Bound to the Fallen (Prophecy #2) (46 page)

“Scott!”
I heard Gavin yell out from the stairwell, his voice overflowing with pure wrath.

Dr. Knight released his grip on me and I immediately clamored over the hood of my ca
r, tripping over my feet as I fled toward Gavin.

As I was running to him I saw his fingers flex and bend into his palm. His entire body became rigid and stoic, almost like a stone statue. A deep red flushed over his face
and his eyes darkened as he narrowed his sight on Dr. Knight.

Gavin sprinted
toward Dr. Knight, a savage cry bellowing out of him as he coiled his arm back and punched Dr. Knight hard in the face. The sound of the contact reflected from the walls and Dr. Knight fell to all fours, stunned from the power of Gavin’s blow.

“You mother
fucker!” Gavin kicked his face and then reached down, grabbing Dr. Knight by the shoulders. “I will fucking murder you! I will squeeze each last ounce of life from you.”

B
lood seeped from a gash in Dr. Knight’s brow and poured from his nose. He glared at Gavin. “You know you can’t go against the agreement. You
can’t
kill me,” Dr. Knight mumbled out.

Fearing
Gavin would really kill him, I ran over to the emergency station set up by the stairwell and pressed the red alarm that notified campus police. Gavin seemed delirious from rage; his voice shook with anger, and I knew Dr. Knight didn’t stand a chance against him.

I watched
, completely horrified, as Gavin picked Dr. Knight up from the ground and slammed his body against the concrete wall. Gavin wrapped the fingers of his right hand around Dr. Knight’s throat. Dr. Knight’s feet kicked wildly and his hands grasped at Gavin’s fingers in an effort to pry their hold loose from his neck.

Dr. Knig
ht tried to speak, but all that came out was a gurgled, choking sound.

Gavin let out a
demonic growl, “Who the hell do
you
think
you
are?” I could see Gavin’s chest heaving and his fingers digging deeper into Dr. Knight’s throat. “You don’t fuck with her. You don’t take what’s
mine
, do you understand me?”

I panic
ked as I watched the blood continued to pour from Dr. Knight’s face. His eyes kept rolling back in his head and his movements grew weaker. His hands were no longer frantically pulling at Gavin’s fingers. Dr. Knight raised his arm in one last attempt to free himself from Gavin’s grasp, but his arm only rose a few inches from his side before falling weightlessly back down. His fingers curled up into his palm and then relaxed. Dr. Knight’s entire body went limp.

Gavin released his hold and Dr. Knight
collapsed lifelessly to the pavement.

I couldn’t move. I just stood there, completely still, staring in disbelief at what had just happened. A lump of nausea
rose from my stomach as Gavin turned around and calmly walked toward me. His white dress shirt was saturated with blood. Sweat poured from Gavin’s forehead, and his hand had deep scratch marks across the knuckles. He held his right arm up to inspect it, and blood trickled down.

“You okay?” He
asked and sat down on the metal stair behind me.

My gaze was still locked onto
Dr. Knight’s body. “Did you kill him?” I screeched.

I became hysterical.
My voice sounded desperate and horrified as I yelled, “Gavin, you’re going to go to jail for murder!” Tears streamed down my face. My chest constricted and my heart palpitated as it raced faster and faster.

Shaking
his head, Gavin wiped the sweat from his brow. His breath was still coated with anger. “No, I didn’t kill him.” He glared at me. “I just cut the oxygen supply to his brain off long enough to make him pass out. He’ll come to in a moment.” He examined the numerous scratch marks covering the back of his hand and forearm. “You’ve no idea the amount of restraint it took for me to release him.” Gavin inhaled. “I’ll be damned if anyone’s going to harm you, or think they can have you.”

R
ed and blue lights swirled across the concrete on the level below us. The sound of tires going over speed bumps echoed off the walls.

“You let me h
andle this,” Gavin said as he rose from the stairs and made his way back over to Dr. Knight, who was still lying unconscious between the parked cars.

Hearing the
elevator doors open, I looked over to see Ashley stop midstride. Her eyes froze when Gavin turned around with his blood-soaked shirt. Her mouth fell open and her eyes expanded twice their size. I’m sure the shock of exiting the elevator to find Gavin covered in blood is what made her drop her purse. It made a loud thud as it hit the pavement. I heard her lip gloss roll across the concrete. Ashley stood there motionless for a few moments, blinking several times as if that would make the scenery change.

A
loud gasp flew from her gapping mouth as she asked, “What — the — fuck?” Casting a stunned look in my direction, her eyes widened even more. “Is that Dr. Knight?” Her voice rose to a shrill yell.

I placed my face in my hands and shook my head
up and down. Ashley grabbed her purse and ran over to me.

Gavin leaned calmly against my car
, just staring down at Dr. Knight. I couldn’t believe how collected he was. He  drew in a deep breath as he unbuttoned his dress shirt, peeling the wet material away from his body and slinging it over the trunk of my car. Even his undershirt had been stained bright red.

“Holy shit!” Ashley
panted.

The police car
rolled to a stop by the stairwell. Gavin removed his undershirt, balling it up and holding it tightly in his hand as he walked over to the officers climbing out of their car. His skin glistened from the moisture left by the blood. Rubbing his forearm over his bare chest, he tried to remove the wet film still clinging to his body.

Ashley looked at me,
still slack-jawed as she asked, “Is he
dead
?” Her head turned back in the direction of Gavin, Dr. Knight, and the officers.

Dr. Knight’s hand feebly rose in the air for a brief second
before it fell back down to the pavement like lead. One of the officers knelt down next to him to check his pulse.

Gavin pointed at me and the officer
made his way over to me. Rising from the stairs, I wiped the tears from my face.

“Brooke? Is that right?” The officer
’s brown eyes were shrouded by confusion.

“Yes. Brooke Davis.”

The officer turned his mouth down toward the walkie talkie that was attached to his shoulder and pressed the button on the side of the large black speaker. “We’ve got two white males. One’s been beaten up pretty good. We’ll need medical assistance.” He released the button.

A voice came over the static.
“Ten four.”

The officer pulled his pad out and placed his ball point pen to the paper.
Glancing up at me, he asked, “You okay, ma’am?”

“Yea
h.” I rubbed my arm tenderly and glanced over toward Gavin. “Just shocked at the moment.”

“Understandable.
Now, would you mind telling me what happened here?”

I
watched the other officer pull Gavin’s hands behind his back and place cuffs around his wrists.

“Why are you arresting him?” I
shouted. I was panicking.

“We’re not.”

Ashley interjected. “You cuffed him!”

The officer looked over at her. “It’s standard protocol
, ma’am. He’s not goin’ to jail just yet.”

The
officer placed his hand on the top of Gavin’s head as he ducked down and slid into the cop car.

“You just put him in a cop car
,” I stated and glared at the police officer. “He saved me from that maniac, and you’re gonna arrest him?” My eyes teared up again and my throat constricted. I thought I was about to hyperventilate.

“Ma’am.” The officer put his pad down and placed one hand on my shoulder. “I’m really
gonna need you to calm down.” He paused, gently squeezing my shoulder as he gave me a sympathetic glance. “I need your statement so I can know what to do with these two gentlemen.”

The other officer rolled a dazed Dr. Knight onto his side, pulled his arms behind his back, and cuff
ed him.

As my eyes slowly
shifted back to the officer, I saw Gavin lean his head back onto the seat of the police car. He was staring up at the ceiling.

The officer brought his pad and pen back up.
Propping his leg on the stair, he rested the pad on his thigh. “Do you know those two gentlemen?”

“Yes. The one in the police car is Dr. Gavin Hunter. And the one over ther
e,” I pointed toward my car, “that’s Dr. Scott Knight.” I frowned.

The policeman looked puzzled. “Isn’t he the director of Neurosurgery?”
he asked. I realized this cop was the same one who’d come up to the office the day Miranda had been arrested for assaulting Nicole.

I
nodded and the officer scribbled a note on his pad.

“I was leaving and Dr. Knight came up to me. He pulled that rose,” I pointed to the rose that was trampled next to t
he rear driver’s side of my car, “out from under my wheel —”

The officer cut me off. “How’d it get there?”

“I don’t know. I’m guessing he put it there,” I paused. “I’ve been finding those on my car at my apartment and I even found one this morning at Ga…” I caught myself and swallowed hard, “Garrett’s house.”

“
Who’s Garrett?”

“My boyfriend.
” I cringed, fully aware that I was lying to a policeman.

Ashley stepped up. “The note, the note
! Tell him about the note. Wait!” She promptly turned her purse upside down and the contents scattered across the concrete. Her compact shattered and glass flew out. Reaching down, she retrieved a white piece of paper that had been folded into a small square. She handed it to the police officer.

O
pening it, he quickly scanned the letter. His brow wrinkled when he reached the end. He peered over the piece of paper at Ashley and widened his stance. “Who are you?”

“Ashley
. Ashley West.”

“Where’
d you find this note?”

“It was in the door of my apa
rtment this past Saturday night,” she responded.

He wrote her name down and glanced back over
to me. “You think Dr. Knight’s who left that note?”

“I would assume so. H
e’s obviously the one who’s been leaving me roses.”

White noise sounded from the walkie talkie. “Medics are on their way
,” a voice came over the speaker.

The officer looked back at me. “So, what happened after he got the rose?”

“He dropped it, blocked me in, and pushed himself on me. I tried to push him away, but he pinned my arms down.” Pulling my arms up, I noticed that the backs were scraped from being pinned against the rough concrete.

The officer placed his pen on his pad and r
ubbed his finger over the scrapes on my skin. “That’s where these came from, I assume?”

“Yea
h, he held me down and he pushed his …” I could feel myself becoming sickened recounting the entire incidence. “His, uh …” My breath became slightly labored. “Uh…”

The officer looked at me. “I’m pretty sure what you’re
gonna say, but I can’t put words in your mouth, so you’re gonna have to tell me.” He looked at me understandingly.

“His genitals. He pushed those up against me.
He was, um, turned on.”

The officer nodded his head. “Okay, I’ve gotcha.”

“I started screaming and that’s when Dr. Hunter came running over.”

“Do you know why Dr. Hunter was out here?”

I shrugged. “I guess he was leaving.”

The p
aramedics drove up the ramp. “‘Scuse me for a sec.” The officer turned away, walking over to the paramedics as they climbed out of the ambulance. He spoke to them briefly and then they went over to Dr. Knight, bending down to assess him.

The officer tugged at the waistband of his uniform a
nd he walked back over to me. He pulled his shoulders back and placed his foot up on the stair.

“So
, what did Dr. Hunter do when he came up?” he asked.

I
pointed in the direction of Dr. Knight. “He yelled at him. I climbed over the hood of my car to get away from Dr. Knight, and then Dr. Hunter hit him in the face.”

“Did Dr. Knight swing at Dr. Hunter?” The officer
’s eyes lifted from his pad and stared at me.

“I don’t know
. I was trying to get away. The next thing I know, Dr. Knight’s passed out.” I ran my palm across my forehead and just wanted to leave.

“So
,” the officer lowered his pad to his side, “you felt threatened?”