t he do for me. I said, “I’m very lucky.”

A grin appeared over his face. “What makes you say that?”

“You’re willing to ruin someone for me.”

The grin vanished. “That’s not it, Sam.”

“Can you explain it to me?” I didn’t get it. I really didn’t. “You took away her friends, and you made Budd believe that she’s your girlfriend. She has no power. She has no support, and he’s going to do something horrible to her. It’s like you gutted her and threw her into the ocean for a hungry shark to devour.”

“The choice was you or her. I lined things up so that it wasn’t you. I’ll never let it be you. That’s what I did.”

I drew in a breath until my lungs hurt. A tear slipped from my eye, and I brushed it away. Jeezus. What was I doing? He was right. Budd Broudou was a serious problem. He saved me from him.