Chapter 10
Donavan
Most people can feel someone following them. I’d say nine out of ten people have that instinct inside of them that warns them they’re in danger. I imagine it’s one of those things left over from when we as a species were more animal than human, and it was a requirement to staying alive.
It’s happened to every one of us, the urge to run when those tiny hairs stick up on the back of your neck, warning you of impending danger.
Alani is a different breed. The second after she freezes, her eyes darting to the shadows, a slow smile spreads out across her face.
She can feel me following her, but instead of running, she walks slower. Instead of staying inside her dorm at night, she ventures outside into the darkness as if challenging me to step out from the shadows.
The woman doesn’t have an ounce of self-preservation, and it’s starting to drive me fucking crazy.
I’ve been following her off and on for weeks, leaving town for a few days when I get sent out on a job.
Instead of going back to the small apartment I rent over the hardware store back in Mission, Texas, I find myself a couple hours north in Lindell, keeping my distance but also keeping my eyes on her.
It’s not nights like tonight that drive me insane. It’s knowing she’s putting herself at risk when I’m not lurking in the shadows.
Silence from Cortez’s crew means nothing.
They’re probably getting their shit together after taking such a hit to their organization weeks ago when Nash and Ayla were pulled from that hell they’d been in.
Thinking they’ve given up on the younger Warren sister would be a huge mistake.
If anything, they’re biding their time until she’s able to breathe a sigh of relief, and then they’ll make their move.
Scaring and traumatizing the women they take is as much a part of the thrill as putting them to work is.
I don’t care that Angel claims to have his sights on Raul Cortez.
It doesn’t mean shit to me that the threat to Alani is low.
Any threat makes my skin crawl, and Cortez and his crew aren’t the only ones capable of causing the woman harm.
There’s no shortage of predators and sick fucks that could see her wandering around alone and decide to take advantage of the clear situation she’s all but offering them.
I haven’t stepped out of the darkness once since she walked away with that Cerberus member the night of the bonfire, although I’ve been tempted to more times than I can count. She needs to be taught a lesson, but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to be the one to do it.
I consider letting someone grab her, rough her up a little so she’ll fucking learn, but I know I’ll rip anyone limb from fucking limb if they even look at her wrong.
It’s what stops me every time I get the urge to make my presence known other than that feeling she gets in her gut when I trail her. I shouldn’t want anything from anyone. I went years without needing anything other than to make some money and shed blood.
She went to Nash and Ayla’s place two weekends ago, and as happy as I was to have a break, I found myself hovering on the edge of his property. She showed up late Friday afternoon and never reemerged until late Sunday evening when she drove back to campus.
I hated the way my skin itched that entire weekend, being so close yet unable to set my eyes on her.
I refuse to think about the way Nash asked me to fucking dinner at the office on Friday like he suspects I haven’t been able to keep away from her. I consider that I may be watching Alani, but he may have someone watching me.
That suspicion is what kept me from driving to Lindell and trailing her all the way back to her sister’s house. I flipped the bird and left, spending hours stewing in my truck.
I could easily show up on Madelene’s doorstep and she’d probably welcome me into her home with open arms, but I’d never do that either. Connections make people sloppy. Chivalry pulls at pieces inside of you that will only get someone and everyone around them hurt.
It was a brutal lesson I learned many years ago as the light faded from Maya’s eyes.
When Alani looks back over her shoulder, her teeth digging into her lower lip as she steps off the front porch of the frat house, I want to rush up to her and shake her.
I want to take her for a few hours and force her to watch videos of what happens to pretty little careless girls until it finally sinks in that she isn’t invincible, that’s she’s putting herself at undue risk.
I can’t do that, however. If anything, I think making my presence known will only make things worse for her. Each staggering step feels like a challenge, her way of trying to control me.
My blood boils when some cocky motherfucker starts walking alongside her.
I’m too far away to hear their conversation, but they seem friendly enough.
It proves she at least knows the guy in passing, but I’m educated enough, have seen enough, to know casual acquaintances are just as likely to take advantage of a debilitated girl as they are a stranger.
Men like that don’t think in terms of consequences.
They think with their cocks first and then victim blame later.
It’s a story as old as time, and they always rest the blame on the woman.
It shouldn’t matter that Alani is walking down the sidewalk alone or that she’s wearing a skirt so short it made me think probably the same things the guy that’s walking beside her is thinking.
Honestly, I’m not much different from him, come to think of it, but the huge difference is that she’s fucking mine.
Mine to torture, mine to taunt, mine to touch.
I step out of the shadows, not bothering to try and sneak up on them. Keeping to the darkness comes to an end tonight.
I shove the guy, watching his face pale when he spins to argue with me. Like the fucking coward he is, he doesn’t even argue when I growl in his direction. He’s concerned about his own safety and that’s it as he scurries away.
It makes me want to track down that pussy-ass Marine who shouted obscenities at me for hours and threatened to rip me to pieces. At least he had the balls to fight back a little no matter how futile it ended up being.
I drag Alani into the darkness with me, pressing her back to a thick tree as I clamp her face between my fingers.
Instead of fear in her eyes, she grins right in my fucking face, her hips pulling away from the tree to press against mine.
Her eyes widen, a little moan slipping past her swollen lips when I clamp my hand around her throat.
“Who the fuck have you been kissing?” I growl.
Her eyes are slow to blink at me, but she doesn’t answer.
It’s as if the accusation of kissing someone else diverts her attention, and I feel more than I should when she lowers her gaze to my mouth.
“Fuck you,” I hiss, stepping back and grabbing her arm.
I all but drag her through the darkness. As much as her feet can’t keep up, she doesn’t open her mouth to argue as I close the distance between where I had her pressed to the tree and my truck.
“What you’re doing is fucking reckless,” I snap as I open the passenger side door. “Get in the fucking truck.”
She’s slow to move, so I help her. The hand on her ass to help lift her to the seat is a big fucking mistake. Skin meets skin, and it carries with it too many memories to keep me sane in her presence.
I slam the passenger door with a growl of frustration. I wasn’t supposed to make contact with this woman. I never planned on stepping out from the shadows. If anything, being close and keeping my distance proved my strength. It all changed tonight.
She wants my attention? Well, now she well and truly has it.
I ignore her eyes on me as I climb in the truck and drive away from the curb. Not once in my life have I ever had the urge to bend someone over my fucking knee. I can’t seem to push the idea out of my head, and I don’t want to spank her in some fatherly fucking way either.
I want the brat to learn her lesson, but I know better than to risk getting my hand anywhere near her ass.
“I missed you,” she whispers, her voice marked with a hint of something I can’t let sink inside of me.
She’s already caused so many problems for me. The last thing I need is more.
I clench the steering wheel, refusing to speak to her. It doesn’t stop my eyes from darting in her direction when she shifts on the seat. Buzzed or not, she’s well aware of what she’s doing to me.
“What would’ve happened if I wasn’t here tonight?” I growl, hating that she doesn’t even have to say a word to make me speak to her.
I feel rather than actually see her smile. She’s still playing a game, and it seems I’m the one in last place.
“I guess I’d be a few minutes away from fucking a frat guy.”
I swear I crack several molars from how hard I clench my teeth together.
Lucky for her, I’m pulling into the parking lot of her dorm.
She opens her mouth to argue when I climb out, circle around the truck, and pull open her door.
Her eyes narrow, and the woman must be clinically insane to challenge me after what she just said in the fucking truck.
I grip her arm, refusing to loosen my grip when she winces.
She barely gets her feet under her before falling, but a few scraped knees is the least of her fucking worries right now.
She fights against me, grumbling about being manhandled as I drag her toward the front door of her building.
“Enter the fucking code,” I snap. For the first time, she listens to me without me having to issue a threat.
She reaches her hand out but forces me to grab the door when the door clicks, revealing that it’s unlocked.
I step just inside the door with her, but don’t make it very far before I’m stopped.
“Sir,” a girl behind a desk in the corner says. “You aren’t allowed in here after eleven.”
All dorms on Lindell University campus used to be co-ed, but it changed after the abduction of the college girl at the beginning of the last semester.
Female students got with the dean and voiced how they no longer felt safe with men having access to their building, and the college was quick to fix that for them.
I growl at the woman, watching her cringe in fear.
If only Alani was just as scared of me, I might be able to get the woman to listen to my warnings.
“Get to your room and go the fuck to sleep,” I command, hating the way she reaches for me when I shove her away.
She looks as pissed as she did the morning she slapped me right across the face. As she walks away without argument, I shove down the disappointment that she doesn’t open her mouth to spew hatred my way.