The Blythe College Complete Series Box Set

by Rochelle Paige

  I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere by myself. And since my dad wasn’t back in town yet, that meant that Drake took me everywhere. Hell, I was surprised I was able to convince him to let me take a plane up without him. Thank God for that because that would be super awkward with a Mile High Club Flight. Hello paying customers who want to get some alone time in the back of my plane. Don’t mind my boyfriend sitting up here with me. I promise he’s not a Peeping Tom, he doesn’t plan to video tape you, and no he’s not available to join you either. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t have gone over very well at all.

  He also added a ton of bells and whistles to the security system my dad had installed a few years ago. We now had motion detectors inside the house that would trip the alarm if someone made it into the house. How they’d manage that with the motion sensor lights, glassbreak detectors and panic buttons he’d also had put in I had no idea. Add in hidden security cameras so that Drake would be able to catch someone if they approached the house when they weren’t supposed to be there and I felt like I was starring in my favorite movie. Although, I don’t think even Mark Wahlberg would be able to come up with a plan to get in here if I was hiding gold bars in the basement.

  This waiting game was beginning to drive us both crazy. Nothing had happened since Drake came into town. I wasn’t sure if I felt better because maybe it was over or worse because it could mean that they were watching me closely enough to know that Drake was with me now. I almost wanted something to happen so we could bring this mess to an end and move on, hopefully with a little more freedom for me.

  “Hey, baby,” Drake whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arms around me.

  I’d left him sound asleep in my bed. In the room I’d grown up in. Where my stuffed animals and dolls rested next to trophies and awards. A room that will never seem innocent to me after the things Drake has done to my body in that bed. Just the thought of what we’d done together had a blush spreading across my body.

  “Mmmmm, what’s put that look on your face?” Drake teased before nipping at my ear.

  I turned in his arms to kiss him good morning. “Well,” I began before I was interrupted by the sound of my cell phone ringing. “That’s weird. It’s Aubrey, but she should be at work already.”

  “Then you’d better grab it in case it’s something important,” Drake said before giving me a quick, hard kiss on the lips and stepping away to root around in the fridge for stuff to make breakfast.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I answered the line.

  “Lexi, you are not going to believe who I just saw at the bank. Or I think I saw because as soon as he saw me he turned around and left right away,” she babbled on without getting to the point.

  “Aubrey!” I interrupted her. “Who the hell was it?”

  “Shit, sorry. I could swear it was Brad.”

  “Brad?” I gasped, drawing Drake’s attention back to me. “Yeah, I can’t be sure because he took off so quickly. But I really think it was him,” she said. “Do you think he’s behind the strange crap that’s been going on?”

  “I don’t know,” I whispered, staring at Drake with a look of horror upon my face.

  He slammed the refrigerator door closed and stomped over to me, grabbing the phone from my hand. “What the hell Aubrey?” he growled into the line. I watched as a variety of expressions crossed his face – understanding, anger, and even a flash of satisfaction. “Don’t worry. I’ve got her covered. Thanks for letting us know, though.”

  He paused to listen to what Aubrey had to say for a moment. “Yeah, I get that you aren’t sure if it was him or not, but at least you’ve given me somewhere to look. I’ll make some calls, find out if he’s in town or not. It’s good to finally have an idea of who the fuck might be behind this shit.”

  I pressed myself against Drake’s body, wanting to get as close as possible. “You don’t have to do that. Stay where you are. Act like you didn’t see anything wrong and let me do my thing. Trust me. There’s no way in hell I will let anything happen to my Lexi.”

  Drake punctuated this statement with a kiss to the top of my head as he disconnected the call. I was shaking in his arms, relieved to finally have an idea of what had been going on but scared by what this could mean. I thought things with Brad had ended back when the Silvers got him to leave town. Why would he be back and causing problems for me now? It had been ages since I had last seen him.

  “This is a good thing, baby. Knowing where to look will help us end this sooner. You know that, right?” Drake asked.

  My head was buried in his chest. “I know,” I mumbled.

  “Hey, look at me Alexa,” Drake commanded as he tilted my head up and looked me in the eyes. “What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”

  I felt tears well up in my eyes and spill down my cheeks. “I feel like such an idiot. It never even crossed my mind that it could be Brad, even though he pulled crap like this before he left town. That’s why Jackson felt the need to push him into leaving. So he wouldn’t bother me anymore.”

  “No, he doesn’t get to make you feel bad. Not about this. There was no reason for you to think it was him this time. You had no idea he was even in town for fucks sake,” he growled as he wiped the tears from my face. “He doesn’t deserve your tears. Or anything of yours anymore. You’re mine and he’s going to learn that lesson very soon. Now go wash up while I make a couple calls, okay?”

  I searched his eyes for any sign that his anger was directed at me since I kinda felt like this whole situation was my fault. If I hadn’t been an idiot and dated the loser in the first place, we wouldn’t be going through this now. I was relieved when I realized Drake was pissed for me and not at me. He wasn’t looking at me any differently than he normally did. “Love you,” I whispered to him before turning to walk upstairs and wash my face.

  I wasn’t gone very long, and Drake was on the phone when I came back downstairs.

  “Fuck, Nico. I finally have a lead on who’s been messing around with Alexa’s head. Turns out her ex-boyfriend is back in town and Jackson thinks this is exactly the type of shit he would pull. But things are escalating and I need to move fast before he has a chance to get at her,” he grumbled.

  Drake paused to listen to whatever was being said on the other end of the call. “Godammit! I know you get where I’m coming from here, man. What I want to do is hunt this bastard down and beat the shit out of him. Rips his balls off and shove them down his throat. It shouldn’t be too hard to find him. Give me five minutes with him and this could all be over in a heartbeat.”

  Whatever he heard before the call ended didn’t seem to make Drake any happier since he threw his phone against the wall instead of just hanging up. “Fuck!”

  I ran over and picked up the pieces to see if it was salvageable, but there was no way his phone was ever going to work again. “Looks like we need to make a stop at the Verizon store first thing to get you a new phone,” I pointed out unnecessarily, looking for a way to end the silence.

  “Shit, babe. Sorry about that.”

  “No big deal,” I reassured him. “Throw as many phones as you want. It’s not like I haven’t killed my fair share of phones, too.”

  The reminder of my bad luck with cell phones made him chuckle and lightened the mood a little. “Yeah, you better watch out or I’ll take your place as the phone assassin. Only your preferred method is death by drowning.”

  And he was right. If there was a body of water near my phone and me, I had to be super careful. I could personally vouch that the bag of rice method of drying out a phone only worked so many times before it would just give up the ghost. “You better watch out or the next one I drop into a glass of ice water will be yours,” I warned him.

  He smirked in response, reminded of the last phone I’d killed. “I’ll make sure not to let you use mine the next time you’re drunk and I make you drink some. Or at least I’ll grab the phone out of the water instead of watching you stare at it like you have no idea what you’re
seeing. Damn that shit was funny.”

  I smacked his arm in response. “Yeah, until the next morning when I realized my phone was dead and I thought I would have to make it until Monday without one.”

  “Only you didn’t because I took care of it,” he reminded me. “Just like I’ll take care of my phone this time. And I’ll take care of this mess with Brad. I’ll always take care of you Alexa. You know that, right?”

  My heart practically burst at the seams when I saw how serious Drake was. If I didn’t already know that he would do just about anything for me, his intense stare would certainly get the point across now. I nodded my head and sighed deeply at the realization that I didn’t have to be scared of anything with Drake at my side.

  Chapter 7

  Drake

  By the end of the day, I’d been able to confirm that Alexa’s ex was back in town. His parents had moved within the last year, so nobody knew why he was here. I didn’t like that we’d lost leverage against him with them moving. He probably thought he didn’t have anything to lose when he decided to come back because the Silvers couldn’t threaten their home since it was sold. Little did he know that my family’s reach spread much further. If I wanted to destroy him financially, there wasn’t anything that would stand in my way.

  He was booked into a local hotel, but nobody had seen him all day. I figured he was spooked when he recognized Aubrey at the bank. His choice to get out of there right away instead of stopping to talk to her made it pretty damn clear that he was the one behind everything, too. Now I just needed to find him. Who knew how difficult that would be in a town this small?

  Alexa wasn’t super happy with me because I’d insisted that she stay close to home today. I couldn’t shake the feeling that things were about to come to a head, and with all the improvements to the security system here I felt like this was the safest place for her. I knew she felt like I was going overboard, but if I could have gotten away with building a ten-foot gated fence around the house, I would have done that too. Then she’d have a reason to feel like I went too far.

  I glanced across the bed at her, relieved that she seemed to be sleeping so soundly. She’d tossed and turned every night so far, but tonight she fell fast asleep in my arms like she didn’t have a worry in the world. Maybe she was finally getting it and knew that she would always be safe with me. No matter what.

  Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like I was going to get much rest tonight. I was too jazzed up knowing that I’d set things in motion to bring this trouble with Brad to an end. I figured that the call my dad had made to his parents would either push him over the edge and get him to do something stupid or would get him to back off completely. Either option was fine by me as long as this ended with Alexa safe and sound beside me.

  I had finally drifted off to sleep when the flood light I’d had installed at the front porch turned on, quickly followed by a pounding at the door.

  “Alexa!” I heard someone bellow. “Open up!”

  Lexi rolled over in her sleep and mumbled under her breath at the noise. I quickly launched myself out of bed and headed downstairs. It sounded like I’d finally get the chance to meet her bastard of an ex-boyfriend after all. I wasn’t fast enough and he pounded on the door again like a crazy man. I chuckled darkly as I realized this was going to work perfectly since the cameras would have turned on the second he stepped onto the porch. I disabled the alarm and opened the door.

  “Dude, this is not cool. You’re going to wake Alexa up, and you’ve already stolen enough sleep from her this week. Quiet down,” I growled softly at him with a glance up the stairs.

  “Fuck you,” he slurred. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but you better get Alexa’s ass down here now. Fucking bitch thinks she can just mess up my whole life.”

  “No way man. It’s the middle of the night and she’s sleeping. Even if she wasn’t, there’s no way I’m gonna let some guy call my woman a bitch and then let him into her house to talk to her,” I said, standing with my arms crossed in front of me. I made sure to block his way into the house. I wasn’t going to make this easy for him. Not even a little bit.

  “Get outta my fucking way,” he said as he shoved at me, barely moving me an inch.

  “Not gonna happen. Why don’t you walk away, cool down and come back tomorrow when she’s awake and you’re prepared to act like a reasonable adult?” I offered. “You smell like a brewery. Don’t do something you’ll regret later because you’ve had too much to drink to know better.”

  “Fuck yeah, I’ve been drinking. She’s out to ruin me. Just because I got some on the side back when we were dating, she can’t let it go. I tried making amends. Left her roses, her favorite. Did that soften her up? No – she had to call in the big dogs to go after my parents instead of just forgiving me,” he rambled on drunkenly.

  “Drake? What’s going on?” I heard Alexa murmur sleepily from behind me. I swiveled my head to find her standing at the bottom of the stairs. At least she’d had the good sense to throw one of my button-down shirts on over her nightie.

  “Nothing for you to worry about, baby. Go back upstairs,” I turned towards her as I answered, giving Brad the chance to push past me into the house. And now his ass was mine.

  “What the fuck, Alexa? You’re too good to talk to me now? I left town like you wanted me to before. Why do you have to be such a bitch about me coming back now?” Brad lit into her.

  “Me? A bitch?” she gasped. “I didn’t even know you were back until today.”

  “Well you certainly didn’t welcome me back with open arms. And you moved damn fast to have your friends threaten me again,” he accused. “You need to call your fucking dogs off. I’m tired of the Silvers sticking their noses into my business just because Jackson wants in your panties,” he ranted.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I did no such thing!” she argued as she stepped further closer to us. I shook my head and took a couple steps to place myself between her and Brad as she paused at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Then who the hell called my parents to warn them about me backing off and leaving you alone?” he yelled.

  I heard Alexa groan as I turned to him to answer for her. I guess now she knew some of what I’d been up to today. “That would be me.”

  “What, you’ve got a new douche-bag in your life who can’t stand the fact that you gave it up to me?” he taunted.

  “The douche is going to be her husband, so why don’t you stop talking to my woman and hash this out with me, man?” I demanded.

  “Whatever dude. She was my woman first and if I want to talk to her then I will,” he argued as he tried to get past me again to reach Alexa.

  “I don’t give a fuck who the hell you think you are or what you once were to her. Make no mistake. She’s mine now and you’re not talking to her like this,” I said as I pushed him back.

  He stumbled a little and came up swinging. It was the perfect excuse for me to do exactly what I’d wanted from the second he knocked on the door. No, scratch that. From the minute I’d heard about the way he’d hurt my girl back when they were dating. Now he’d just given me more reason to beat his ass into the ground with his actions over the last week. So I laid him out with an uppercut to his chin. One punch and he went down. Fucking sissy.

  “I warned you to stay away from her, but you just wouldn’t listen. Would you?” I asked as I leaned over and gripped his shirt in my hands.

  “Who are you to tell me what to do?”

  “You really are dumb,” I answered, punching him in the face again. “Didn’t you hear me earlier. I’m the man who makes sure nothing bad touches her anymore. The one who’s going to marry her and take care of her for the rest of her life. Clearly you aren’t getting that so maybe I can knock some sense into you, dipshit.”

  He struggled, kicking out and swiping my legs out from underneath me. I made sure I landed on top of him, driving a knee into his side as I went down.

  “Umph,” he groaned. �
�Get off me!”

  “Stay. The. Fuck. Away. From. My. Wife.” Each word was punctuated with a punch in his ribs.

  Brad was gasping for air underneath me, his arms wrapped around his torso for protection. “I was just trying to make amends, man.”

  I leaned down to glare into his eyes. “Then you’re more of a dumbass than I thought you were. If you wanted to tell make up the shit you’d pulled in the past, you should have done it face to face without scaring her half to death with hang-up phone calls and mystery flowers.”

  Brad glanced over at her, and I forced his head my way so he was staring at me instead. “I didn’t mean to scare her. I just kept losing my nerve when I heard her voice. And I figured she’d know who the flowers were from. She never dated anyone else after me. Who else would have given her flowers?”

  “Then you missed something big, dude. She is dating someone else. And I don’t care why you were here or what you were trying to do. Alexa isn’t your concern anymore. She’s mine. If you know what’s good for you and your family, you will stay far, far away from her. You got that?”

  I stepped away from him, confident that he finally got what I was saying. I was breathing heavily, worried that I’d just scared the shit out of Alexa by beating the crap out of him in front of her until she came up behind me rested her head on my back. Her arms sneaked around my waist. “My hero,” she whispered, making me feel about ten feet tall. I should have known my girl wouldn’t scare easily.

  Chapter 8

  Alexa

  What the hell just happened? I couldn’t believe that everything was over. Brad had been led away in handcuffs. Drake had to answer some questions since he’d beaten the crap out of him, but since Brad had come onto my property without my permission and refused to leave, I was pretty sure we didn’t have much to worry about.

  Everyone had left and it was just the two of us. I felt like there was a giant elephant in the room because there was no way I could un-hear what Drake had just yelled at Brad while they were fighting. And I wasn’t even sure if he realized he’d called me his wife. Or maybe he did since he had still been pretty calm when he’d said he was going to be my husband.