Brutal Protector: A Dark College Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Westforde College Book 2)

by Serena Lyons

  “Your little lover-boy and his stupid interfering sister aren’t important.” Phillip snaps.

  “That’s not who I meant.” I look down at my hands, I’m aware of them in a way I never have been before, even after the most gruelling cheerleading session. “Why did your Mum help you get away with it?”

  He freezes, and I know I’ve struck a nerve. “What makes you think she knows anything?”

  “Of course she does. It’s the only explanation that makes sense. Why she told the police I was crazy, why she threw Callum out.” I search for the right ammunition. “You must be her favourite after all.”

  His face contorts into something ghastly. “Please. Everyone knows Millie was their favourite. Everyone’s favourite. I’m just the only one left now.” He cackles. “What was poor Mama to do? It was either help me or lose both her children and her prized reputation.”

  “I’m sure people wouldn’t have judged her for what you did.”

  To my surprise, Phillip starts laughing. “Oh Faith, you don’t have a clue do you? You don’t know what she did.”

  I don’t have a clue, and I decide honesty is the best. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  FINISH HERE

  “Shut the fuck up!” Spit flies from his mouth and his eyes look even more crazed.

  Good, I’m striking a nerve. He’s got everything planned out, maybe if I can unsettle him enough to throw him off his plan, I can get out. “Oh does the truth hurt poor sensitive little Phillip?” I put on a baby voice, although I can’t hide the shake in my voice. This could be a terrible idea. But my voice is my only weapon right now.

  “I told you to be quiet!” He’s jumping up now, his chair falling behind him with a heavy clatter.

  I think I pushed him too far. I throw my hands up to cover my face as he storms towards me. Air gushes as he swings something and then something crashes down on my skull.

  Everything fades to black.

  45: Callum

  Nina quickly updates me on what happened to her while we were up north playing detectives. Someone bundled her into a van after choir practice and kept her in a cold house about an hour’s drive from Oxford. They didn’t hurt her—thank God—but she was blindfolded the whole time.

  “We have to call the police. They might be able to help Faith.”

  I nod and dial the number they gave me yesterday when I tried to report Nina as missing.

  “This is Callum Carter-Wright.”

  “You’re early on the twenty-four hours, Mr Wright.” The policeman on the other end of the phone sounds bored.

  “Carter-Wright,” I correct. “And my sister is back. But someone had taken her and now they’ve abducted Faith Davies. You have to—”

  “Hang on one moment.” I can hear papers shuffling in the background.

  Eventually I can’t keep quiet any longer. “Look, this is damn important Faith is—”

  “Faith is the same girl who falsely accused you of beating her up by the towpath last month. Look, I don’t know what silly games you students are playing, but if you carry on, I’ll have you nicked for wasting police time.”

  “This isn’t a game. She’s in danger you—”

  “Goodbye, Mr Carter.” The policeman hangs up on me.

  “Fucking idiot!” I throw my phone across the room.

  Nina flinches, “They’re not going to help?”

  “They think we’re some drama queen students.” I slump down, panic rising in me. “We need to rescue Faith on our own. Do you know where he was keeping you?”

  Nina looks guilty. “You know what my sense of direction is like, I don’t have a clue. All I know is we were in the car for about an hour. But he dropped me off right on the outskirts of the city. It took me two hours to get here without cash or a phone.”

  “Hang on, if he drove you back here, maybe he left Faith alone? Maybe she’s still alone, I should call her.” I jump up and retrieve my phone. Luckily the case protected it from impact—I’ve smashed up too many phones partying not to have the best protection possible. I dial her number.

  It rings and rings. No answer.

  Then I look at whats app. She hasn’t been seen since ten am. I gulp deeply. “Shit, she hasn’t been online since this morning.”

  “I’m scared, Cal. If she doesn’t make it, it’s all my fault.” Nina buries her head in the pillow and I rush over to hug her.

  “Shh, you have nothing to blame yourself for.” I stroke her hair. “But you need some rest, I’ll think of a plan while you nap.”

  Nina nods, looking like an overtired five-year-old and goes up to her room.

  God, I’ve never felt to utterly useless. If Faith doesn’t make it, it will be my fault. Why did I believe her when she pretended she was running off for cheerleading practice? Anyone with half a brain would know that isn’t Faith’s style.

  I vacillate between ringing Faith’s mobile—at least it’s still turned on—and trying to make a useful plan. After seeing Lord Charrington’s will, we know it must be one of Millie’s family members who did this; her brother or her mother being the prime choices, but that doesn’t help me. I can’t exactly ring them up to find any clues.

  I try ringing Rafe to see if he’s found out what Axel is up to, but there’s no answer. Then I call Faith’s phone yet again. Still no answer.

  “Fucking hell!” I want to punch something, I’ve never felt so useless in my life.

  Then my phone starts ringing with an unknown number.

  “Hello?” I’ve never been so desperate to hear someone’s voice, please let Faith be on the other end asking me to come save her.

  “Is that Callum?” There’s a guy’s voice on the line, young and Scottish and I know I should recognise it, but I can’t figure out exactly why.

  “Speaking.” I try to keep the irritation out of my voice.

  “It’s xxxx. You told me to call you if I heard anything about Nina. Well—”

  “It’s okay, I’ve found her.” I move the phone away from my ear, about to hang up.

  “Wait!” xxx must have shouted because I can hear him clearly. I return the phone to my ear. “That’s why I called. Faith gave me a letter to give to Nina as soon as she got back. But then her phone’s been ringing off the hook for the last hour, and when I went up to her room, the door was on the latch.” He pauses. “It just felt weird, so I thought I should see if I could get the note to Nina any quicker.”

  Disappointment that Faith isn’t with her phone is quickly followed by xx at her having left a letter. “What? When did she give it to you?” I press the phone tight against my ear and start walking up to Nina’s room.

  “This morning, it was before my tutorial, maybe 9.30-ish.”

  Fuck, that was hours ago, although I guess I know as much from Nina’s timeline. “Stay in your room, Nina and I are coming over right now.” I hang up before I hear him say yes, I know he will.

  I barge into Nina’s room without knocking. She’s in bed.

  “Wake up.” I shake her. “We need to go now.”

  Her eyes blink, unfocused and thick with sleep. “Go away, Cal?” Then her eyes start to focus and she bolts upright, panic animating her features. “Is there any news on Faith?”

  “Maybe… she left something, a note I think, with the guy in the room next to you. Let’s go now and see what it says.”

  “Of course.” She throws the covers off her and I run back downstairs to prepare.

  I still can’t believe how easily the police dismissed me earlier. How could they think we could lie about something like this? I down a shot of espresso to try to get rid of the last traces of whisky—my brain can’t be fogged—and am back at Nina’s bedroom door in under three minutes.

  “Are you ready yet?” I don’t bother knocking.

  “Coming. Seriously, you just woke me up, I’m moving as fast as I can.” Nina yanks a polo neck on and sticks her tongue out at me.

  “Let’s drive,” I tell her as I sprint
down the stairs. “We might need to go somewhere after reading her note.”

  “But there’s no parking at college. You’ll get a ticket.”

  I narrow my eyes. “As if that that matters. Come on.” I unlock the car with the remote and gesture for Nina to get in while I lock-up the house.

  “You didn’t tell me how your trip up north was?”

  “We think we know why Millie was killed.”

  “What?” Nina squeaks.

  “We found Lord Charrington’s will. Everything, well nearly everything, was going to Millie. That can’t have made her brother or mother happy. And I’m sure, Lady C knows more than she is letting on.”

  “Really? Why would she lie about her daughter’s death?”

  “It made her richer… But I don’t think that’s it. She was sorted for life either way.”

  “Do you think… she was involved?” Nina whispers, like she’s committing sacrilege.

  I pause, it hadn’t crossed my mind that she might have hurt Millie herself. “She’s cold enough, but no I think she was lying to cover for someone else.”

  “Well that make things easier.” Nina says like it’s obvious what she means.

  “Er how exactly?”

  “God, mum and dad really did pay for you to get in, didn’t they?” Nina smiles smugly at me. “It must be someone in their family. Who else would she protect? She wouldn’t lie about daughter’s death for money I bet. They’re loaded anyway.”

  “Maybe you did get the brains in the family.” I jump to the next obvious conclusion. “So it has to be one of Millie’s brothers.”

  We’re already at college. I pull on to the cobbles, ignoring the no parking sign, and we spent over to the entrance to the quad.

  A few people look at me, but I ignore them. We rush up the stairs of Nina and Faith’s block.

  “Which one is xx’s?” I ask Nina.

  “Remind me who he is again?”

  “Scottish guy.”

  “Oh, just one over from me.” Nina points and we knock on the door.

  It opens early half a second later. “Cal, Nina, that was quick.” He runs a shaking hand through his hair. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he says looking at my sister.

  Nina blushes, “Thanks, I—”

  “What did Faith give you?” I interrupt, there’s no time for pleasantries.

  “This envelope.” He lifts a fat envelope. It says ‘Nina / Callum’ in loopy handwriting.

  I snatch it out of his hands and break the seal. Nina leans against me, so we can both read it at once.

  Dear Callum,

  Sorry I ran off like that, it was the only way. I couldn’t risk Nina not getting released. Hopefully if you’re reading this, it means she has been. I couldn’t live with myself if she’s hurt. I should never have brought you both into this, I’m so unbelievably sorry.

  I wonder where I am while you’re reading this? Whoever took Nina—Millie’s killer?—told me to go down to the boathouse at ten am on Monday. He said he’d give me more directions once I got there.

  I don’t think he’s working alone. When he messaged me he had this… I don’t know. confidence that if I didn’t do exactly what he said, then he’d know. Especially if I told you anything. I can’t help but feel like someone in college is helping him and he seem to know exactly what was happening in your house earlier. I know you’re going to hate me for suggesting this, but could Axel or Faith be helping him?

  Give Nina a big hug for me,

  Love Faith

  P.S. I’m so happy we had the weekend together.

  PPS. I left my phone on my desk, the door is on the latch and the passcode is on a post-it. Maybe the messages will help you?

  PPPS. If anything happens to me, please take care of Gran.

  Regret fills my body. Especially when I read the line about her Gran. Only thirty-six hours ago I promised her that I’d keep Faith safe, and I’ve done a truly terrible job of it.

  “Do you think she’s right?” Nina’s voice interrupts my whirring emotions.

  I look up, I’d forgotten anyone else was in the room, all I could think of was Faith. xxx is staring at us, not even bothering to hide his fascination.

  “Let’s get Faith’s phone,” I say to Nina. If Faith’s right and Millie’s killer has spies in college, the fewer people who hear us, the better. “Thanks xxx. We’d really appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about this. Understood?” I bring my hand down on his shoulder and squeeze, too firmly for it to be misunderstood as anything other than an order.

  “Yes, of course.” He bods eagerly at the same time. There are definitely advantages to being the big man in college.

  “Good man,” I ease up my grip and slap him on the back. I don’t care that I’m deliberately manipulating him.

  Nina has to lead the way to Faith’s room. Crazily, I’ve never actually been in it. She drew the short straw in terms of size, but it’s shines with the essence of her. [ADD DESCRIPTION]. I yank her phone from her desk and start reading through her messages. Clever girl leaving the code and phone for us.

  “Do you think Faith could be right?” Nina asks, her voice shaking and her face pale. “Could Axel or Rafe be involved?”

  “These messages certainly suggest someone’s on the inside. And I damn well know that Axel couldn’t wait to get out my house earlier. And neither of them turned up until two this afternoon. God knows where they were.” My hands clench into fists as I remember how he wouldn’t give me a straight answer about where he was going, how I was suspicious enough to ask Rafe to follow him. “Let’s go, we need to find him.”

  Axel lives in college, two staircases over from Faith’s room. We race over there, Nina’s soft footsteps hurrying behind me.

  I hammer on his door. No answer. I pummel down harder.

  “Hang on a minute,” Axel finally answers, sounding annoyed. “Where’s the fire?”

  There is a scrabbling at the door. “Cal?” His voice is surprised but then the door nudges open.

  “Can we come in?”

  “Now isn’t, er, exactly the best time.” He pulls the door closer against him, blocking off the room.

  “It’s important. We need to chat privately.”

  A faint sheen of sweat appears on his upper lip. “Why don’t we call Rafe? Let’s go to his room, give me five minutes to… er… get dressed.” He starts to close the door behind him.

  He’s not getting away with this that easily. I stick my foot between the door and the frame. “I’m coming in. It’s six pm, you should be dressed already.”

  His face drops. “I don’t—.”

  He’s hiding something.

  “You bastard!” Fury makes me stronger than him and I easily knock him out of the way and burst into the room. Could Faith be inside? “Where is she?”

  A squeak comes from the lump in his bedsheets, I move closer, but instead of platinum blonde hair, the girl who emerges has dark, glossy locks.

  It’s Jess. My kind of ex.

  “What, where’s Faith?”

  “Faith?”

  “Hang on, you came straight here to see Jess after you left my house?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But Rafe said he followed you to The Kings Arms and then you disappeared after sneaking off to the toilet.”

  “That’s not true.” Jess pipes up. “He picked me up from the KA, but we left straight away.”

  “Then it’s Rafe who’s lying. He must be involved in all this craziness somehow, thought God knows why.” I run a hand through my hair. “Sorry that I thought it was you.”

  Axel shrugs. “To be fair, I was hiding this.” He points at Jess.

  An awkward silence builds in the room. Nina’s bottom lip wobbles like she wants to cry, Axel is deliberately not looking in her direction and Jess seems rather pleased with herself.

  None of this matters though. I need to find Rafe and make him tell me where Faith is.

  46: Faith

  “No one will be l
ooking for you.”

  “Are you sure about that?” I try to make my voice as steady as I can. “I’m sure Callum and Nina won’t have forgotten about me so easily.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I ask him, although I’m not sure having the answer will help me.

  “You screwed everything up. Nobody gave Millie’s ‘suicide’ a second glance, apart from you. But now you’ve created such a storm that people need an explanation.”

  I shift uncomfortably, hearing my Gran’s words come back to me. “Leave well alone, Faith. It’s like you’re poking a wasp’s nest.

  “I thought even you’d forgotten after that initial ruckus you made. But you had to just keep on interfering, didn’t you, you couldn’t just let sleeping dogs lie? What did you think was going to happen? It’s not like she’s going to come back to life.”

  “I didn’t want her remembered that way. She was so much more than the way she died, but everyone just bucketed her as the crazy girl who committed suicide. I’m not sure I could’ve stood it, even if it was true, never mind knowing it was a lie.” I don’t tell him that it also annoyed my sense of justice, that I couldn’t knowingly let someone get away with a crime. Something tells me, I might want him to think my silence can be bought.

  “Well, you raised so many questions that now I need to provide a different answer and that’s why you come in little miss Faith.”

  I look at him, not really comprehending what he’s talking about.

  He smiles a crazy, manic smile and claps his hands together in glee. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner. Now you’re going to go down in history as the one who killed Millie. Are then you tried to do the same to Nina, who’s the crazy one now?”

  “But Nina knows it wasn’t me who held her hostage. I was in a car with her brother when you took her.”

  “Oh she thinks she does, but who’s to say you didn’t have an accomplice? There are enough questions that I’m sure the police can persuade her otherwise and she’s not exactly the most reliable of witnesses. The case for you killing Millie is so strong, they won’t ask many questions.”