Save Me: a Stepbrother Romance

by Scully, Bella

  No. Not again.

  “I thought you were at the Student Council meeting?” I said through gritted teeth.

  Nate stood before me, his arms crossed and a cocky smile on his face. I couldn’t see anyone around us. We were alone, it was starting to get dark, and my psycho ex had cornered me.

  Perfect.

  “Saw you leaving, Nat. Couldn’t let my girlfriend go out at night alone. You never know how dangerous it could be.” He gave me wide puppy dog eyes, completely devoid of emotion.

  “Not your girlfriend,” I choked.

  “Come on, Nat. Don’t be like that.”

  For some reason—namely that I am an idiot—I guess I had assumed he had given up. After all, that’s the only reason he would bring police into this, right? He had ruined my life by taking Cal from me. He had “taken revenge” on Cal by putting him in jail. He had gotten back at both of us. He had ignored me in school. There was no reason for him to keep stalking me.

  But then again, like Cal had said: Nate was crazy.

  And crazy is dangerous.

  I turned to him, willing my expression to stay still and hard. My icy gaze glared a hole into him. Bitch Nat was back, and she was angry as hell. If looks could kill, Bitch Nat would be Ted Bundy. My hands balled into fists.

  “What do you want?” I spat.

  Normally, when someone scowls and growls at you like a deranged bitch, the sane person will back off. But apparently no one had given Nate the memo. Then again, he wasn’t sane.

  He smiled and took a step forward.

  “Come on, Nat. Don’t be like that. You know how much I’ve missed you, don’t you?”

  “Don’t you dare come near me.”

  “I’ve missed you, Nat. We were so good together.”

  I glanced back at the school. There were still a few people milling around in the front lawn, but they were so far away that they were only fuzzy little ants. I doubted they could see my horrified expression. And, worse, I doubted anyone would hear me if I screamed.

  Damn this school and their isolated parking lots. It’s like they wanted students to be murdered by their stalkers.

  “Nate, I swear to God.” I took an involuntary step backward as he advanced on me. “I’ll scream.”

  “They won’t hear you.”

  “I’ll tell everyone how crazy you are.”

  “They won’t believe you.”

  He reached for my hand. I yanked it back so hard I nearly fell on my ass. Stop, Nat! Focus! I couldn’t afford to make mistakes like this.

  “I just want to talk, Nat!”

  “Bullshit.”

  He took another step towards me. I tried to grab my bike, but he tore it out of the way, sending it skidding across the asphalt. My breath caught. He was too strong. It was strength I remembered. Anger strength. Strength that brought the stinging back to my skin where he had hit me.

  No, no, no.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a figure dressed in sparkly purple slip through the doors of the school. Jess. But she couldn’t hear me yell, not yet. The more the situation sank in, the more I realized how utterly fucked I was. If Nate was crazy enough to attack me at school, it meant he was desperate.

  And a desperate Nate was dangerous.

  My hand darted toward my front pocket, where I kept my mace on a rhinestone keychain.

  Nate grabbed my wrist before I could jerk it away.

  “Come on, Nat,” he growled, forcing me to him. Jess was still too far away, and it had gotten completely dark by now. There was no way she could see us. There was no way she could save me. “We need to talk, baby.”

  Oh God. His car was there. The door was open. And I was being dragged toward it. A scream erupted from my mouth as I scratched his face.

  “Fuck!”

  Nate kicked my leg from under me, and I fell helplessly backwards. His hand covered my mouth, and he yanked my arm behind me.

  “Come on, Nat,” he growled. “Don’t be like that.”

  I bit down on his hand.

  Nate let out a strangled growl and pulled his hand back. Another scream ripped through my throat. I saw Jess’s head turn from where she stood under the parking lot light. She had heard it, but she couldn’t see us through the darkness. Even if she could, there was no way she could get to me in time.

  Nate struggled to wrap his arms around me again, but now that I knew how much danger I was in, I was fighting for my life. I thrashed against his arms, biting and scratching whatever I could. My teeth sunk into his shoulder, and I tasted blood.

  “You little bitch!”

  His heel hit my calf, and there was a loud snap.

  Oh, fuck. My leg. I stumbled backwards and fell on my ass, no longer able to stand. Years of lacrosse practice had given Nate powerful legs, and years of laziness had made mine weak. I tried lifting it again, and an agonized whimper escaped my lips. Splinters of pain shot out from the broken bone.

  “Not so fucking tough are you now, Nat?”

  His fist connected with my face, harder than it ever had hit me before. I went blind as the asphalt bit my cheek. My throat choked and gasped, desperate for the air that had been knocked out of my lungs. He grabbed me by the arm and forced me up, nearly ripping my arm from its socket.

  I gasped through the haze of pain as Nate dragged me to his car. I couldn’t scratch his eyes out with a twisted arm. I couldn’t run with a broken leg. My mace was rolling away from me down the hill of the parking lot. There was nothing I could do but try to fight through the white hot pain blinding me.

  All hope was lost.

  Until that moment.

  “I told you already,” a voice growled from behind us.

  Nate’s head whipped around. He recognized the voice too. Deep. Gravely. Protective. I desperately fought through the haze of pain and darkness, searching for him, unable to believe it. It couldn’t be him. It couldn’t.

  “Don’t. Fucking. Touch her.”

  It couldn’t be.

  But it was.

  My lips parted as Cal emerged from the darkness.

  “No.”

  Nate’s voice was a harsh whisper. I desperately searched through the bleary pain that blinded me, hungrily running my gaze over Cal’s furious face. It was him. He was back.

  And he was furious.

  “You’re supposed to be gone,” Nate choked. “They fucking jailed you. There were fucking cops there, you’re not supposed to be—”

  A sickening cracking sound sounded by my ear. Nate’s grip released me, and I found myself falling to the asphalt again.

  I rolled, avoiding another bloody scrape down my cheek. But I was still blinded by the pain and pulsing purple bruise Nate’s fist had given my temple. My twisted arm was screaming with pain, and my leg was useless. I laid gasping on the cold ground, the sweat rolling down my forehead in thick droplets. Cal launched himself at Nate, leaving me helpless on the parking lot’s wet asphalt.

  But somehow, in the delirium, I was happy.

  Cal. Cal is back.

  Cal came back for me.

  His words rang in my ears:

  “I will come back for you. No matter what. No matter how long it takes. No matter how hard it is. I will always fucking come back for you, Natalie Harlow. Because you are worth it.”

  I forced my burning eyes open, desperate to see him again. Nate was bloody and bruised in his hands, and the sickening crunch reverberated off the asphalt as Cal punched him again. There was a crazy fire in Cal’s eyes. Another punch, launching Nate’s limp body to the ground.

  This wasn’t protecting me. This was revenge.

  He had let Nate win the last fight for my sake. But not now. Not like this. Threaten Cal, and Cal wouldn’t care.

  Threaten me, and Cal would kill you.

  Cal’s foot hit Nate’s stomach with a force strong enough to burst an organ. Oh God, he really was going to kill him. I tried to stand again, but I collapsed against the ground. Even if my leg wasn’t broken, the pain
wracking my body crippled me.

  “Cal,” I rasped.

  He hesitated. Only for a moment. When Nate stretched out a desperate hand to drag himself away, Cal launched himself forward again. A sharp kick to Nate’s head sent him rolling with a strangled groan. Cal’s voice growled threats as he pulled his victim up against for another punch.

  “Cal!”

  Another sickening crunching noise.

  Nate’s body went limp.

  The sight of large spotlights being turned on filtered through the bleary, blinding pain in my head. I winced against them. There were voices yelling as they approached us, and the sounds of footsteps slapping against the damp asphalt. A purple sparkle caught my eye—Jess. People were coming. But all I could focus on was the stomach turning sound of Cal’s fists beating into Nate as he growled, “Don’t you ever fucking touch her.”

  A footstep landed near my face. I felt a hand roll me over onto my back, and I hissed a gasp as the pain shot through me again. Someone’s warm palm cupped my cheek.

  “She’s hurt!” their voice cried.

  Someone yelled something at me. Their face was only inches from mine, but I couldn’t see anything but a blur. The blooming bruise on my cheek was forcing my eyes shut.

  I heard a scuffle as a blurred crowd surrounded Cal. Men’s voices yelled, and I saw one thrashing blur that might have been Cal fighting against someone’s restraining embrace. Nate’s unconscious body was dragged across the parking lot by another group of people, highlighted by a flashlight beam that turned hideously red against his bloodied skin.

  “Cal,” I gasped one more time.

  The commotion stopped. Cal’s footsteps halted and he lowered his fists, finally listening to me and hearing the command in my voice. No more fighting. No more violence. No more pain. Not for my sake or for his.

  The crowd closed around him. His head turned, and he looked at me for the first time. He moaned.

  “Oh, God, sweetheart.”

  The hand on my face was pressing against the bruise growing across my face, and I winced.

  “Don’t,” I hissed.

  “Shit, sorry Nat!”

  “Jess?”

  The blur above me bobbed their head. I recognized the fuzzy dark brown halo around its face as her curls. Her warm hands pulled the damp clumps of hair out of my face. My stomach heaved when the smell hit me. It wasn’t the rain that had made them damp—it was clotting blood.

  “Jesus, Nat, are you still alive?”

  “Broken leg,” I moaned.

  “Broken everything, Nat.”

  The blur shook her head. A few other figures approached, and I felt hands pull me upright. I think I was sitting, but I wasn’t sure. My head rolled over to rest on Jess’s shoulder. The sounds of growled yells and scuffling bounced off the asphalt from where Cal was being wrestled away from Nate’s body. Blood seeped from my hair and cut face into Jess’s clothes, and the stains bloomed in thick patches. I wanted to apologize, but I couldn’t think straight enough to speak. Jess’s arms held me tight to her.

  “She said she has a broken leg,” Jess said. More hands all over me. Someone grabbed my elbow, and my twisted arm shrieked in pain. I hacked out a guttural moan.

  “Careful!” Jess snapped.

  “Jess. Cal.”

  “Not now, Nat! Jesus, you’re bleeding out.”

  “Cal. Go … go get … ow.”

  “Where is the nurse? Is she still here?” Jess’s voice called. I heard the snap of a first aid kit. A cool wet rag was pressed to my forehead, and drops of bloody water rolled down my face.

  “Where … where is … Cal ….”

  “Somebody get her a butterfly bandaid, I think she needs stitches. No, here on her head.” A finger pressed into the cut where my cheek had bitten the asphalt. “At least to stop the bleeding.”

  I loved Jess. She was good at handling emergencies. But sometimes, she was too good. This wasn’t girl scouts. And I needed to find Cal before something horrible happened.

  I forced my eyes open. Blood filled them, blinding me with red. Cool water was poured out from a water bottle into my face, and I blinked them open again. The bruise was pressing against my eyes, blocking my vision. Jess’s face loomed over mine, her face panicked and concerned.

  “Nat? Nat, can you hear me?”

  Cal was being led away. They were going to arrest him again. They were going to arrest him for saving me.

  “No,” I moaned.

  “Wait, you can’t hear me? Or you can?”

  I stretched out a hand toward the figure of Cal, wincing against the pain in my shoulder.

  “Cal!”

  His head turned towards me. His face was agonized. I could feel the pull between us. He ached to come to me as much as I ached to have him here. But I also knew he wouldn’t fight with the men restraining him. Not if it would cause trouble for me.

  Stupid, selfless idiot.

  “Make them stop,” I moaned at Jess.

  Her eyes stayed fixed on my face as she ran her fingertips over the wounds, like she hadn’t heard me. A droplet of salty sweat fell from her forehead onto my lips, and I spat it off. Even that was a struggle. I could feel myself growing weaker.

  “Jess!”

  “Nat,” she groaned. “It’s fine.”

  “It’s not fine…” I slurred. “They’re going … going to … he didn’t start it, Jess! Not his fault….” A heavy, warm drowsiness was pulling my eyelids down and slowing my breaths.

  She pinched my neck hard, bringing me back to consciousness.

  “I swear to God, if you die on me, I’ll kill you.”

  “I’m okay. But Cal—”

  “Nat,” she said, taking my chin in her hands and pulling my face close to hers. My crossed eyes managed to right themselves and focus on her face, letting me see clearly for the first time since I’d fallen. “Listen to me. People saw.”

  “What?”

  “People saw, Nat. They know he didn’t start it. They know Nat attacked you. They know Cal saved you. Okay? He’s not going to jail.” She paused. “Probably.”

  “Jess!”

  “I mean definitely! Definitely not going to jail. Okay? Now quit wiggling, I’ve got to put some antibiotic on this cut.”

  “How … how could they see? Too dark….”

  “Right. Except the school has security cameras that are can see in the dark.” She nodded toward the roof of the school. I had never noticed them before, and I could barely see anything right now let alone tiny cameras a couple hundred feet away, so I took her word for it. “It was how I knew something was wrong.”

  “You knew?”

  “Duh, Nat.” She rolled her eyes and dabbed a soaked cotton ball over my cheek. I winced as the sting of rubbing alcohol flooded over my wounds. “I was in the office calling your mom, remember? They keep the camera monitoring stuff there. I couldn’t see a lot, but it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on.”

  “So … so….”

  “So Cal is fine. We’ve got video proof to back it up.”

  I collapsed in her arms, no longer fighting.

  Cal is fine.

  Thank God.

  “Is he okay right now?”

  I tried nodding towards where I had heard him, but I couldn’t summon the strength to move my head. Her fingers pressed my head down, forcing me to stay still as she nursed my wounds. Her frown was still stern, but the panic had evaporated from her eyes. I was going to be okay.

  “He’s in trouble. But he’s fine.”

  “How much tro—”

  “Nat, for God’s sake, stop worrying. You’re fucking bleeding out on the school parking lot with a broken leg! Would you please care about yourself for once? And—oh, thank God! I thought you’d never get here!”

  Another blinding flood of light washed over me. Footsteps crunched against the damp gravel around my ears, and I felt strange new fingers running over me. Fiercer stings of pain shot through my body as a damp rag of rubbing
alcohol was wiped over my cuts. Latex gloved hands felt around my twisted arm, and new voices began muttering to each other.

  “What—” I started.

  “EMT, Nat.” Jess’s warm hand patted my hair. When it pulled away, it was stained deep red. “You’re going to be fine.”