Page 21

V ICTOR STUMBLES THROUGH the door. His face is pale, his forehead sweaty. His gaze passes over me, but it’s as if his glassy eyes can’t see me. What’s wrong with him?

He takes a step forward and crumples to the floor. I stare at him in shock as he unsuccessfully tries to clamber to his feet.

Oh fuck. This isn’t a known side effect of the sleeping pills I put into his bottle. It’s something different. Or maybe he took something else with his water and the mix turned out to be a completely wrong combination. I should run. Someone will find him here and help him.

But I can’t force my feet to move. This is all my fault. I should’ve realized he would be taking something else for his performance, even when he isn’t injured. Just because I haven’t found any proof of it doesn’t mean he’s not using something. And two drugs interacting might be dangerous.

I swear under my breath as I rush to his side.

“Victor, hey,” I say, placing my hand on his cheek.

“He’s going to kill me,” he mumbles.

“What? No one’s going to kill you. You’re safe.” I don’t know what’s happening to him, but he must be hallucinating.

“Claudia...” he whispers. “Don’t... Claudia.”

I don’t know who Claudia is, but Victor is definitely completely out of it.

“What did you take?” I ask.

But he only mumbles something incoherent.

“Victor, look at me.” I tap his cheek. “What did you take?”

If I can figure out the name of the drug, then I can find out if his life is in danger.

He frowns. “What... What you gave me.”

Shit. Does he know what I did or is he talking about something else? Maybe he doesn’t even know I’m with him.

“Please,” he says softly. “Don’t... Don’t do it. Not Claudia. It’s my... It’s my fault.”

“It’s fine. Everything’s going to be fine.” I try to reassure him. “Can you get up? We need to get you to your room, okay?”

Maybe he’s just high because of all the drugs or something, and he needs to sleep it off. But I don’t know if I can get him all the way to his dorm room.

I pull out his bottle from my bag, open it, and tip it to his lips. “Drink this.”

Having some normal water might help clear the drug out of his system.

He moves his head away at first, but then I manage to get some water into his mouth. As he coughs, I grab some tissues from my bag and wet them. Then I place them over his forehead.

All of a sudden, he shifts to his side and throws up all over the floor. Shit.

“Can you get up?” I place my hand on his back.

“I... I... Don’t know.”

I tug on his arm and he somehow lifts himself up. He’s so damn heavy as he leans against me, but I manage to steer him toward the exit. His footsteps are a little steadier as we’re out of the arena and in the fresh air.

We’re moving like two drunks, from left to right and back again, and I need to use all my energy to lead him in the right direction. Once we reach his dorm room, I realize the door unlocks as soon as he closes his hand around the knob.

Seriously? Fingerprint scanners? What is this place? Then again, no one has ever mentioned something like that in the brochure, so maybe Victor had it custom-made just for him. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

I give him a light push in the direction of the bed and he falls down on it. As he rolls to his side, he looks straight at me.

“You,” he says, a smile spreading over his lips. “You’re so pretty.”

Is he seeing me now or still someone else? I find a trash can and place it next to the bed in case he needs to throw up again. Then I wet a small towel and put it on his forehead.

His hand closes around my arm, and he tugs me to him. I climb onto the bed next to him.

“Noemi,” he whispers, caressing my arm. “You’re back.”

“I guess you could say that. How are you feeling?”

“I want you...” He reaches out for me.

“No, you don’t.” I catch his hand and place it back on the bed between us.

His brow furrows. “I do.”

“You’re drugged out of your mind. You don’t know what you want.”

“I’m not... No,” he mumbles, removing the towel from his forehead.

“Victor...”

He grimaces, then he lifts himself up and throws up into the trash can. I hand him the towel so he can clean himself up, and then I gently pull him back down on the bed.

As I start to rise to my feet, Victor catches my wrist.

“Please don’t go,” he whispers, and there’s something in his eyes that I can’t identify.

Fear? Or is it just confusion?

“I’m going to get you another towel, okay?” I pry his fingers off my arm. “I’ll be right back.”

He gives me a long look that makes me think he doesn’t believe me. I head to the bathroom, and when I return, his eyes are closed.

But as I settle on the bed again and put the wet towel on his forehead, his eyes open. He grabs me and pulls me to him, and I gasp as I end up straddling him.

“Victor, no.” I grasp his wrists and pin them at the sides of his head.

He bites down on his lip as he looks at me through his eyelashes. “Then why are you here?”

Fuck. Why is my core tingling again? There’s just something about our bodies together right now, and in the way he’s looking at me that makes me all hot and bothered.

Wrong timing, Noemi.

Wrong fucking timing.

What the fuck is wrong with you?

“I’m here because you’re sick,” I say.

He laughs. “I can be if you want me to be.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Is this you starting to feel better or are you still hallucinating?”

“Rub yourself over my cock and ask me again.”

I groan and roll my eyes at him before letting go of him and rolling to the other side of the bed. “You’re fine again.”

“Look at me, Emi. I’m always fine. You know that. That’s why you can’t take your eyes off me.”

Emi? Seriously? Using my nickname now as if we are... close? Intimate? Lovers?

I run my hand over my face. “This isn’t happening,” I mumble as I glance at the tent in his pants.

“It is, because you can’t stay away from me.” He grins at me.

Well, I should be relieved. He’s fine, and he’s not going to suffer any serious damage. I haven’t killed him, which is great. As for the state of his remaining two brain cells... It’s hard to say.

Just as I push myself up, someone bangs on the door. Hard. My heart skips a beat.

“Victor! Open the fucking door!” someone shouts, and it sounds like Jake.

Victor’s eyes go wide as he sits up. “Hide!”

I don’t know what’s going on, but I grab my bag and race to the window. As I part the drapes and open the window, the banging continues.

“Victor!”

I hop through the window and press myself against the wall. Then I take a peek inside. As soon as Victor opens the door, Jake punches him so hard that Victor falls down on the floor.

My eyes bulge, my heart pounding like crazy. Within seconds, Victor is curled up into a ball as Jake kicks him.

“Where the fuck were you?” Jake screams.

“I’m sorry... I was really sick.” Victor lifts his hands up but doesn’t move off the floor.

“I don’t fucking care! You should’ve been there!”

One of Jake’s bodyguards steps into the room and starts toward the window. I duck down and scurry away from there.

My whole body trembles as I call security to report noise and violence in the dorm rooms. Then I just sit down on the ground in darkness and curl up into a ball, trying to take deep breaths and think about something other than Jake’s face twisted with fury. But all that comes to my mind is Sebastian, and I just burst into tears as I rock back and forth.

It’s my fault.

What happened to Victor tonight is my fault, and I don’t know how I’m going to recover from that.