WRECKED BY YOU

CHAPTER 8: THE WATCHER

The first sign came as a photo.

Crisp. Clear. Slid under Zara's dorm door in the middle of the night.

It was a picture of her and Jace.

On the library roof.

Mid-kiss.

His hand tangled in her hair. Her leg wrapped around his thigh.

Intimate.

Explosive.

Private.

Zara stared at it, heart hammering. Her fingers trembled as she flipped the photo over.

On the back, in jagged handwriting:

"How fast do you think Saint Matthew's would expel you if they saw this?"

No name.

No sender.

Just a sick, gnawing dread spreading through her stomach.

Someone was watching them.

And they didn't want to stay quiet.

⸻

She showed the photo to Jace before first period, cornering him near the basement stairwell where cameras didn't reach.

He barely looked surprised.

"This is why I didn't want to pull you in," he muttered, crumpling the photo. "People around here don't just gossip. They destroy."

Zara grabbed his wrist. "Do you know who sent it?"

"No," he admitted. "But I can guess."

She waited.

He hesitated, then said the name like poison. "Trey Whitmore."

Zara blinked. "The head boy?"

"He's not just the head boy. He's the head snake." Jace's jaw tightened. "His family runs the board of trustees. They've been trying to get me kicked out for years. He hates that I don't bow to him. And he especially hates when girls pick me over him."

Zara's stomach twisted. "So this is about... jealousy?"

Jace's eyes darkened. "No. This is about control. Trey wants me gone. And now he's going to use you to do it."

⸻

Later that day, she found an envelope in her locker.

Inside: a USB drive.

No note. No label.

She plugged it into her laptop during study period — hands shaking.

A video file loaded.

Security footage.

Jace.

Beating a guy senseless behind the gym.

Zara gasped. It wasn't grainy. It was crystal clear. Someone had access to real cameras — and they were collecting evidence.

At the end of the footage, the screen went black... then flashed one message:

"Stay away from him. Or this goes to the Dean."

⸻

That night, she stood at Jace's dorm window again — but didn't climb through.

He opened it before she could knock.

"I saw the video," she said quietly.

Jace's face turned to stone. "And?"

"And I'm not going anywhere."

He blinked.

Zara climbed through the window, pressed her hand flat against his chest. "You want to protect me? Fine. Then let me protect you too. We face this together."

"You don't know what you're getting into."

"Neither do they," she whispered. "Because I don't go down without a fight."

⸻

As their lips met again, slower this time, more desperate — Zara knew this was no longer just a forbidden romance.

It was war.

And someone had just fired the first shot.