Page 20 of Broken by my Bully (Lessons in Cruelty Dark Academia #1)

Haven

Why did I get in Professor Rooke’s car?

I heard the alarm bells clanging in my head like the building was on fire, but I ignored them and climbed in. Yes, I’ve just done something wildly idiotic. And as much as I’d love to wallow in my stupidity, I’d have to stop crushing on my professor first.

Bastian drives like an expert. Every move he makes is graceful and immaculate and scarily precise. Eyes lock on the road until we stop at an intersection.

We’re as silent as his electric car as it speeds down the college’s tree-lined driveway. I’m taking turns watching the trees blur, staring at the car’s gorgeous minimalist interior, and peeking glances at Bastian’s arm muscles as he steers.

He took off his jacket midway through class today. Coincidentally, around the time I began zoning out.

As if reading my mind, Bastian says, “How did you find today’s lecture? Was there enough context, even without reading the assigned chapters?”

The intersection at the end of the college’s drive is a four-way stop, one of them a blind rise. Bastian stops his car to check for oncoming traffic, making eye contact that I break with a nervous chuckle.

“Uh, yeah, it was good. Actually made me keener to go and read the book.” I hear what I just said and cringe as he turns onto the road. “I mean, not that I wasn’t keen already, just?—“

“Fuck!”

Bastian slams on the brakes and swerves to the side. The Tesla isn’t going fast, but some kind of automatic braking system kicks in because we stop so suddenly my head jerks forward.

A truck blasts its horn at us as it whooshes past inches from my door.

My hand is on my heart, blood draining from my face.

“God,” I whisper. “It almost fucking hit us.”

“You okay?” Bastian leans over to me, craning to look at my face. “Haven.”

“Yeah, sorry. Just, just got a fright. Look.” I hold out my hand so he can see how I’m shaking.

“Jesus, he could have killed you.” His hand engulfs mine, thumb pressing into my palm where my pulse hammers. For a moment, his grip tightens, possessive and almost angry, before he releases me like I’ve burned him.

“Shit like that makes my fucking blood boil.” His voice drops to something dangerous. “The thought of you getting hurt...”

He doesn’t finish, but the way his knuckles whiten on the steering wheel tells me everything.

A hot flush spreads through me. I’ve never seen someone react that way before. Not toward me, anyway. Except Kai, but this feels much different.

Bastian shakes his head as he carefully guides his Tesla back on the road and gives me a tight smile when our eyes meet.

At the next intersection, he taps the car’s console. Soothing classical music flows out of the sound system. Chopin’s Nocturne album, from the artwork on the screen. Must be to calm me down, because there’s not a tremor anywhere on his body…and I’ve been looking .

I don’t know why I expect him to head downtown. Maybe because he’s a teacher, and I assume they don’t make megabucks. But he’s only on the main road for a few minutes before he turns onto Earl Avenue, and we ascend one of the hills Hillside gets its name from.

I turn to stare out the window.

Agony Hollow might be a small town, but I know most of it. Like this road that winds up the side of the largest hill. There’s a steep cliff edge on one side, densely packed trees on the other.

We pass the lookout spot above Hollow Heights. It’s nothing more than a small alcove butting right up against the cliff’s edge. A concrete bench, a concrete bin, and enough parking for max three cars.

But the view…God, that view.

The entire town is visible. From the large multi-level homes we’ve just driven past, to more compact townhomes.

Strips of businesses and apartments cluster tighter and tighter together as the grid condenses toward Hollow Way, the town’s main street, a road that cuts through our town at a diagonal until it intersects the Agony River at the lower half of the town.

Past that, the squalor is blatant, even at this altitude.

Perhaps especially this high up.

I look away, swallowing.

“I’ve heard things are rough down there.” Bastian’s voice is low, a muted hum barely able to rival the Tesla’s tires on the road and the piano music. “Those poor people just can’t seem to drag themselves out of the mud.”

I want to tell him to fuck off. That the streets of Riverside are mud-free. Although the same can’t be said for rubbish, roaches, or rodents.

But the way he says it, it’s not like he’s pitying me. It’s like we’re sympathizing together.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ve never been up Earl Avenue before? ”

“Not past Lookout Point. Thought there were only hunting lodges up here.”

I grimace at the thought. I went once, with my dad and uncle, but that was years before the remaining Lees fled Agony Hollow. I didn’t have a choice, and God, I wish I did.

“Not a big hunter. Noted.”

I huff, smiling a little. “You wanna talk about cruelty?”

“Debating the topic of my thesis with a freshman. Hm…” The little hum he makes is both sexy and condescending. “I guess, since we have nothing better to talk about…”

“Jerk!” I punch him on the arm before I realize what I’m doing.

But thank God he only chuckles as he turns off Earl Avenue onto a much smaller street that cuts through the firs covering these hills. The angle of the road changes, inclining even more than before.

We’re leaving civilization behind.

As the trees close in around us, I realize how truly alone we are. No houses in sight. No witnesses . Just me, alone in a car with a man who studies cruelty for a living.

The thought should terrify me.

Instead, I press my thighs together and try to stop thinking about the way he grabbed my hand earlier.

“If I see you headed for a hunting lodge, I’m jumping out of this car,” I say, my voice wobbling a little.

He laughs. So wild, so beautiful, it makes me blush. Or maybe it’s the fact that I could make a mature, intelligent man like Bastian Rooke laugh.

“You think I could be that cruel to you, sweet girl?” There’s still laughter in his voice, but he stiffens and throws me a quick glance. “My apologies. That was…inappropriate.”

Sweet girl?

Those words, coming out of that mouth, make my pulse sing in my ears.

He seems to regret it.

I don’t. That was fucking hot .

I’m starting to sweat again. I wish I knew how to turn down the heat in this car. I could ask Bastian to do it, but I’ll stammer or blush. Probably both. So I just turn to look out the window again, trying to concentrate on the glimpses of Agony Hollow peeking through the trees.

Again, my professor seems to read my mind.

Bastian rolls down his window, turns his face into the cool wind that surges inside, and inhales a deep breath.

“I love that smell,” he murmurs. “If they could bottle this stuff, I’d swim in it.” He leaves the window open, and I silently thank him for how it cools the Tesla’s interior.

It’s shocking how quickly the temperature has dropped since I got in.

There’s a definite chill in the air. If you can’t handle the cold, move down to Riverside. Some days the woods felt more like a jungle.

I wonder where Kai lives now. We sent a few letters to each other after he moved out of Riverside, but I’ve never been to his house before.

I was too busy working at the convenience store, and my dad couldn’t afford bus fare to get me all the way across town.

Kai only got a car late in high school, and even then, he was too busy with his sports or his school work to come visit me.

Except for that one time?—

“Have you lived here all your life, Haven?”

I like the way he says my name. It sounds so smooth and eloquent on his tongue. Not at all how Kai drawls when he says it, like he’s mocking me.

“Uh, pretty much. You?”

He chuckles. “Oh no. New York originally. Then the west coast for a while. But it always felt like I was surrounded by strangers wherever I went. So many people stream past you on the street, day in, day out, but you’ll never see the same face twice.

Never get to learn their stories. What makes them tick. ”

“Never thought about it like that,” I murmur.

“You don’t know what you don’t know, Haven.” He inhales another deep breath, huffs it out with obvious enjoyment. “Never thought I’d like small-town living until I got here. But this place? All these lives, so tight-knit. Like a tangle of wool. Everyone’s connected. It’s fascinating.”

Is that why he offered to bring me to his house to pick up a textbook? Because he’s fascinated by me?

As if.

The only interesting thing about me is how I’ve managed to survive this long without slitting my wrists.

We turn onto a smaller single-lane road. This one cuts straight through the trees like an arrow shaft until a sharp turn takes us out of sight of the road.

Bastian’s done a lot to make me feel comfortable, but unease still trickles down my neck.

Nowhere to run. Not that I’ll need to.

No one to hear me scream.

Just me and Bastian.

The road takes another sharp bend. A house emerges from the forest.

Bastian stops the car, and I lean forward to take it in.

Whoever built it was a genius. Despite harsh geometric lines, gleaming reflective windows, and its pitch-black solar panels, the dark concrete seems to blend with the pale trunks of the trees forming its backdrop.

The darkening sky draws deeper shadows between those trees, helping the house blend in.

Rainy days always held a strange fascination for me.

They were always so intense. Moody and magical.

Me and Kai would find the thickest patch of scree and hide out under its dripping canopy, playing at shipwrecked sailors, or soldiers hiding in a trench.

The shadows between those trees look so inviting.

I could just slip into them and disappear forever.

“So? Did I pass the vibe check, Miss Lee?” Bastian asks in a hush .

“For now,” I murmur, snapping out of my dismal thoughts. I lean back, nodding.

“Sit tight. I’ll be right back.”

It’s not a request. The casual authority in his voice makes me want to both rebel and obey. I choose obey only because my legs feel too shaky right now.

Anyway, I should be relieved that I’m not pushing my stupidity to a whole new level by going inside with him.

So why do I feel so insulted, then?

He’s barely taken two steps from the car before he stops, hesitates, and walks back to the driver’s side. Ducking his head inside the car, Bastian leans his elbows on the rim of his window as he studies me.

“Feels rude not to invite you inside,” he says, flicking his hands.

I swallow.

Don’t do it, Haven. Don’t you fucking dare do it.

“What if I go in there and you have a hundred animal heads on the walls?”

“No taxidermy, scout’s honor.” Bastian smiles.

Like truly, widely, warmly smiles. That’s when I know I’ve fallen so far down this fucking rabbit hole, the only way I’m getting out is if someone tosses down a ladder.

But apparently those are bad luck, so…

“I do make a mean cocoa,” he says.

…we’re all adults here…

I could murder a cocoa and mount the cup on my car’s dash.

“Mini marshmallows?” I ask, my voice coming out breathier than intended.

His eyes darken. “I’ll give you whatever you want, Haven. You just have to ask nicely.”

We both turn at the sound of thunder rumbling in the far distance.

Both turn back to each other a second later.

“Seems Zeus has spoken. I’ll be back in a sec.” Bastian leans back, tapping the rim of the window. I watch him until he’s almost at the black slab of his front door.

I throw open my door and yell out the first thing that pops into my head…like a fucking idiot. “I can swallow really fast!”

He stops dead, his back to me.

Fuck.

When he turns, the open hunger in his expression makes my stomach drop.

“Now you’re just being cruel.” His voice carries despite the distance, his mouth quirking into a smug little smile. “Should I be proud that you’re such a quick study?”