“If she wasn’t my daughter’s best friend, and she was at a normal college, I’d go out there now with the dogs, find the guy, and fucking slice him open. Let his guts fall out. But… sheismy daughter’s friend, and she’s at a college that’s no normal facility, the same one my daughter is also at. It means I’m fucking stuck here, man.”
I forget Jack is stuck between what’s right and his daughter.
“Fine.” I get to my feet. “I’ll get a fresh team of guys together to try to track this little prick down, while you go ask the girl to stay.”
He seems surprised at my suggestion. “Can’t you do it?”
“Me? Why would she listen to me? She doesn’t even know me, and I’m not exactly… good with people. Besides, I get the impression she’ll listen to you.”
“Why?”
I can’t help myself. “I think she probably sees you as a father figure. Someone she can rely on.”
He visibly flinches at the dig. Oh, so Jack doesn’t want her to think of him as a fatherly type. Maybe he’s thinking of himself as more of herdaddy. I smirk at that. Yeah, I bet I’m on the right line. He’s already pictured her bent over, crying out, ‘Yes, Daddy… more, Daddy...’ while he grips her silky hair in one hand and fucks her hard. And perhaps he doesn’t want to go and ask her to stay because he’s trying to avoid her because he doesn’t trust himself around her one hundred percent.
“Where is she now?” Jack asks, thankfully oblivious to my thoughts.
“I just left her in the canteen with Rook and Ace.”
His expression darkens. “Fucking Ace has taken a shine to her. Do you know I caught him in her bed last night?”
His words are like a punch to the gut. “What? They’re fucking already?”
An image of Camile lying naked in bed, her dark hair tossed over the pillow, while an equally naked Ace has his face buried between her creamy thighs, jumps intomy head. Her face is a contorted mask of pleasure, and I suddenly need to know what sounds she makes when she comes, with a desperation that’s as critical to my existence as breathing.
Christ, all this picturing her getting fucked by various members of our crew is getting me hard. I’m not sure if I’m jealous, turned on, or both, which is kind of fucked up.
But to my relief, he shakes his head. “No, nothing was going on, but I reckon she could be his new obsession, and you know what he’s like when he gets fixated on something.”
“I hear you. We wouldn’t want him to scare her off.”
Jack smirks. “It certainly looked like that was going to happen last night, though she seemed to handle him pretty well.”
“Good. If she’s going to spend any time around here, she’s going to need to know how to handle crazy men.”
I wonder if I put myself in that category.
8
CAMILE
The little foodI ate sits congealing in my stomach as I think about my future. There’s a guy at my college who tried to fricking shoot me, and I don’t know if he’s still gunning for me, literally, or not.
My parents want me to marry a stranger, and the closer I get to that reality, the more it makes me want to scream.
Worst of all, I have no idea what is going to happen to me when I get back to Verona Falls University.
Rook glances up, and his eyebrows draw together, just as a shadow falls over me. I sensehimeven before I turn around. The scent of leather and something like faint engine oil, along with a warm, spicy vanilla wraps around me. It’s delicious, and it takes all I have not to moan.
“Have you finished eating?”
I twist in my seat to look up at Jack, my heart already hammeringat his proximity, and nod.
“Come, walk with me.” He steps back and jerks his chin toward the door.
Not sure if he’s talking about just me, or including Ace and Rook in the invite, and not wanting to seem rude, I flick my gaze to them, but Ace just nods, as if giving me permission. Smiling at him, I push the bench back and stand.
“You too, Ace,” Jack rumbles.
