Page 5 of Theirs to Ruin

Billy looked at the door as if he was planning to bolt. Obviously thinking better of it, he emptied his pockets, producing a wallet, some condoms, and two small baggies, one with white powder and one with a bunch of pills. “I take them for my insomnia,” he said. “I have a prescription!”

Davis picked up the bag and inspected the pills. “Definitely Rohypnol.”

“You fucking bastard,” Kage growled. “I should have killed you while I had the chance.”

“Hands behind your back.” Davis handcuffed Billy and began reading him his rights.

A big guy with a buzz cut strode into the bar from a back room. It was the bartender, his shirt askew and his hair a mess. Obviously, he’d slipped out to get some in the back. He looked around in a daze.

“What the fuck is going on?” he boomed out.

Ignoring him, Kage scooped me up into his strong arms. I gasped and instinctively stiffened.

He narrowed his eyes. “Are you afraid of me?”

I blinked. “Y-yes.”

“Let me rephrase that. Are you afraid I’m going to hurt you?”

I thought hard about it. About how he’d watched me, refused to let Billy leave with me, stopped choking Billy to put a protective arm around my waist…

“No,” I finally said.

“Good girl,” he murmured.

Effortlessly, he carried me through the bar's front doors and outside.

The chilly air hit me, and I curled into Kage, burying my face in his neck, taking comfort in his warm embrace and the familiar scent of his skin. When he stopped walking, I realized he’d carried me to an ambulance where two EMTs were waiting, the back doors of the vehicle already open.

“Rohypnol,” Kage said darkly. One EMT immediately climbed into the ambulance and started grabbing things.

“Alright, Camille,” the other EMT said. “We’re going to look you over. Give you fluids and something to help counter the drug.” He looked at Kage. “You sure you don’t want us to take her to the hospital?”

Carefully, Kage lowered me to my feet and shook his head. “Check her over. If she needs to go, take her. But if she’ll be okay, we want to avoid that.”

We? Since when were Kage and I awe? And how had the EMT known my name?

Didn’t matter. I was just gladwewere on the same page. The last thing I wanted was to go to a hospital, increasing the chances that our school administrators—or worse, my father—would learn of my stupidity.

Suddenly, Brooke appeared by our side. “Kage, let’s go. She’s fine.”

Kage turned to her and said something I couldn’t hear because the EMTs were asking me questions, taking my blood pressure, and shining a light in my eyes. I drank down a pill and what felt like five gallons of water. At some point, Kage escorted Brooke into an Uber then came back to stand next to me, his expression watchful. I had the crazy thought that the EMTs better watch out, because if they made a wrong move that made me the slightest bit uncomfortable, Kage would probably kill them.

It was then I realized I’d lied to Kage. Iwasafraid he would hurt me, just not physically. Before, he’d been my best friend’s gorgeous brother, someone so far out of reach he was never even a possibility.

Now he was a guy who had protected me.

A guy who had carried me to safety in his arms.

I had a feeling my crush was about to turn into a full-blown obsession.

Chapter 2

Camille

“Can I go yet?” I asked the EMT who was treating me.

It had been over an hour and the effects of the drug had worn off. My mind had cleared, but as my senses settled in, so did the humiliation of everything that had happened.

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