by Eden O'Neill
He stalked over to me, cool as a fucking cucumber, before simulating dropping the pills into my glass of scotch.
“A little something to relax her, eh?” He nudged me, smile wide. “It’ll be too easy.”
Yeah, real easy, and clearly, there was no hope for this guy.
My anger only momentarily contained, I slid my glass onto the bar. “I need to talk with you.”
“What about?” Back on his phone, the little fucker. His eyes danced suddenly, and with them, he pumped his fist into the air. “She’s coming up, bro. Let’s get a drink ready.”
“Bryce?”
“What?” Like a fucking gleeful-ass kid, he quickly worked up a drink before turning down the bed. He really was going to do this, fuck with Greer, and I saw nothing but red, Bryce suddenly on his phone while he lounged back against sheets. He was texting with nothing if not violent delight, no doubt texting her, and before I thought better of it, his phone was in my hands. “Dude—”
It crashed, like literally in a million fucking pieces, when I threw it against the wall. Bryce’s face shot up with red, and in an instant, his hands were on me, shoving me.
Guy had a fucking death wish.
He was immediately on the floor, one punch sending him there. I hadn’t had to do much, outweighed him by at least fifty pounds, and he hit the floor like a two-ton weight.
“What. The. Fuck.” His hand on his face, that red knob formed against his temple. It started to swell the moment he pulled his hand away, but I wasn’t waiting for him to get his bearings.
I came for him, but quicker than me, he dashed onto the other side of his bed. Before I knew it, he was reaching inside his dresser drawers.
The nine millimeter was in my face.
I stopped right away, not wanting to fuck with that when I put my hands up. “Bryce, calm down.”
“Calm fucking down?” He came around the bed, came at me while waving his gun. “Not so tough, huh?”
More like I wasn’t an idiot and didn’t particularly want to get shot. Honestly, I just needed a quick move and another punch to overpower him, but I wasn’t stupid enough to take the chance. I raised my hands. “Put the gun down. We’ll talk about this.”
That’s how I had wanted to start this, but this motherfucker was obviously crazy. I would say I hadn’t meant to actually hit him. My bad on that, but he gave me no choice. He threatened Greer. Physically threatened Greer, and though I felt I owed her nothing, it wouldn’t be on me that she got hurt. I’d done that to her before.
I just didn’t want to do it again.
I had a conscience, and that was what this all was, nothing more. Bryce Coventry was a new breed of asshole, even for me and all my sins in the past.
His hand gripped around that gun like a vise, his arm shaking. “What’s this about?”
I didn’t have much to talk him down with, this guy completely unhinged. I mean, he pulled a fucking gun on me after only getting hit, so I knew trying to talk to him rationally at all when it came to Greer might be ill done. If anything, he might get closer to her just because he knew that was what this was about.
“I found out about some things,” I said, reaching for something else, and his eyes narrowed.
“What kind of things?”
“Things about you.” I lowered my hands, but still let him see them. I tipped my chin. “I heard about that stripper, bro.”
“Stripper?”
I nodded. “I heard about her and what you did to her.” The act was merely amongst the list of dark deeds that went on in his house, but this fucker? He took the cake. He not only raped her from what I heard but bragged about it to more than one guy around here, guys he clearly trusted but who didn’t have his confidence. I raised my hands. “Now lower the gun or others are going to know about it. People you don’t want to know.”
“Well, maybe I should just blow your fucking head off.” He honed the gun in on my head, that fucking stupid. “Maybe I should just pull the trigger now.”
“You do that and someone will find the pictures.” A bluff, nothing more, but he didn’t know that. I lifted my chin. “Pictures of what you’ve done will be everywhere. I’ll make it happen, and you know I will. Pulling that trigger won’t stop it.”
He should fear me, fear who I was, because even in death, I had capabilities. That was something he and all the other guys around here knew. We all came from powerful families, this guy no exception. Even still, he didn’t have a lick on my life, new money from the south as far as I knew. He walked up on this campus like he owned the place, had with his big dick complex since freshman year. It was like he was trying to prove he was one of us, but what he was doing now showed me he wasn’t. Had it been me, I already would have shot the fucker to get him out of my face. Not lethal, but yeah, I would have shot his ass. If anything, to prove something, who I was.
“And they’ll find out about the other pictures,” I threatened, bluffing more. “All the other things you’ve done.” A God complex, this one, but even still, me lowering my hands and coming straight toward him had Bryce backing off, backing way. He moved with every stride I took. I smiled. “You know all the other things you’ve done.”
And he did, whatever he was coming up with in his head making him back away more. A fear in his eyes elicited by nothing but threats from me. I’d heard about a lot of the shit Bryce had gotten into, but outside of the stripper, there wasn’t enough to ruin. Clearly, he was finding something else, though, something in his eyes that brought a true terror within them.
He backed up against the door, shaking his head. “You wouldn’t. I…” Eyes wild, he shook the gun, his complete body fucking quivering. “I didn’t do nothing with that girl, and I don’t care what she says.”
Hesitating, I stayed back, honest to shit unaware of what he was referring to, but that didn’t seem to matter.
Bryce had the gun in a different place now, tapping the handle against his head like he was having a break down. He lowered to his knees. “I didn’t know she was in fucking junior high, bro. I swear I didn’t.”
What the fuck?
“She only told me after. I swear, but she was fucking willing!”
Disgusted, I approached, and he stood, that gun back on me. I lifted my hands again. “Bryce—”
“No. Fuck!” He brought the gun up to his temple, shaking again and my eyes grew wide.
“Bryce.”
“No, Knight. No!” A blubbering mess, tears shot down from his eyes. “You know the pressure. You know who we are to this place, and I can’t, I…” He stabilized the gun against his head. “I can’t go down for that.”
His finger moved around the trigger, and outside of everything else, even when I had that gun pointed toward my face, I hadn’t been experiencing the terror that froze me now. It was because I knew what he was about to do…
And what the would mean for me after.
Greer
Knight Reed…
Holy fucking shit.
The beer bottles shook in my hands as I made my way upstairs. Bryce said he headed up to his room to get something real quick and I could give him his there, my brain spinning at the course of events. I hadn’t seen or heard from Knight in at least ten goddamn years, not since he’d gone crazy, killed a dog, and basically gotten my mom and me kicked out his house.
Wild.
He’d really gone fucking crazy. Had to have since he’d killed a dog. I mean, what kind of eleven-year-old boy did that? And had the nerve to look triumphant about it. The whole thing had been sick, and needless to say, it’d scared the crap out of me. I’d told my mom who’d told his grandpa, and though I’d been pretty young at the time, his grandfather’s annoyance at the whole thing had been pure fact. Next thing I knew, my mom and I had been asked to leave Knight’s house, my mom jobless, and later, the two of us homeless. We’d literally lived in my mom’s car until I hit middle school, searching for steady work and a safe place to live that long. There had been no hope in
Maywood Heights, not after Knight’s grandpa had gotten through with us. Again, I’d been young, but from what I understood, I’d been a witness to scandal and his grandfather hadn’t wanted any of that for his grandkid.
The golden boy with a chip on his shoulder.
God fuck, had he been smug now, asking all nonchalantly how my mom was like he hadn’t put us both out on our asses so many years ago. My only annoyance was that he’d been fucking hot, large with these big hands that could just…
Shaking all the shit out, I basically gave a little war cry. I could handle Knight Reed. I might not have been able to then, being young, but I could now. In any sense, I clearly was hanging with his friend Bryce tonight so maybe I wouldn’t have to see him anymore.
I forced out the images of a strong back and huge arms that could probably take no effort at all to rail me freaking good. I didn’t have a whole lot of experience with that considering I was a virgin, but my dildo, Mr. Sprinkles, definitely did the job any college guy could do.
At least that was what I convinced myself.
Blowing air through my lips, I forced the thoughts of Knight out of my mind and headed to the second door on the left. Bryce’s text said that was his room. Lifting the bottles, I started to knock, but heard voices, Bryce’s and someone else’s. Muffled, I couldn’t really hear anything, and they might not have heard me knock anyway. After all, they were talking.
Instead, I decided to invite myself in and almost dropped the bottles on the floor the moment I made contact with Knight Reed’s eyes. He was in there, in there with Bryce, and the instant I waltzed through the door, his dark gaze slipped over to me. I had no idea what to make of that until my own gaze shifted over to Bryce. He said something, something about not being able to go down for something.
A pop, just one, and reality as I knew it shifted before me. The beer bottles dropped from my hands as I jumped, something wet hitting my face, and when I opened my eyes, my arms were covered in red. My white, long-sleeve shirt had spots, my hands dotted the same, and when I gazed down, I saw Bryce amongst shattered glass and wasted booze, a flow of blood pooling the floor around his head. He had a gun in his hand, a freaking gun.
“Greer…”
My gaze shot over to Knight Reed, eyes the color of a young buck’s coat twitched wide with absolute horror. The expression on his face matched, my body and limbs covered in blood like something out of Carrie.
I fell, so slow and like nothing in the movies. It was like I was outside of myself watching me fall, peering on as Knight called my name again. Things went so, so hazy.
But then they gratefully went dark.
Chapter Three
Knight
I caught her before she hit the ground.
Shit. Shit. Fuck.
Honest to shit I hadn’t expected Bryce to actually off himself. I’d just wanted to scare him a bit, threaten him with the truth…
But not this.
Greer’s weight felt nothing but light in my arms. Most barbells I lifted were three times heavier than that. I tapped her face with my fingers. “Greer?”
She’d seen everything, but gratefully wasn’t seeing anything now. A Coventry with a hole blasted into his head, but at least that was the side he’d fallen on.
My grandpa is going to freaking kill me.
The man wasn’t one for drama and this whole situation would definitely do that for him. I obviously had to call him after this, bring in the heavy artillery to get me the fuck out of this, but at the present, all I was seeing was a flush face, a girl with her eyes closed and covered in blood. She looked awful, and this was my fault.
What do I do? What do I do?
My first thought was to run with her, get her out of this situation. If she wasn’t here, she didn’t see anything and the fact that no one was rushing up here now let me know the party downstairs was at least doing something. That base I could feel in my chest, our frat house in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. We had a bit of a cabin setting over here, out in the nature and the woods for hiking and shit. There was a lot of money that came through here, therefore we got the privacy we wanted.
And thank fuck for that now.
I gave it no more thought before picking Greer up and hooking her arms around my neck. I was going to get her out here, no witnesses but Bryce and me. The fact of the matter was she was a loose end my grandfather definitely didn’t need to know about that.
“Greer? I need you to wake up for me, baby.” Where the “baby” came from I didn’t fucking know, my finger curled against her jaw. She moaned, but didn’t do anything more than that, and without thought, I cursed before holding her and wiping away any evidence she or I had been in the room. Obviously, the beer bottles were there, but for all the police would know, Bryce was just attempting to get piss ass drunk before killing himself.
At least that’s what Grandfather would most likely convince them of.
I’d be calling him as soon as I got Greer out of here, and after taking my scotch and the glass, I headed out the back way through the room. All our rooms led to balconies and then outside, something I took advantage of right away. The garages were out back there too, and after finding my ride, a dark Escalade, I shoved Greer inside.
She moaned again, lolling her little head, but gratefully didn’t wake up. I didn’t need her fighting me. I was trying to get her out of here. I strapped in, opened the garage, then zoomed the fuck out of there. I put the cabin in my rearview mirror as I headed off in the direction of campus. I didn’t know where I was going, but at the present, any place was better than where we were.
I ended up pulling into a motel lot only minutes later, and after jerking a hoodie out the back and slipping it on, I went to check in. I hadn’t gotten any blood on me until I picked up Greer so I had to at least hide that with the hoodie. The guy inside hadn’t asked too many questions, and after I got the room key, I went back to my Escalade. I drove Greer and me toward the back of the lot, the guy at the desk giving me a room far away as requested. We pulled up there, and I shut off my car.
“Greer?” Another touch to her cheek, a soft one to wake her up. Her white lashes fluttered, nothing more, and I knew waking her up wasn’t happening, at least not right now.
Shooting a curse, I hopped outside, coming around for her. I opened the door, and her tiny body basically fell out into my arms again. I might think about that more, the way she smelled like frickin’ candy, had I not been trying to get her out of public view.
Between her and the keys, I did manage to get the door open, another mumbled moan against the shell of my ear, as I got her into the room. A double queen, I let Greer lay on one. She curled up into herself, still fucking out of it and she was covered in so much blood it’d been ridiculous. She looked like she’d killed Bryce herself.
Since at the present we both appeared to be in the clear now, I took out my phone to call my grandpa. He’d need to do some damage control for me. I mean, I’d been into some fucked up shit but never had I had a dead body on my hands. That was even a new one for me.
My finger hovered over his name before a groan to my right darted my gaze in that that direction. Greer had her hand on her head, but the moment she looked at her fingers, she shook. Her mouth parted, a scream clearly on her lips, and I rushed over to her.
“Greer?”
A jump and she was scurrying across the bed, true and utter terror in her eyes like one of those final days she’d last seen me. It was literally the same look she’d given me after I’d killed Old Man Peabody’s dog, like she was scared of me.
She should be.
I’d had no regrets that day like I didn’t now; no, not for trying to get her out of my frat. She would have been worse off left behind, and at the mercy of my grandfather, worse like she would have been had that dog been allowed to live. I’d saved her from that like I did now.
But try convincing her of that.
“Knight? What the fuck?”
I edged closer, and she
moved back on the bed, another step and she was off it. She ran like a fucking prized pony out the gate, and though I had size, I had sped too. I grabbed her by her little wrist and jerked her back so hard she did scream.
Snapping a hand across her mouth, I gathered her up by her hips, the girl biting at me. She got a mouth full of my Court ring, my flesh next but I didn’t even flinch. I tossed her on the bed, and she scurried again, but this time, I’d been prepared. I lunged at her, pulling her immediately beneath me.
“What are you doing!”
My hand covered her mouth again, a muted scream behind. She jabbed at me with her knees, but using my weight, I pinned her down. She bit me again, and unexpected, I cursed this time, slamming her head against the pillow to stop fighting me.
“Shut the fuck up,” I growled, and almost instantly, she froze beneath me, a harsh fear she should probably have. I outweighed her by a lot, and she wouldn’t leave this room unless I saw fit.
Trembling now, good. My priority was keeping her safe, and if I hurt her in the process, so be it. I honed in. “You’ll stay quiet. Silent, you hear me?”
She did, her nod incessant, but even still I gave her an incentive. My hand formed around her delicate throat, the jump beneath my hand.
“You scream and I squeeze,” I warned. “You understand?”
Again, a nod and another swallow. My thumb dragged along her throat, and she shivered, gripping my arms. She could probably scratch me this way but was smart enough not to.
Letting go of her mouth, I got one of her hands, letting her know not to try anything when I shifted more of my body weight on her. My cock surged between us, something I was sure she definitely felt. I couldn’t help it with all her delightful heat beneath me, that softness between her thighs.
I shifted a knee between them, brushing her mound, and she pulled in a breath. Her chin tipped up. “What are you doing?”
I honestly didn’t know, starting this all just to keep her quiet. Putting knees on either side of her body, I hovered over her. “You’re going to listen to me. Listen to what I have to say. What you saw tonight could cause problems for you.”
