Chapter 7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
SUMMER
M y body is frozen during my hour-long English-lit class as we study Shakespeare. The chill underpinning my bones is penetrating, and it’s not from getting caught in the icy rain with Dani as we bolted across campus speckled with the endless brick gardens and gargoyles. It’s because I am finally realizing how much danger I’m in.
I’m still contemplating everything swirling through my brain after the initial shock of SF sending me the news link, insinuating he’s behind Cali’s disappearance.
Normal people would be scared shitless with such a threat. Normal people wouldn’t have a hit of arousal at the thought of a serial killer targeting them. Normal people would experience guilt for possessing evidence about a missing girl’s potential abductor and doing nothing about it.
A missing girl… There is a missing girl, Summer. A girl who looks like you.
I head into the dark and damp lecture hall for psychology class. A dull, persistent ache throbs in my jaw from the hour I spent clenching my teeth, haunted by the vision of her pretty face. The thought of her with him is a vice around my mind.
Seeing Dani wave from the back, I make my way to the back row. Lincoln is directly in front of me when I turn. A dark ripple cuts through me when our eyes connect and that excitement bursts through me.
The moment is fleeting. A darkness settles deep in my core as he stops in front of me. I freeze as I take him in close up. His sexy onyx hair contrasts with his pale face, his eyes behind his glasses look like stone, with cheekbones that could slice me open. He’s a good foot taller than me, so I have to lift my head to look at him.
When I do, recognition pours through me.
I have definitely crossed paths with him before, I am certain of it—a quick meeting in a dimly lit room. However, a distinct image of someone else, with a sharp and clear face, suddenly comes to mind. It is a distorted and long-forgotten memory.
He looks me up and down, and the two hundred people in this room are watching me gawk at him and clam up like I have a schoolgirl crush.
He smiles at me, and even his teeth are perfect, along with his juicy lips. His hand finds my arm and my heart rate soars to incredible heights. “Excuse me,” he says, his voice deep and inviting.
My thighs clench and I nibble on my lip as I look at him, trying to imagine him on the other end of that phone.
“Excuse me, what?” I breathe, recalling the countless nights my nameless monster caressed me and the night he was nearly my undoing.
He adjusts his glasses and leans in. “I have to get by you.”
Heat blooms to my face as a couple of people watching us chuckle. “Oh…yeah. Of course.” I shift over to let him by, and he grabs my hand briefly as he slinks past, as if apologizing for me making an ass out of myself.
He didn’t recognize me. Of course he didn’t recognize me. There was nothing in his eyes that indicated he knows who I am. Because why would he?
It’s someone else, then. It’s got to be someone else. No one is that good of an actor.
I bolt up the steps and take a seat next to Dani as I watch Lincoln take his usual seat down below.
Dani shoots me an incredulous look, her eyes wide with a mixture of amusement and concern, but before she can comment on my foul mood or how I was just caught gawking at our TA in front of everyone, someone slides in beside me, a welcome distraction.
I peer over and find a tall, athletic, cute guy in the chair next to me.
“Is this seat taken?” he asks.
My heart pounds and I force a smile and steal a glance at him. He smells good, like a mixture of spice and sweat.
“No, go ahead.”
He sits next to me, placing his arm around the back of my chair as he makes it obvious he is checking me out.
A nervous flutter hits me—not from the proximity of the attractive stranger, but from the chilling certainty of unseen eyes on me. I keep my eyes on Lincoln, his profile sharp against the dim light, but he doesn’t turn to face me.
“My name is Grant. What’s your name?”
I cup my hand into his to shake it. “Summer,” I say with a shaky breath.
His eyes flicker as they draw down to my chest, and I can’t help but tuck my hair behind my ear in a flirty gesture.If SF is watching, I want him to see this.
Dani leans over. “Hi, I’m Dani, and this is Misty.”
Misty is grinning at him like an idiot, and he smiles back at her, his gaze lingering on her for a second longer than I want before directing it back to my chest.
“How’s your semester going, Summer?”
He has eyes on me. Dani and Misty are irrelevant to him as I work toward keeping his attention by straightening my back and pressing my chest out.I highly doubt Grant is my nameless monster, but the knowledge that SF is potentially watching fills me with a thrilling, nervous energy.
I avert my gaze playfully. “Super busy so far. You?”
He chuckles. “That’s an understatement. This course is going to kick my ass. Where are you girls from?”
“Upstate.”
He leans further into me. “I’m from New York State on a football scholarship. Do you like watching football?”
A football player—typical.
As a child, I dreamt about my future, and I always pictured myself with a football player. But now, the thought of being with someone like Grant is just plain boring.
“Not really,” I reply.
He frowns. “Are you going to the harvest party?” Even his questions are boring.I immediately dismiss the idea that he is the one behind those texts. I’m just not getting the vibe. He seems too nice, even if he can’t stop staring at my tits.
I shrug. “I’m not planning on it.”
Dani elbows me while Misty cranes her neck, trying to hear what’s going on.
“Yes,” Dani says, chewing on her pen. “She is.”
Grant’s gaze drops to my chest again—his eyes are thick and merciless—his tongue grazing his lip.
Ugh. Why?
The lights dim, and Professor Garcia clicks onto the stage with her stilettos. Grant nudges me slightly. “Do you want to meet up sometime? I’d love to show you a good time.”
Dani leans over my seat. “She’d love to.”
Grant pulls his hand from around me and grabs his phone, laying it across my lap. Too close to places his hand shouldn’t be close to. “Here, put your number in.”
I glare at Dani and grab Grant’s phone, inserting my phone number, and immediately, he texts me back so I have his number. “Great.” I feign a smile. “I’ll text you. It will be fun to meet up at the party.”
Perhaps a football player could be useful to have along. I need a certain level of protection from the psychopath.
Thank fuck the party is still over a week away.