Page 46 of Loving Taylor

Inside her room I steered her to her bed and she sat down, keeping her gaze down on the floor. I bent down in front of her and lifted her chin with a finger to align her gaze with mine.

"What happened, Tay?" I asked softly. I ignored the pang of warning that my mind set off with the use of a nickname for her. It was too personal.

She pressed her lips together as she seemed to struggle to keep her composure. Her eyes watered again and she brushed the tears away with the back of her hand.

"You have to tell me what happened," I encouraged gently, keeping her gaze connected with mine. I couldn't help her if I didn't know what happened.

A sense of foreboding uncurled in my stomach when I stared into her eyes and I knew I wasn't going to like what she was about to tell me.

"Someone...a-attacked me," she stuttered huskily.

Attacked? My mind reprocessed what had happened to try and piece together what she was telling me with what I had seen. In just minutes from leaving me in the front to when I had entered the stairway, she had been attacked. Was the person responsible still in the building? My jaw tensed when I felt a protective anger rush through me. Who would do something like that?

"Did you see who it was?" I asked, trying to sound calmer than I felt. She shook her head.

"He came up behind me and I couldn't..." Overcome, she put her hand up to cover her mouth to smother the sob that rose up in her.

"I need to call the cops," I told her like an adult would speak to a small child. I reached for my phone in my back pocket. She gave me a defeated nod, knowing it was the right thing to do.

I usually avoided cops but this situation called for the men in blue. I had the urge to call Jeff but squashed the thought. This might not just be about Taylor, and to protect the rest of the female students it needed to be reported so the college could take steps to up security.

Maybe Taylor was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I didn't want to think what would have happened to her if I hadn’t arrived when I had and scared him off. I swallowed my fear.

I stood up and dialed the cops. I paced, raking my hand through my hair while I reported the attack with as much information as I had. They told me they would be sending someone over right away.

She clasped her hands in her lap and I had the urge to cover them with mine to remind her I was here. But I wasn't the dependable kind. I was the opposite. After I finished the call, Taylor lifted her vulnerable eyes to mine and any thought of disentangling myself from the situation went up in smoke.

Besides, there was no guarantee the guy wasn't still in the building. What if he tried to attack her again?

I walked over to her and sat down beside her. I wasn't going anywhere. She leaned into me as I put a protective arm around her and she rested her head against my shoulder.

"They're on their way," I murmured to her.

She didn't say a word while I held her and I tightened my arm around her, drawing her closer. Thoughts of what could have happened if I had taken longer than I had went through my mind. What if he had dragged her onto another floor? I would have had no idea.

I still couldn't shake the feeling that this hadn't been some random attack. The more I thought about it the more it just didn't sound like some potential rapist taking an opportunity that had presented itself. It had only been a window of a few minutes.

Something nagged in the back of my mind.