Crush (20 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

BRAD

“Here is fine.”

I motioned to the side of the road beside the hotel, and Carter pulled over.

“Want me to wait for you?” he asked.

“Nah, man, I’ve already taken up enough of your time. I can figure out a ride home later.”

“Cool.”

“Anyway, here’s some extra cash for gas. Sorry I made you miss the party,” I said, reaching into my wallet and pulling out a handful of notes.

He shrugged. “Eh, they’re all pretty much the same party anyway. Hope you get shit sorted with your girl. I’m gonna go get some gas now, so I’ll still be in town for the next ten minutes or so. If anything happens between now and then, and you need me to pick you up, just give me a buzz and I’ll swing back around here.”

“Thanks, man. Will do.”

I glanced at the silver watch Mia had given me for Christmas. It was 9:40. Mia would probably be inside, dancing and socializing. Hopefully she still hadn’t checked her phone and seen the message from Rose yet.

I looked towards the hotel. There was a girl standing near the main entrance with a clipboard, presumably to take people’s tickets for the ball. I didn’t have one, obviously, but I assumed there’d be a side entrance I could sneak in somewhere around the place.

As I stepped through the parking lot and headed towards the side of the building, it suddenly occurred to me what a controlling weirdo I’d look like to everyone Mia knew, showing up uninvited at a college event just to check on my stepsister. That wasn’t exactly what I was doing, but that’s sure as shit what it would look like.

Perhaps I should just wait for her outside. Nope, I’d still be blindsiding her in front of all her friends by doing that.

I contemplated calling Carter and asking him to come back, and I pulled out my phone. Instead, I dialed Mia’s number again. Maybe she’d finally hear her phone ringing this time, and that’d give me a chance to explain why I was here.

I could hear the ringing sound on my end, indicating that the call was going through, but a few seconds later, I realized I could hear something else. Mia’s ringtone. If she was inside the hotel, then how the fuck was I hearing it all the way out here?

Maybe there was someone else in the parking lot who just happened to have the same ringtone as her. But even as I considered that, I realized the ringing on my end perfectly matched up with the faint ringing sound I could hear in the parking lot. Shit. It had to be her. Could she have dropped her phone out here?

The call went to voicemail, and I dialed her number again, trying to follow the sound. I quietly stole across the quiet parking lot, noticing that it seemed to be coming from the direction of what appeared to be a narrow alleyway. How the hell could she have dropped her phone in there? There would have been no need for her to come through that alley to get from the parking lot and into the hotel.

As I drew closer, I heard what sounded like a muffled squeal. My eyes narrowed, and I picked up my pace. Ahead of me, I could see a strange silhouette in the alley, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. Too dark.

My eyes finally grew accustomed to the darkness, and when I saw what it was, my heart froze. My body did the opposite, breaking into a sprint.

It was Mia.

She was pressed up against the wall of the alley, and a tall man had his hands around her throat as she struggled and squirmed against him. He seemed familiar, but it was too dim to tell exactly who he was. Murderous rage boiled up inside me at the sight of him attacking Mia, filling my veins with fiery adrenaline, and I stepped right up behind the guy before he could even register my presence. Sliding a thick arm around his upper body, I tore him away from Mia, and with a vicious twist, I threw him right to the ground.

He landed on his side, and I leapt on him, pinning him on his back. An angry red mist seemed to have come over my eyes, and I couldn’t stop myself from punching this piece of shit’s face, over and over. Harder and harder. Skin tore on his cheek. His eyes blackened. Lips split open. Blood gushed, and with another crack of my fist, I heard the telltale sound of cartilage snapping in his nose.

If I looked in a mirror right now, I knew what I’d see. My face was death, and my eyes were murder. I didn’t even know who the fuck I was hitting, but I knew that he’d tried to hurt Mia. My Mia. I didn’t need to know who he was to fucking destroy him.

Seconds and movements ticked by like days. The guy was trying to hold me off now, long fingers curling around my right wrist as I prepared to smash my hand into his nose again. His knuckles whitened, and his bleeding lips pulled back from his teeth in a sneer. He knew exactly what I knew.

There could only be one winner.

One loser.

And I knew he was going to fucking lose.

He still had a hold of my right arm, so I used my left elbow to jab him in the throat. Gasping, he struggled beneath me and let go of my arm, but I didn’t stop. I was in a true blackout rage now; the kind where all other sights and sounds seem to fade into the distance. I could hardly hear Mia crying and screaming, even though she was barely two feet away.

“Stop! You’ll kill him!”

I heard her voice, faint as anything. Why did she care if this bastard lived or died? He’d tried to hurt her.

“You’ll go to prison, Brad!” she continued. “He doesn’t deserve to die tonight…he deserves to rot in prison forever! But you don’t!”

Her voice finally broke through my rage, and I drew back. My knuckles were covered in blood, and the man stirred beneath me, barely conscious now. I placed two hands around his throat, and his struggles finally diminished to nothing. He was out. The pulse in his neck beat against the fingers I had pressed into his skin, so I knew he wasn’t dead. Panting, I looked up at Mia.

“It’s okay,” I said. “He’s still alive.”

The moon had just come out from behind a cloud, illuminating the alleyway, and I could see tears spilling down her cheeks. I jumped to my feet and wrapped her in my arms, rubbing her back and holding her tight. Tighter than ever before.

“I thought…I thought he was going to kill me,” she sobbed, her voice muffled by my chest.

“No way I’d let that happen. No fucking way. He’s lucky I didn’t fucking kill
him,
” I replied.

An icicle of fear stabbed at my heart as I spoke. What if I hadn’t been here to stop this from happening? She could have been raped. She could have been killed.

Nothing had ever terrified me more than the thought of something like that happening to her. I couldn’t even imagine how petrified she had been before I showed up. I made soothing sounds and kept rubbing her back, and we stayed like that for what felt like forever.

“I won’t ever let anything happen to you,” I murmured, breaking away a moment later and staring down into her wide eyes. “Okay?”

She nodded and wiped her face. “I can’t believe it was…him. This whole time,” she whispered, jerking her head towards the unconscious body on the asphalt. “He’s the one who attacked all those other girls.”

“What do you mean? You know him?” I asked. I’d bloodied the guy’s face up so much that he was essentially unrecognizable at the moment.

“It’s Jeremy,” she said.

Rage boiled up inside me all over again. Jeremy. That fucking prick. I’d known he was bad news from the second I saw him, all those months ago over Halloween. I hadn’t known he was capable of this, though. Otherwise I would’ve beaten him senseless weeks ago.

“Why are you here, Brad?” Mia asked, her voice almost cracking. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t shown up.”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about that right now. We need to call the police, and we need to get you to a hospital. Did he hurt you badly?”

She rubbed her throat. “I think I’m okay.”

“You’re still going to the hospital. Unfortunately, so is this asshole,” I said, barely restraining myself from kicking Jeremy.

I quickly called 911 and told them where to meet us, and then I gently slid my hands to the sides of Mia’s face. “This is probably the worst time to be saying this, and I know I’ve never said it before now…but I love you. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Mia.”

Despite everything that had just happened, she smiled. “I know,” she murmured. “I love you too.”

Those were the sweetest words I’d ever heard, and her lips had never tasted so good as I brought my mouth down on hers.

***

The next few hours swept by in a blur. Police wanted my statement, doctors and nurses wanted to patch up my hand, and someone from Overton wanted to personally thank me for helping the cops get their first serious
—
and likely
—
suspect in the rape cases.

All I wanted was to go home with Mia by my side.

“All right, you’re good to go,” a stern-faced doctor said, pressing a clipboard into my arms. “Sign this…here and here. And try not to use that hand until it’s healed up.”

I nodded and signed the form with my left hand. Shit, I could barely even hold the pen with this hand. I was used to doing everything with the right one. Apparently I’d broken three of the knuckles in it, but I didn’t care. I would have broken every bone in my body if it meant saving Mia from pain and suffering.

Mia joined me a moment later. “They said I’m fine,” she said. “My neck is a little bruised, but it’ll be okay. I’m allowed to leave now.”

“Same,” I replied. “And look, this is probably not the time to discuss this, but the reason I came here tonight…”

She waved her hand at me and cut me off. “I know why. It was about that photo.”

“You saw it.”

“Yeah. But I knew it was just Rose trying to screw with me. I trust you.”

“Well, let me explain anyway. She came up to me at the party and said she wanted to be friends and take a selfie with me. I said yes just to get her off my back, and the next thing I know, she’s on my lap and grabbing my phone out of my hand. Then she put her hand right on my dick as she took the shot. As soon as I realized she’d texted it to you, I tried calling, but you didn’t answer. So I figured I’d come up here and tell you about it. It looked pretty bad.”

“It did. But like I said, I knew better. I trust you. It’s okay, you didn’t even need to explain it.”

I grinned. “All right. Well, let’s get you home.”

She gave me a shy smile. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

MIA

“Nice restaurant,” Brad said, glancing around with an approving look on his face.

We were at Dion’s Café for my Dad’s birthday lunch. After everything that had happened after the ball a week ago, he and Karen had offered for us to stay in and have a little birthday party at home in case I was still a little jumpy about going out, but I’d declined. Honestly, I felt fine. Even though I’d been terrified beyond belief at the time of the attack, just the simple fact of knowing that Jeremy was behind bars had been a huge weight off my shoulders. Not just for me; for Overton students in general. 

Both Karen and my father had been curious as to why Brad had been there to rescue me from Jeremy, but we’d played it off as a simple coincidence. Brad had been at the ball with a girl from Overton who’d invited him, and he’d just so happened to see me being dragged off in the parking lot when he went outside to make a call. That was our story, and we were sticking to it…for now.

“Dion’s is one of my old favorites,” Dad said. “Best home-style food in all of Mississippi.”

“Excuse me?” Karen cut in, feigning an offended expression.

“Aside from your cooking, of course,” Dad said, rubbing her shoulder as a cheeky grin broke out across his face.

It wasn’t just the capture of the Overton rapist that had put everyone in a cheerful mood. Tobin Jacobsen was also behind bars, and the racist threats Dad and Karen had been receiving had ceased. Brad and I were totally kicking ass at college, even though we’d spent more time studying each other’s bodies this semester than our textbooks, and now there was only one more thing weighing us down – our secret step-affair.

Today was the day.

We were going to come clean to our parents about our relationship. We’d discussed it earlier, and we were going to wait till dessert before we said anything. That way, our parents might be too full to go running off in horror once we broke the news. Just kidding. We wanted them to at least enjoy the birthday lunch before we decided to spring things on them.

By the time we got to dessert, I was so stuffed that my mind was barely working. All I could concentrate on was how I couldn’t wait to get home and undo the top button on my jeans. Ugh. I had to soldier through it.

“So kids, Spring Break is coming up in a few weeks,” Dad said, putting his fork down for a second. “Any plans? If not, I was thinking we could take a trip to New Orleans.”

“Sounds good,” Brad said. “We don’t have any plans yet.”

“We?” Karen asked, one eyebrow arched.

“Er…yeah, Mia and I already spoke about it,” Brad said hastily. “Neither of us have anything on yet. Right, Mia?”

“That’s right,” I said, forcing an innocent smile. “New Orleans sounds great.”

“Glad to hear it,” Dad said. “We’ll be able to visit my old friends, Diane and Tim. You remember them, sweetie?”

“Uh-huh,” I said, watching as he took the final bite of his cake. Karen had already finished her dessert.

I shot Brad a quick glance, and he cleared his throat. “Anyway…Mom, Michael. There’s something we wanted…”

“Brad?
Mia
? Oh my God…hi!”

Startled, I looked to the side to see who had cut Brad’s sentence short. Oh no. It was Rose, along with a posse of girls who I assumed were her sorority sisters. No wonder the way she’d said my name made it sound like I was a renowned serial killer.

Ugh. What the hell were these girls even doing here in McComb? Was there some sort of college cheerleading competition I didn’t know about being held here?

“Oh, hello, Rose,” Karen said, giving her a pleasant smile. “How are you? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Bleh. It hadn’t even occurred to me that Brad might have introduced Rose to his Mom when they were dating. Little pinpricks of jealousy stabbed at my stomach, and I pushed the feeling aside. It didn’t matter. He was mine now, and he had no interest in her, no matter what sort of bullshit she tried to pull.

“Well, of course you haven’t,” Rose said, giving her a simpering smile. “Seeing as Brad broke up with me for Mia. But I can’t hold a grudge. You guys are sooo cute together.”

She directed her gaze at me as she spoke that last sentence, a faint trace of contempt in her voice. I cringed, and Dad’s eyebrows shot up.

Rose continued, seemingly oblivious to the nuclear bomb she’d just dropped on our lunch table. “So you guys are already at the ‘meet the parents’ stage, huh? How adorable.”

She was still smiling sweetly, but her words were laced with pure venom now.

Karen’s features drew together in a puzzled expression. “Sorry, Rose…I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about. I think you’re mistaken. Mia is my stepdaughter, not Brad’s girlfriend.”

“But…um…well, never mind then,” Rose said slowly, comprehension dawning on her face.

Her look of shock and glee was unmistakable, and my heart sank. Behind her, her friends were snickering and whispering to each other, and it was impossible to miss what they were gossiping about.

Rose’s fingers were already flying across her phone screen before she’d even turned away, and unfortunately, none of what just happened had escaped Karen and my Dad in the slightest. They would’ve had to be braindead to miss it.

Their faces were grim, and my cheeks flushed with shame. I didn’t even dare to look at Brad, but I knew he was experiencing the exact same rush of emotions as me. I could practically feel the guilt radiating from him.

“So,” Dad said, clasping his fingers in a V-shape on the dark wooden table. “Do you two want to tell us what on Earth that was about?”