Catch Me: A High School Bully Romance (Spring Hill Blues Book 2) Read online

  Contents

  Also By E. M. Moore

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  Facebook Group & Newsletter

  About the Author

  The Ballers of Rockport High

  The Rockstars of Hollywood Hill Series

  Safe Haven Academy Series

  Safe Haven Academy Series Blurb

  Catch Me

  Spring Hill Blues

  Book Two

  By

  E. M. Moore

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by E. M. Moore. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact E. M. Moore at [email protected].

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition December 2019

  Cover by 2nd Life Designs

  Also By E. M. Moore

  The Ballers of Rockport High Series

  Game On

  Foul Line

  At the Buzzer

  Rockstars of Hollywood Hill

  Rock On

  Spring Hill Blue Series

  Free Fall

  Catch Me

  Ravana Clan Vampires Series

  Chosen By Darkness

  Into the Darkness

  Falling For Darkness

  Surrender To Darkness

  Ravana Clan Legacy Series

  A New Genesis

  Tracking Fate

  Cursed Gift

  Veiled History

  Fractured Vision

  Chosen Destiny

  Order of the Akasha Series

  Stripped (Prequel)

  Summoned By Magic

  Tempted By Magic

  Ravished By Magic

  Indulged By Magic

  Enraged By Magic

  Her Alien Scouts Series

  Kain Encounters

  Kain Seduction

  Rise of the Morphings Series

  Of Blood and Twisted Roots

  Safe Haven Academy Series

  A Sky So Dark

  A Dawn So Quiet

  Chronicles of Cas Series

  Reawakened

  Hidden

  Power

  Severed

  Rogue

  The Adams’ Witch Series

  Bound In Blood

  Cursed In Love

  Witchy Librarian Cozy Mystery Series

  Wicked Witchcraft

  One Wicked Sister

  Wicked Cool

  Wicked Wiccans

  1

  Sometime in the last minute or so, the dank, mold-infested hotel room faded away.

  My eyes focus on a pair of blue-green irises staring straight back at me. By all measures, they’re pretty. Exotic even, but what’s inside is dark. Dangerous. Sasha is an evil mastermind dressed up like a showpiece.

  Her lips turn into a smirk. She moves further into the hotel room, casting our surroundings a disgusted once-over before returning her attention to me. It’s clear she would never be caught dead in a place like this. Not Sasha Pontine. “This was more fun than I thought.” She laughs, the sound harsher than anything I’ve heard lately, and that’s saying something since I’ve been begging on the streets for a week. “You were too easy to manipulate, Briar. I mean, I barely said anything over the messages, but you just took right off, telling me all your thoughts and feelings.”

  My mind races, thinking of everything I poured out, thinking of how the person on the other end of the screen had felt like a lifeline for so long. The whole time it was Sasha, laughing. My stomach threatens to expel again, but I won’t give her the gratification of that. Of losing myself over her. I want to ask her what the hell she wants, but instead, my lips form the question, “Why?”

  Slowly, she crosses her arms over her chest. “Why did I mess with you?” She shrugs. “It was fun. I was bored. You were there.”

  Her words repeat in my head over and over. There’s a special place in hell for people like Sasha. She’s even worse than I imagined. She’s not just self-centered and cruel, she gets off on being mean. After we stare one another down for a moment, I say, “What are you doing here? Just throwing it in my face that I never really had a friend?”

  “Now that would be too easy.” Her eyes flash. “No, I have more planned. You see, you really screwed up the thing Reid and I had going.”

  My eyes go out of focus as a sharp stab hits my chest. She said his name. His name on her lips is so, so wrong.

  Reid…

  My heart clutches his name, not wanting to let it go. I’ve tried not to think about him the whole time I’ve been gone. I’ve tried not to think about anyone from home. There’s too much there.

  She pierces me with a look, and I realize the painful groan I hear in my ears is actually me, filling the hotel room with my pain. It’s the sound I make when I replay what happened to Reid out on that football field. My mind begs me to ask her how he is, but at the same time, I won’t give her the satisfaction. I also know that whatever comes out of her mouth is most likely a lie.

  “Get over yourself,” she snaps. “He’s a good lay, but not that good.”

  My gaze narrows. Doesn’t she know it’s not about that? I take her in. Her perfect hair, her designer outfit. To her, it’s probably all about that. In that moment, I feel a little sorry for her. A little. She doesn’t know what love is—and that’s tragic.

  The doorknob turns and the barrier between me and my real life pushes open once more. Sasha and I immediately turn that way. I back up, but the first thing out of Sasha’s mouth is, “Took you long enough.”

  “Sorry, babe. I got busy.”

  She rolls her eyes.

  The backs of my legs hit the bed, and I take a seat. The bed squeaks, causing the newcomer to look over. “So, this is her?”

  “Yeah,” Sasha says, not sparing me a glance. She grabs his shirt and yanks him toward her. Their lips collide until they fall into a raucous wrestling match that looks like it’s about who can bite the other’s face off first. I turn away.

  “Don’t forget what you promised me,” a husky voice says, emerging from the sucking noises.

  “I always come through,” Sasha says, her voice flipping from bitch to vixen in a heartbeat.

  They start making out again, so I get up and walk toward the door. I’m not staying here. I don’t know where I’m going, but my heart hurts. It’s heavy in my chest. The owner of the hotel has a phone in the office. Maybe I should make that call, the one I told myself I wouldn’t make after I’d wake in sweats from a night filled with dreams about home. I told myself I couldn’t take the pain of returning, but I can’t take
the pain of being away either.

  A hand comes around my midsection, clamping down. “No, you don’t.”

  The hand pushes back, sending me stumbling toward the bed. Once again, the mattress catches my knees, and I plop back on the bed. Sasha moves in front of me, making me look up to face her. She runs a finger under her bottom lip, fixing the smear of lipstick. “Here’s what’s going to happen, Briar. I get what I want. It occurred to me that that photo I have of you with your tiny little tit wouldn’t do much, but I had the thought that I could do so much better. So, I brought him here to do just that.”

  The new guy starts to take his shirt off. He’s got an athletic body built for sports. My eyes stay trained on his face, and that’s when it hits me. I know this guy. I’ve seen him before. “You,” I say.

  He smiles. We all know what I’m talking about, but none of us voice it aloud. My heart rips again, thinking about the tackle that took Reid down. Like it just happened, I see a guy run back to the sidelines with a smirk on his face. It’s this guy. I’m sure of it.

  Sasha pulls her pink glittery cell phone out. “Alright, let’s get started.”

  I turn toward her, unsure of what she’s even talking about. The guy eases the button on his jeans and lowers his zipper. Panic claws at my throat as Sasha starts snapping pictures. “What are you doing?”

  “Making your life miserable. If you think Reid will want you again after this…”

  Sasha’s accomplice takes my hand and puts them on the waistband of his jeans. I’m too numb to do anything at first, but once he holds them there, I pull out of his grip. “Stop.”

  “I’m not going to do anything to you, babe,” the guy says, a spark of mischief in his eyes. “We’re just going to take some pictures.”

  I try to get up, to push past him, but he uses his weight to push me back onto the bed. Following after me, he lands with his knee at the apex of my thighs and my hands pinned above my head.

  “I wanted her clothes off before we had any bed pics,” Sasha snaps.

  “She fought back. What did you want me to do?”

  I try to wiggle out of his grip. “You two are crazy.” I pull my leg up to try to push him off, but all he does is sink more of his body weight onto me.

  “Shit, I’m getting hard,” he says, humor lacing his voice. “I like it rough, Sasha. You better watch out.”

  “Just pull her shirt up. I need something incriminating. When Reid sees that she left him just to hook up with other guys, he’ll drop her so damn fast.”

  He holds my hands over my head and reaches down with his other. Slowly, he lifts my shirt up, and when his fingers touch my bare skin, my body ices over. In the next instant, I thrash, looking for any way to get this guy off me.

  “Hold her down,” Sasha screeches.

  “She’s stronger than she looks.”

  He goes up on his knees to try to pin me down harder, but he’s made a fatal mistake. I bring my knee up, and it connects with his balls.

  He groans. “Fuck. Bitch!”

  I push him off me and move toward the door, but it careens open the second I start for it. My eyes try to adjust to the new light in the room, and at first, all I see is a hulking figure filling the doorway, but when the figure steps in, I almost collapse in relief.

  “Briar!”

  “Lex!”

  He makes it to me in three strides and holds me to his side. His body is warm, vibrating underneath my touch with barely concealed anger as he takes the scene in. “What the fuck?”

  I shake in his arms, and he holds me closer, stepping in front of me so he shields my body.

  Sasha has the good sense to look a little scared. Her eyes round for a fraction of a second, but then her facade clicks into place. “Really?” she asks, looking over at the guy who’s still clutching his balls protectively.

  “Fuck you,” he groans. “That fucking hurt.”

  “You’re about to hurt a lot fucking worse.” Lex takes a step toward his sprawled body on the bed, but hesitates. I can tell he doesn’t want to let go of me, and right now, I don’t want to let him go either. I’m cracking into pieces at his side.

  “Whatever,” Sasha says, yanking on his arm to help him off the bed. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  Lex moves in front of the door, taking me with him. “I don’t think so. The police are on their way. They want to talk to you about a picture you have on your phone.”

  Sasha’s face colors. She moves her phone in front of her face and taps the screen a few times. It takes me a second to realize she’s deleting the pictures she’s just took.

  “It doesn’t matter if you delete it,” Lex says, gripping my forearm. “They’ve already seen it. They know you have it.”

  “There are other pictures!” I move forward and snatch her cell out of her hand. She gives it up willingly and when I look through her photo album, I realize why. She’s deleted all the ones she’s just taken.

  Now it’s my word against theirs.

  I throw her phone back at her. It hits her chest, past her outstretched hands, and falls to the ground.

  Sasha glares at it between her feet and then moves her wicked gaze to look me in the eyes. “You think that’s the only thing I had planned. You’re wrong.”

  Sirens echo behind us. I know I should be scared that the police will be here soon and the fact that I’m a runaway and the photo and the piece of shit guy across from me who looks like he’s about to crap himself, but I’m caught by the lifelessness in Sasha’s eyes.

  She truly means what she says. She has it out for us, and she’s not going to stop until she gets it.

  2

  I don’t leave Lex’s side. His strong arms never let me go as he wades us through police questioning. I’m relieved when her guy leaves, if only because I don’t have to look at his face anymore. Not only did he hurt Reid, but he put his slimy hands on me.

  A half an hour later, after her parents show up, Sasha’s led to a police car and is put in the back. Without handcuffs, unfortunately. If the looks from her parents could kill, though. Damn. Instead of looking at Lex and I that way, they should be turning around and piercing their daughter with that same hate-filled glare. Maybe it would teach her a few things.

  Relief floods me when the police leave, leaving Lex and I alone in the hotel room. I blink after the retreating red and blue lights, disbelieving. I thought for sure they were going to ask me about running away, or what we were all doing there, but the whole thing was about Sasha and the picture she had of me on her phone.

  As soon as we’re by ourselves, Lex turns my way. “Are you okay? What were they doing?” His hands move up to cup my face. “God, I’ve been crawling out of my skin, Briar.”

  The intensity in his brown eyes doesn’t throw me. He’s looked at me like that for a while now. I grab his hands and curl my fingers around them, holding him in place. “R-reid?”

  He closes his eyes and breathes out. “He’s okay. Severe concussion. Lucky Number Seven didn’t even break a bone.”

  “But I heard a crack.”

  “We all did. That was his helmet.”

  “He’s…he’s okay?” My mouth wobbles.

  Lex swears and pulls me to him. He wraps me in one of his big hugs and holds me there. “He’s okay. He’s fine. He’s pissed off he can’t be here right now, but his mom’s watching him like a hawk.” He kisses the top of my head. “I should probably call him.”

  I push away from him. “No. No, you can’t do that.”

  Questions burn through his eyes. My throat constricts. What I’ve done hurls into me with a force of a wrecking ball. I left Reid when he needed me. I abandoned him. He’s not going to want to hear from me.

  “He wants to know how you are. He’s been worried sick. We all have.”

  The room spins. I think about the conversation I had with Jules. It seems like it happened a hell of a lot longer than a week ago. Did I really ask her if it was better to have not loved Brady? I look up a
t Lex with spiked lashes. “There’s something wrong with me.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with you, Briar. Jules said you were in shock. We didn’t know if you had a panic attack. We didn’t know where you went or what happened to you.”

  “I ran away.”

  “I know, baby. I know.”

  He clasps my face again and pulls me to his chest. His even breaths help soothe me, but a hatred so deep sinks inside myself. I’m not any better than Sasha. I abandoned my friends. I abandoned the guy I love because what? Because I was too chicken to face what was going to happen next? That’s low. That’s despicable.

  We stay standing, hugging one another, while a spiral of self-loathing churns inside me. Lex does his best to comfort me. Eventually, he moves me to the bed and holds me, his arms like tight bands. He kisses my temple. “I need you to tell me what Sasha and Richards were doing here?”