SEAL's Baby (Navy SEAL Secret Baby Romance) (71 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Taylor

In a word: icy. That’s how everyone
greeted me, or didn’t greet me Monday at school. I hadn’t spoken to anyone all
weekend, only Helena. Other than her, I was friends with such bitches.

Bailey and Barbie, who had lockers across
the hallway from me, turned their backs when I went by. Dylan didn’t look at
either of them. I had no idea if he’d talked to Barbie at all.

I walked to my locker to find the word
“Bitch” scrawled across it. Guess I was supposed to let Saturday night happen.
Dylan had thanked me and we’d come to an understanding that we would listen to
each other more often. I might know about some things and he knows other
things.

We needed to stick together.

He put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t let
them get you down. It will blow over.”

I wanted to cry at the word on my locker,
but Dylan’s words propped me up. That was so sweet of him. He kept walking down
the hall to his own locker. I gathered the books I needed and slammed my locker
shut.

Cole walked by and gave me a small nod.
Was he taking sides, too? What the hell? It wasn’t anyone’s business, but
apparent the B girls were really being B girls. I sighed.

Hopefully, my whole social life wasn’t
going to hell. I’d give them all a few days to let it blow over.

“Hey, girl,” Helena said behind me.

“Are you talking to me?”

She hugged me. “Of course. You know I
don’t get into the drama of it all.” She looked around. “I don’t care what
those bitches think of me.”

I hugged her back. “I don’t appreciate you
enough.”

“No, you don’t, but I love you, anyway.”

I squealed with laughter. Everyone in the
hallway stopped to stare, but I didn’t care. I still had Helena. She walked
beside me as everyone gave me a wide berth. Even kids not in my social circle
must have heard something.

“Okay, what is everyone saying?”

Helena laughed “That you cock blocked
Barbie.”

I stopped. “They used those terms?”

I’d never heard the term before, but I got
the meaning of it.

“No, I said it that way. It’s funnier. So,
what really happened?”

“Barbie and Bailey were in a contest to
lose their virginity to a cool person. Barbie picked Dylan.”

“Why’d you stop them?”

“Because she was just using him and that’s
wrong.”

She stared at me for a moment. “Do you
have feelings for Dylan?’

He chose that moment to walk past me as we
stood outside math class. I guess he didn’t hear Helena’s question. If I’d been
him, I would have stopped.

“I don’t know,” I said as I watched him
walk away.

He did have a nice butt. I hadn’t noticed
that before.

“It looks like you have a crush on him.”

I glanced back at her. “I don’t know. He’s
different than I originally thought.” I shook myself. I wasn’t going to have an
answer today. “You want to come over later?”

“Yeah. I actually need some help with my
programming class. Dylan is really good at it.”

Another thing that boy could do well. For
being a former loser, he was pretty smart. The boy had more facets than I’d
ever given him credit for. I would have to give him another look.

“Will you put your tongue back in?” Helena
said. “If you don’t know that you like him, then you are pretty dumb.”

I sighed. “I shouldn’t like him. He’s my
father’s project.”

“He’s living with you. Just down the
hall.”

“Don’t remind me.”

She was right. He was off-limits. I
shouldn’t even be thinking about him that way.

At all.

“He is cute, Taylor. Just watch. You don’t
know what he’s been through. I overheard them talking in the guidance office
and they said he hadn’t had a father his whole life.”

“Probably why he’s drawn to my dad. They
spend time talking. I’m almost jealous. I miss having Daddy to myself.”

“Cut him a break, Taylor.”

“I know, I know. I’m being selfish.”

I was. I knew it. Dylan didn’t have a
father. My father was willing to step up for him and I should be proud. I should
let it happen, but I did miss things with my dad.

“Still, Taylor. Tread carefully around
him,” Helena said. She waved her arms. “All this will blow over. Some other kid
will do something stupid. You’ll be back with the cool crowd soon.”

The problem was, I had no idea why I was
with the cool crowd. I wasn’t any cooler than anyone else in my mind, but
everyone else seemed to think so. I hugged Helena again, then walked into
class.

Dylan was looking at his phone. I stared
at him. We hadn’t talked this morning, but I tried to get his attention. I
wondered if anyone was saying anything to him. Or ignoring him. Did it bother
guys when people were mad at them?

I had no idea what went on in his brain.

As the teacher came in and everyone
settled into their seats, Dylan finally looked my way. I smiled. He smiled
back.

“Are you ready to start class, Taylor?”
Mr. Delaney said.

I’m sure I blushed. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now stop making googly eyes at your
boyfriend and we’ll get started.”

The rest of the class laughed. I blushed
even deeper. “He isn’t my boyfriend. We’re friends.”

I don’t know why I felt the need to
clarify my relationship with Dylan. I realized after I said it how stupid I
sounded. Great. I was just making points all over the place. I hazarded a
glance back at Dylan. He had that small smile on his face that said he was
amused. At least, I’d made him smile. That made my day just a little bit
better.

***

Helena was waiting for me after math
class. I walked out with Dylan and we both stopped in front of her. I usually
didn’t cross her path until after second period.

Her eyes were wild.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

“I heard a rumor. From a good source,” she
said.

“About what?” Dylan said.

“About what the other cheerleaders are
going to do to you.”

“What?” I said. That didn’t make any
sense. I was their leader. Why would they side with the B girls? “That doesn’t
make sense.”

“I don’t know the specifics, but something
is going to go down this afternoon. They want to get you back for what you
did.”

“She didn’t do anything but put a stop to
something that I shouldn’t have been doing. These girls are bitches.”

“Sadly, these girls were my friends,” I
said.

Not anymore, if they were going to hurt
me. I had wanted my senior year to be simple and fun and now it wasn’t.

“You’re sure they are going to do
something?” Dylan said.

“Yes. I heard some girls talking in the
bathroom. They were laughing about it,” Helena said.

I couldn’t believe this. Why would they do
something? I pondered what this might mean. Maybe this wasn’t going to blow
over. Maybe I couldn’t just wait it out. Dylan looked concerned. “You don’t
know what?”

“No,” Helena said. “They left the bathroom
before I could see who it was or ask them anything.”

“It’s easier being a guy,” Dylan said. “We
just punch each other and get past it.”

“Well, girls don’t do that. We have to
plot the other’s downfall. Why am I the one at fault here?” I asked.

Dylan laughed. “Yeah. I’m not even mad at
her and I’m the one who didn’t get laid.”

I punched his arm lightly. “Really?”

He laughed, but didn’t apologize for what
he said. I had admire that. He was just being Dylan. “I have a long trek to my
next class. Text me if you hear anything specific. Meet me after school, too.”

I watched him go. He wasn’t concerned, but
he was new to this social circle. These girls could be cutthroat. I had been
that way at one point, until this year, in fact. Helena’s friendship had calmed
me and put it all into perspective.

Life had to be better after high school.
It couldn’t be worse.

Helena fell into step beside me. “What are
you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet.” I saw Barbie, so I
stopped by her locker. “What do you have planned?”

Barbie looked at the person next to her.
“Do you hear something? I feel like someone is talking to me, but no one is there.”

“Real mature, Barbie. What’s going on?” I
said.

Barbie laughed. “Who says anything is
going on?” She leaned in closer. “Getting paranoid.”

I wanted to slap her face, but then I’d
get in trouble. No reason to do that. I sneered at her. “I would be careful,
Barbie.”

“Why? Dylan going to come to your rescue?”

She walked away, laughing. “What did that
mean?”

“She’s just being a bitch. I bet she
doesn’t’ have anything planned,” Helena said. “What could they do? They’ll get
detention. That would mean no cheerleading.”

“Unless they get someone else to do their
dirty work.”

“What do you mean?” Helena said.

“Well, there are those fringe people who
hang just outside of our circle. They would probably do something to get
brought into our circle.”

“People are weird. Just be friends or
don’t be friends,” Helena said.

“I guess I’ve been guilty of using them.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

I looked down at my shoes. I wasn’t proud
of my actions in the past. I was going to start being better. I guess part of
me wanted to improve for Dylan. He made me want to be a better person.

The bell rang. We were late. I ran to my
class just as the teacher was closing the door.

“You’re late, Miss Dean.”

“I know, Mr. Carter. I’m sorry. I was
dealing with a crisis.”

He eyed me. “I’m sure we have very
different ideas about what is a crisis. I will let you in today, but don’t let
it happen again.”

“Thank you.”

I walked to my seat. Bailey was in the
back; she made her fingers into a gun and pretended to shoot me. Good thing the
teacher didn’t see her do it or she would have gotten in trouble. They go nuts
for stuff like that.

I had trouble sitting through class. Dylan
was outside my classroom when the period ended.

“You don’t have to walk me to every class,
Dylan.”

Not that I didn’t appreciate seeing him. I
was beginning to like him, wasn’t I? I really shouldn’t.

“I heard a vague threat against youtoo.
Nothing specific. I’m concerned, Taylor.”

His gaze was on me as if I were the only
girl in the school. The fact that Dylan wanted to protect me made my heart
sing. I really doubted that anything big was going to go down. What could they
do on school grounds?

I put a hand on his arm. “It’s okay,
Dylan. I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not so sure, Taylor. If I heard about
it, it must be big. I’m not in anyone’s loop.”

He was starting to scare me, but I put up
a brave front. If there was trouble, Dylan didn’t need to be around it.
“Seriously, Dylan. Girls make threats all the time. Nothing ever happens.”

“Please, meet me after school. Where are
you going to be? I’ll be with you so nothing happens.”

As much as I wanted to spend time with
Dylan and this white knight behavior was a turn on, I still had a life. “People
don’t do things to each other here. I’m more likely to lose my social standing.
As much as that sucks, it isn’t life-threatening.”

He stared at me for a few more seconds.
“I’m serious, Taylor.”

I patted his arm. “So am I.”

Chapter Fourteen

Dylan

I turned to get to class, not
understanding why Taylor was unconcerned about the threat. Then I remembered
that she had lived her life in a bubble. She hadn’t seen bad things happen very
often. Or at all.

I turned back to her. “This isn’t done.”

She waved a hand in dismissal as I
sprinted to class.

“No running in the hallway, Mr. Cabot,” a
teacher called after me.

I slowed, but walked fast. I reached the
classroom just in time. This was programming, my favorite class. I couldn’t
concentrate, though, thinking about Taylor. She really was in trouble this
time. At least, in trouble in her world. She wasn’t homeless or hungry, but
there are people who could be a physical threat.

I had to protect her.

In the bathroom between classes, I
overheard two people talking.

“Did you hear? The quarterback is going to
give it to the head cheerleader.”

“Give it?”

“He’s going to do her after school. He’s
going to make sure he keeps her underwear and put them on the bulletin board
outside the office.”

“With her name on them?”

“Of course. So everyone knows that he
fucked her.”

My fists clenched. I knew she didn’t want
to have sex with the quarterback. Greg had taken her on a date and been a jerk.
Why would she agree to have sex with him? No, that wasn’t the case.

She will be so embarrassed if this
happens. What if Greg is rough with her? She doesn’t want this.

“Shit.”

One of the two people talking gasped.
Guess they thought they were alone in the bathroom. I washed my hands and left.
What the hell was I going to do?

The next class took forever to get
through, until someone included me in a group text.

“Taylor and Greg are going to do it this
afternoon.”

No way. Taylor wasn’t in on this text. I
doubted that she wanted this. If she didn’t, then Greg was going to rape her.
That was not acceptable.

“No, Greg is just getting her panties to
make everyone think that they had sex,” someone else texted.

Still not cool. I didn’t know if Taylor
valued her reputation or maybe she didn’t care. What if her dad found out? He’d
be disappointed. Bailey texted smiley faces. Like she was enjoying this.

Bitch.

I wished I’d never gotten involved with the
B girls. They really were bitches. I had to form a plan – Taylor couldn’t be
alone. I saw Helena in the hallway and stopped her.

“Have you heard about Greg’s plans for
Taylor?”

“What plans? She doesn’t even like him,”
Helena said.

He showed her the text stream. She gasped.

“She doesn’t want this does she? Did she
change her mind about him?” I asked.

Helena shook her head. “Not that I know
of. I doubt it. What are we going to do?”

“Can you stay after school?”

“For a little bit. I have a skating lesson
later,” she said.

“Okay. I think Taylor is fine while we’re
in class. Once school is over, we need to stick to her. I have a mathlete
meeting. I’ll go and explain that I can’t stay. You hang with Taylor, and I’ll
meet her at cheerleading practice. If she’s never alone, then Greg can’t get to
her.”

“Deal. If something comes up, I’ll text
you.”

I put my number in her phone. I wasn’t
confident the plan would work, but it was all I could come up with. If she
wasn’t alone, she’d be safe.

The rest of the day dragged. In each
class, I heard an even wilder rumor. By last period, Taylor was giving the
whole athletic department blow jobs. Did these people have nothing better in
their lives but to talk about Taylor?

Didn’t any of them have a sister? Would
they want someone talking about their sister that way?

The mathletes were meeting in the
auditorium to practice onstage for the next competition. I sauntered in, but I
wasn’t feeling casual. I wouldn’t be happy until I saw Taylor and knew that she
was okay.

“I can’t stay, guys. I need to do
something.”

“Is that threat against Taylor real?”
someone asked.

“I’m taking it as real, so I need to go be
with her,” I said.

I appreciated that they all understood.
Taylor was becoming like family to me. I had to protect her since she didn’t
have a brother to do it. I had to admit, my thoughts about her weren’t exactly
brotherly, though. Not since I’d seen her in that robe. I’d thought about that
many nights.

I cleared my throat. I better not think
about it again or my friend in my pants will wake up. Oh crap. Think about
calculus.

I stepped into the bathroom to splash my
face with water then headed to the field where the cheerleaders should be
practicing. My phone buzzed with a message from Helena.

“I have to go. My mom is here.”

Shit.

“I’ll be there in five.”

“I don’t have five, sorry,” she said.

I ran. Helena passed me going to the front
of the school. “I’m sorry, Dylan. My mom is pissed at me.”

I stopped for a moment. “No problem. I
understand.”

Cole was out in the field. He waved me
over.

“Can’t.”

“Two seconds, bro.”

Were they all conspiring to keep me from
Taylor? It certainly seemed that way. “What?”

“My parents might go out of town this
weekend. Party at my house.”

“We’ll see.”

The weekend was days away and frankly, I
didn’t want to be around underage drunk people. That was a recipe for disaster.

“Come on, Dylan.”

“I’ll talk to you later. I have to get
somewhere.”

I jogged over to the football field. A few
cheerleaders were there, but not Taylor. I approached Bailey.

“Where’s Taylor?”

Bailey gave me a dumb look. “No idea.”

“She runs your practices. Didn’t you
notice she wasn’t here?”

“She was here a minute ago.”

“What the fuck, Bailey. Tell me where she
is.”

Bailey eyed me as if she was not sure if I
was serious. I wanted to shake her, but you didn’t do that to a girl. If she’d
been a guy, I’d have had her in a headlock by now.

“Tell me.”

Bailey licked her lips. I’m sure she
thought it was sexy and coy, but it was neither. My heart was racing. Taylor
should have stayed away from Greg, but she couldn’t think that badly of anyone.
In this instance it would be her downfall.

Ignoring Bailey’s non-response, I raced to
the locker room. Girls or boys? I had no idea which one. It had to be the boys’
one, except one of the football players was standing outside. I had no reason
to be in there. I wasn’t an athlete.

I didn’t care. The man only had an inch on
me and maybe twenty pounds now that I’d gained weight. This was Taylor. I had
to do this. I tried to brush past him.

He put a beefy hand on my chest. “Where
are you going?”

“In there.”

He smiled down at me. “Nope.”

Before he could do anything else, I
punched him in the gut and put my knee into his face. He dropped. I strode into
the locker room. I had another layer to break through. These guys were
organized. Shit. I just ran past him to where the locker room had three rows of
lockers.

“Go away, Greg. Why did you bring me in
here?” Taylor said.

I heard the fear in her voice. I had to
get to her.

“Why do you think I brought you here,
Taylor? Barbie is my best friend and you pissed her off. This is payback,” Greg
said.

“Okay. You got me back. Let me go, Greg.”

I found them in the supply closet. There
were no coaches around. Where were the adults when you needed them?

Taylor looked scared. She looked from me
to Greg, then back again.

“Let her go, Greg. It’s over.”

I’d come in here without backup. I hadn’t
told anyone there was a problem. I should have asked for help, but that wasn’t
in my tool box. Up until Mr. Dean invited me into his house, I had been a
loner.

And now, I was going to get us hurt
because I didn’t think to ask for help. Damn.

“It isn’t over,” Greg said.

He had Taylor up against the wall, and
he’d taped her hands together with athletic tape. He’d thought this out. All
for Bailey? It didn’t make sense.

“Yes, it is. The coaches will be here any
minute.”

“No, they won’t. So run along and let me
do what I want to Taylor,” Greg said.

“No.”

I launched myself at him. He let go of
Taylor.

“Run, Taylor.”

She paused, but then ran out of the locker
room. I had Greg on the ground, but he outweighed me – and he had a few
accomplices. Hopefully, Taylor would send help. Greg managed to get to his
knees and slammed me into a locker.

The breath had been knocked out of me, but
I didn’t let go of his shirt. He had bulk. I had street. I would fight dirty if
I had to, I didn’t care. He was going to hurt Taylor, and I could never forgive
him.

I punched him twice in the face. He
recovered and jumped to his feet. His fist came at me, but I ducked, and he
punched the locker as I gasped to get breath into my lungs.

“You’re a loser. Taylor doesn’t want you,”
he said.

I wasn’t going to comment. I wanted to
take him out. I realized I should have left when he was on his knees. Damn.
Tactical error, but I wasn’t one to run. I wanted Greg to hurt.

He’d scared Taylor. He’d wanted to do
awful things to her. I wanted to take him down.

And, I would have if one of his friends
hadn’t shown up. I was good. I was dirty, but I didn’t think I could take on
two people. Taylor needed to bring me help. Would she think of it?

I didn’t know. Her charmed life coming
back to bite me in the butt.

Greg laughed. “Two against one. I like
those odds.”

Shit.

I couldn’t even run because they were both
between me and the door. To my back was a coach’s office. I didn’t know if it
was unlocked or even if there was a way out. I’d gotten myself into jams like
this, but that was on the street, not in a locker room with only one way out.

Damn. I had rushed in without thinking
this through. At least neither of them had a weapon. I didn’t, either. I hadn’t
carried one since I had moved in with the Deans. With a weapon, I could have
evened the odds.

Guess not.

I swallowed, my hands up and ready to
defend myself. Greg feinted left. I didn’t fall for it and took him out at the
legs. He groaned. I thought I heard a snap. I hoped so. The kid was a bastard.

When his friend lunged at me, I
sidestepped and gave him an elbow to the back. He landed flat on his face.

Once again, I should have left. I should
have run, but that wasn’t what I’d ever done. I did kick the guy on the floor.

Greg was back up. Like a horror movie
monster, he wouldn’t stay down.

The door to the locker room opened.
“What’s going on here?”

Thinking the cavalry had arrived, I turned
my attention from my attackers. I never should have. Before the person could
come around to where we were, Greg punched the side of my head.

The world slowed down. He had managed to
knock me off my feet, and I fell sideways in what seemed liked slow motion. I
put my left hand out to stop myself, but there wasn’t anything there.

Hitting the ground was the last thing I
remembered.