This Is Love (Evermore University #2)

18. Logan

18

LOGAN

Regulating my breathing so Rya doesn’t catch on to how disturbed I am by the masked freak showing up at her audition is proving to be difficult. My gaze slides to meet Jaxon’s over her head as we walk with her between us toward the campus police station. The look simmering in his eyes tells me two very important things. First, he’s as unsettled as I am about the latest development in the who-is-fucking-with-Rya mess. He’s apprehensive as hell. Wary. And second, he’s much like me—willing to do some questionable shit to make sure whoever that psycho is comes nowhere near her.

There’s no doubt we’ll need to have a discussion sooner rather than later about how to handle this. Because I’m unwilling to let her be a sitting duck. I glance down to find her head already tilting upward, eyes scanning my profile.

“Logan, I’m a tiny bit freaked out, but I’m fine,” she whispers adamantly. Her body shivers, but whether it’s a response to the scare she’s had or the chilly air, it’s hard to fucking say. She hadn’t anticipated having to walk all the way across campus to file a police report. And damned if I was going to let her go back to the dorm only to have her decide against doing it after all. We’ve put this off way too fucking long as it is.

I work my jaw to the side. Too bad for Rya, I know her better than to think she’s fine . She’s trying her damnedest to act like she’s less bothered by the reappearance of the masked asshole than she actually is. I’m not an idiot. She’s playing it like this because she knows what my response will be if I think she’s scared. She knows I’ll go into full-scale overprotective-best-friend mode. And for some reason, she doesn’t want that. Not a goddamn clue why. I clear my throat. “Rya. Don’t downplay this. You’re not completely losing it because you’re busy convincing yourself that you were seeing things.”

“Which you weren’t,” Jaxon grinds out. “Highly doubtful. Not to upset you, but whatever that ski-masked dick does next time could end differently.” He voices what’s in my head so perfectly it’s kinda scary.

I frown over at him but nod with a harsh exhale. He takes the opportunity with Rya’s focus on me to shake his head, letting me know he doesn’t fucking like this. Not one bit. As if the pinch of his lips and the hard line down the middle of his forehead weren’t dead giveaways already.

Rya bites down on her lip, a telltale sign it’s trembling and she’s trying to control it. After a moment, she gives a dejected sigh. “Do we really have to do this?”

Jaxon and I both respond at the same time. “Yes.”

She huffs out a troubled laugh, her gaze shifting to Jaxon. “What, did you all decide to join forces at some point?”

“Rya, why wouldn’t you want to report this?” I growl, knowing my irritation will make her head swing right back to me. And it does. She blinks rapidly but has clammed up, so I push harder. It’s important she understands why this is necessary. Not to mention it’s fucking important that whoever this person is gets nowhere fucking near her. “You said it yourself this morning. Someone is targeting you. For what purpose? Who the fuck knows. But there’s way too much going on around here that all points toward the same thing.”

She looks down at the ground in front of us, but I can see the way her jaw has tightened. She seems delicate as a flower one second and tenacious as a weed the next. “I simply don’t see the point. They aren’t going to do anything. Even if they listen to what I have to say, they’ll think I’m fucking crazy. And they’re gonna—” Her mouth snaps shut. Staring stonily at the ground ahead of her, I observe the difficult swallow working down the column of her throat.

Oh, hell. Now I get it. I grit my teeth. “You don’t want them to contact your parents.”

She gives the barest of nods but doesn’t look up.

Jaxon exhales hard, searching out my gaze again. He’s not as aware of what her parents are like, but I know he must at least have a clue, probably based on not wanting to tell her parents about the drugging. Fuck.

“You might be right, but it seems like we’re past the point where that’s the biggest worry.” The three of us stop in front of the small brick building that houses Evermore University’s campus police department. He steps partially in front of her, drawing us into a circle, facing each other. “I don’t see this getting any better unless something is done to put a stop to whoever is doing this to you.” He hesitates, seeking out my eyes, as if he wants me to continue. Like we’re a united front. Which, I guess we are when it comes to Rya.

“Look,” I reach out, placing a few fingers under Rya’s chin and tilting her face to mine, “I know your parents. And they’re going to be pissed if we wait any longer. Hell, your dad will probably deck me for not demanding you tell them you were drugged. So, will it be bad? Yes, maybe. But it’ll only be worse if something catastrophic happens. As it is, by some miracle, you’ve managed to escape multiple bad situations… I don’t want to push our luck any further.”

Jaxon’s brows raise as his chin juts out. “Would hearing the news come better from you or the campus police who are bound to call after we’re done in there?” He eyes her, then lets his gaze shift to the building behind him.

Rya clenches her teeth, her face draining of blood. “Shit. You’re right.” She dips her hand into the pocket in the thigh of her leggings for her phone. Her expression a bit wild, she taps the screen a few times, all the while shaking her head.

“You want me to hold your hand or something?”

With a pained look and a jerk of her thumb, she brings the phone to her ear, whispering, “No. I’m just going over there.”

In silence, Jaxon and I watch her slowly take several steps away from us. She sucks in a breath, which I imagine means someone has answered. “Hi, Mom. Um. Is Dad with you? I have something I need to tell you about.” There’s a pause as her shoulders sag. “Oh. Hi, Dad.”

I cringe for her, then tap Jaxon on the shoulder and gesture that I want him to come with me. He nods, and we take a few steps in the other direction. Glancing over my shoulder, I watch Rya begin to pace. Shit. Lowering my voice, I murmur, “Talking to her parents is never easy for her. I just thought she’d probably appreciate some privacy. And, uh… I thought it’d be a good idea for us to hash out a plan of sorts.”

Jaxon’s brows lift on his forehead as he shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Yeah? What sort of plan?”

The way he’s doing that makes his jeans dip down the slightest bit in the front. It’s fucking distracting. I give myself a rough shake. “I’m not leaving her safety up to a bunch of rent-a-cops.”

His lips twist at my assessment. “Yeah. You’re right. Even the actual police department has been useless thus far. That I know of, no one has contacted her about the drugging, either. It’s like, ‘ Oh, well. Sorry for your luck, sweetheart. ’”

I throw out a hand, nodding. “Exactly.”

“So what are you proposing?”

“Well, mostly for one of us to be with her as much as possible.”

“And when we can’t be? Like when we’re at practice or games?”

I wince. “Yeah. That makes it tricky. But Hazel is with her a lot of times when we can’t be.” I draw in a breath. “I could talk to Levi as well, since he’s around a lot. She trusts him.”

“But do we tell her we’re asking other people to keep tabs on her?”

I clench my teeth so hard I physically feel the enamel grinding. “I mean, we could. Or we tell her to try not to do shit alone?”

“I don’t know if I’m ready to have the two of you completely in cahoots. What are you conspiring about now?”

We turn to find Rya stuffing her phone back into her pocket.

I gesture to it as I roughly ask, “How’d that go?”

“As well as I expected. Like a lead fucking brick.” She rubs her hands over her face, finally peeking out from behind them. “You going to answer my question?”

Jaxon huffs out a laugh. “She caught us, man.” But he steps close to her, dragging her against his chest. “We were plotting ways to keep you safe. That’s all. Promise.”

She peeks at me from where her head comfortably rests against Jaxon. “Is that so?”

I nod. “Yes.” My cheeks inflate with air before I let it all blow from between my lips. “We thought it’d be smart to make sure a few key people knew we were concerned.” At her curious stare, I continue. “Mostly just Hazel and Levi. We hadn’t sorted anything else. We can talk about it later, though. Let’s get you in there before you take off with your tail between your legs.”

With a bone-weary sigh, she relents, easing from Jaxon’s hold to head up the steps to the building.

“Fine tail it is, though,” Jaxon whispers to me, his eyes glued on her ass as she jogs up the stairs.

“Watch it.”

He hooks his elbow around my neck, dragging my face close to his and gives me a chummy smile before whispering, “Shut up. I saw you looking before I said a damn word.”

“That went exactly how I expected, unfortunately.” Rya shakes her head as we exit the campus police station. She throws a stink face over her shoulder, which has me suppressing a laugh, because as cute as I find it, she’s right. Those dickheads weren’t interested in her story at all, and even though the three of us laid out the events of the last several weeks, they’d made it seem like we’re attempting to connect dots that don’t exist. Complete bullshit. “Now those campus officers who run around with their unofficial badges are going to look at me like I’m some paranoid girl who cries wolf at every turn.” Sensing she needs to get this out, Jaxon and I merely nod and let her keep going. “Would it be better or worse if I had come in earlier? I don’t even know.”

Jaxon’s brow raises. He probably hasn’t seen the pissed-off side of Rya. “They definitely didn’t take us seriously.”

Rya whirls around, her eyes blazing as she walks backward in the direction of the dorm. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”

I am in front of her, grasping her upper arms in two seconds flat. Her sudden burst of anger has her shaking violently. “Look at me.” Jaxon sidles up beside us, standing close. “Neither of us is going to let anything happen to you. And if someone happens to get past us, they won’t fucking survive the fallout. You can fucking believe that.” My fingers dig into her arms, and I dip my head so she’s forced to meet my eyes. “You hear me?”

“Yes,” she bites out with a sharp nod, then wrenches her gaze from mine, her chest jerking.

Fuck .

Jaxon places a hand on my shoulder, applying pressure, which in turn makes me loosen my grip. “I agree with Logan. We will take care of the fucking douche who’s doing this to you. We’ll figure it out.” His eyes are alight with a fire I didn’t use to appreciate when it was aimed in my direction, but I find I very much like it when he’s a raging asshole in Rya’s defense. “If I get my hands on them, I’ll fuckin’ end them.”

Her eyes go wide, and she sucks in a breath, but she doesn’t try to make him take back the bold sentiment.

I nod, pulling Rya into a possessive embrace. A moment later, Jaxon wraps his strong arms around both of us, leaning in until all three of our foreheads are connected. As my eyes meet his, fierce and unyielding, I grit out, “I’ll help you bury the motherfucking body. No one comes near our girl.”