27. PARIS
PARIS
It took every ounce of self-control to hide the rage brewing inside me from Vanessa.
I didn’t want her to be frightened or concerned.
But that meant dropping her off at her place and leaving right away.
It killed me that I had to go even though she begged me to stay.
The latch keeping the beast contained had already begun to loosen.
My foot is heavy on the gas pedal and I’m gripping the steering wheel so tight, my knuckles are white. I’m driving way past the speed limit. Maybe my subconscious wants me to be stopped by a cop, because what I have in mind will for sure fuck up my life.
Ryan is a dead man walking.
The music from radio gets cut off by an incoming call. It’s Vanessa. I can’t answer—not when I’ve allowed fury to consume me whole. A moment after the call stops, a ping on my phone alerts me to a text message. I don’t peek. I’m almost to my destination: Greek Row.
I should slow down, but I continue at almost the same speed. When a delivery van backs out of one of the driveways, I almost collide with it. I stomp on the brakes, making the tires screech. The seatbelt digs into my chest as momentum sends me forward. It hurts, but I ignore the pain.
A guy yells outside. From the corner of my eye, I see him running toward my truck. He’s not Ryan, but I’m past the point of caring. If he wants to start a fight, I’m game. The van is still blocking me, so I get out of the car with the intention of continuing on foot.
“What the hell is your problem?” the guy asks.
He’s close now, and that’s when I recognize him. It’s Leo Stine, Heather’s boyfriend.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll back the fuck off.” I start to circle around the van.
“Where are you going, Andino?” The pest follows me.
“None of your business,” I grit out. “Get lost.”
“Does this have anything to do with Vanessa?”
I stop suddenly and turn around. “What do you know about Vanessa?”
I’m sure I look like the devil incarnate, but my aggressive stance doesn’t seem to intimidate him. He lifts his chin and holds my stare. “I know more than you think.”
I’m beyond thinking straight. In a split second, I’m holding him by his shirt and off the ground. “Then you’d be better tell me, motherfucker, before I use you for practice.”
He loses his arrogant air. His eyes go round, and his face turns pasty. “What the fuck are you doing, man? Put me down.”
“Not until you tell me what you know.”
“I just know that Ryan is a piece of shit, that’s all.”
I shake him roughly. “Try again.”
More shouts in the vicinity warn me of incoming interference. Yet I don’t break eye contact.
“Let me go, Andino.” He grabs my wrists and tries to make me release him. Fat chance of that happening.
“Not until you tell me what you know about Ryan and Vanessa. And if you think your frat friends can help you, you’re mistaken. I can turn your face into pulp before they reach us.”
He glances to the right and then back at me. “Fine. I know what Ryan did to Vanessa in the parking lot of Tailgaters.”
All my blood seems to freeze in my veins. “How do you know that?” I grit out.
“Put me down, and I’ll tell you.”
As much as I want to keep putting the fear of God in Leo, I have to remember he isn’t Ryan. I set him down and release him. He steps back and runs his hands over his shirt, trying to smooth the wrinkles I put there. His friends finally join us and form a shield around him.
“Are you okay, Leo?” one of them asks.
“I’m fine.”
I keep my eyes on him. I might no longer have him in my grasp, but I can still break his fucking nose despite his bodyguards.
“I’m waiting for an answer, Leo,” I growl.
“Let’s talk inside. This isn’t a conversation for the middle of the street.”
“Wait. Are you inviting him in?” a second idiot asks.
“Yes, Blake. Do you have a problem with that?” Leo snaps.
The guy shakes his head. “No, not all.”
This is not how I envisioned my day turning out. I was dead set on ending Ryan, but I can’t not follow Leo inside the Pike house and learn what he knows. I can destroy Ryan later.
I’ve been here before, but not during the day.
The house looks different when there aren’t disco lights flashing and loud music pouring from the speakers.
The walls in the living area are a dark gray-brown color, and the all the furniture follows the same neutral palette.
The best colors to hide dirt. There’s a faint smell of beer and cigarettes under the fake scent of pine in the air.
No amount of air refresher can mask that combo.
Leo heads for a black leather couch and drops onto it like a sack of potatoes. He points at the couch next to his. “Take a seat, Andino.”
“I’m fine standing.”
The two friends who came to the rescue linger nearby. Leo looks at them, “You can go now.”
“Are you sure?” one of them asks, giving me a cagey side glance.
“Fucking leave or I’ll rearrange your face,” I snap.
They glance at their president again for reassurance, which they get through a nod, as if he’s a damn mafia boss. Once they’re gone, Leo types a message on his phone before switching his attention to me.
“Start talking, jackass,” I say.
“On the night Vanessa was attacked, one of my pledges saw part of it and caught the incident on his phone.”
Just when I thought I couldn’t get more furious, Leo’s confession proves me wrong.
“Are you telling me that instead of helping her, he decided to record the assault?” I grit out while my hands curl into fists.
“I didn’t know what was happening at first,” a guy replies from behind me.
I turn around and see Philip Meester, the freshman who told me what Ryan did to Vanessa yesterday.
“You!” I’m on him in the blink of an eye, pushing him against the wall and wrapping my fingers around his neck.
“Paris, wait! It’s not what you think .” Leo jumps up from the couch.
Philip’s face is already getting redder, and he can’t talk with the way I’m squeezing his throat.
“You watched Vanessa almost get raped by that piece of shit and you recorded it?” I shout in his face.
His brown eyes are round and fearful. He can’t answer with words, and he tries to shake his head.
“Paris! For fuck’s sake. You’ll end up killing him.” Leo grabs the back of my shirt and yanks.
In a knee-jerk reaction, I kick back, hitting his leg.
“Motherfucker!” he blurts out. “If you don’t let him explain, I’m calling campus police on your ass. Then it’s goodbye football season.”
I glare at him for a second, and then I release his friend, but only because now I’m going to punch Leo instead.
He walks back with his hands raised in a sign of peace. “Don’t something you’ll regret, Andino.”
“I was going to help,” Philip wheezes, halting me and saving Leo from a broken nose. “But you showed up before I could.”
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“I swear to God. I was in the middle of shooting a video for my YouTube channel when I heard the commotion. If you look at the footage, you’ll see that I wasn’t near them. I ran toward them when I realized the situation was serious, but you got there first.”
“I’ve seen the video, he’s not lying,” Leo chimes in.
I turn to him. “Why didn’t you say anything to me or Vanessa?”
“Because she didn’t want to report Ryan.” Leo throws his hands in the air. “I heard her loud and clear in the video.”
I rub my face as I try to calm the fuck down. “Who else has seen this video?”
“I only showed it to Leo,” Philip replies.
“And you still have it?”
He nods. “Yeah. Did she change her mind?”
A nagging suspicion comes to the forefront of my mind. Squinting, I ask, “Were you following Vanessa when Ryan pushed her?”
“No. I was following him . I bumped into him by chance in the humanities building and overheard him on the phone saying he’d be late to a meeting because his girlfriend was being difficult.”
His girlfriend . I can’t believe that asshole is still referring to Vanessa as such.
“Did you also film that?” I ask, not hiding my anger.
“No. I didn’t think he was going to hurt her when there were so many people around. I was wrong.”
“And earlier today? Did you ‘just happen’ to bump into Vanessa by chance?”
His face becomes bright red, and guilt flashes in his eyes. He drops his chin. “No. I was actually following her today.”
My protective instinct flares up, and the desire to hurt him returns with a vengeance. I never pegged myself as a jealous caveman, but I never loved anyone so intensely and completely as I love Vanessa.
“You’d better have a good reason for that, besides being a fucking stalker.”
“Philip is not a stalker,” Leo butts in. “He’s a nice guy who was worried.”
“Vanessa doesn’t need a bodyguard,” I growl.
He quirks an eyebrow. “Why? Because she has you?”
The comment was meant to hurt, and it does the job. I dropped the ball when it came time to keep my girl safe.
“What’s going to happen now? Is she ready to report Ryan?” Philip asks. “I can testify about yesterday’s incident, and the police can have the footage from the assault.”
I don’t want to keep talking about Vanessa’s personal life with these two, so I just reply, “We’ll be in touch.”
“Where are you going now?” Leo asks, his body tense again.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going after Ryan. That was my intention earlier, but sending him to prison will be far more satisfying than breaking his bones.”