Glass Heart Hero: A Dark High School Romance by Lindsey Iler (free ebook reader for iphone .TXT) 📕

down her thighs. “Okay.” She nods her head slightly, darting her eyes around like she’s afraid to let them settle on one single thing. “Okay then.”

The remainder of the drive is silent. I have the ability to loosen the tension hold on our hearts. We both are feeling it. That would require me to have the right words, and I fucking don’t. My mind is blank. Uncertain and hurt. I’m angry in the way that creates complete silence.

Students are milling around, couples walking hand-in-hand, and mostly living a mostly carefree life.

“Tell me,” Delaney says as I park. I don’t kill the engine because I don’t plan on sticking around, instead keeping my foot on the brake pedal and popping the gear in reverse, waiting for an out.

“My mom didn’t kill herself, Delaney,” I tell her.

She covers my hand, stopping me from rolling the ring on my thumb. “What do you mean?”

“My mom didn’t kill herself. She was killed.” I pull out the brown envelope and toss it against the dash board. “And this is all I have left of her and I don’t have the heart to even open it, to read her last words to me.”

“Someone murdered your mom?” Her eyes burn with tears for a woman she never met. She grabs the envelope from the floorboards of the truck and places it safely between us.

It doesn’t matter though. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to untuck them from where they’ve stayed safe this entire time.

“Not someone, Delaney.” I pinch the bridge of my nose, take a harsh breath in, and release it on the truth. “Your dad.”

“My dad?” She laughs, uncertain if what I’m saying is what she heard. “What are you talking about?”

“My mom, she started to figure out the business they’re running.”

“Your dad and mine?” she asks for clarification.

“Your dad, mine, and Tripp’s,” I elaborate.

“What the fuck!” Her voice is loud, echoing off the glass. Her eyes widen with fear. “My dad killed your mom?”

I nod, panic constricting my airway. She covers her mouth with her hand, tears streaming down her cheeks and pooling on the edges of her fingers.

“All to keep their secrets,” I finally say.

“She knew too much,” Delaney says through a sob. She reaches for the door handle. “I’m going to go.”

“Delaney!” I yell before she has the chance to escape. I open my door, slamming the gear into park, and race to her. I cup her face in my hand. “This doesn’t change us.”

“How does it not change everything?” she cries. “You’re dropping me off at my dorm, Breaker. I know what this means.”

“I need a little bit of time. Processing years of lies won’t be simple. I need a second to breathe where I’m not worried about you,” I confess, kissing the top of her head.

I leave her there, one piece of me imbedded into who she is, and the other part breaking down inside myself.

“Breaker?” Her voice cracks in the middle of my name, and I nearly crumble. “I’m sorry.”

“For what? You haven’t done anything.” I shrug. “Get some sleep, okay?”

Sleep is sure to evade us both tonight. We’ll sleep alone in our own beds, wondering how our two lives have been so deeply connected, far before we ever were.

But we are connected in ways no one could ever foresee.

Her pain is my pain. Mine is hers.

Tonight is bound to be agonizing.

Chapter Eighteen

Delaney

As I stretch in bed, every bone in my body aches. My hand hits a face, and my groggy eyes flutter open.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Palmer says through a tight throat.

Last night around midnight, Palmer showed up on my doorstep, no supplies in hand but with open arms for me to fall into. I refused to talk, already knowing Breaker would have told her everything. She wouldn’t have shown up here if he hadn’t. I imagine him arriving home, sans me, and her demanding to know what happened.

“You ready to talk yet?” she asks, sitting up in the bed, stretching out the tension in her back. I’ve never been an easy one to sleep next to. My mother called me a thrasher when I would crawl into bed with her as a child.

“What’s there to talk about?” I play coy, knowing damn well Palmer will invade my business and demand for me to deal with this.

“It won’t work with me, so you might as well tell me what you’re feeling now, and get it out of the way. The way I see it, you have a couple of options.” She slides off the bed and starts rooting through the overnight bag she’d brought. “You can deal with this head on.”

“What’s my other option?” I yank the covers over my head, fighting the tears I’ve managed to keep at bay. Numbness will do that for me. It’s hard to feel things when I feel nothing.

“Oh, I lied. There’s no other option, sweetheart. You’re going to get out of bed, prove that you haven’t been beaten down with this news, and you’re going to push forward.”

“Did he not tell you?” That’s the only explanation for her upbeat, take-on-the-world attitude.

“No, he told me, Delaney. Your dad killed his mom.”

“You say it like it’s nothing.”

“No, I’m saying it like it’s everything. It was a senseless crime, but look around, everything done to us has been senseless. So, let’s get out of bed and make some sense out of it for those that cross us.”

“We’re eighteen,” I say as if that’s an explanation of any kind.

“Big fucking deal. We were eighteen when we took down Henry and”— she pauses for a second, a sadness hitting her eyes I haven’t seen in a while— “Reed.”

“Has she tried to reach out to you?” I ask.

“She sent a letter. I burned it in the fireplace. There couldn’t possibly be anything in there that will fix what she’s done, so why bother opening up that in my life, you know.” Palmer shrugs. “Get up, shower, and get dressed. We’ve got school. No time to throw ourselves