Page 116 of The Love Penalty

“Protective,” I correct him, doing my best to stand up for Asher, who has not had the wake-up he was probably hoping for.

Poor guy. I didn’t even think about that when I snuck out of the house. I should have left a note.

“You know, after what happened to you—” Wily turns with a gentle smile. “—I don’t blame him. If I had myself a woman and she was violated, I’d be on the warpath.”

“Thank you,” I murmur, wondering what this gentle giant would look like if he actually got mad.

It’s hard to picture, to be honest. Even though he’s a tall beast of a man, his gaze is as sweet as his shy, dopey smile.

Zander crosses his arms and quietly agrees. “Yeah, me too.” His eyebrows buckle. “And I hate that it happened here. There are usually a few of us on patrol, looking out for this kind of shit.” He winces. “There was an incident or two at this place a few years back. Before we got here.” He points between himself and Wily. “Anyway, the team was getting a rep, and it was pretty bad.”

“Our new coach won’t tolerate any bullshit.” Wily raises his eyebrows. “We’ve got to be perfection on and off the field or we’re gone.”

Zander nods. “So, we’re really vigilant at our parties. I hate the idea of chicks feeling like they can’t come here and be safe, you know? We always have a guy manning the drinks area, checking for roofies, that kinda stuff.”

“I wasn’t roofied.” I cringe, then have to tell the part of the story that I hate so much. “I went willingly. I thought I wanted…” My voice trails off as I shake my head. “But then I changed my mind.” I work my jaw to the side. “Unfortunately, he didn’t agree with my decision.”

“He should have stopped.” Zander’s voice is low and dangerous again.

“Not to sound like some sicko, but it makes me wish we had cameras in the bedrooms, you know?” Wily looks to Zander, who is obviously still fuming over what happened to me.

“At least we have them in the main areas. We might be able to spot some footage of you with this guy.”

“Yeah, we were dancing for a while.” I point toward the living room, which is through the opposite archway on the other side of the house. Because of its age, the place is broken up into smaller rooms, although from memory, a few walls must have been taken out, because I’m sure there’s a much larger area going out to the pool and patio.

“There’s the hallway cameras too,” Wily murmurs. “There might be a shot of you going in or coming out of one of the rooms. Do you remember which one you were in?”

I reluctantly scour my memories and come up empty-handed. There’s a serious black patch between him walking out of the room and me getting back to my dorm.

“Thankfully, the system we got set up keeps footage for six months, so there’ll definitely be something from the party.” Wily starts typing, then tuts. “Hey, Grady!” His voice booms through the house. “Did you change the password on the security system thing?”

“Why you wanna know?” a voice from upstairs filters down to us.

“Because he wants to access it, dumbass!” Zander shouts back.

“Who you calling dumb, fuck-knuckle?”

Zander face splits with an instant grin, his shoulders shaking with laughter as feet come thundering down the stairs and a shirtless black guy with an eight-pack and biceps to die for strolls into the room.

“Who’s this?” He points at me.

“Lani.” I point at myself, feeling kind of awkward as he stares me down like he’s trying to figure out if I’m trouble or a good time.

“Stop gawking at her, man.” Zander lightly taps him with the back of his hand. “We’re helping her out.” His tone is clipped, and after a shared look that must be some kind of silent conversation, Grady accepts his vague answer without question.

Nudging Wily out of the way, he takes a seat at the table and taps something onto the keyboard. “What are we looking for here?” He glances up at Zander.

“A party back in February.” Zander turns to me. “Remember the date?”

“Seventeenth.” It’ll be burned into my brain for the rest of eternity.

Grady nods and starts doing a search. I gnaw on my lip while I wait him out, then hold my breath as he nods, looking up to Zander again.

I rise from my seat, ready to move around the table for a closer look, but he holds up his hand to stop me.

“Your man-beast asked if we could please wait for him.”

I snort and shake my head. “I doubt he said please.”

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