Chapter 19 #2
Selena laughed. “Oh, believe me, I’ve heard, though I’d love to hear more. I guess I’ll just leave you two to it then. Maybe you should see Isabelle home, since the rest of us are going to a party.”
“Hmm, sounds prudent, doesn’t it?” His body pressed into mine from behind and I nearly melted on the spot.
Selena nodded, smiling like a Cheshire cat.
“Definitely. Text me tomorrow,” she called to me as she backed away.
“What do you say, Goldilocks? Shall I walk you home? Maybe I can get a tour of your dorm room.”
I swallowed hard, the thought of Cole, all barely leashed power and violence, sitting in my teeny-tiny dorm room, lounging on my bed, made me weak at the knees.
“Isabelle?” A familiar voice cut through my overheated thoughts.
“Dad?”
My father was cutting through the crowd toward us. I jerked forward, away from Cole, without thinking. It was my baseline response around my dad. Stand up straighter, be presentable.
“Isabelle, I thought it was you, though I don’t know what you’re wearing,” my father sneered, looking over the leather cut with barely concealed disgust.
“Isabelle,” Grant Elwick said from beside my dad. Why were they even here?
He stood at my father’s shoulder, and they both seemed to notice Cole at once.
“And who is this?” my father asked rudely, looking at Cole with distrust.
“Cole. Cole Bailey.” Cole’s tone was cool but respectful. He held his tattooed hand out toward my father. My heart beat hard in my ears as my father ignored it.
“Why are you here?” I cut in, tugging Cole’s arm down. I couldn’t stand to see it lingering there in the air, rejected by my asshole father.
“We were watching the game from Soren Anderson’s box. Some kind of charity fundraising thing.”
Right, Beckett’s dad had a box. I nodded, feeling awkward as hell.
“I wanted Grant to see a little slice of life in Hade Harbor, to see that we aren’t as backward here as he might think,” my father laughed. “Though, of course, it’s not New York.”
“Thank fuck for that,” Cole muttered beside me.
My father pretended not to hear.
“Are you here together?” Grant cut in, looking between me and Cole.
I opened my mouth to answer. I didn’t know what to say. Technically, we weren’t, but I knew that if I said that, it would sound like I was ashamed to be seen with Cole, which I wasn’t.
“No. I’m here to see my brother play. He’s the goalie,” Cole answered smoothly.
My father nodded, looking relieved. “Ah, yes, Bailey, the goalkeeper. He played well.”
Cole just nodded.
“Well, since we’ve run into each other, you can take us for a coffee on campus before we go. Get to know Grant a little better,” my father said.
“I’m busy, there’s a party,” I objected, already knowing it was pointless. My father would badger me into going through any means necessary.
“You don’t need to go to a party and be around the kind of dead-end kids who go to this school.”
“You’re talking about my friends, and they’re not dead-end kids,” I snapped and blew out a hard breath.
Grant was still glaring at Cole. “Sorry, but if you’re here to see your brother, can I ask why you’re still hanging around?”
I turned to look at Cole. Grant’s question was so fucking rude.
“It’s a free country, I guess,” Cole said. He was staring Grant right in the eye. That look was something else. Grant’s cheeks warmed. He squirmed in his overpriced loafers. Without a word being said, Cole’s dominance steamrolled over both Grant and my father.
I couldn’t stand the tension. I needed to get my father and Grant to leave. I wanted Cole to go before they could say something even more condescending to him.
I shrugged Cole’s cut off and turned to him, pressing it into his hand.
“Thanks for this,” I said. He slowly moved his intense gaze from Grant’s to mine. His expression softened.
“Anytime, Goldilocks.”
“I should go with my dad,” I added, and Cole slowly nodded. Thoughts of him in my dorm room and another illicit, hot-as-hell night slipped away.
His warm gaze cooled and he stepped back.
“In that case, I’ll be seeing you around, Isabelle.”
I nodded, my heart in my mouth. I hated to see him go. I wanted to run after him and tell him that I just wanted to protect him from my dickhead dad and his little minion. But Cole turned away, shrugging his cut on, and walked away without a second glance. The crowd parted around him.
He doesn’t need my protection, I reminded myself as I watched him go. He was Cole fucking Bailey, and my father had just embarrassed me in front of him.
“That man looked like absolute trouble. I hope you’re not associating with that type of person, Isabelle,” my father was saying as I turned back.
“That type of person,” I repeated dully. Disappointment hit me hard but my father’s shitty reaction wasn’t surprising in the least.
“Yes, that type of person. Look, Isabelle, you live here on campus because your mother trusts you not to act in a way unbecoming of your station. You need to be careful. You have a reputation to uphold. I won’t allow a man like that to drag you and our family down to his level. I’d see him behind bars first.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I demanded.
Grant put his hand on my arm. “Calm down, Isabelle. Your father means that a man like that likely has a rap sheet a mile long. It wouldn’t be hard to make sure he went back inside for something. Be careful who you associate with.”
“Is that a threat?” I asked, my voice hollow as I shook off his unwelcome touch.
“Damn right,” my father cut in. “If you’re too stupid to understand, then let me lay it out for you.
A punk like that will never touch a Lancaster, and if you allow him to, he will bear the consequences.
You think he’ll thank you for sending his life down the drain?
” His tone was spiked with anger. “You’ve been warned.
” Then he turned away and pushed through the crowd, more angry than I’d ever seen him.
“Don’t misunderstand your father. He’s only worried for you. Having a daughter who you can’t—”
“Control?” I supplied.
“Protect,” Grant said instead. “It’s a terrifying thing, I imagine.”
“I don’t need protection from Cole. He wouldn’t hurt me,” I ground out.
Grant shrugged. “Are you sure?”
I nodded immediately. Somehow, despite how little we knew each other, I knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
“Well then, maybe you should worry more about how much you could hurt him.”
With that, Grant turned and followed my father. I watched them go, my heart splitting in two.