Page 27

“What the hell?” I whispered. For some reason, I found I couldn’t raise my voice. Now that the fear had ebbed, my body trembled with fury.

“Don’t,” he warned me. With a tired sigh, he ran his fingers once more through his garnet streaked hair.

“Don’t what?” I snapped. “Don’t act appalled that a teacher laid a hand on you? Don’t be disgusted? We need to call the cops!”

His body was drooping with fatigue, but at my words, he straightened and his eyes turned icy.

“I will deny everything,” he said curtly.

I gaped.

“What? Why the hell would you do that?” I demanded. He jumped to his feet abruptly, towering over me. The part of me that had been abused and taken advantage of wanted to cower away, but I held firm, meeting his eyes.

“Stay out of things you know nothing about,” he hissed, teeth flashing in the artificial school lighting. My heart pounded in my chest, but not in fear. Just then, he was heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

Standing toe-to-toe with him, I held up my chin imperiously. “Make me.”

He grunted, muttering something indistinct beneath his breath, before sidestepping me and racing out of the office. He kicked a garbage can as he went, not bothering to watch it and the garbage scatter across the floor.

My stomach clenched, my mind racing a mile a minute. When I tried to process what I had just witnessed, a headache erupted behind my eyes. It just didn’t make sense. Kace’s reaction. The teachers inflicting physical harm on the students.

And, perhaps most importantly, the flicker of fear in his normally jubilant eyes. I had seen fear like that once before—in my own eyes when I looked into the mirror, after Dylan had…

It was a sort of haunted expression that made me question how much he really knew about this school.

I thought of my own acceptance…or something. The memory was fuzzy. I remembered the car accident, but not the explicit reasons why I had been driving under such distress, and I somewhat recalled… a conversation with my parents, perhaps?

My head continued to pound in tandem to my racing heart.

Releasing a breath, I glanced once more around the empty admissions office. It felt smaller without Kace’s larger-than-life presence. Empty.

Hoisting my backpack farther up my shoulder, I stepped into the hallway. For the first time, I spotted more than one student roaming the halls. They all wore a similar style of uniform to the one I had on. A few of them cast me perplexed glances before quickly looking away. No doubt they had witnessed Kace’s tantrum through the glass windows.

And probably even the slap to his face.

My temper flared once more as I met each of their gazes. If they had seen, why hadn’t they done anything?

My eyes locked on a striking shade of blue on the other end of the school hall. He was impossible to miss, towering over the other students at six feet and four inches. His eyes narrowed into thin slits even as a malicious smirk tugged up a corner of his mouth.

No.

I thought I had escaped him. In my mind, he was nothing more than a distant memory. A nightmare that demanded it remain buried.

Somehow, someway, my monster had found its way from under my bed and was standing in front of me.

My body trembled, fear and anger battling for dominance. It was my fear that won, and I raced down the hall in the opposite direction of him as if I was on fire.

One word reverberated through my head, a motto and a prayer.

Escape.

I pushed open the bathroom door and flung myself into the nearest stall. Dimly, I was aware of tears cascading down my cheeks and landing on my lips.

He couldn’t be here. I had thought I had left him behind, left that part of my past buried.

But, as promised, Dylan Holebroke had found me.