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Or anywhere, dickhead

A loud, guttural moan echoed in the woods, and I twisted , ju so hard that it hurt to breath

"Why are the guys at our school such dicks?" I heard a voice growl

Tate

I turned left and bounded through a e

"Shit!" I heard abitch!"

I peeled through the trees and ca of fallen trees and sawed off tree trunks My chest heaved with every hard breath as I took in the scene before me

Tate stood over the cruony on the ground He had one hand covering his eyes and one holding his crotch

Motherfucker

"Tatu of fear than the heat of anger

If she’d attacked him, it was because she’d been threatened

He’s dead

She spun around, and I struggled to keep ht of her ripped tank top strap, and every h nearly clenched teeth

She placed a hand over her shoulder and torn shirt "He tried I’m fine" She would barely look at me

I slipped off my shirt and tossed it to her

"Put this on," I ordered "Now"

She didn’t rush to obey, not that I had expected her to, but my temper was up and God help her if she didn’t do what she was told

Alone, in the woods In the dark

I wanted to throttle her for being so careless

I walked to Nate, who still lay on the ground "You have a poor, fking ot in his face

My warning to hirabbed a fistful of his shirt and hauled hiover, as all of the air was forced out of his body

And I didn’t stop

I punched and sla on his body and face until he was too done to do anything but take the abuse

The ache in h my bones and traveled up my arm as the full force of my temper descended on him

Lowlife piece of shit!

He was bad news, but I wasn’t, I kept telling myself There was a difference between Nate and me

Nate had touched her

I’d never done that

He’d sexually harassed her

My locker roo was just to mess with her

She’d told hi me to stop

And the more I hit Nate, the more I didn’t see his face anymore, but my own

"Stop" I heard Tate yell behind me "Jared, stop!"

I didn’t want to stop until he was done breathing, but I was getting Tate the hell out of here Now

I yanked Nate by the bend of his elbow and threw hi the slightest bit guilty about his bloodied eye, nose, and mouth Blood lined the inside of his lips, and he lay cru

I looked over to Tate, whose eyes looked scared and chest rose and fell in fear

A fear she didn’t have when I first found her here

"I’ you home" It wasn’t open for discussion

"No thanks I have a ride," she argued, tipping her chin up

She has a ride? I wanted to laugh and growl at the sa her up

"Your ride," I turned to look at her, "is drunk Now, unless you’d like to wake up your poor grandet you after your date gets drunk, and you alet raped--which I’ you to be alone, by the way--then you’ll get in the goddamn car, Tate"

I turned to walk towards my car, fully prepared to throw her over my shoulder if I had to

Chapter 22

"What’s your problehway, headed back to town

"My problem?" I was pissed, and she could tell "You come to the bonfire with that idiot Ben Jah to drive you home, and then you traipse off into the woods, in the dark, and get groped by Dietrich Maybe you’re the one with the probleht about what Nate could’ve done to her--would’ve done to her--I wanted to kill Tate was too headstrong Too independent

She er

"If you recall, I had the situation under control," she sneered "Whatever favor you think you were doing er Leavein the thick air and zoning in on the road

The car roared underwheel

"Slon," she co to be situations you can’t handle, Tate" I was trying to reason with her, but even I didn’t knohere I was going with this She couldn’t exist in the closed box I’d created for the rest of her life, and I couldn’t protect her fro Sooner or later, she’d leave

"Nate Dietrich wasn’t going to take too kindly to what you did to hi to be the end of it? He would’ve coain Do you kno badly Madoc wanted to do so after you broke his nose? He didn’t want to hurt you, but he wanted to retaliate"

She overesti women

Obviously