He’s tense, his body like a stone under my arm, but he moves with me easily. It’s only when we’ve finally made it through the doors and down the front steps of the English department that I come to a stop.
Taking the pad from his hand and tossing it on the ground along with my backpack, I pull him to me, hugging him with everything I’ve got. I want to do so much more right now after everything he went through because of me, but this is all I can give.
He’s here and despite being beaten up, tired and broken, he’s safe. Even if I’m the reason for everything that happened, as long as I’ve got him, I know that nothing else will happen. I won’t let it even if I’ve got to stand and fight those meathead monsters myself. No one is ever going to hurt my friend again. They won’t ever get close enough to try.
Standing in place, hearing his wounded cry at the same second I feel his body shake and collapse against mine, I just hold on tighter. It’s not much, but what I’m doing, it’s helping him and it makes my heart hurt a little less knowing that.
All I’ve ever wanted is to help.
I can hear steps around us, shadows crawling over us and vanishing. It’s only when a shadow crosses over us and doesn’t leave the way the others have, signaling that the person has stopped that I break away from the hug, release Isaac from the near stranglehold I’ve had on him for the last several minutes and turn toward it.
Coming face to face with the very angry face of the last person I expected to see.
Kayden
I can’t believe I’m about to do this.
There were doubts originally, where I wondered if doing things this way was the right way to go, but they faded quickly once her bright smile flooded my head.
It also helps block the doubts when you’ve got a guy like Dillon with you. Whatever worries that were there before I got in the car, faded the minute he smirked and told me I was doing a good thing.
Belle thinks I’m coming home for good in a week. It’s the truth, or it was before I fast tracked the process without telling her. I didn’t intentionally set out to lie, but me coming home, I want it to be a surprise. It’s going to be like the night I told her I loved her all over again. A time I’ve been itching to recreate since our anniversary a week ago. We’ve taken the next step in our relationship, becoming even closer than we were before and now it’s like we’re going back to the beginning again.
I want to have a million beginnings with Belle because an ending is out of the question.
“What time does she get out?”
“Quarter to eleven I think?”
“When’s the last time she texted you?”
“Right before she went in.”
“She’s not gonna see this coming is she?”
“Nope.” I smile. She definitely won’t see this coming. “That’s what makes this perfect.”
“Unless it totally backfires and she freaks.”
Dillon knows about the way Belle is. We’ve talked about it before. After the surprise I leveled her with for our anniversary though, trusting in my best friend to get her across town to the beach when a normal night for her would have been to stay in, I’m pretty sure she’ll handle this one fine.
“She won’t freak. There’s no way this can backfire. Things are finally gonna be right.”
This is going to be perfect, no matter what happens because I’m finally home where I belong.
I’m with her, or at least I will be if she ever comes out of the building.
Looking down at the stereo and catching the time flashing, I try to distract myself by drumming my fingers on the steering wheel. We got here about ten minutes ago and just decided to let the car stay idled while we wait. There’s a risk we might get in shit by the parking authority, but for Belle, I’m willing to take it. There’s no way I’m gonna miss seeing her exit the building.
“Hey—uh, isn’t that her?” he says and I look where his hand is pointing out through the windshield.
She’s pretty far out, but he’s right. It’s her. We could be in a crowded room of people and I’d be able to pick Belle out easily. It’s just the connection between us. Her heart is speaking to me, even from thirty or so feet away.
“Yeah.” I confirm and that’s when it happens. I see her stop and where I hadn’t been paying attention before, I can see now that she’s not alone. She’s got Isaac with her and instead of them heading to their next class, they’re standing completely still just off the stairs. Belle is tossing her backpack and some other stuff to the ground and wrapping her arms around him.
What the fuck is this?
Why is she hugging him?
My heart rate increases the minute his hands make their way around her and even from here I can see he’s running them up and down her back.
No. No fucking way is he gonna touch my girlfriend like that. No way in hell.
“What the fuck?” I seethe under my breath and Dillon turns his attention away from the scene to face me.
“Man, don’t read anything into that. She used to do that with Carmen all the fucking time.”
I hear what he’s saying, but it doesn’t go all the way through. I damn well know she’s hugged Eric before, but there’s something that’s different about this. Eric never rubbed his hands all over her like this.
Isaac, even knowing she’s got a boyfriend is fucking putting the moves on her and there’s no way in hell I’m gonna let him continue doing it. Over my dead body. He can find himself another girl, special needs or not.
Belle’s mine.
Unlocking the door and sliding out, I hear Dillon yelling something, but I slam it before he finishes. Whatever it is he has to say can wait. Right now I’ve got to get over there and stop whatever the fuck this is between Belle and Isaac.
Making quick work of the grass, I don’t stop until I’m damn near standing on top of them. She turns toward me, her eyes going wide and something about the way she’s looking at me sets me off. How long have they been fucking around behind my back? Hugging, holding hands like I caught them doing two weeks ago and maybe even more?
Has she been playing me for a fucking fool the entire time or is this just something she’s come up with lately to get back at me for everything I did to her over the last eight years?
Shaking off the rage, I stare the both of them down, waiting for Belle to say something. Explain to me why she’s standing here so openly public, holding on to another guy when the only one she should be doing that with is me.
“Get your hands off my girlfriend.” I spit out, locking eyes with Isaac and balling my hands together, cracking my knuckles in an effort to curb the urge I have to physically remove his hands myself.
They’re already separated, but he’s not completely broken away, as his hand is still lingering on her and that’s my undoing.
“Just what the fuck is your game, man? Get the girl alone and make her feel bad for you because you can’t fucking speak, then get her to fall for you?”
“Kay…” she starts and I just shake my head.
“How long, Belle?” I ask, turning toward her and leveling her with my glare. “How long have you been fucking Isaac behind my back? Was last weekend even your first time?”
She flinches and steps back and there’s a second where I feel like kicking myself, but as quickly as it comes, it’s gone. The way he was hugging her was intimate; the way I hug her, so what’s going on here, I’ve got every right to be upset about.
She needs to tell me the truth before I lose it.
“How long, Belle!” I shout balling my hands up into fists only this time, not pushing down the rage. This time I’m gonna let it grow.
“It’s not what it looks like.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it’s not. That’s what they all say.”
“Kay...”
“Shut up, Belle.”
She flinches again and this time backs away from me completely and that’s when I feel it. The stabbing pain in my chest; one I haven’t felt since I show
ed up drunk on her front lawn after the dance. I’m hurting her, breaking her the same way I did then. The only difference this time is she deserves it.
She’s the guilty one.
Turning my attention back to Isaac, I move forward and shove him. Belle might be the one cheating on me, but he was the one doing the real damage. He’s trying to take the only girl I’ve ever loved from me and that just isn’t going to happen.
“She’s mine! You hear me? Not yours. She loves me!” I shove into him again and this time he stumbles on his feet and falls down to one knee. I back up a little and watch as he shakes off what I’ve done and when his head raises, I see it. His face is angry, but it’s more than that. He’s got marks on him, ones that are starting to change colors.
He’s bruised and there’s a bit of dried blood in the middle of it.
What the hell is going on here? How does he have these marks? I didn’t even touch him other than shoving my weight into him in order to take him down. Where did they come from?
“Kay, stop it! It’s not what you think! Isaac is my friend! He doesn’t want me. I was hugging him because he’s hurting!”
I hear everything she’s screaming and it stops me momentarily. I know how hard it is for her to do this kind of thing in public and there’s nowhere more public then where we’re standing now. School.
A feeling of déjà vu hits me, but before I can react to what she’s said, I’m stumbling backwards, Isaac now coming at me, attempting to take me down the same way I did with him.
“Isaac no! Don’t. Please stop! He doesn’t mean it. He’s confused!”
My Belle. Sticking up for me. Trying to get her friend to stop and getting nowhere. If this kid really wants a fight, then that’s exactly what he’s going to get.
I can feel myself being pulled back, knowing without even looking that it’s Dillon. For once he’s trying to diffuse the situation, but I shrug him off and move forward, keeping my eyes trained on the silent guy in front of me.
The minute his clenched up fist is about to make contact with my body, I reach out, block him and shove him forward, which seems to only make him angrier. He comes back again and predicting his next move, wanting to get the upper hand before he can take me down, I move forward, bringing my arm backward before swinging with every bit of strength I’ve got.
Prepared to get him before he gets me.
It’s only when I feel the punch connect and hear the cry that comes after, I realize Isaac isn’t the one I hit. It’s her.
She stumbles and as I reach out to grab her before she falls, she backs up and trips over the backpack I’d seen her drop on the ground from the car. Her body moving so quickly that Isaac and I both jump and reach at the same time in an effort to catch her before she hits the ground.
Before we get to her, we hear the crash as her body hits the pavement, a cracking sound not far behind. I freeze in place, not even sure what I’m seeing is real and it seems Isaac does the same. I hear a garbled sound come from his mouth and before I can shake off whatever’s keeping me frozen, I see Dillon.
He’s kneeling over her, whispering words I can’t make out while he picks her up into his arms and cradles her close. His lips continue moving but no sound is coming out. It’s only when he looks up and levels me with a look of pure fear that there’s sound again, his message loud and clear.
“Kayden, call 911. Now! She’s not breathing!”
Chapter Twenty-One
Dillon
This is some kind of sick nightmare. There is no way in hell this can be real.
What happened, it’s something I can see myself going through, but definitely not something I see for him.
When we got to the college and caught sight of the two of them hugging through the windshield, I knew it set him off. It’s a natural response for us. We’re always in fight mode even where there’s no fight to be had, but I didn’t say or do anything to contain it. To stop him from what happened next.
Jealousy is a tricky bitch. I remember clearly the way it felt seeing Cadence hug Eric months ago outside her house. The struggle internally I dealt with, wanting to take him out for having his hands anywhere near my girl, but also the understanding that what the two of them shared might be what was better for her at the time.
Doubting yourself might be an even trickier bitch than jealousy and Kayden has both.
This is one of the ways we’re similar. We’ve never had anything like we do with these girls. We’ve never had that level of love before, the closeness that comes with it and because of that, we don’t have the first clue what do with everything we’re going through.
Sure, talking about it would seem like the right thing, but there aren’t many instances in our lives where we’ve done that. Kayden and me, we’re notorious for doing the wrong thing and with what just happened in front of the school and the aftermath we’re dealing with now, it’s the wrong thing pushed to the extreme.
He screwed up.
We both did.
I know the way Kayden’s mind works almost as well as Belle does, so I knew the second he jumped from the car that the shit was about to hit the fan. He wasn’t going to go up to them and be nice. He was looking for a fight because just like I told him in the car weeks ago, he’s deathly afraid of this girl leaving him even though she’s given him no reason to think she ever would. His mind is making him see things that aren’t there.
It’s what brings us here now. Standing in the emergency room, pacing back and forth, desperate for word on exactly how bad what happened to Belle is. If what Kayden did is as bad as it looked when it happened.
It’s all clear in my mind but it seems to be moving in slow motion.
Kayden booking it from the car, making his way across the lawn faster than I’ve ever seen him move and shoving himself into the autistic guy Belle’s been trying to help.
The rage filled reaction on both of their faces as the guy got to his feet and went back at him without a care in the world. Belle’s face as she realized what was happening, her eyes wide, tears streaming down and the cry she let escape as the guy hit Kayden.
The sound of her voice as she screamed at them both to stop and the shiver it sent down my spine. I know that sound. I’ve heard it from my own girlfriend before and it never means anything good. I might not have seen what happened next coming, but the sick feeling in my stomach watching them fight as I finally reached where they were, it was enough to tell me that something bad was gonna go down.
I did what I could, trying to pull Kayden away and calm him the fuck down before he did something he would regret, there was no stopping him. In a matter of seconds he was too far gone.
Kayden swung forward and instead of hitting Isaac, Belle stepped in at the last second and took the brunt of it. All of the pent up fear, rage, anger and jealousy that’s probably been building in him since he got with her a year ago running like a freight train straight into her.
When she hit the ground, I moved first. I wanted to catch her before she fell, but I was too late. I wasn’t close enough and knowing that eats me alive.
Her head smacked off the pavement. Hard. I heard the cracking noise and fell to my knees, scooping her up without even thinking if it was right to move her or not. I just had to get her out of there.
Hearing Kayden’s strangled cry the minute I did it, turning and seeing his face twisted in both left over rage and hurt, I yelled at him to call 911 and just pulled her closer.
She’s not my girlfriend, but with as tightly as I held onto her, it was almost like this was Caddy after the horror she went through with Amelia and I just needed to do the right thing by her. This was my chance to make things right, especially with Kayden so stunned by what happened that he seemed to have completely checked out.
I needed to do for her what he couldn’t.
By the time the ambulance came, I saw the crack in her head and the blood that was pooling there. It didn’t look deep, but it was enough for me to worry that this might
be something Belle might not recover from.
It was scary as hell.
Kayden hasn’t said a word since we got here, but the looks he’s been giving me tell me a lot. He’s as scared as I am, but there’s also something else going on. Every few minutes when I feel his eyes on me and look up to catch him staring, I see the same look he had for Isaac.
He’s pissed and he’s directing it at me.
After pacing back and forth for at least fifteen minutes in silence, he finally breaks as he sighs loudly.
“When the fuck are they gonna come out here and tell us what’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly, thinking again about the blood I saw breaking through at the top of her head. “She was bleeding, so I guess after they stop that.”
“Why did she get in the middle?”
The way he asks me that, he’s questioning himself more than me. Like he’s trying to make sense of what possessed her to get involved when she knew where things were headed, but because I know the reason, I can’t just sit by and ignore it.
“She loves you and cares about that guy. Two people she cares about going at each other, I’m surprised she didn’t throw herself in sooner.”
He turns to me scowling and I resist the urge to tell him off. It’s obvious he’s got something he wants to say. I wish he’d just spit it out already because nothing is going to get better until he does.
“You gonna spit out the shit going through your head or just keep throwing me death glares?”
“You lied to me.”
I know that everything that happened has put us on edge, but he’s making no sense right now. How the hell he figures I lied to him is beyond me and it just doesn’t seem like the conversation to be having after what happened to Belle.
All My Heart (Count On Me Book 4) Page 21
