“Thanks,” I say. “For getting me out of there.”
Jaret nods, taking a deep breath. “It’s the least I could do after that fiasco.” He rummages in his pocket and takes out a set of keys and his phone. “Here, take my car and call the cops. Take him down.” His face is darkened. We look at each other for a second, having a conversation without words. I know he wants me to succeed.
“I’ll hold them off,” he says.
I take his keys and jog up the stairs and out the warehouse.
Sniffing fresh air has never been more satisfying.
♥♥♥
Driving about a hundred miles per hour, I race to get to campus in time. My heart is pounding in my chest because I’m afraid Leafy might get hurt. She’s probably gone after that shitbag of a leader, and he’s not going to like it when she tells him the truth. I don’t want her to end up like Scarlet. But I’ve been held up way too long in the club, and this car won’t go any faster. Fuck!
I already called Agent Williams to tell him that I caught the one in charge. No time for small talk. As I arrive at the parking lot, I don’t even take the time to properly park the car before jumping out and rushing inside. I need to get to her, now.
Running through the dorm, I can already hear a struggle going on inside a room down the hall. It’s his room, and I know she’s in there.
When I open the door I’m shocked and horrified. Leafy’s getting choked to death, the sounds she’s making alerting all my senses. My body immediately responds to her call. I storm at them and pull the fucker away from her throat. She wheezes, buckling over, while I drag him away from her.
“Don’t you fucking lay a hand on her, you motherfucker!” How dare he fucking touch her. He tries to jab me with the pen, but I grab his wrist and twist it until I hear it snap. He squeals in my grasp, releasing the pen.
“I fucking knew it,” I say. “You were behind it all along.” Fucking piece of shit. He calls himself her friend, but he betrayed her anyway. I should’ve realized sooner he was behind it all. This motherfucker is going to pay for everything he did to me, to her, and to my brother.
“Damn right I was,” Brody muses. He spits, but misses my face by bare inches.
I’m not letting one more word of nonsense spew from his mouth. I ball my fist, pull back, and punch him in the face so hard he flies against the wall. With a thwack he lands on the floor, groaning and spitting up a couple of teeth. Good. He should bleed.
I take one quick look at my girl to see if she’s okay. I’m glad to see she seems to be free of puncture wounds, but I can clearly see the bruises around her neck. I hate that he hurt her.
She’s shaking uncontrollably, and I know this must be tough for her to witness. Her friend just turned out to be a monster.
Walking toward him, it takes every ounce of my self-control not to viciously attack him, but I know Agent Williams wants to take him in. If I want to get my brother out, I need to deliver this guy in one piece.
So I pick him up from the floor and put him on his chair.
“Hand me those ties,” I say, looking at Leafy while pointing at a couple of ties hanging from a drawer.
She grabs them and tries to hand them to me, but I’m too busy keeping this fucker down in the chair. “Tie them together.”
She’s still shivering, but manages to tie the knots and gives me the line. I wrap it around him, tying him to the chair, making sure he’s not getting out easily.
When I’m done, I turn toward my girl. “Are you okay?”
She takes in a sharp, ragged breath. “Yeah.” She smiles at me briefly, which tells me she’s at least physically okay.
She turns her attention toward the little shit sitting in the chair. “Why …” she stammers, still shaken from what happened.
He doesn’t respond, so she asks another question. “Why did you do all of this?”
He tries to laugh, but instead blood pours from his mouth. “Growing up in poverty isn’t easy. You should know that. I grabbed a chance at fortune.”
She scowls. “Money? Is that it?”
I can imagine her surprise, but this is nothing new to me. I know what people will do for a shot at a better life. I’ve been there myself.
Sirens are audible, and then I know Agent Williams has arrived. It’s about time. “Finally.”
“What? Are those the cops?” she asks.
I nod and walk toward the window. Peering outside, I see the cars stop in front of the dorm. “Fuck. I’m glad I came here in time. Lucky I could get ahold of those damned keys to open the cage myself and slip out.”
Tentatively, she comes to my side. The moment she puts her hand on my arm I turn to liquid. Her touch makes me realize what we both just went through. That it’s all fucking disturbing, but we made it, and we’re alive. I still have her.
“Thank you,” she mutters.
I guess she means she’s happy I came to her rescue, but I’m just happy she’s still alive. If I didn’t get here in time, I would never have forgiven myself. It’s my fault she got involved. She shouldn’t be thanking me. Especially not when I’ve still kept a secret from her.
“Don’t thank me yet,” I say.
She frowns. “What do you mean?”
I look into her beautiful eyes, already feeling guilty for not telling her everything. Now that this is all over, I’ll tell her. All of it. I’ll come clean and tell her everything that’s been going on and what’s on my mind, hoping she’ll stay with me and stick through it all.
From the corner of my eye I see a couple of cops entering the door. Their gazes shift back and forth between me, her, and the bag of shit sitting on the chair.
Leafy turns around once she notices they’re here. Williams comes up to her. “Agent Williams.” The chief cop holds up his badge. “Is this him?”
“Yep,” I say. “Like I promised.”
“Where are the goods? I need proof,” Agent Williams says, and he starts untying Brody.
“I’d be careful with that motherfucker if I were you. He just tried to stab us with a pen,” I say.
“Thanks, my partners here will make sure he doesn’t move,” Agent William says as he puts the cuffs on him.
“You have nothing on me,” the little shit yells.
“Oh no?” I’m almost tempted to grab him by the hair, pull him to the desk and ram his head inside just so he can take a look himself, but then they probably wouldn’t release my brother. Instead, I tell Agent Williams where to look. “Check the bottom of the drawer. Especially the screws.”
Leafy looks completely flabbergasted. “How did the cops get here so fast?”
“I already alerted them back at the arena, once I got hold of a cell phone.”
I wonder when I should tell Agent Williams about the arena. I really don’t feel like being questioned right now, so I’ll do it after I get my brother back. I want to put an end to this gang, though.
“You were right,” Agent Williams says, holding up a piece of wood. “There’s a double bottom.” Then he carefully takes out packets of powder, pills, and needles.
He tells the other cops to take the leader away, while some of them search the room for evidence. Williams comes up to me, and says, “Well, since you upheld your agreement, I’ll make sure we do the same.”
My lips curl into a smile. The twisted feeling I had in my stomach unfurls after a sigh of relief. A huge weight is lifted off my shoulders. My brother is finally getting released. He’ll be out of that hellhole in no time, and everything will return to normal. Well, as normal as it can get. There’s still a lot that needs to be done to roll up this gang and make this campus a safe place again. And my brother will still be out of a job, we still won’t have any money, and there’ll be no way to pay for all the expenses. But at least I’ll have my brother back, and I have Leafy here, in my arms, alive and well. That’s all I can ask for.
“Thanks,” I say.
“What agreement?” Leafy asks, clinging to my arm like she’
s afraid they’re going to take her away too.
I wrap her in my arms and squeeze tight, glad that this is all over. “The one where they reduce Jessie’s sentence to a week.”
“What?” She turns around in my arms, gaping at me.
“I’ll fill in the paperwork tomorrow. You can come pick him up then,” Agent Williams says. “Now, we have to clear the room, so please, if you will.”
I grab Leafy’s arms and push her outside. We’ll have to continue this conversation in my room. And there’s a lot I need to explain.
Chapter 30
Coming Clean
“It’s true,” I say as we walk to my room.
Now’s finally the time I can tell her why I’ve been doing all of this. The silence between us is deafening, and with each step I take I feel my body aching. I got a few nasty punches to the face and stomach, and it’s hurting quite a bit. She sits down on my bed while I grab a bottle of water from the fridge and hold it to my face, trying to reduce the swelling. Now that my rage has settled down a bit, I can focus on explaining everything to her. She’s mad at me for a whole lot of things, and I don’t blame her, but now that this is all over I want to come clean. Respect means telling someone the truth, and now that the mission is no longer in danger, I can finally tell her everything she wants to know.
“My brother got himself involved in this crappy frat house so he could pay my college funds,” I say.
“Yeah.”
“Well, the Feds wanted to catch the damn bastard behind it all. I made a deal with them. I’d lead them to the boss of the entire operation, if they’d reduce Jessie’s sentence so I could bail him out and take him home.”
Her mouth drops wide open, and her eyes are big while she stares at me in complete and utter shock.
I place the bottle of water on the table and get closer to her, hoping she won’t be too mad at me. “This is the reason I couldn’t tell you anything. I was afraid it would blow the entire operation.”
“So you were basically … undercover?” she stammers.
“No … not really. Sort of, maybe,” I say, laughing. “I’m not a cop, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Oh …” she says, staring at her hands like she doesn’t know what to do with the information.
I know she’s having a hard time looking at me right now, but I need her to know all of it. “I’m just a poor student, enrolled thanks to his big brother. I was just there at the right moment at the right time. They needed to roll up the gang, I had an easy way in. One plus one equals two.”
“So they got you to do their dirty job?” she asks, her brows furrowed.
“Yeah, well, it was that or let my brother rot in jail. And that wasn’t really an option.” I sit down beside her, wrapping my arm around her waist, pulling her closer.
“So you were only in the frat house to get your brother out?” she says.
“That’s what I told you, isn’t it?” I say, my voice soft and soothing, trying not to sound harsh.
“And the drugs, the dealing, the fighting, it was all for this?”
I lick my lips, because they feel dry all of a sudden. “I needed to gain their trust to climb up higher in the ranks. It was the only way I could find out who was running the entire thing.”
“Wow …” She sighs and blinks a couple of times.
She’s shivering in my arms, goose bumps riddling her skin. I rub her warm. I wonder what she’s thinking, if she’s angry at me, or afraid. I wish I could take her anxiety away, but I know that’s impossible. I’ll just stay here and hold her, and tell her everything I can so she can get a complete picture. And maybe then she can decide for herself if she wants to stay with me or not. I’d like that, though.
“Please don’t be mad at me for not telling you sooner.” My fingers tighten around her, and my other hand reaches for hers. “I don’t want to lose you.”
She silent for a few seconds. “I’m not mad. I just can’t believe that’s what was really happening.”
That’s a relief. “I couldn’t tell you, because I knew it would jeopardize your safety. I could never risk that.”
“You didn’t jeopardize my safety; I did.” She laughs, and it’s so cute I just want to squeeze her and hold her until the week is over. “Going to Brody was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Yeah, that was pretty stupid,” I say, laughing with her.
She gasps, leans back, and punches me in the shoulder. It’s still painful from the fight, so I wince. Still, I can tell she’s hitting way better than before when we were training in the grass outside. She’s really learned how to pack a punch. “Good punch.”
“Nah. Not as good as yours,” she muses, smirking and wriggling her nose. I love it when she does that.
“I can teach you. Just like old times.” I cheekily raise an eyebrow. “I can take you anytime.”
She chuckles. “God, you and your sexual innuendos.” Yep, that’s me.
“I just got a thing for you, can’t help it.” I get closer and press my lips onto her pale skin. “Tell me you’ll forgive me. I need you.”
She blushes, rubbing her lips together like she’s still worried about something. “I just need to know one thing. Was I part of your little operation?”
“No, of course not.”
“Seeing as I was Brody’s friend.”
Why would she think that I’d use her for that? That’s just cruel. “No. That wasn’t why I wanted to spend time with you.”
“Then why?” She gazes up at me, the look in her eyes confused.
Is she still that uncertain about why I want to hang out with her? Why I like her? She’s everything I want to be: smart, loving, kind, headstrong, and fiery. I like that in a girl. I like that she’s independent, and I want her to be the girl that’s not with me just for the muscles and sex. I think she could be the one who could like me for who I am, and I admire that about her. That she looks beyond my shell and sees inside my soul. She mends the wreckage that is me.
My fingers drift toward her face, and I caress her cheek and jaw with the tips of my fingers. “I’m such a screw-up. I’ve always been a screw-up. I wanted to free Jessie and sold my soul to the devil to do it. And then I met you. You’re like an angel, the complete opposite of me. You caught my attention the moment you walked into our campus, with your untamed hair, and pretty little eyes you hide behind those cute glasses.”
I look down and lick my lips the moment I notice she’s got her fingers entangled with mine. “Remember when I asked you if you thought I was trying to change you?” I gaze back into her mesmerizing eyes.
She nods, her lip quivering. I guess she still needs me to tell her that I want her, and I won’t deny her that desire. “I wanted you to change me,” I say. “To help me keep my promise to my brother. To keep me from failing at school. To keep me on the right track. To make me a better person. Because you can do all those things, and you did.”
She’s all I ever needed, and all I’ll ever want. Someone who understands me.
I squeeze her hand and she laces her fingers even further through mine. I can’t help but feel happy when she touches me. It’s a kind of unmistakable connection between us that sparks all kinds of mushy feelings inside me. And I’m normally not the mushy type of person. Nope. She’s definitely turned me into one.
“I think you’re the only one who sees me for who I really am. Who knows what it’s like to be the underdog. You’re the only good thing that has ever happened to me. And I was so, so goddamn afraid I was gonna lose you over all this shit.” I take a deep breath. It’s hard to admit I care so much about someone. It’s scary, because I don’t know what her reaction will be, and I’d rather not face it if it’s something I don’t like. However, now there’s no going back.
She’s silently swaying her feet back and forth, listening to what I have to say.
“And when you told me you loved me … I … I just …” I sigh, trying to put it into words. I’ve had so much trou
ble coming to this point. Loving someone has always been difficult for me, because I don’t know whether they feel the same and if they’ll stay. I like to be prepared for the worst. It’s my way of protecting myself.
Every time someone came into my life, they’d be gone in no time. There’s no one who’s actually said that word to me, and it terrifies the shit out of me. Especially because I feel terrible about what I’ve been doing with Alpha Psi.
“I thought I didn’t deserve it,” I continue. “Something this good doesn’t happen for fuck-ups like me. I was always afraid of getting too involved with girls, so I kept them at arm’s length. I didn’t want to feel the responsibility that came with a relationship. It meant having even more to take care of. But then I never really had a girl like you before.”
I look at her, and when I see her pretty face smiling at me, I smile back. “You’re different.”
She’s not like them. Not like any other person I’ve ever met.
“Different how?” she asks, her nose twitching cutely again.
“Good,” I say with a wink. “Very good.” I lean my forehead against hers, trying to show her without words what I feel for her. Words were never really my strongest part. All brawn no brain is what they’d call it, I think. It doesn’t matter. She likes me for who I am. That’s all I need.
I’m taking a leap of faith here, but I want to show her what she means to me. I’d gladly take the risk with her. “And you know what? I think I love you,” I say with a confident smile.
For a moment she just gazes at me, and then she bursts out into laughter.
“What’s so funny?” I ask. “You think it’s funny?”
She doesn’t stop laughing. Well, am I that amusing? I tell her I love her, and this is how she responds?
I grab her wrists and pin her down to the bed. “Am I funny, huh?”
Fury (New Adult Romance) - #1.5 Fierce Series Page 28