suffocating, it drowned out everything else.

He was afraid of me, because I had the power to expose him, and his future depended on me. It hadn't even been a real kiss. He'd just been trying to shut me up. I was just a job,

a ticket to redemption he probably didn't even deserve. What about what I deserved? I brought my foot up hard against his shin. "Just say it! I already know . . ."

Reece stumbled and grunted, pushing me into a wall of lockers and pinning me with his body. His hands tangled in my hair, pulling me into him before I could say another word. He tried to kiss me again and I bit down hard. Felt him flinch.

Felt a shocking hot flare of emotion as his mouth crushed mine. His lips parted and I felt his tongue. I froze, startled by the unexpected taste of something decadent and sweet.

His fingers loosened in my hair and his mouth softened. He cupped the back of my head, and I clutched his jacket and kissed him back. I wasn't sure if I needed to kiss him or kill

him, or if the need I was feeling was his or my own. Cheers and whistles erupted through the crowd. Reece pulled away, startled and red in the face. I licked my lips, copper and vinegar. His anger and humiliation tasted like a kick in the gut. My chest heaved in the tight space between us, that swollen horrible need threatening to burst. I slapped him hard across the face. People applauded and shouted, and I looked over Reece's shoulder, spotting Jeremy's pale face. Anh stood beside him, staring at Reece and me with wide eyes. She reached for Jeremy's hand, but he turned and ran, shoving his way through the crowd. Every inch of me wanted to run after him.

Or maybe just run. The bodies parted and two security officers came toward me. I froze, but their eyes were locked on something behind me.

I turned. Reece was pale except for the handprint on his cheek and the cut that had opened where I'd bitten him. He swiped the back of his hand across his mouth, wiping the smear of blood on his jeans before the officers could see it. He shut his eyes. He couldn't even look at me.

"I'm sorry," he said, barely a whisper, as they took him away.

26.

I spent first period under the willow tree outside school, not ready to face Anh and the barrage of questions she was sure to fire at me the minute I walked into lab. Jeremy didn't come, and while I'd hoped he would, I guess I really couldn't blame him.

When the second period bell rang, I pulled myself together and crept back in the side entrance I'd used to sneak out, avoiding the cop in the parking lot. I snapped open my locker. Two sheets of paper cascaded out, and a sleeve of Twinkies rested on the top shelf. I couldn't bring myself to open them, so I reached for the notes instead. The first was in Reece's scratchy block print.

WE'LL TALK LATER. I PROMISE.

MEET ME TOMORROW AFTER SCHOOL.

I didn't have time to contemplate the meaning or what he planned to talk to me about, because the second note was more pressing-a pink slip directing me to the principal's office. There was an X in the box marked Urgent and several exclamation points next to the word Immediately.

I'd known this was coming. Reece had practically body checked me in front of the entire school. And I'd drawn blood. Rumors were bound to get back to administration. I just didn't expect it to be "immediately."

I inspected myself in my small locker mirror. Girls walked slowly past my locker, staring as I scraped away a patch of dried blood from my cheek. My lips were still swollen from the kiss, and I bit them, feeling a momentary stab of guilt over Gena. He'd said she wasn't his girlfriend, but having seen the way she cared about him, I wasn't so sure she would agree.

None of that mattered, though. It hadn't been real. He'd said it before, out loud, in front of Gena. I was nobody. A liability he was forced to silence with an artificial kiss. Lonny had almost killed him over his suspicion that Reece was a narc, and I'd threatened his cover. I'd left him no choice.

The second bell rang.

All I wanted was a ride home.

Principal Romero did indeed see me "immediately." I sat in the chair across from his desk and looked down at the floor, humiliated.

"You missed first period this morning, Miss Boswell. Care to tell me why?" His tone suggested he already knew the answer, but he'd put me through the act of contrition anyway.

I had the overwhelming temptation to tell him everything. The ads, the numbers, the fights, how I'd seen Posie burning and Marcia on the bottom of the pool. I chewed my lip.

I took a deep breath, decided. I'd be safer under Frank Romero's wing than in Lieutenant Nicholson's custody.

"It's all right, Nearly," Principal Romero said, interrupting my thoughts. "I am aware of what happened with Mr. Whelan, and I assure you I am taking corrective action. He won't bother you again. He's been removed from West River High School."

"Removed?" My head snapped up, my confessions forgotten. "What do you mean?"

"He's been expelled. Security escorted him off campus a few moments ago. Now it's only a matter of some paperwork." He beamed down at me from his stupid faux-leather throne. Even if Reece had tried to fight it, it wouldn't have mattered. Romero wasn't ever going to give him a chance.

"It wasn't his fault."

The smile slid from his face. "Excuse me?"

"I was the one responsible." Romero tossed his pen on the expulsion papers he'd been ready to sign.

I couldn't let Reece go back to jail for something that was my fault. He'd only reacted because I'd provoked him. My behavior hadn't left him any choice.

I cleared my throat, preparing to tell a story that I hadn't quite come up with yet. Some excuse Principal Romero and the rest of the school would be willing to believe. I owed Reece this much.

"I wanted him to notice me," I said, looking at the principal through lowered lashes, trying to gauge his reaction. "So I tried changing my hair and wearing different clothes. It didn't work, so I did something stupid. I practically attacked him in front of a million people." I cringed. It wasn't entirely a lie. I'd threatened him, which could be construed as an attack . . . of sorts. Then there was the kicking, biting, and slapping . . . And plenty of witnesses to corroborate this slightly revised version of the truth.

"I understand there was blood involved? Did he hurt you?" Romero didn't look concerned so much as hopeful. His chair creaked as he leaned into my story, waiting for it to crumble.

"No, sir. The blood was Reece's. I guess I was a little rough." I blinked hard, provoking a tear. It wasn't hard, the truth cut deep. "But it doesn't matter. He made his feelings perfectly clear."

Romero handed me a tissue, studying my hair and my shirt, as if noticing for the first time that something was, in fact, different.

"That's probably for the best," he said. "Mr. Rankin tells me you're awfully close to earning the merit scholarship in chemistry. I would hate to see you throw that away over a boy."

I blew all my disdain into his tissue. He sounded like Mona.

"Besides, he's a bad influence. You would do better not to associate with someone like Whelan. Trouble seems to follow him. Ever since he enrolled, there have been problems."