Chapter 12
FOOL
“Gotta talk to you about something,” I tell her as she comes out of my bathroom. She’s fresh-faced and dressed in tiny sleep shorts and a tank top that does nothing to hide the fact that her nipples are poking through the material.
“What’s that?” she asks without looking at me directly.
“Come here.” I spread my legs and wave her toward me from the edge of my bed.
Tonight’s gonna be hell sleeping next to her.
I haven’t slept next to a woman since Stacy, and even then it was rare.
We were young and still living at home with our parents before I enlisted.
I’m not sure how I’m gonna handle sleeping next to April with my nightmares.
Some nights I wake up sweating and panting from them. Other nights, my screams jolt me awake.
April steps closer, and when she’s within reach, I tug her the rest of the way, securing her to me. Her hands go to my shoulders and dig in.
“Got something to confess,” I say. Tilting my head back to meet her gaze, I bite back a groan at how easily I could use my chin to lower her tee and take one of those puckered nipples into my mouth.
“Um, okay,” she stammers, licking her lips.
Fuck. It’s not going to be hell. It’s gonna be downright torturous.
“So, this week, I’ve been on campus every day,” I admit, watching her closely.
April’s fingers dig into my shoulders. Her eyes flash with annoyance, and she tries to step back, but I don’t let her.
“You’ve been spying on me all week?”
“Not spying on you, shadowing, or watching those around you,” I clarify.
“That’s still spying,” she snaps.
“It’s not, sweets.” I stand, keeping my arms around her, her body too much of a temptation.
“There’s a big-ass difference. Yes, I followed you.
I watched you, but I did nothing else. I focused on your surroundings, on those who paid too much attention to you.
And I gotta say, it pisses me off that I had to witness you in that shell of yours, doing your best not to draw attention.
I saw the guys who would snap photos of you or call out to you. The ones who stopped you to talk—”
“Stop it,” April whispers, her face having grown pale as I spoke.
“Talk to me, sweets. Tell me what’s going on at school,” I demand, doing my best to keep my tone even.
“You said you wouldn’t . . .”
“I said I’d give you time and that I’m patient, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do what I have to do to keep you safe.”
April opens and closes her mouth several times before letting out a huff in the back of her throat that sounds cute as hell. “You could have told me you were on campus,” she finally mutters.
“Yeah, but then you’d know I was watching, and you might not have acted like yourself.
” That’s a lie, and I know it. “Honestly, if you knew I was there, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from sticking to the shadows.
I’d have been right next to you, walking you to every class you went to.
Seeing all those piss-ant polo-wearing dickheads talking to you pissed me the hell off. ”
“Piss-ant polo-wearing dickheads?” She smirks, shaking her head.
“That’s exactly what they are,” I grunt, sliding a hand into her hair. “Next week, when you’re back in class, I’ll still be there, but I won’t be hiding in the shadows. I want them to see me, to know that you’ve got someone at your back. That they can’t keep fucking with you.”
“How do you know it’s them messing with me?” she asks, losing her smirk, eyes searing into mine as if she were trying to see into my very soul.
“After a week of watching, I’ve learned which ones are which without you telling me a damn thing. What I’ve figured out on my own has me livid, and I don’t even have the full story.”
“I didn’t want anyone to know what was going on.” April drops her head, forehead resting against my chest.
“Talk to me, sweets,” I murmur against the top of her head.
“It started last year,” she utters, sucking in a breath.
I round the edge of my bed, bringing her with me, and drop onto it, again pulling her along and tucking her into my side.
“What started last year?”
April curls into my side, grips my shirt in her fist, and starts her story.
“Last year, I started hanging out with a guy named Samuel. He’s on the lacrosse team and was in several of my classes.
He started coming to study groups I used to be a part of.
He sat next to me and asked me out for coffee a few times.
I told him I wasn’t really interested in dating, but we could go as friends. ”
She takes a second before continuing. “Everything seemed fine. We were friends, and I even went to a party with him. He handed me a drink, and well, I didn’t drink it.
Twister and Horse made sure to drill that into our heads during high school.
If you’re not the one to get it yourself, don’t drink it.
If you take your eyes off it, don’t drink it.
He thought I did, but I hadn’t touched it.
He tried to get me into a room with him and his friends, and that didn’t go over well.
So, for the last year, they’ve been making my life hell. ”
The more she talks about what happens to her, the more I want to find the fucker and beat the hell out of him. No, I want to put him in the ground for all the shit he’s put her through.
“They take turns calling, messaging, and sending me things. Thanks to this day and age, you can create a lot of pictures just by using AI. Which, by the way, I hate AI and refuse to use anything that could be harmful to others.”
“Right there with you on that, sweets,” I grumble, barely containing the anger rising in me on her behalf. “What kind of things are they sending you?”
“Generated pictures of me.”
Fuckers are dead men walking.
“Samuel’s friends are the ones who send those. He mostly sticks to the calls or messing with me in class. He’ll make provocative suggestions or do the weird breathing BS until I call him out on it. I’ve tried blocking his number, but he just calls me from another number.”
“I don’t want you to have to worry about them again,” I tell her, pulling her closer to me.
“You can’t stop them from using words or creating things and putting them out there for other people to see. More times than I can count over the past year, random guys asking for a hookup have approached me, thinking I’ll sleep with them for money.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I thought I had it figured out, but it’s worse than I thought. They weren’t just fucking with her head. They’re putting her in situations that could end up hurting her, and that shit ain’t gonna continue. Not if I can help it.
April says nothing else, and I’m not sure what to say to make her feel better, so I just hold her close. Eventually, she drifts off to sleep, and I keep holding her, plotting the deaths of those who targeted her and made her life a living nightmare.
After a while of holding her, I inch her under the covers and tuck one of my pillows close. I’ve got to talk to my brothers about this. Something has to be done to stop them, and I’m going to make sure they hurt in the worst way.
Leaving my room, I head in search of my brothers and find them all still downstairs. Thankfully, Venus has her mouth preoccupied with Zero’s dick.
I shake my head and plop back into the chair I’d left just a moment ago, looking around the table and meeting each of their eyes.
“How bad is it?” Hazard asks first.
“Worse than I originally thought,” I answer, giving them a rundown without telling them the full story.
I won’t betray her confidence by telling them something she’s kept to herself for so long.
By the time I’m done, the relaxed expressions they all had when I first came down are gone, and rage replaces them.
I meet Cannon’s gaze and tell him, “I’m going to bury these fuckers for what they’ve done to her. ”
“You won’t be alone in this.” He nods. “I don’t have a sister.
I never thought of a woman as one, but it didn’t take more than an hour of her being here for me to know she’s something special.
She’s got the club’s protection. It doesn’t matter whether another club asked us to look after her; she’s got it, regardless. ”
“Agreed,” Hornet grunts, tapping his knuckles on the table in front of him. “We need to know all the players we’re dealing with.”
“I’ll take a closer look at the pictures you sent me,” Rimfire remarks. “Now that I have a name to go by, it’ll go faster.”
“Appreciate it,” I say, letting out a heavy breath. “She’s been suffering long enough. Told her that when she goes back to school, she won’t be going alone.”
“You and Hazard should go,” Cannon suggests.
“What about next week’s run?” Hazard asks. “We’ve got the coffins to transport.”
“Trench and Wrench can handle it without you. I’ll send Centerfire and Siege with them, just in case.”
Siege is a member like me, patched a year before me after he’d gotten out of the Army. Centerfire, Rimfire’s twin brother, not identical, followed his brother to the club after being medically discharged from the Marines.
So many of my brothers have served in one form or another within the military. It’s why I know they’ve got my back and understand me. Because I get them as well. If I need to talk, they’re there for me.
I was supposed to be going on this week’s run, but with this bullshit, there was no way I was going to leave April alone until I knew without a doubt she’d be safe.
“Thanks, Prez,” I grumble, pinching the bridge of my nose as I lean back in the chair.
“Head back to your woman, brother,” Hornet suggests. “We’ll sit with her throughout the weekend and help her with her paper. Then, after that, y’all can head back to the school. Let whoever is watching her see you this time around.”
“That’s the plan. I want them to know she’s not alone and see what they try next.” I’m not sure it’ll stop them, but it will get them to do something. I just don’t know what yet.
I smack the table and get up, head for the stairs, taking them two at a time, itching to get back to her. I don’t remember ever itching to be near a woman as I do with her. Even throughout the week we were apart, all I wanted was to be near her.