Following Me (36 page)

She heard a noise behind her, and
she turned quickly.  Garrett was standing in the hallway.  His eyes moved from
Devon’s face to Reid and back.  His eyes grew wide as he seemed to realize what
was happening, and then his face turned white as a sheet.

Reid turned around just then and
smiled.  “Hey, man, I’m Reid.”  He walked across the room and shook Garrett’s
hand.

“Garrett.”

“So nice to meet you.  Devon’s
been telling me all about you.  Really nice of you to let her stay in the city
for a couple weeks,” Reid said.

“Uh, yeah, no problem.  She’s
welcome here anytime,” Garrett said, his eyes shifting to Devon.

Reid smiled bigger and turned to
include Devon in the conversation.  “That’s always good to know.  Maybe we’ll
make another trip up here during the school year.”

Devon looked away from them.  She
just couldn’t handle this.  The implication in Reid’s words sliced open old
wounds.  They were never going to make a trip to see Hadley and Garrett.  Once
Reid got her in St. Louis again, she wouldn’t go anywhere.  He would make sure
of that.

“So, how long are you here for?”
Garrett asked, running a hand back through his hair.

Devon already knew the answer. 
They would leave as soon as Reid could get her out of here.

“Well, it’s up to Devon, of
course,” he answered, clearly lying.

Reid smiled at her, and Devon
thought she might be sick. 
Since when had anything been up to her?

“What do you want to do, Dev?”

She shrugged.  She wanted to go
back to Brennan and apologize.  She wanted to explain to him that Reid was
dangerous and Brennan couldn’t come anywhere near him.  She wanted to tell
Brennan that she didn’t trust Reid not to hurt him, and if he did, it would
kill her.

“Well, I got my MCAT scores in
the mail this week, and it’s Devon’s birthday soon.  Maybe we could all go out
and celebrate?” Reid said.

“How did you do?” Devon asked
automatically. 
Hadn’t she just asked Brennan the same question?

A muscle in Reid’s neck twitched
at the question.  If she didn’t know him so well, she wouldn’t have known what
that meant.  He hadn’t done as well as he had wanted.  She wondered if his
parents would donate a library or something to get him into Wash U’s medical
school.  She wouldn’t put it past them.

“Great.  They were great,” he
said with a sinister smile.  “So, you want to go out then?”

“Sure,” she said softly.  She
would rather be out than alone with him, and she might as well put off the
inevitable.

“I’ll have to see what Hadley’s
doing.  I’m not sure if she’s ready to go out again.  She should be home soon
though,” Garrett said.

He sounded uncomfortable and out
of place, and Devon didn’t blame him.  He knew what had happened with her and
Reid, and he was probably trying to figure out his role now that Reid was here.

“She’s not home yet?” Devon asked
just to fill the silence.

“No, she and her mom decided to
go out shopping.  I don’t expect them until after the stores close.”  He looked
down at his watch.  “That was thirty minutes ago, so she should be here soon.”

As if on cue, Hadley walked
through the door, loaded with bags.  She kicked the door shut with her foot as
she stumbled inside, weighed down by her packages.

Garrett reached out to steady
her.

“Hey!” she said, bending into
him.  “Missed you.”

Garrett’s smile took over his face. 
“I missed you, too.”

“I got way too much,” she said,
leaning forward and kissing him.

When she backed up, he said, “I
can see that.”  Garrett turned to gesture toward Reid.  “We, uh…have a
visitor.”

“Reid McAllister!” Hadley cried
in shock.  “What are you doing here?”

Reid laughed good-naturedly and
shook his head.  “Nice to see you, too, Hadley.”

“Seriously, what are you doing
here?” she asked, hoisting her bags over one shoulder to redistribute the
weight.

“I’m here to see Devon, of
course.  What do you think I’m doing here?” he asked, his eyes moving to Devon.

“I really don’t know.”

“Hadley, what did you get from
your shopping trip?” Devon asked quickly, cutting off Hadley’s next response.

Hadley narrowed her eyes, but she
was too much of a girl to not give in.  “Ugh…too much.  I’ll have to show you. 
Bedroom?” she asked, nodding toward the room she shared with Garrett.

“Sure.  Garrett, maybe you should
pour Reid a drink,” Devon offered, skirting around him.

Reid reached out and grabbed her
wrist.  When she winced, he released some of the tension.  He pulled her into
him, and she did everything she could not to pull away.  Her wrist would be the
least of her worries then.  He pushed back a lock of blonde hair from her face.

“I missed you, and I don’t ever
want you out of my sight again,” he said so softly only she could hear.  His
lips landed possessively on hers.  “Don’t be in there long.”

Devon bit her lip, wanting
nothing more than to wrench herself out of his grasp, but she just nodded.

“Good,” he said, releasing her. 
“I think I would like that drink now, Garrett.”  He walked into the kitchen
with a boisterous laugh.

Devon scurried away from him and
into the bedroom.  She hoped her shaking wasn’t noticeable.  She closed the
door quickly behind her just as Hadley tossed her bags on the bed with a big
huff.

“Okay…what the fuck is he doing
here?” Hadley asked.

“Shhh,” Devon warned quickly,
putting her finger to her mouth.  “Keep it down.”

“Sorry,” Hadley said quietly.

“We didn’t really break up,”
Devon said, biting her lip.

“What are you talking about?  You
said that you did, and then you were gone all night with Brennan,” Hadley said,
confused.

Devon fiercely shook her head. 
“Don’t talk about him.  Reid can’t know about Brennan.”

“Devon, what is going on?” Hadley
demanded, crossing her arms.

“I left St. Louis without telling
Reid.  I wanted to break up with him, but I didn’t know how.  So, for all
intents and purposes, we were broken up.  He just…didn’t know…” Devon trailed
off.

“Fuck, Dev.  What are you going
to do?” Hadley asked, sitting back heavily on the bed.

“Wing it?” Devon said with a
shrug.

Hadley looked at her skeptically.

“Okay, I’m going to have to act
like everything is normal…as much as I can anyway.  You are, too.  Then, I’m
going to try to talk to him, but please don’t bring up Brennan.  I don’t want
him to think that is why we’re breaking up.”

“Isn’t it?” Hadley asked.

“No,” Devon said, shaking her
head.  “I left Reid before I had ever met Brennan.”

“Fair point.”

“I just…have to do this my way,
okay?”

Hadley stood up and placed her
hand on Devon’s shoulder.  “Let him down easy, Dev.  He’s crazy about you.”

He’s just
crazy,
she thought.

DEVON WAS CLOSE to collapsing by the
time they made it out to the bar.  She really wanted a drink to calm her
nerves, but she wanted to stay in control.  The last thing she wanted was to
confront Reid with an addled mind or accidentally slip and say something she
shouldn’t while drunk.

Hadley and Garrett decided on a
club not too far from their house.  Hadley hadn’t been out at night since her
overdose.  Devon didn’t want to worry about that on top of everything else. 
Garrett would just have to take care of her for once.

When Devon walked into the club,
her head was swimming.  It felt so much like her dream.  It really wasn’t
anything like it at all, except for the dance floor, heavy music, and crowd. 
That shouldn’t have been enough to trigger her terror, but having Reid holding
tightly to her arm didn’t help anything.  As bile rose, she covered her mouth and
tried to swallow away her apprehension.

His hand slid across the small of
her back and gripped her waist.  He leaned down and spoke directly into her
ear.  “Drink?”

She shook her head.  “I’m okay.”

“Come with me anyway,” he said,
pulling her toward the bar.

“Okay,” she said because she
really had no other choice.

Reid ordered himself a Crown and
Coke and her a Cosmopolitan even though she didn’t want it.  She didn’t like
cosmos, and she had told him a hundred times that she didn’t, but he kept
ordering them for her.

“Reid,” she muttered as they
waited for their drinks.

“Yeah, Dev?”

He pushed his hand up into her
hair and massaged her scalp.  She didn’t want to enjoy it, but it felt good. 
She wished he would stop, so she could concentrate.

“I think we need to talk,” she
said, wondering if he could even hear her over the music.

“Let’s talk later, okay?  I can’t
really hear you,” he said with a smile.

Devon didn’t like the thought of
later.  “But—”

“No,” he said sharply, cutting
her off.  “Later.  Let’s enjoy our night together.”

With that, his lips covered hers
as he held her head in place, so she couldn’t move.  He forced her mouth open
and plunged his tongue inside.  She wanted to squirm away, but he had her
exactly where he wanted her.  Her heart pounded as one of his hands slid down
her backside.  He grabbed it forcefully enough to make her cry out.  Back
before he had ever hit her, that would have turned her on.  Now, she only felt
disgusted.

When the bartender slid the
drinks across the bar to him, he released her.  Reid handed the guy his credit
card and told him to keep the tab open.

His eyes found her again, and he
laughed.  “You’re mine.  You know that, right?”  He grasped her chin in his
hand.  “All mine.”

She swallowed, trying not to
react.  He didn’t care if she confirmed or denied what he had said.  In his
head, he believed it to be true.

They spent the rest of the night
hanging out with Hadley and Garrett.  Devon tried and failed to act like her
normal self because normal didn’t include Reid anymore.  Thankfully, for the
sake of the conversation, he took over.  He had a big enough personality for
the two of them, and he seemed to seamlessly hold up
their
end of the
conversation.  She couldn’t believe she had ever let him talk for her like this
before.  It felt unnatural.

She wanted to speak up at times,
but then she thought better of it.  If she didn’t hand him ammunition, he would
be less likely to pull the trigger.

Reid yawned big and exaggerated. 
Devon knew he wasn’t tired.  He was actually wired.  Everything about the
situation that put her on edge riled him up.

“I think it’s time we got out of
here.”

“Are you sure?  It’s still
early,” Garrett said hastily.

Devon didn’t know if Garrett’s
reaction was out of fear for her safety or because he had gotten along with
Reid so well.  She wasn’t really surprised.  Reid got along with everyone, but
she thought that Garrett wouldn’t play into his hand so easily.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen Devon in a
while.  I think we need some alone time,” he said, pulling her up with him.

“Reid,” Devon said quickly.  She
did
not
want to be alone with him.

“Do you want us to come with
you?” Hadley jumped in.

“No.  We don’t want to interrupt
your evening,” he said smoothly.

Hadley looked at her pointedly. 
She thought she was being reassuring as if telling Devon,
Here’s your
chance.
  Devon regretted not telling Hadley the truth. 
She couldn’t be
alone with him!  This was absurd.

“It wouldn’t interrupt our
evening at all,” Garrett said, standing as well.

“Really, don’t even worry about
us,” Reid said.  “We’ll see you in the morning.”

“Reid, I think they should come
with us,” Devon said quickly.

His grip on her arm tightened,
and she stopped breathing.  It felt too familiar.  She just wanted to wake up
from her nightmare. 
Wake up.  Please wake up.
  But she wasn’t dreaming,
and she couldn’t get away from this.

“Don’t be silly, Devon.  There’s
no reason for them to come with us.”  He smiled brightly at them.  “Night,
guys.”

Reid all but pushed Devon out of
the club and into the empty street.  He didn’t let go of her arm until he had
secured her into his BMW.

“What were you thinking?  You say
we need to talk, and then you try to get them to come back with us?” he asked,
backing out of his parking space.

Devon didn’t bother saying anything. 
She was trapped, hopelessly trapped, and she had done it to herself.  Her
meager attempts at getting Hadley or Garrett’s attention had only upset him.

She hoped that she could keep
Reid’s anger at bay.  She was starting to doubt her own sanity at ever agreeing
to leave Jenn’s with him.  She turned toward the window and closed her eyes. 
Her thoughts drifted back to Brennan—heated kisses, soft caresses, trusting
conversations, freedom.  She was doing this for him.  After it was all over,
maybe he would forgive her.