Page 79 of The Freshman

“No, I’m not getting inthere.”

He tried to pull free, scrapped hisheels on the road in his desire to escape, but the man was strongand yanked painfully on his cuffs. The trunk of the car poppedopen, and he was bundled inside.

Alfie tried to get back out, but thelid came down fast and he had to duck to avoid it. He curled in thefetal position and waited. He was being kidnapped by a man he hadnever seen before, one with crazed brown eyes and tattooedhands.

More turns, more bumps in the road.Alfie’s face rubbed on the bristly interior of the car, and hepicked up the smell of mud and earth. He spent longer in the carthan in the prison van, and when the wheels screeched, Alfie bracedhimself for impact. They didn’t collide with anything but slowed toa stop on what sounded like gravel.

Alfie readied himself to leap up atthe man and lash out with his bound hands, but when the trunkopened, it wasn’t the brown eyes that greeted him but deep blueones.

Wrinkles formed around Nate’s eyes ashis lips lifted in a smile, and he laughed softly. “There’s myFreshman.”

Alfie widened his eyes, and his mouthfell unflatteringly open.

Nate snorted and reached inside toscoop him up. He held Alfie with ease, then lowered his feet to theground and steadied him.

Alfie didn’t bother taking in hissurroundings. The first thing he did was slam his cuffed hands intoNate’s nose.

Arms wrapped around him and tugged himaway. The masked man with the brown eyes tightened his grip untilAlfie could barely breathe.

Alfie’s feet crunched on gravel, andhe flashed a look at his surroundings. It looked a lot like afarmyard, but an unused one, with a barn with a caved in roof, anda house ridden with Ivy.

Nate bowed over with his hands cuppinghis face, and blood dribbled through the cracks in hisfingers.

Alfie’s attention snapped back to him,but he didn’t feel guilty. He was glad Nate’s eyes watered, and hisnose ran with blood.

“You want me to knock himout?”

Nate shook his head. “No, let himgo.”

“But he just—”

“I said let him go. Getthe van ready.”

The coil around Alfie’s chestvanished, and he gulped at the air, awkwardly rubbing his sore ribswith his elbow.

Nate studied him and bunched hiseyebrows together. He held his hands up in surrender, releasing thestreams of vibrant red from his nose. “I deserve that.”

“You le—left me.” Alfiegasped, hating the hitch in the voice but unable to helpit.

Nate closed his eyes. “I had to. Icouldn’t fix you. You would’ve died if I took you withme.”

“Your escape plan, itcould’ve killed me. Then you abandoned me, and I got arrestedbecause of you.”

Nate opened his eyes. They lost theirintensity with the red more dominant on his chin and t-shirt. “Thatwasn’t supposed to be how it went.”

Alfie shook his head and blinked backthe sting in his eyes. “Then tell me.”

“I would’ve escaped, thensent you a message. Gave you the option of joining me, but if youdecided to stay at Larkwood, carry on working as a prison officer,I would’ve let you. I would have vanished and not bothered youagain. You weren’t supposed to be in the car. You weren’t supposedto get hurt, and I couldn’t leave you there. I couldn’t see youlike that. I couldn’t ignore you calling out for me, so I tookyou.”

Alfie’s lip quivered, and he sunk histeeth into the traitorous flesh.

Nate winced on his behalf and took astep forward, but Alfie waved him back.

“Then you dumpedme.”

Nate scrunched his face. “Only adoctor could help you, not me, and I thought after a few weeks,month, I’d be able to get a message to you, but then you werearrested, and I knew they’d be monitoring your house. I didn’tleave anything in my cell that linked us together. I swearit.”

Alfie dropped his gaze and nodded atthe ground. “I kept the sketch, and the post its, andvoicemails.”

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