Ruthless Heart

by Eve L Mitchell

“So you thought grabbing me and throwing me into an empty classroom was the best approach?” I asked him as I shook off my shock and marched to the door. One single step and he was positioned smoothly in front of the door, blocking my exit.

  “What did he say to you in class?” Jett asked as he leaned against the door casually.

  “Don’t you know?” I glared at him. Nerves and repressed anger were causing me to be reckless. “Isn’t he yet another one of your friends.”

  “You shouldn’t listen to rumours.” He smirked at me. “Thought you would know that.”

  “Have you heard what they’re saying about me?” I demanded of him as I took another step forward. “It’s horrible.”

  “I don’t listen to gossip.” Jett sneered as he spoke to me, and somehow he made even that look sexy.

  “Figures, why listen when you started the shit in the first place?” I snorted as I crossed my arms over my chest. “Why am I here?” I looked around the classroom. “And how do you always know which rooms are empty?”

  Jett considered me for a moment. “You came to see me last week,” he prompted me as he waited.

  So much seemed to have happened since then, but I still hadn’t actually spoken to him. “Yes, I um...” I twisted the handle of my book bag. “So...” I faltered. I didn’t know how to approach this, where did I even start?

  “Are you ready to tell me why you did it?” Jett’s look was hooded as he looked at me, and his casual consideration of me had suddenly changed to him being completely alert, and he hadn’t even moved. The guy was…intense. There was no other word for it. He just took up all the space and all of my focus. I had absolutely no idea how I had ended up in his bed, and now I had less of an idea of how I told him this. “You tell me the truth and the rumours stop. You lie…and well, you won’t like what happens next.” He grinned and I felt a sliver of fear. “I’m waiting.”

  “Yeah, aren’t we all.” Running my hands over my arms, I considered him. “You’re a dick, I just want that said before I start.”

  “I haven’t got all day,” he told me coldly.

  “More lives to ruin?” I muttered as I felt my shoulders slump. “Okay, here goes nothing, I don’t usually drink.”

  “Of course.” I heard his snort of disbelief, and wrapping my arms around myself, I looked at the point past his shoulder.

  “Just…” I rolled my head on my shoulders. “Okay, this is embarrassing enough, just let me get through this, okay?” I didn’t want him to look at me as I spoke, so I turned away from him and walked further into the class. When I heard nothing to the contrary, I wet my lips and told him what I knew. “I don’t drink because I’m a hopeless drunk, but I can drink a lot. I mean a lot. Like my friend says I have hollow legs. But, the drawback is, I black out.” I hesitated, and hearing nothing, I ploughed on. “That Friday, I was wasted, so wasted I have no memories of it at all.”

  “What?” His voice was a ferocious whisper. “You’re telling me that you don’t remember anything?”

  “No. It happens, it’s why I don’t really drink, I never remember.” Staring at my feet, I fidgeted. “I know I come across as coherent and sober, but...I’m not.” Taking another breath, I blurted it out. “I don’t know when or how I met you that night. I remember absolutely nothing.”

  When the silence was uncomfortable, I turned around only to find I was alone. He was gone, and I didn’t even hear him leave. Well, it was over. Now he knew, and the less said the better. Weirdly, I could still feel the noose hanging around my neck, an ominous feeling that this was far from over.

  Slowly walking back to the dorm, I thought of what I’d said to him. Did he believe me? He didn’t seem to react well, but then I wasn’t one hundred percent sure how he should react. Had the roles been reversed, would I believe him? Or would I have walked away to process?

  “This is a nightmare,” I muttered as I climbed the stairs to the apartment. As I let myself in, I welcomed the cool air inside the living room and thought about the whole entire mess that was my life over the last week. It didn’t matter what I had to do or who I had to avoid, I could handle it, but what I knew I couldn’t cope with was the fact I hadn’t been honest with Mia, and now I had no choice but to tell her.

  My phone beeping drew my attention, and dreading Mia had already heard the news about class, I pulled it out slowly from the pocket in my book bag.

  Unknown: Get your ass to my house. NOW

  Me: Who is this?

  Unknown: Don’t fuck with me

  Me: Jett?

  I bit my lip. I mean, I was pretty sure it was, because who else would be texting me this kind of demand? But still...better safe than sorry. I re-read the messages and laughed at myself. Yeah, because the messages were giving the impression of “safe.”

  Unknown: You want me to come get you?

  No. I definitely did not want that. Standing up from the couch, I hesitated. Should I change? Should I at least brush my hair? Should I actually go? I had no doubt that he would come to me, and who was to say he would be alone? He could bring Ash, or worse...Gray.

  Mind made up, I left my apartment, leaving my bag behind me and tucking the key into my shorts as I walked with no hurry to the other side of campus. I kept to the back routes. It was still mid-afternoon, so most students were on the main campus, meaning few people were hanging about their rooms or the grounds.

  When the huge mansion house came into view, my feet dragged even more. The door to the house was open, and my heart told me that this was a bad thing for me. At the entrance, I hesitated. I wasn’t going to walk right in. Raising my hand, I knocked on the door.

  “We don’t get visitors.” Jamie Woods, the defensive end for the Saints, was looking at me from a doorway. With the smells coming out of it, I would hazard a guess that it was the kitchen.

  “Um, I was invited.” My teeth chewed my bottom lip as I shuffled my feet.

  “Ash?” Jamie looked me over with interest. “You look his type.”

  “Is he here?” I wasn’t about to be specific about which Devil wanted to speak to me. I had heard that Gray had recently punched Jamie after training, and the students who went to watch the training sessions said that Ash tackled Jamie badly during the practice session too. I noted the fading to his skin, which showed where he had recently had a black eye and bruised cheek. Seemed like Jamie had met the wrath of the Devils and not fared well.

  “They live on the top floor.” His head jerked to the stairs, and he went back into the kitchen.

  Again, I hesitated, but I was worried another one of the football team would come home or appear out of one of the many doors and ask me more questions. With my nerves already stretched thin, I started to climb the stairs. He was waiting on the second level, and I knew with one look that he had been listening to me downstairs.

  “Remember the way?” His low drawl was enough to make the butterflies in my stomach swoop.

  Sometimes silence was the answer, and I chose to say nothing as I followed him up the stairs. To be truthful, had he asked me, I really didn’t know the way. I had a hazy memory of cleaning up in his room and then getting the hell out of there as quickly as my hungover body allowed me. When Jett pushed open the door to his bedroom, I followed him inside before I stopped, keeping the door close to me. Just in case.

  He turned and appraised me coldly. I didn’t note the decor or the furnishings. I kept my eyes on him, so when a pair of arms picked me off my feet and carried me further into the room, my scream pierced the air as the door banged firmly closed behind me.

  When I was set on my feet, I whirled and looked at Gray, who took a step towards me, and I immediately stepped back. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked him as my shaky voice gave away how much he unnerved me.

  “Bitches that fuck my brother when he’s not aware of what he’s doing is what’s wrong with me.”

  I looked between the two of them. They looked so much more like twins when they were angry. Their jaws were set
the same, the scowls were similar, and the dislike shone fiercely in the same pair of eyes. “I don’t understand.”

  “Sure you do.” Gray walked past me, his shoulder bump almost knocking me off my feet.

  “No, I don’t.” I should have taken my book bag, I could have used something to throw. As it was, all I had was my wit, my sandals and my self-defence classes. Maybe I wasn’t as fresh out of luck as I first thought. I had no qualms about smacking one of these assholes if I had to, the dean would have to understand.

  “You recognise the room?” Jett asked me. He hadn’t moved from his spot, and his almost casual stance was making me more nervous than Gray’s barely restrained anger.

  “Um…” Looking around, I examined it. Did I? Were the walls lighter than I remembered? I had no idea. “Look, I told you earlier, I was drunk. I don’t remember much.”

  “Convenient.” Gray snorted as he sat down on a chair beside the door. “You got amnesia?”

  “No,” I snapped at him. He was quite possibly worse than Jett. “It’s called a hangover. I was drunk, I was doing double shots at beer pong, and I was very, very, very drunk. I have no recollection of this room or anything else.” This wasn’t true, but I wasn’t telling these pricks that I was having vivid dreams of Jett and me in compromising positions.

  “Your lies stop now,” Jett said to me as he walked closer to me. He was so close I had to turn my head away, or my face would be pressed into his chest. “Now, tell me why you drugged me.”

  My head snapped back to look up at him in bewilderment. “What?” I met his hard stare. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  I looked down at her, and the confusion was clear in her eyes. Green eyes the colour of the grass after a hard game, I noted. She glanced over at Gray, and I saw her fear of him, and I wanted to tell her that he was the least of her problems.

  My hand cupped her chin, turning her attention from Gray back to me, her eyes wide as she stared up at me. She looked like she was caught in the headlights, but I was done being fooled by this girl. “Another thing you’re conveniently forgetting?”

  “I don’t...” She shook her head from side to side as she tried to release my grip from her chin. “I don’t do drugs.”

  “Neither do I,” I bit out as I brought my face closer to hers. “But there’s fuck all I can do when some little bitch spikes my drink.”

  Ava’s eyes widened fractionally more, and then they narrowed as her hands came up and pushed at my chest. “Get off of me. You need my permission to touch me, and your touch is not welcome.”

  My hand was wrapped around her throat, and I dragged her nearer, my head bent more so my lips were almost on hers. “I don’t remember the night completely, not yet, but I will, and from what I do remember, you have absolutely no issue with me touching you. In fact, this whole house knows how much you want more of me touching you.” I leaned forward, my lips hovering over hers. “I didn’t hear you protesting when I finger fucked you last week either.”

  “Take your hands off me,” Ava demanded. Her voice was low and wavered, but her look was steady.

  Her gasp when Gray pressed up behind her, forcing her closer to me went straight to my dick, and I couldn’t deny that she still affected me. Which pissed me off only more. “You don’t seem to mind being touched,” I said as I looked quickly at my brother behind her. He nodded once, and his arms closed around her, holding her sandwiched between us.

  “Stop this.” Ava’s eyes were wide, and I noted the fury in her eyes.

  “Stop what?” Gray asked as his lips skimmed her ear. “You don’t like being here?” His nose ran up her neck, and Ava tried to move away from him, which caused her to press closer to me. Her reaction was odd; most girls would have thought they had died had they been pressed in between us.

  “I don’t know what kind of games you play, I’m sure they’re heaps of fun with other girls.” Her voice cracked, and I felt her swallow against my palm, and my mind instantly replayed her swallowing down my cum that Friday night. “But I’m not that girl. So I’m asking you both nicely, take your fucking hands off of me.” Her body was rigid, her eyes alight with fury, and her hands had tightened into fists on my shirt.

  “Or what?” I taunted her quietly, and I couldn’t deny she was turning me on as she met my look defiantly.

  “Or I will report you both for sexual harassment, and I hope you have good lawyers, Devils, because this shit doesn’t fly anywhere and most definitely not in the NFL.”

  Gray grabbed her ponytail and yanked her head back, and I saw her wince in pain or surprise, I wasn’t sure. “Sexual harassment? Is that your play? Is that why you took it?”

  “Took what?” She glared at him, and he pressed closer to her. I saw her temper break at Gray’s manhandling of her. “I really, really wish this was you,” she said to him through gritted teeth before the little snake kneed me in the balls.

  I hit the floor like a ton of bricks, and as I went down, she kicked me in the ribs. Spinning on her heel, her roundhouse kick struck Gray in the chest before she launched forward and punched him in the jaw. As quickly as she’d lashed out at us, she was running to the door. Yanking it open, she cried out in surprise when she ran straight into Ash.

  Ash looked at both Gray and me struggling to our feet, and he automatically grabbed a hold of Ava. “Whoa! What the hell is going on?”

  Ava looked over her shoulder at us, her eyes meeting mine, and she turned back, her fist already raised to punch Ash. He saw it and grabbed it and then very slowly stepped out of her space. “Are you okay?” he asked her with his hands raised to calm her.

  I wasn’t sure if it was her anger, her emotions, or her fear of being caught, but she stepped into the comfort my cousin was offering her. Ash looked at us both like we were the bastards here and gently took her hand. “Hey,” Ash spoke quietly. “Hey, it’s okay, come on, my room’s here, take a minute before you go home, okay?”

  The door closed as he led the girl who had drugged me out of the room and out of my sight.

  Leaning against his bed, Gray gave me a rueful look. “So…she doesn’t scare as easily as you thought she would.”

  As I tried to straighten, I rubbed my poor balls. “I was not expecting that reaction,” I admitted with a derisive laugh. “Fuck, they’re never going to drop again,” I groaned as I sat on the bed.

  “I thought she would think it was payday,” Gray told me as he rubbed his chest. “Did you hear her? Sex offences? Really?” He gave me a disgusted look as he rubbed his chest. “I dunno if my ego can cope with reporting her for assault.”

  As my balls throbbed in agreement, I couldn’t help but laugh at Gray’s comment. “Man, you beat the shit out of Jamie, and then the next week, a girl the weight of a fucking twig decks you.”

  “Wasn’t expecting it.” Rolling his head, he looked me over. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I will be.” I sighed as I looked at the bedroom wall, the shared wall between Gray’s room and Ash’s. “She didn’t notice she wasn’t in this room.”

  “Noticed that.”

  “I don’t know if that makes her guilty or as clueless as me,” I admitted.

  “Is it really possible that she also drank the water?” Gray was looking at the floor as he thought it through. “She thinks she was drunk, but what if she doesn’t remember because she can’t remember?”

  Tipping my head back, I stared at the ceiling. I’d considered that. My fury had only wanted her to tell me why she did it, tell me what she had hoped to gain. I never really considered she would be innocent.

  As in actually innocent.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Maybe we need another tactic?” Gray asked me with a side grin as he headed for the door. “Just so you know, if she has no part to play in this, I’m not fucking saying sorry for this.”

  “Me neither,” I promised as we left the room and walked into Ash’s. He was on his chair at his desk, his bathroom door was closed, and I could h
ear the water running. “What the fuck did you do to her?” he demanded of us as we entered the room. “She was shaking so badly I almost offered to give her sugar!”

  I felt a twinge of guilt and exchanged a look with Gray, who looked slightly guilty also. “What’s she doing?”

  “Washing her face,” Ash said with a shrug.

  “I’m going in,” I told them as I headed to the door.

  It pissed me off that I actually hesitated at the bathroom door, and telling myself to get a grip, I opened it. She was at the sink, her head buried in the towel in her hands. When she heard the door close, her head jerked upwards.

  “Bastard.”

  “You just kneed my balls and then kicked me in the ribs,” I reminded her, and the vicious smirk she gave me caused me to realise she was not only fierce, but she was also fearless.

  “You deserved it, what the hell was that?” Ava angrily folded the towel. “You sick fuck, you cannot treat people like that. I’m not a fucking toy.”

  “You drugged me, then fucked me, then got me suspended. I think we’re even.”

  Ava stared at me with her mouth hanging open before she blinked. “I did...what? No!”

  “You drugged me.”

  “No, I really didn’t.”

  I ignored her. “You fucked me.”

  I saw her swallow, and she lost a bit of her bravado. “I did.” Her tongue nervously wet her lips, and I watched with far too much interest for a guy who supposedly hated the woman in front of him.

  “You stole from me.”

  Ava’s eyes widened. “No, I didn’t!”

  “You took my sheet.”

  She licked her lips and looked away from me, her face flushed.

  “Why?”

  She shrugged and I was ready to press her when she looked back at me. “You started all those horrible rumours, you didn’t deny it when people asked you if I sucked you off, and you laughed when your friend dropped her freezing smoothie all over me.”

  “I got suspended because of you.”

  Ava shook her head in denial. “How is that even my fault? What did I do?” she wailed in despair.