Free Too Hot to Handle by Aleah Barley Page B

strawberry hair back behind her ears. “You don’t have to pretend you don’t know things. I know how smart you are, Honey.”
    “I’m not that smart.” Her laughter was a little too loud. “Not smart enough to stay away from Logan Burrows. I knew better.” She smacked her palm on the floor, a little too hard. “I knew he was trouble. They’re all trouble. All those rich, spoiled brats from Black Palm Park who think the rules don’t apply to them. Those trust-fund types think they can get away with whatever they want.”
    Rich, spoiled brats. Trust-fund types. Jack’s entire body stilled. There was a force behind her words—more than annoyance. Real anger. Rage at the system she didn’t quite understand and the people she’d been forced to deal with for so many years.
    He was one of those people. Captain of the high school soccer team, dating the head cheerleader, prom king. He knew he’d had certain advantages, but he’d never known how much Honey resented him for it. “You don’t like rich guys?”
    “As far as I’m concerned, the world would be a better place if they were all at the bottom of the ocean.”
    “I never knew you felt so strongly about it. A lot of your friends have money. You chose to attend Black Palm Park Academy.”
    “Those people aren’t my friends. The only reason I went to the academy is because—” She caught herself. “Never mind. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
    “No.” Jack couldn’t let her stop. Not while the force of her words was making her shake with something between anger and despair. “Honey.” An emotion stirred in his chest, something he’d never felt before. Not about Honey.
    It was worry. A deep sense of caring. He wanted her to be all right. No matter what else happened, he needed her to be okay. It wasn’t only her physical safety he cared about, either. Her emotional well-being mattered to him. “You can talk to me about anything.”
    This wasn’t something that could be patched with antibacterial ointment and gauze. The only thing that would help Honey was to talk this thing out. Even if it made him feel like death warmed over. “Why did you go to the academy?”
    “When my father died—” Honey bit her lip. “My father’s death knocked me sideways. I had a hard time dealing with it.” She swallowed a ragged breath. “He wasn’t a criminal. Did you know that? Everyone knows the Moores are rotten to the core. As bad as they come. He was a college professor. He taught English at UCLA. Byron and Shelley. He wrote poetry.”
    Poetry. Jack wouldn’t have guessed that. Not in a million years.
    The entire time he’d known Honey, she’d always been her grandfather’s little girl. Jack had never thought about the man who’d given Honey the Moore name.
    A college professor who wrote poetry.
    “Was it any good?”
    “He got published in some anthologies. He’d just finished a book when he died. Orange Blossom Innocence by Henry Moore.” Honey’s voice shook. “He walked into a liquor store robbery. Freak thing. The thief was some druggie looking to finance his next high. No way that anyone could have known. One moment my dad was there, and the next I’m moving from Brentwood to the Valley.”
    “It must have been a hard transition.”
    Honey swallowed hard, choking back a sob. “I started acting out, misbehaving and skipping school. I failed eighth grade entirely. They were going to hold me back. Then my grandfather goes out one morning, and when he got back I was enrolled in the academy. Full scholarship.”
    “Do you know how he managed that?”
    “No, but I know Logan Burrows had something to do with it.”
    It made a strange kind of sense. Logan’s name was synonymous with money and power. If anyone could break the rules to get a girl with bad grades and a worse reputation into Black Palm Park Academy, it was Burrows. It would also explain the bonus he’d given Honey for bringing in his car. They had history