Psycho
Hillcrest University: Book 4
Candace Wondrak
© 2019 Candace Wondrak
All Rights Reserved.
Book cover by Victoria Schaefer at Eve’s Garden of Eden – A Cover Group
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Chapter One – Declan
Chapter Two – Travis
Chapter Three – Ash
Chapter Four – Sawyer
Chapter Five – Ash
Chapter Six – Ash
Chapter Seven – Will
Chapter Eight – Ash
Chapter Nine – Travis
Chapter Ten – Ash
Chapter Eleven – Ash
Chapter Twelve – Declan
Chapter Thirteen – Ash
Chapter Fourteen – Declan
Chapter Fifteen – Ash
Chapter Sixteen – Will
Chapter Seventeen – Ash
Chapter Eighteen – Sawyer
Chapter Nineteen – Travis
Chapter Twenty – Ash
Chapter Twenty-One – Will
Chapter Twenty-Two – Ash
Chapter Twenty-Three – Sawyer
Chapter Twenty-Four – Ash
Chapter Twenty-Five – Travis
Chapter Twenty-Six – Ash
Chapter Twenty-Seven – Ash
Chapter Twenty-Eight – Ash
Chapter One – Declan
Sawyer’s house was unlocked, which didn’t surprise me. He was never one to be careful. If there was one thing Sawyer Salvatore was, it was rash. Stupid. Growing up with him, hanging out with him, I found him fun to be around, if a little over the top. Of course, at the time, his over the top attitude and behavior was nullified by the fact that I was head over heels for his little sister, but that was neither here nor there. That was so far in the past I could hardly think about it as I walked into his lavish rental house.
I’d almost lost myself to depression after losing Sabrina, but recently I’d found myself, in no small part due to Ash. Ash stormed into my life like a whirlwind. A hot, dangerous, messy whirlwind that I couldn’t help but be caught in. A storm like her you couldn’t avoid. You could only stand still and hope you got out alive.
Me? I didn’t want to get out. I didn’t want to escape the eye of her storm. I was right where I wanted to be—with her.
Right now, though, I wasn’t where I wanted to be, because standing in Sawyer’s house was like filling my heart with knives. We used to be friends, yes, but after everything he did, after everything he made the other students on campus do…how could I possibly forgive him for that? Some rifts between friends weren’t mendable. Sometimes when bridges burned they simply burned to ashes and were irreparable.
I meandered to Sawyer’s living room, gingerly sitting down on the couch since Travis and the others weren’t here yet. I felt antsy; my blood pumped a bit too fast. Something was wrong. I could tell from his voice when he called me. The bastard refused to say what exactly had happened at the party Ash and Kelsey went to, and I prayed nothing happened to either of them.
Prayed. Hah. As if I believed in God.
I didn’t. Not anymore. Not after everything.
I lost track of time as I sat there, staring at my phone. I hoped that if something had happened to Ash, she would’ve called me, or texted me. Done something. I didn’t want to rely on Travis when it came to her.
Travis was…it was hard to forget what happened in the past. How he and Sabrina were together behind my back. I knew Sabrina wandered, and when we were on our breaks I’d been fine with it, because—foolish me—I always thought she’d come back to me.
But no. She and Travis were together behind my back for months. How could I overlook a betrayal like that? From both her and him? She was my girlfriend, and he was my friend, as much as a guy like Travis Scott could ever be friends with someone. I didn’t want a repeat of the past. No secrets, no lies, no going behind my back.
There would be no repeat, I swore to myself. This time would be different, because Ash was different. Travis might’ve liked her, but I did too, and this time I wasn’t going to step aside. She was there for me even when I tried to push her away, so I’d stick around, fight for her, for as long as I possibly could.
Yes, even if Travis stayed in the picture. Even with our shared history.
After a while, I heard car doors slam in the driveway, and I got up, heading to the side door near the garage. I yanked it open, stumbling back when I saw Travis lugging a mostly unconscious Sawyer into the house. A muscle in Travis’s jaw was clenched, and he looked pissed. Beyond pissed. Pissed and with a stare that could kill.
In other words, normal Travis.
Behind Travis, Kelsey stood, a look of pure worry on her face. She’d torn off her Hello, My Name is… tag, and from her smeared makeup, it looked as though she’d been crying. Ash was nowhere to be seen.
What the hell?
“What—” I couldn’t even get more out, because Travis threw me a look over his shoulder that told me to zip it. I went to close the side door.
“Help me get this asshole up the stairs,” Travis muttered, frowning. Meanwhile, Kelsey moved to the living room, sitting on the couch, furiously texting someone. Her hands shook, I noticed, and in my heart of hearts I just knew.
Something happened. Something bad.
Where the hell was Ash? Why was she not with them?
I slowly moved to Sawyer’s other side, grabbing his limp arm and moving it around my shoulders. Together Travis and I heaved Sawyer up the stairs, dragging his feet as we went. It looked like he had some kind of grease in his hair, but I could see pink bits sticking through. He wore a vampire cape and dark clothes beneath it.
Wait a second. Did this mean Sawyer was at the party Ash and Kelsey went to? At Stanton?
I never thought I’d be grateful to Travis for his tendencies to go over the top, or to stalk, but in this case…in this case I just might be—but really, that depended on what happened to Ash, and where she currently was.
I waited until we made it to Sawyer’s room, when we laid him down on his bed, to ask him, “Where’s Ash? Why isn’t she with you? What happened, Travis?” I was about to say more, but I froze the moment I watched Travis dig out a phone from his pocket.
Was that…Ash’s new phone? I was pretty sure it was, the new phone Briggs money had bought her after the accident. I had no idea why Travis would have it, why he was here without her. If Ash wasn’t here, and she didn’t have her phone…where the hell was she, and how were we supposed to find her if she’d run off while at Stanton?
“Fuck,” Travis muttered. “She’s fucking relentless. Twenty texts, seven missed calls. It’s a good thing this phone’s on silent, otherwise I’d have some explaining to do.”
I glared at him. “You do have explaining to do.”
“To you, but not to her,” Travis hissed. “We have to get her out of here. I don’t want to have to focus on her friend when we should be focusing on getting Ash back.”
“Back?” I repeated, clueless. “Where did she
go?”
Travis ignored my question; he was doing a lot of that tonight, apparently. “Go downstairs, make sure she doesn’t come up here. I have to figure out what to say to get her to leave and go home, or back to wherever it is she came from.” He let out a frustrated sigh, scrolling through what I guessed were messages. Ash’s messages. His blue eyes scanned the phone quickly.
“Travis,” I started, not liking being kept in the dark.
The look he gave me right then and there stopped me cold. It was a dangerous, wild look. A look that told me if I didn’t go downstairs right this instant and do as he said, he’d be liable to rip my head straight off my body.
My throat became dry when I realized: Travis was worried about Ash, too. That didn’t bode well at all. If it was so bad even Travis was worried…
I said nothing else as I turned to walk out of the room. I made it to the door when I heard Sawyer moan about needing more, and Travis’s stern voice muttered a low, “No, you don’t, fucker.”
I paused near the door, looking back at the two guys who used to be my friends. Sawyer was either drunk off his mind or high as a kite—or maybe both. He was so out of it, his words were so slurred, he was barely comprehensible. And Travis…Travis wore a darkness that I never noticed before, a blackness that didn’t stem from the massive dragon tattoo on his left arm or the tribal design on his right. Someone else might be afraid of Travis and that dark scowl, but I wasn’t.
Right now, the only person I was afraid for was Ash.
Going down the stairs, I found Kelsey slumped over on the couch, her face in her hands, her phone sitting beside her on the next cushion. Her brown hair was a mess, covered in sweat. She’d looked better, definitely.
I sat beside her, making sure to put enough space between us. Truly, the only girl I felt good about comforting was Ash. Did that make me a terrible person? “What happened?” I asked. “Where’s Ash?”
“What happened?” Kelsey echoed, slowly bringing her watery gaze to me. In her dark eyes, I saw heartbreak and regret. They shook as she told me, “What happened is I’m the worst friend ever, Declan. What happened is I fucked up royally, and now Ash is so pissed at me, she’s not even responding. I couldn’t find her at the party. I…fucked up so bad.” Fresh tears streamed down her face.
Ash ran away again. Great. So why the hell were we sitting here? Why weren’t we out there looking for her? That girl had a habit of running when things got tough…
But wait. What did Kelsey do?
Since I was apparently the only one not at the party, I asked, “What did you do?”
“I followed my fifteen-year-old self’s dreams and fucked a vampire,” she choked out. “But that vampire turned out to be Sawyer.” Kelsey lifted a shaking arm, pointing to the stairwell. “Then that one somehow found us, and…”
And brought them here. Led them here, whatever. I could piece the rest of it together.
“I fucked up royally,” Kelsey was busy saying. “I should’ve seen the look on her face, but I was too in the moment. I didn’t realize—”
“It’s not your fault,” I told her. “You didn’t know.”
“I am the worst friend in the world,” she said. “The worst.” Kelsey was going to say more, but her phone dinged, and as I peered down at it, I saw that Ash’s name lit up the screen.
Ash, AKA Travis texting as Ash.
Kelsey read the message, a look of pure misery on her face. “She went home with someone. She…she wants me to go home.” Her shoulders began to shake even more as she added, “She says she needs time, that she can’t even think about looking at me right now.” She burst into tears again, and this time I felt even more uncomfortable.
I watched as Kelsey stood up, pacing the length of the living room, trying to call Ash’s phone yet again.
“Fuck,” Kelsey muttered, lowering her phone. “Straight to voicemail. What the hell am I supposed to do?” Her dark eyes looked to me, and I met her stare, knowing what Travis would want me to say, knowing what he’d want me to do.
“I think,” I started, getting to my feet, “that I should take you to the dorm, let you in so you can get your stuff.” Even though Kelsey already knew what I was about to say next, I still said it anyway, “And I think you should go.”
Kelsey sniffed, letting out a shaky breath. “But what if she…”
“You know how she is,” I said, not saying it. Hot-headed. Foolish. Stubborn. Ash was a lot of things, and if Kelsey was her friend, she knew it, too. “If she doesn’t want to see you, she’ll make sure to stay away until you’re gone. I think it’s best to leave now so she can come back.” I was talking about something I had no clue about, because, let me emphasis this, I had no idea where Ash was.
Did she really run away with a guy? Did she go home with a guy to have her own one-night stand because she was upset with Kelsey for sleeping with Sawyer?
If…if she was upset with her friend for that, it meant Ash had feelings for him. I knew she felt something for Travis, but Sawyer? God, everything just couldn’t be easy when it came to Ash, could it?
Ash liking Sawyer was not something I wanted to think about. Not something I could let myself think about while the man himself was out of it upstairs. Not while she was gone, off the rails.
“If she…if she talks to you about it, will you…” Kelsey blinked, shaking her head. “Just let me know when she comes home, please. I need to know that she’s safe, that I didn’t push her to do something stupid.” Her lower lip trembled, and I was honestly amazed at the emotion showing on her face.
Ash usually hid her emotions. She was so unlike Kelsey in every way.
After Kelsey gave me her number, I said, “Come on. Let’s get your stuff out of the dorm.”
She nodded, swiping at her tears, not saying anything else. I followed her out of the house, to the car parked in the driveway. It was a nice black sportscar, not Sawyer’s type of ride. It was Travis’s car, and I didn’t want to sit in it. Kelsey would drive us to the dorm in her car and then drive me back here on her way out of town.
Her Hillcrest visit would be cut short, because she’d slept with Sawyer and upset Ash so much she had to run away.
Again.
I was silent as I directed Kelsey to our dorm building, lost in my own mind. It was hard enough knowing Ash felt for Travis, but Sawyer too? I guess the signs were there, how she constantly found excuses to find him, to go to his parties and talk to him, and I just didn’t want to see the truth.
Sawyer didn’t deserve any feelings from Ash, especially love. He deserved nothing.
We got to the dorm and I led Kelsey to the elevator, to our floor, and down the hall. I unlocked the door and walked inside, feeling an odd sense of loneliness since Ash wasn’t here. Wherever she was, I hoped she was safe.
Kelsey quickly packed up her stuff, tossing a lingering glance to Ash’s bed before telling me, “That’s all of it. I…please tell her I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I didn’t know who he was, I just…” With her backpack around her shoulders, Kelsey looked like a vagabond. “I was so lost in my own problems that I…fuck, I just suck.”
I knew trying to convince her that she didn’t suck would be a pointless endeavor, so I said nothing as we left the dorm room.
Luckily, she’d gotten ahold of herself enough to drive me back to Sawyer’s house safely. I was about to step out of the car when she reached for me, grabbing my arm more tightly than I would’ve guessed she was capable of.
“I fucked up,” Kelsey said for about the millionth time tonight. Or was it early morning by now? It was hard to tell. This night had passed in a blur, and the sky outside was still dark, but I swore I could see the faintest traces of early dawn.
Or maybe that was just me wishing Ash would come back. Maybe that was me wishing this night would be over. A fool’s wish.
“I fucked up,” she repeated, still holding onto me. “So whatever you do, don’t follow my l
ead.”
I blinked at her, my hand steady on the handle. She was…she was telling me not to fuck up?
“Ash likes you,” Kelsey said, her eyes red and puffy from her night of crying. “She likes you all, even though she might not say it. She does. I can tell by the way she talks about you guys. I don’t want any of you to hurt her. Let me…let this be enough hurt, let me be the fuckup.”
Blinking again, I said nothing, only nodding. It was as I nodded that she released her hold on my arm, and I was able to get out of her rusty car. Slamming the door on that thing, I felt like it was going to fall apart.
I watched her drive off, a pit in my stomach. Ash liked us all. All of us. Me, Travis, and Sawyer? Again, the clues had all been there, but hearing her friend confirm it was…troubling. Of course I wanted to be selfish, to have her to myself, but it was as I stood there, watching her friend drive off, that I wondered something.
Could any of us handle Ash on our own, or did we need each other as buffers?
Ash, where are you?
Chapter Two – Travis
It was easy enough to glance at Ash’s past messages with her friend and respond to her numerous texts in the way that Ash would’ve. Her lack of punctuation, how she shortened a few words. The little intricacies that made Ash Ash when she texted. The text served its purpose though, and after I sent it, I immediately turned the phone off.
While her friend and Declan were busy going back to the dorm, I picked up Sawyer’s room. Not so much cleaned it as I got rid of all of the extra substances that Sawyer needn’t take anymore. The fucking idiot. Here he’d probably thought he’d moved past that point in his life—an addict never really could recover fully, especially when he kept a drawer in the kitchen.
If I was honest, this was what I wanted, in the beginning. I wanted Sawyer to remove himself from the picture, because it would’ve made me getting Ash to myself easier.
And yet…yet now, faced with his noncoherent words and the way his pupils were as wide as saucers, not to mention the alcohol taint on his breath, I realized I didn’t want this. I didn’t want this, because I knew Ash wouldn’t want this.
Psycho: A Dark College Romance (Hillcrest University Book 4) Page 1
