Page 61 of Hired Help

“If you don’t want me in your view, you’re welcome to find your own spot,” I tell him in a voice guaranteed to carry. “But no, I don’t have plans to move.”

“Although you usually eat by the fields.”

“Stalker much?” I eat the last of my sandwich and screw up the paper bag. “Perhaps you should concentrate on your own table instead of mine.”

“We can go sit near the gym,” Lexa suggests, hugging herself. A barometer for tension. “There’s a seat no one else uses.”

“Because the fans make it uncomfortable,” I say with a flick of my hand. “Does anyone want to know howmyafterparty went? My date went AWOL, but I tracked him down in the end.”

“Brooke!” Floss stands, appearing truly horrified. She grasps my wrist and tugs at me. “Don’t do this.”

“Why not? Why should I have to change where I sit just because someone doesn’t like the fact their daddy’s a better dancer than they are?”

There’s a roar and I don’t know what it is until Harrison grabs my blouse in his fist and physically lifts me from the bench.

Fear stutters my heart for a second, then it dissipates. My vision sharpens.

He drags me ten metres while our friends shout and butt heads behind us. Dragging me through the exit door for the gymnasium, shoving me against the wall inside and knocking away the wedge so the door swings shut, unable to be re-opened from the outside.

Knocking away any easy offer of help as a wild man stares at me from Harrison’s eyes.

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

BROOKE

“What the fuck are you doing?”Harrison asks, and his voice is strangled, barely legible. “Do you want me to hurt you? Is that what this is about?”

“Like you haven’t hurt me already?”

His eyes narrow, his face flushed and contorted with anger.

There’s barely a shred left of my good-natured boyfriend, but I can’t make myself stop. I keep digging this hole, waiting for the man who flashed his true colours on the night of the dance to reappear.

“Did you fuck him?”

Even with the emotions cavorting through my body, I know better than to answer that question honestly. Even if not for my self-interest, I want to limit the damage to Daegan. I’ve done enough to punish him for the simple mistake of publishing an ad.

“No, not that it’s any of your fucking business.”

There’s a click and I don’t understand the noise until a blade appears in Harrison’s hand. He raises it slowly, making sure I see it before he presses the tip beside my left eye.

Terror has a stranglehold on me, my breath barely inflates my lungs. My eyes bulge with a rush of blood pressure and I try to flinch away, shift from the danger zone of his knife, but I’m already flat against the wall. There’s nowhere to go.

“I’ll ask you again and this time, I want an honest answer.”

My lips tremble as I stare into his eyes and see the darkest rage peering back at me.

“Remember, you’re a terrible liar and if I see the slightest hint of deception, you’re walking back to your room half blind.”

A strong tug of arousal pulls at my centre as I move my head, eyes flickering between his hand and the dull fury of his face. His grip on my blouse tightens, the blade piercing my skin enough to cause a pinprick of pain, possibly a pinprick of blood.

“Was that a shake or are you gathering yourself?”

I can’t answer. My tongue lies heavy in my mouth.

Harrison bends farther down, moving his lips to my ear, the knife bumped gently by his cheek. “Give me an honest answer now or I’ll hurt you just to get you to speak.”

And my last wall crumbles.

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