Page 52 of Devious Knight

So I think of the next best thing. My confrontation is about facing him.

When I reach the table the guys and everyone else around us watch in horror as I flip it over.

The guys jump up as cups of coffee catapult into the air along with plates of food and cutlery. Everything goes up then falls and clatters across the concrete flooring in a cacophony of chaos and mess.

“You fucking asshole! You destroyed my sculpture!” I bellow at the top of my lungs, rushing forward to Kade.

He dares to smile at me.

“Lolita, how?—”

I raise my hand and use all my might and strength to slap him across the face so hard I leave a mark and my nails dig into his cheek, drawing blood.

I’m about to slap him again but he grabs my wrist then the rest of me. He scoops me up as though I weigh nothing and throws me over his shoulder caveman style.

“Put me down, you fucking bastard! Fucking put me down now!”

He doesn’t. Instead he carries me away like a pillaging pirate. I kick and scream as he makes his way down the path to the entrance of the gymnasium. It’s free from the watchful eyes that were glued to us.

He sets me down and I resume fight mode, landing a hard fist in his chest. Big mistake. My poor knuckles come in contact with what feels like steel and pain shoots through my hand.

I wince and he smirks on seeing my misfortune.

He’s about to say something when a loud explosion rips through the air. We both look across to Erebus House and see the smoke rising high into the sky and more fire billowing in the wind.

Sirens wail in the distance and Kade looks back at me with a knowing look in his eyes.

“What did you do?” His voice is as Arctic as his stare.

“That was your bike. The fucking lone wolf or whatever the hell you called it.”

He actually looks visibly shocked and glances from me to the rising black smoke, then back to me again.

“You’ve seriously lost your goddamn mind.”

“Don’t you dare speak to me like that.”

“But I’m right. You have lost your fucking mind.”

“You bastard. You destroyed my sculpture, knowing what it meant to me. I don’t know how but you must have known the sculpture was part of my application. That’s why you destroyed it. You knew nothing would hurt me more.”

In response Kade shoves me up against the wall. I’m reminded of days ago at football practice, but he didn’t get this close.

He has me pinned to the wall with his body, and it hurts. It feels like he’s going to squash me like a bug.

He catches my head and digs his fingers into my throat. Then he holds my face in place so he can stare me down. He comes right up close so we’re barely a breath apart. A kiss away.

I hate that thought. How the fuck can I even think that after what he’s done to me?

“Did you really think I was just going to allow you to leave and go to college in a whole other country? You don’t get to leave Raventhorn until I say so.”

The blood drains from my body and my eyes widen until they feel like they might pop. “What?”

“You heard me, Lolita. You stay right here until I’m done with you.”

To my utter surprise he smiles back at me. The sight infuriates me so much I try to push him away, but of course that works just as well as my punch and does absolutely nothing.

If anything, he holds me tighter, forcing me to yield. I’m so stunned and numb that I can’t do anything else.

---