Page 69 of Prey

“How dangerous?”

I leaned in, “He found out I slept with someone and sent me their tooth.”

“You sleep with a lot of men?”

“That’s the worst thing you got out of what I said. Not the tooth part, but the sleeping part.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“The tooth had blood on it,” I added so he’d get the message.

“Really? Fascinating. Does he need a job?”

“What?” was he joking?

“We could use a heavy around here. We pay well. Tell,” air quotes again, “’ Rourke’ that we could use a security officer.”

“Oh, no, no, no, that would be the worst scenario ever. He already stalks me and turns up in my room. I don’t want to work with him as well.”

“So, if I wanted you all to myself, I’d have to kill Rourke?” he offered with a straight face.

“I’m sorry. What?” I was a little stunned by that loaded question.

“Nothing. Listen, if this guy is real-”

“He’s real,” I state firmly. I had sex with the man, and I had his cock in my mouth, hitting the back of my throat. I tasted his salty cum. I felt his warm hands caress the back of my neck and run over my naked skin. The man is real.

“If he is real, he sounds nuts, so maybe I could help you sort him out.”

“Sort him out?”

“Is there an echo here?”

The bright lights of the bus coming this way caught my eye. If I missed this bus, the next one wasn’t for another twenty minutes, so I had to go now. “I have to go,” I rushed away from him.

“I’ll walk you across the road,” he offered. “It’s dark. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Rourke’s text circled in my mind:Good men don’t let nice girls walk home in the dark.

True. Ronan seemed like a good man, but if he got too close to me, I’d worried what Rourke would do to him. Rourke was crazy as heck, and in a way, I was reluctant to see how badly he beat him. But worse, I was shocked at how much I loved Rourke doing that. Pitting revenge on a man who hurt me was the ultimate compliment, and Annika relished the vigilante trope. On the other hand, Riley worried about the consequences as it might smack Rourke and me back in the face, particularly if Shaun had friends who might gang up on Rourke in retaliation.

Once I boarded the bus, I found a window seat and waved goodbye to Ronan, who stood on the pavement, hands in his pockets, watching me go. That body in a white buttoned shirttucked into black dress pants—a physique of slender, hard muscle—was divine.

Naturally, I scanned the area street for that distinctive shiny black Mustang and hoped like hell that he didn’t see me talking to Ronan. As the bus pulled further away from Savile and Ronan, my muscles relaxed, and I closed my eyes, sinking into a half-sleep. I was aware of the noises around me as dreams floated behind my eyes.

The bus pulled up to my stop outside Gotland University, and several people climbed off and quickly dispersed into the night. Plenty of streetlights lit up the college entrance and throughout the main areas of the campus, but many corners and pockets were starved of light.

Keeping under the yellow glow of the lights, I threw my bag over my shoulder and started running. Annika loved to run, Riley loved to swim, and Petra loved to wash dishes. I snorted in laughter at the ridiculousness of my situation and wished it wasn’t this way, but it’s impossible to go back now.

Nerves curled in my stomach as I approached a greenspace surrounded by flowering brushes cast in shadow. The nearest security lights were several feet away, and normally, I’d avoid this area and take an alternative route, but it took another five minutes.

If I were smart, I’d go that way, but I didn’t want to stop my rhythm, so I propelled forward through the dark patch. Under my breath, I heard a twig snap and foliage rustle, and the bright side of the road was in sight.

Foliage rustled again, and vehicle headlights, beaming through a line of trees, blinded me momentarily. Once my night sight was normalized, I moved out of the shadows toward the road that led to my dorm, Hallen Hall, but noticed that the sedan was parked on the side of the road.

As I approached the road, two doors opened on the parked sedan, and alarm bells went off in my head. I stalled and turned back toward where I came because that car looked suspiciously like the one I’d seen follow me.

I decided to go back through the greenspace and take the alternative route I should’ve used in the first place if I wasn’t in such a hurry to climb into bed. The car doors banged behind me and I swiftly spun around to see if they were coming this way.

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