Page 66 of Cruel Devotion

He forced a rough swallow, then urged me to hurry with him down the way he’d come. “Davina saw her running through the parking lot and got worried. She saw that she looked scared and when she stopped her, Haley told her that Preston…”

I stared at him, willing him not to say my worst fear. “What the fuck did he do?” I pulled him to a stop as fear and rage built inside me. “What did that asshole do?”

“He didn’t. She got away, but she’s scared and it looks like he hit her. She said he cornered her, and she fought back but ran away.”

You’re dead, Preston. You aredead.

Running faster, I swore I’d end his life for daring to touch her. For wanting to hurt her. We had both been trying to avoid him at all costs. I hadn’t seen him directly bullying her anymore, but I doubted that meant he stopped when I wasn’t around. I’d noticed his attention on us.

“Davina texted me and I said to bring her to our room. To the dorm. Because she was too panicked and didn’t have a ride to her house yet.”

I nodded, sprinting with him the rest of the way to the dorm. The only thing that kept me sane was the reminder that I forced on myself that she was okay. That she was safe and unharmed.

She was at the dorm. No one could break into my room.

She wasn’t alone. Davina was with her.

Preston didn’t…

A growl of anger rose up within me at the thought of him violating her. Of touching her at all.

I ran up the stairs with Finn. Like a madman, I sprinted up to our floor, dashed down the hall, and stopped at our door. “Haley?” I pounded my fist. “Davina?” More knocks.

They didn’t wait to answer. Davina opened the door, and Haley didn’t give me long enough to fully enter the room before launching herself into my arms, jumping up for a hug.

She lunged at me so fast, I didn’t get a good look at her. But the first second I had her in my embrace, feeling her soft brown hair against my face, I closed my eyes and savored the feel of her with me.

Safe.

Mine.

Never Preston’s.

Once again, the fury escalated. I had never been more pissed in my life.

“What did he do?” I backed up, cupping her face as I pulled away. It was impossible to let her go, but I had to look into her deep, green eyes and see for myself that she was all right.

“We’ll leave you two alone,” Finn said, exiting with Davina and giving us privacy.

Haley stared up at me with wide-open eyes of alarm. But her panic faded. I saw it as she calmed down in my arms.

“He came after me. He was following me before and after my last class, and when I walked to the library, he cornered me and…”

When she tried to lower her head again, I urged her to face me. “Please.” It was destroying me from the inside out that she had suffered or been afraid of him at all. Now that we had found this deep connection neither of us wanted to give up, I couldn’t stand the idea of her in pain or being ashamed.

“He attacked and tried to…”

I ground my teeth together, losing control on my anger.

“He called me a whore.”

But that wasn’t anything different from what she’d heard before. She had built up resilience to that.

“And he was mad that I’d put out for you but not him.”

I let go of her and backed up, pacing. I teetered on a fine edge right now, so close to caving to the urge to kill him.

“He’ll try to use me to go after you, manipulating us both, but when he sees that you and I have something real, he gets jealous and tries to, what, take you from me?” It was ludicrous, but as I said it, she nodded, seeming to believe it.

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