Chapter 2
2
RAINE
I need my coffee to kick in. It’s early and I’m tired. All week, I was swamped with assignments, so I still need to record and edit a post for my personal vlog. As I prep for recording my newest video, I place my camera on a tripod in a corner of the courtyard between residence halls.
My vlog, which I started three years ago, is where I get to show some advanced film editing techniques I’ve taught myself. Its focus was on my dream of getting into film school, and information I shared about my journey helped me gain a solid following of 27,000 people. Despite my grades in high school not being the strongest, my channel got me interviews at a lot of prestigious film schools. Now, I’m in one.
After I started at GU, a professor who’d interviewed me for admission encouraged me to keep vlogging throughout college, saying it’s a great showcase for me as a young filmmaker and that having thousands of followers will make me an attractive hire for small production companies that need all the grass-roots marketing they can get.
So, here I am, on a Saturday, awake at dawn to take advantage of the quiet and the morning light. I stand in front of the flower border that runs along the courtyard’s wrought iron fence. Bright orange day lilies are still in bloom, along with red bee balm and golden black-eyed Susans. There are mixes of different colored ferns between the flowers, giving the flowerbed a fresh, lush look even in fall. No bushes or trees were planted along the east fence because it would ruin the view of the river. This is a perfect video backdrop.
As I start recording, strands of hair fly across my face. “Ah, the wind!” I coil my chestnut hair around my hand to clip it up as I continue. “That’s the Tyne river behind me.” I gesture with a tilt of my chin as I slide the clip in place. “Because the water’s so close, the wind is fierce here.”
Hair secured, I drop my arms and smile brightly into the camera. “For those of you who are new to my channel, I’m Raine, a freshman film major at Granthorpe University in Massachusetts. I live in Meredith Hall.” I point to the right at the beige brick building with architecture from close to a hundred years ago.
“Our dorm shares this courtyard with Moses Hall.” I gesture to the larger building across the way before turning back to my dorm. “Meredith is the oldest female dorm on campus, and it was my first choice. A lot of girls in Central, which is newer, love it there because it has a dining hall and a market. But Meredith was my first choice because it’s so iconic. There are tall arches in the lobby and hand-done plasterwork. Also, all the resident rooms have a view of the river or this courtyard.”
I’ve already shown my room and the view through my window in a previous video, but there have been a thousand new subscribers in the month since I moved into the dorm, so it’s important to catch them up.
“I got a river view, which is super rare for a freshman. I saw in the comments of my move-in post that you want to know how I got a room with that view. I think it’s because I did a little extra work. This year, the school’s celebrating the hall’s history, and they asked us to write an essay about why we’d like to live in Meredith for extra consideration. I’m sure that helped me get a ground-floor single.”
I take a deep, exaggerated breath. “One warning… Here, the scent of plants and flowers is overpowered by the river smells of mud, se aweed, fish and clams. For me, that feels quintessentially New England, but if you don’t care for the way waterfronts smell, think about choosing another dorm, farther inland. Now that I’ve got friends all over, I can take you on a tour of the other halls, too.” I tilt my head to the side and point below me as if I can see what the viewer is seeing. “Let me know in the comments if you want to see more residence halls.”
Moving a step back, I make a show of assessing my dorm. “But back to Meredith.” I gaze into the camera again, not having to force my smile any brighter than it is. “I love it. It’s everything I hoped, and all the girls are really friendly. Like me, a lot of them are studying the arts in some form or another.”
It’s moments like this where I can’t believe I’m here. True, getting to this point was not easy, but the important thing is I made it. And if my vlog can help anyone on their own path forward, then it’s extra worth it.
Remembering something I wanted to touch on, I lean forward. It’s important to give subscribers a sense of the Granthorpe community. “Our first week here, the upperclassman had an info sesh over brunch and a dorm party to welcome the freshmen. In a minute?—”
My voice chokes off when I spot Killian Callahan. He’s tall, obscenely gorgeous, and moves through the picturesque landscape like Hades through a meadow.
A glimpse of him would sky-rocket my subscribers.
Too bad he’s the one person in the world I avoid above all others.
How did he get into the courtyard? Killian doesn’t live in Moses. And, more importantly, why is he here? After three months of not spotting him, I’d started to believe things had changed.
My stepbrother sits atop a picnic table about fifteen feet from my tripod. His forearms rest on his thighs and his fingers are laced casually together so his big hands hang in the gap between his knees. To anyone else, his posture might seem relaxed. In truth, he’s like an idling race car that can go from zero to sixty in three seconds.
With a slow breath, I walk across the damp grass to my camera. Definitely time to go. Squawking gulls fly overhead in circles as if trying to warn me. I end the recording and pull the tripod clamps open to remove my camera.
With a quick glance to the side, I see Killian stand. The sun adds faux gilding to his brown hair. I can look at him from a distance without my insides melting, but up close, there are challenges.
Killian’s handsome in a way that catches people’s attention and doesn’t let go. If he wanted to be an actor, he’d be leading man material.
I hurry to put my camera in my tote.
“Raine.” His voice is as deep as the ocean, so he sounds more like a man than a boy. He looks like one, too.
As I lift my tripod and fold it together, a shadow falls. My heart bangs. He looms over me with all the foreboding of a gothic tower.
Do not engage.
As I turn toward the gate to Meredith, I catch the scents of spicy shower gel and… Killian. Triggered memories of being near him hit me in a barrage. Between my legs, there’s already heat building. We have a complicated history.
My badge unlocks the gate, but when I pull, it doesn’t swing open. I glance up to where his hand holds an iron bar. Like everything about Killian, his hand is beautiful. His long, tapered fingers are almost twice the size of mine. They’re the kind that, in an advertisement, could hold a briefcase or a bar bell. Or, in the bedroom, push deep inside a partner’s?—
“Let go.” I don’t raise my voice, but my tone is firm. Which doesn’t matter. He never listens to anyone.
This close, heat from his body radiates into mine. With all his muscles, he’s like a furnace. I used to like that about him. Now it just reminds me of how physically dangerous he is.
He clears his throat, causing me to tighten my grip on the gate. Us standing this close to each other is such a dreaded thing.
“There’s something you need to explain.” His low, gravelly voice causes gooseflesh to erupt over my entire body.
My physical reactions to him infuriate me. Beautiful looks aside, there’s a part of his personality I hate. And it’s the part that’s usually in charge .
His stormy blue eyes remain fixed on my face. Killian’s capable of an intensity that’s impossible to ignore. Getting away from him is crucial because this close, I’m gasoline and he’s a torch. At the same time my mind explodes into flaming protests, my body will melt in a totally different way.
“I don’t want to talk, Killian.” There, at least my voice sounds sure and supports my words.
“No? So what do you want to do, Raine? ‘Cuz I’ve got time.”
My breath catches, and things low and deep inside my body clench. He never directs his flirting taunts at anyone else. The younger, naive Raine loved the special treatment. But now his words cause my muscles to lock, as if I’m bracing for a deadly collision.
Killian’s good looks camouflage his deeply disturbed soul. He’s prone to violence. Devastation. Innocent or guilty, no one is safe if they get in his way.
“The answer to anything you’re suggesting is no . It’ll always be no.” I tap his forearm. “Let go of the gate.”
“Why don’t you make me?” he asks with mock curiosity. “I’ve got a knife in my pocket. Go get it.”
I shudder, a wave of dread rolling through me. It’s followed by something else… the terrible connection I have to him is one I can never seem to sever.
“What are you doing here? We decided to stay away from each other. That was going well .”
“ We decided?” His expression seems bored.
“You’ve stayed away,” I point out.
He rolls his eyes. “I was forced out of the house. And then I was out of town.”
“Still, you stopped doing the things you used to do.” I hold my breath, waiting for him to confirm that. The truth is I’m never completely sure whether he’s gone or just lurking. Changed passwords, blocked social accounts, and even locked doors are no match for him. If he decides he wants to be part of my life, there is no way to keep him out. But for a little while, it seemed like he’d finally given up on me.
Without warning, his hand grabs the back of my head so I can’t move. He lowers his face so his nose rustles my hair, inhaling me. His movements mimic a flame’s, fast-moving, hot, and ungovernable. Before my arms have fully risen to try to push him away, he lets go and steps back.
“You have eight hours, Raine, to take it down and cover your tracks. Otherwise, I’m going to visit you the way I used to.”
My eyes widen, and I taste my pulse pounding in my throat. Before things went so severely sideways—before I really knew him—we spent many hours alone. In secret.
“What do you mean? Take what down?”
He gives me a cool look. “Eight hours.”
As he strolls away, the world closes in. He hasn’t cornered me like this in a long time. I must’ve said something on one of my videos that upset him. For the life of me, I don’t know what. I would never dare mention him. It would be like tugging the devil’s tail.
That musing sends another shiver through me. I never once thought about the devil before I met Killian Callahan.