Just for a little while longer.
26
HAZE
What thefuckhad I been thinking, taking my bike when Connor pressed the emergency-alert tracker? Clearly, I hadn’t been. I hadn’t thought things through because I’d just realized thatEve was missingand then Connor pressed his SOS… Logic hadn’t factored in.
The worst part about driving the hours back to campus with her small hands clutching my jacket and her thighs pressed against mine? I wanted to enjoy it. Ilikedbeing around her, but even with the barrier of leather between our skin, it took all my willpower to keep myself under control and not crash.
By the time we got back, I was both dripping sweat and shivering as pure, undiluted trauma coated every inch of my skin beneath the bike leathers. I was utterly disgusted with myself.
I heard Eve’s small protest as I smoke-bombed myself out of her vicinity, and it gutted me.
Why was I such a fucking mess? Oh yeah. Trauma. It was amazing how fucked up a guy could be after enduring torture in a Serbian prison camp as a young teen.
After showering and taking a Valium, I was calm enough to try and apologize to the mysterious, violet-haired temptress living down the hall. Trouble was, Andrew had apparently pissed her off and she’d locked herself in her room.
“You don’t have a lot of experience with people, do you?” I asked him when I found him ironing his dress shirts in his room.
His head jerked up from the perfect pleat he was pressing. “And you do?”
I folded my arms, leaning against the doorframe. “Never said I did. But even a social outcast like me knows not to pick a fight with a woman who just survived a kidnapping. Did it occur to you that she might be fragile right now?”
Andrew glared daggers, placing his iron carefully on the holder so not to burn anything. His glares had no effect on me, and he damn well knew it. I didn’t give a fuck who his Mommy was.
“Did it occur toyouthat you’re on a dozen government watch lists and any number of those organizations would have wet their pants to snatch you up the moment you left Meadowridge grounds?” He folded his own arms, mirroring my defensive stance. “You could have told Brodie or Ethan to retrieve them, rather than risk your own incarceration.”
“I was the only one home when the alarm activated,” I murmured, knowing full well that wasn’t a good enough reason. I shouldn’t leave Meadowridge. Not for anything. “Considering she’s your debt, Drew, I’d think you’d be saying thank you right now.”
Andrew blew out a heavy sigh, running a hand through his perfect hair and messing it up which was a clear sign that he wasn’t okay. “Yeah. Right. Thanks, bro. I never anticipated that keeping an eye on some normal chick would be so…stressful.”
That amused me enough to crack a smile. “She’s not somenormal chick, that’s why. Even if she doesn’t know it, she’s still Abraham’s daughter.”
Andrew grimaced, nodding. “You’re right. I just don’t know how long he’s expecting me to keep this up. The girl is a danger magnet.” She was, but I kind of liked that about her. She was a little bit spicy and intrigued the shit out of me. “Did you hear there was an attempted break in at the south gate while you were gone? Some dickheads from the Crusades trying to get onto school grounds.”
I hadn’t. I’d been too occupied with having Eve’s hands on my jacket for the whole drive back, I simply hadn’t checked my messages. “I take it they were stopped?”
Andrew scoffed, rolling his shirtsleeves in a clear sign of his anxiety. “Of course they were. The Meadowridge security is better than my mother’s own Secret Service. It is uncomfortable timing, though. Abraham asked me to keep Evelyn safe for a reason…he must think she’s in danger.”
I quirked a brow. “More than getting shot in the back at her last school? I’d think that was reason enough to be worried.”
“True,” he agreed with a scowl. “I dunno. She just gets under my skin.”
Now that was a feeling I could identify with. She also got under mine, though I was confident it was in an entirely different way.
A muffled scream from upstairs echoed through the house, and before I could even comprehend what I was doing, I’d taken the stairs three at a time. Brodie beat me there and held up a hand to tell me to calm the fuck down.
“She’s asleep,” he said in a hoarse voice. “Nightmares. What happened out there with Connor?”
I shrugged. “Fuck if I know. Call him and ask.” Another muffled scream came through the door, and I jerked forward, reaching for the handle.
“It’s locked,” Brodie informed me—unnecessarily, since itdidn’t turn more than a couple of millimeters. “She always locks it when she’s pissed off.”
Scowling, I refrained from telling him that I had a spare key that Icoulduse if I wanted to. But if I did, I’d lose that safety net. Instead, I knocked gently on Eve’s door. “Eve? It’s Haze. Can we talk?”
No response.
Brodie gave a heavy sigh, sliding his back down the wall until his butt met the floor. “She’s asleep, bro. Though I’m tempted to kick the door down, because I’m not sure how much longer I can listen to her sobs without losing my mind.”
