Get Even by Gretchen McNeil Read Free Book Online Page A

Seriously? He was flirting with her right in front of his girlfriend?
    And Amber didn’t miss a second of it. Her expensively crafted nose was wrinkled in disgust as Olivia returned to the bench. “Going after Ed the Head, Livvie? Yeah, I’m sure that’ll bring Donté running back to you.”
    “Don’t be jealous,” Rex said. He reached out to massage Amber’s shoulders, but she jerked away from him. “Come on, why are you pissed at me?”
    Amber clenched her jaw but refused to answer.
    “I’m not the bad guy here,” Rex said sharply. “We need to focus on the real enemy.”
    “Which is?” Amber said without looking at him.
    “DGM.” Rex leaned back against the lunch table. “We weren’t tough enough on them last year, and look what happened. First week back and bam! They hit us.” He slammed his fist into the tabletop. “We need to take matters into our own hands. Do whatever it takes to protect the school.”
    Olivia didn’t like the anger in Rex’s voice.
    “How?” Kyle asked.
    “We can start by targeting possible suspects.” Rex stared across the courtyard. “Someone who consistently breaks the rules, even brags about it. Someone who has absolutely no respect for the name Bishop DuMaine and what it stands for.”
    Olivia followed his line of sight across the courtyard to Bree.

EIGHT
    BREE EYED THE LUNCH TABLE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE grassy quad, where Rex and his band of ’Maine Men fucktards pointed in her direction.
    “In the pandemic of douchebaggery,” she said thoughtfully, “Rex Cavanaugh is Patient Zero.”
    John slowly glanced up from his comic book. “Did you think up that line yourself?”
    “As a matter of fact, I did. Like it?”
    “A little forced,” John said. “But you get points for originality.”
    Bree smirked, but there was something about the intensity of Rex’s conversation that made her nervous.
    Out of the corner of her eye, Bree caught sight of a small, huddled figure moving quickly through the shadowed edge of the quad. Margot. She paused briefly to readjust the enormous backpack she had slung over one shoulder, then tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and disappeared into a hallway.
    Bree’s eyes darted back to Olivia, who quickly gathered up her things, muttered something to her friends, and hurried after Margot.
    Phase one of Mission Ronny DeStefano was in motion. Now Bree could turn her attention to more important things. . . .
    A quick sweep of the quad showed that her “more important thing” was nearby. Shane White sat on a bench beneath one of the giant elms.
    Perfect.
    Bree pulled out a copy of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra , opened it to a random page about two thirds of the way through, and leaned back against the wall, propping the book up on her knees so everyone could get a good look at the title while she pretended to read.
    She glanced up occasionally to see if Shane had noticed her. He seemed so normal and clean-cut hanging out with his friends at lunch, the perfect image of an everyday, unassuming DuMaine senior.
    But Bree knew better.
    She knew what Shane was like onstage, singing lead vocals in a local indie punk band called Bangers and Mosh. She’d seen him in a tight tank top, skinny jeans, and combat boots, guitar slung low across his waist. She’d seen the full-sleeve tattoos on his left arm, and when he peeled off his shirt, drenched in sweat from a performance, she’d seen the tattoos that covered his stomach as well.
    Bree knew everything there was to know about Shane White, and most importantly, she knew that he was a huge Nietzsche fan. She’d heard him asking the school librarian about Nietzsche last spring, and she’d been waiting all summer to flaunt her new collection of his works, hoping Shane might notice, might talk to her, might . . .
    “Are you even listening to me?” John asked.
    “Of course,” Bree lied.
    John folded his arms across his chest. “Then what was I saying?”
    Bree had no clue.