The Enemy Series

by M. E. Clayton

  Ramsey gave Winston a terse nod, as if he was mulling over Winston’s words in his head. He finally cocked his head and told Winston, “Here’s what’s going to happen, Reynolds. You ever touch Delaney again while this thing with her and Deke is going on, you won’t live to ever touch her again.” I gasped, but Ramsey wasn’t finished. “I don’t care what plans you two have set for when you graduate college, but right here, right now, you will stay the fuck away from her until Deke tells you otherwise, got it?”

  Ramsey didn’t wait for Winston to agree or disagree. He walked over, grabbed my backpack off the ground, grabbed me by my arm and dragged me away.

  Shit. This was bad.

  Ramsey was literally dragging me behind him and wasn’t even bothering to look at me as he spoke. “I have nothing against you, Delaney, so I’m doing you a favor here. You better tell Deke about Winston, and you better tell him before he hears it from someone else.”

  Maybe if I appealed to Ramsey…

  “There’s nothing going on with between me and Deke, though,” I tried to point out.

  Ramsey stopped in his tracks and I slammed up against his back. Motherfucker. Ramsey turned and stared down at me, and Ramsey Reed’s sole attention was something to behold. But my fascination was shaken loose at his next words. “I always credited you with being a smart girl, Delaney. But you’re stupid if you think there’s nothing going on between you and Deke.” He paused and then sighed as if he didn’t want to utter his next words. But he did. “It’s over for Deke, Delaney. And he’ll kill Winston if you don’t fix this.”

  Well, hell.

  Chapter 9

  Deke~

  Emotions are a funny thing.

  You can go from being birds-chirping-sun-shining-happy one second to hot-white-murderous-anger the next. Now, granted, I didn’t have much of a birds-chirping-sun-shining disposition, but I didn’t walk around in a perpetual state of hate and anger, either.

  I had been mildly irritated when Delaney had run out of class, but I knew she was pissed, so I didn’t have a problem with giving her time to calm down. Fourth period had done that.

  That mild irritation had morphed into annoyance though when I had seen Ramsey dragging Delaney into the eatery pavilion. For Ramsey to put his hands on a girl, there had to be a good reason, and Ramsey would never touch what was mine without cause. I should have known something was up when he texted that he’d meet us for lunch. Ramsey and Delaney sat, but I could feel the tension.

  Once we were all seated to eat, that annoyance had turned into aggravation when Winston Reynolds had stormed into the pavilion and headed straight towards our table. I knew immediately that Winston approaching us had something to do with Delaney. My suspicions were confirmed when he stopped are our table, and Delaney stood up as he said, “We need to talk, Marlow.”

  I stood up, and that caused the entire table to stand with me. Even the girls stood up. I faced him head on. “Do we, now?” His eyes darted towards Delaney standing behind me and I almost hit him without even knowing what he was about. His eyes on Delaney were just a little too much for me.

  “Winston, now’s not the ti-”

  I cut Delaney off. “Well, say what you have to say, Reynolds,” I ordered. I knew it was going to be bad because I could feel the anxiousness radiating off Delaney, and I could even feel the tension vibrating off Ramsey from the other side of the table. He knew whatever it was that Winston Reynolds was about to tell me. My only guess for Ramsey’s not telling me first was that he was giving Delaney a chance to tell me.

  “I just thought you should know that…” That little hesitation showed his hand. His bravado was false, but whatever he needed to say was important enough to fake it. “…well, Delaney’s mine, Deke.”

  ‘Delaney’s mine.’

  Those two words; two words that shouldn’t be uttered by any guy but me.

  Winston Reynolds approached me to tell me the Delaney belonged to him, and I knew he wouldn’t be braving that unless it was the absolute truth.

  You know those scenes in science class when something ices over? When the water is cracking, yet forming a bond all at the same time? That’s how the blood in my veins felt right now. The cold was deep and relentless.

  I want to say I might have handle this better had Delaney not jumped out from behind me and gone to stand next to Winston, but the truth was, I wouldn’t have handled this well, no matter what. No matter what Delaney said, Winston’s claims, what the school thought…in my head? Well, in my head, Delaney was mine the second our kiss ended, and she slapped me. And here another guy was trying to tell me she wasn’t. Rage was replacing the cold rushing through my veins, and nothing good was going to come out of it.

  “Deke-”

  My arm snaked out, and grabbing Delaney by the nape of her neck, I forced her next to me. Ignoring Winston, and our entire audience of lunchtime students, I snarled down at her, “Align yourself with another guy like that ever again and I will fucking kill him before I make your life a living hell.” I shook her body for emphasis. “Understand?” Delaney’s eyes were wide and wild, but I turned my gaze back to Winston. He looked at Delaney like he wanted to save her and that just aggravated me even more.

  Winston made things worse when he said, “We’re engaged to be married, Deke. I…I just thought you should know that before, uh, you think of taking things further with Delaney.” Murmurs ran through the pavilion like a wave.

  Because I still had my hand gripping Delaney’s neck, I felt her turned her body towards Winston. Now she was standing next to me facing him instead of the other way around. “What is wrong with you?!” she yelled. “I was going to tell him. You didn’t have to do this, Winston. You didn’t have to do this here and now!”

  Delaney was engaged to marry Winston Reynolds.

  “So you say,” Winston countered.

  “I was,” she argued. “Ramsey gave me until the end of the day because I wanted to do this privately, with a chance to explain everything.”

  Reynolds quickly showed that he had a pair, and I was mildly impressed. “What’s to explain, Delaney? You’re mine. You have always been mine. Deke needs to know you’re temporary if you’re anything to him.”

  Those words again.

  The corners of my vision became hazing and the next thing I knew I had my fists wrapped up in Winston’s shirt, slamming him down on the table, food flying everywhere. His hands wrapped around my wrists, but that was the extent of his fight. I knew fright, and Winston Reynolds was frightened.

  “Deke!” Delaney screamed. “Oh, my God! Stop it!”

  I ignored Delaney because I knew Ramsey or Liam wouldn’t let her get hurt. I lifted him and slammed Winston down on the table one more time for good measure. This motherfucker needed to grasp just how serious my next words were. Loud enough for the entire school to hear, I made one thing absolutely, irrevocably clear to this guy, to my friends, to the whole fucking school. “Delaney is not yours,” I corrected. “You might have thought she was at one time, but not any longer. Delaney’s mine. She’s mine, and if you ever go near her again, I will fucking kill you, Reynolds.”

  He didn’t immediately cower like a little bitch. “You don’t understand. She-”

  “Stay away from her!” I roared, not caring who heard. “Stay the fuck away from her. Delaney is fucking mine. She’s mine, and…” I was at a loss. My anger was so palpable, I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t speak the words that would suggest Winston might have gotten to Delaney first. That rage-infused thought had me losing my shit.

  I hauled Winston upright and I couldn’t have stopped my right fist from forming even if I had wanted to. Delaney had asked me how did I know she was a virgin, and now faced with the knowledge that Winston Reynolds might know her in a way I believed only I would have, had me fucked-up.

  My fists started raining down on Winston, and it took both Liam and Ramsey pull me off him.

  Winston dropped in a bloody heap and I prayed-prayed Delaney would
n’t go to him. I’d kill him if she did. Then probably her.

  “Deke…” Delaney whispered.

  I ignored everyone around us. I ignored the phones that were out. I ignored the teachers rushing our way. I ignored my friends. I ignored everyone and everything but her. I turned towards her and I’m not sure what she saw on my face, but her eyes widened a fraction before she turned and ran.

  She ran.

  Delaney ran, and I ran after her, and as I ran, I heard footsteps thundering behind me. Ramsey, Liam, Emerson, and Linnie were hot on my tail. I knew Ramsey and Liam were following as accomplices, whereas the girls were running after me to make sure I didn’t kill Delaney.

  Because I couldn’t say I wouldn’t once I got my hands on her.

  I’ll admit this thing with her was happening rather quickly, but she’s had plenty of opportunities to tell me something was going on between her and Reynolds. She could have mentioned him when I kissed her. She could have mention in all throughout second and third period. She. Could. Have. Mentioned. Him. And even though she claimed that she was going to tell me after school today, Winston challenging me in front of everyone-in front of her, changed the game. There was a reason he told me now in front of everyone. I just didn’t know what that reason was yet, but I would find out.

  I had just rounded the corner to see Delaney slamming her locker shut, her backpack hanging off her shoulder. She was leaving. “Delaney!”

  She froze and looked over at me. There was only twenty feet of hallway separating us, but it felt like an ocean. Her eyes went to my bloody hands and a sickness so depraved rose up inside of me. The darkness I kept hidden; the needs that made me mentally unbalanced…all of it rose to the surface.

  I wanted to fuck her with her fiancé’s blood all over my hands.

  I wanted to watch streaks of his blood stain her body as I drove into her; his blood on her skin with her blood on my cock.

  The thunderous footsteps stopped behind me and I knew everyone was frozen, waiting for my next move. And my next move was to get out of here. If I touched her…if I breathed her in, I was going to take from her things I had no right to take from her unwillingly. That’s how far gone I was in my rage and sick need for her.

  “Make sure she’s okay,” I said, my words echoing throughout the hallway, before I turned and left everyone behind me.

  If I stayed, I would have ruined Delaney Martin, and I wanted her around for the long haul.

  Chapter 10

  Delaney~

  I had my feet curled up underneath my ass, hugging a pillow to my chest, wondering how everything went so wrong.

  After Deke had left, I heard through gossip that Winston had to be carried to the nurse’s office where they had to send him to the hospital. Deke had broken his nose and fractured a cheekbone.

  I closed my eyes at the memory.

  Never in a million years did I ever think that, one day, Deke Marlow would be fighting over me. It had been surreal and scary as hell. Witnessing the fact that it had taken both Ramsey and Liam to pull him off Winston was a testament to how enraged Deke had been. But what was really stupid was I somehow felt as if it had all been my fault, even though, I knew it wasn’t.

  None of this was my doing, I told myself for the millionth time. I’m not the one who pursued Deke. I’m not the one who kissed him. I’m not the one who dragged him to class. And I didn’t feel the need to tell him about Winston because it hadn’t been any of his business.

  But seeing how serious Deke became at Winston’s confrontation had me reevaluating a lot of my earlier beliefs. I used to think this was a bet or a game Deke was playing for entertainment value, but the image of him standing in the hallway, blood on his hands and clothes, looking like an avenging dark angel changed my mind.

  That was too much emotion to be faked.

  A cup of tea blocked my vision and I set the pillow down on my lap to take it. Ava held her cup in her hand as she sat next to me. Knowing Deke had left school premises, I had managed to finish the rest of my school day. Ava had spent every second she could with me, but when she hadn’t been with me, Ramsey, Liam, Emerson, or Roselyn had been close by. When we were in the hallway, I had heard Deke call to them to look out for me, but I hadn’t really expected them to.

  “Why would Winston do that?” Ava asked. “No one in their right mind would confront anyone in that group like that.” As ballsy as Ava was, even she knew better than to confront anyone in that group.

  So, she wasn’t wrong, and it was one of the many questions that have been plaguing me all afternoon. I took a sip of my hot tea before I said, “I don’t know, Ava. It doesn’t make any sense. Winston hadn’t needed to do that.” It still didn’t make sense no matter how much I mulled over it in my head. “Even if Winston didn’t think I was going to tell Deke about our arrangement, he had to know that Ramsey would have.”

  Ava curled her legs under her ass and mirrored my position. “Maybe he thought he could piss Deke off enough to leave you alone? Maybe Winston thought that if…I don’t know, that if you were a cheater or deceitful, Deke would leave you alone.”

  I shook my head. “Why, though?” I asked. “Winston’s been living the single life for years. He’s never been interested in what I was doing. If he could sleep with other girls all these years and keep it just sex, why wouldn’t he think I could do the same? Why feel threatened all of the sudden?”

  Ava shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know,” she replied. “Maybe because it’s Deke.”

  I was getting a headache trying to make sense of this mess. “Who cares which boy it is? Winston never cared which girl it was.”

  Ava nibbled on her lower lip in thought before suggesting, “Maybe because Deke’s never shown an interest in a girl before, beyond a night in bed.” She set her tea down on the table and got serious. “Deke chasing after you is a big deal, Delaney. It was a big deal when he did it on Friday, and it was a big deal when he kissed you this morning, and it’s a really big fucking deal that he fought over you. Deke Marlow is one of the three most influential and powerful people in this town, Delaney. His interest in you is a threat to your agreement with Winston. If Deke is playing for keeps, how is Winston supposed to compete with that?”

  “Jesus Christ, Ava,” I muttered. “It’s not like we’re getting married after graduation or anything. We’re not even supposed to get married for another four years. And who’s to say Winston doesn’t meet a girl who rocks his world while he’s at college? It’s an agreement between two families made years ago, not the damn Ten Commandments.”

  “Maybe all of Winston’s whoring around blinded you to the fact that this arrangement is real to him. I mean, the agreement wasn’t signed in blood or anything, either one of you could change your minds now that you’re adults, and your parents couldn’t do anything about it.”

  I snorted. “Anything but not pay for our college for the next four years,” I pointed out. “And I wouldn’t put it past them to use that to keep the agreement binding.”

  “Well, I think he was trying to ruin things for you and Deke because of good ol’ fashion jealousy,” she replied. “Winston’s been so used to you just waiting patiently in the wings, he didn’t like seeing someone else interested in you. Especially, when that someone is someone like Deke Marlow.” She shrugged a shoulder again. “Unfortunately for him, his plan backfired, and he got his ass kicked instead.”

  I groaned.

  This was so above my paygrade.

  I set my tea down next to Ava’s on the table and ran my hands through my hair. I’d never been so confused before. I went from being a nobody to Deke Marlow’s plaything, and I didn’t know how to navigate my way through this.

  I looked over at my friend. “I don’t know what to do, Ava,” I whispered. I really didn’t.

  Her pretty face filled with compassion and I knew my friend was worried for me. I wasn’t wild like Ava. I didn’t have her spunk or spirit. Ava did what Ava wanted to, and she didn’t care who s
aid what about it. “Do you like Deke, Delaney?” she asked simply.

  Did I like Deke?

  God, what a question.

  If I was being completely honest with myself, then the answer would be, I don’t know. I was curious about him. I was attracted to him. I was even attracted to him enough to know that I wouldn’t put up much of a fight if he did try to sleep with me. But like him?

  I didn’t know enough about Deke to know if I liked him or not. I knew his reputation, but I didn’t store anything in rumors and reputations. If I went by Ava’s reputation, I’d never know the good person she could be. Rumors and reputations didn’t do anything for me. I treated people how they treated me, simple as that.

  “I don’t know, Ava,” I admitted. “I don’t know him at all. I know nothing about Deke to judge if I like him or not.”

  Ava thought on that a bit before asking, “Do you want to get to know him? Do you want to like him? Sleep with him?”

  That question was much easier to answer. “Yeah, if…if I could get past all the crazy inside him, maybe.”

  Ava grinned. “Oh, Delaney,” she chuckled. “Crazy is the sexiest part of a man.”

  My eyes almost bugged out. “I’d have to disagree, Ava. Did you see what he did to Winston?”

  She cocked her head sideways and regarded me silently before asking another candid question. “I’m going to ask you something and I want you to answer me honestly,” she started out. “When Ramsey and Liam pulled him off Winston and he was standing there like a raging god, bloody and wild out of his mind, did that turn you on?”

  I could feel the heat crawl up my chest, over my neck, and throughout my face. I had still been in shock at the turn of events when Ramsey and Liam had pulled Deke off Winston, but when Deke had turned to face me, the look on his face had been pure uncontrollable fury. He looked like a dark storm. I had run from him out of fear for my safety, but when we had faced off in the hallway, and he stood there with blood on his hands and clothing, looking as he was one movement away from killing someone, I had been turned on.