Page 15 of Battling the Enemy
She ran.
Delaney ran, and I ran after her, and as I ran, I heard footsteps thundering behind me. Ramsey, Liam, Emerson, and Linnie were hot on my tail. I knew Ramsey and Liam were following as accomplices, whereas the girls were running after me to make sure I didn’t kill Delaney.
Because I couldn’t say I wouldn’t once I got my hands on her.
I’ll admit this thing with her was happening rather quickly, but she’s had plenty of opportunities to tell me something was going on between her and Reynolds. She could have mentioned him when I kissed her. She could have mention in all throughout second and third period. She. Could. Have. Mentioned. Him. And even though she claimed that she was going to tell me after school today, Winston challenging me in front of everyone-in front ofher, changed the game. There was a reason he told me now in front of everyone. I just didn’t know what that reason was yet, but I would find out.
I had just rounded the corner to see Delaney slamming her locker shut, her backpack hanging off her shoulder. She was leaving.“Delaney!”
She froze and looked over at me. There was only twenty feet of hallway separating us, but it felt like an ocean. Her eyes went to my bloody hands and a sickness so depraved rose up inside of me. The darkness I kept hidden; the needs that made me mentally unbalanced…all of it rose to the surface.
I wanted to fuck her with her fiancé’s blood all over my hands.
I wanted to watch streaks of his blood stain her body as I drove into her; his blood on her skin with her blood on my cock.
The thunderous footsteps stopped behind me and I knew everyone was frozen, waiting for my next move. And my next move was to get out of here. If I touched her…if I breathed her in, I was going to take from her things I had no right to take from her unwillingly. That’s how far gone I was in my rage and sick need for her.
“Make sure she’s okay,” I said, my words echoing throughout the hallway, before I turned and left everyone behind me.
If I stayed, I would have ruined Delaney Martin, and I wanted her around for the long haul.
Chapter 10
Delaney~
Ihad my feet curled up underneath my ass, hugging a pillow to my chest, wondering how everything went so wrong.
After Deke had left, I heard through gossip that Winston had to be carried to the nurse’s office where they had to send him to the hospital. Deke had broken his nose and fractured a cheekbone.
I closed my eyes at the memory.
Never in a million years did I ever think that, one day, Deke Marlow would be fighting over me. It had been surreal and scary as hell. Witnessing the fact that it had taken both Ramsey and Liam to pull him off Winston was a testament to how enraged Deke had been. But what was really stupid was I somehow felt as if it had all been my fault, even though, I knew it wasn’t.
None of this was my doing, I told myself for the millionth time. I’m not the one who pursued Deke. I’m not the one who kissed him. I’m not the one who dragged him to class. And I didn’t feel the need to tell him about Winston because it hadn’t been any of his business.
But seeing how serious Deke became at Winston’s confrontation had me reevaluating a lot of my earlier beliefs. I used to think this was a bet or a game Deke was playing for entertainment value, but the image of him standing in the hallway, blood on his hands and clothes, looking like an avenging dark angel changed my mind.
That was too much emotion to be faked.
A cup of tea blocked my vision and I set the pillow down on my lap to take it. Ava held her cup in her hand as she sat next to me. Knowing Deke had left school premises, I had managed to finish the rest of my school day. Ava had spent every second she could with me, but when she hadn’t been with me, Ramsey, Liam, Emerson, or Roselyn had been close by. When we were in the hallway, I had heard Deke call to them to look out for me, but I hadn’t really expected them to.
“Why would Winston do that?” Ava asked. “No one in their right mind would confront anyone in that group like that.” As ballsy as Ava was, even she knew better than to confront anyone in that group.
So, she wasn’t wrong, and it was one of the many questions that have been plaguing me all afternoon. I took a sip of my hot tea before I said, “I don’t know, Ava. It doesn’t make any sense. Winston hadn’t needed to do that.” It still didn’t make sense no matter how much I mulled over it in my head. “Even if Winston didn’t think I was going to tell Deke about our arrangement, he had to know that Ramsey would have.”
Ava curled her legs under her ass and mirrored my position. “Maybe he thought he could piss Deke off enough to leave you alone? Maybe Winston thought that if…I don’t know, that if you were a cheater or deceitful, Deke would leave you alone.”
I shook my head. “Why, though?” I asked. “Winston’s been living the single life for years. He’s never been interested in what I was doing. If he could sleep with other girls all these years and keep it just sex, why wouldn’t he think I could do the same? Why feel threatened all of the sudden?”
Ava shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know,” she replied. “Maybe because it’s Deke.”
I was getting a headache trying to make sense of this mess. “Who cares which boy it is? Winston never cared which girl it was.”
Ava nibbled on her lower lip in thought before suggesting, “Maybe because Deke’s never shown an interest in a girl before, beyond a night in bed.” She set her tea down on the table and got serious. “Deke chasing after you is a big deal, Delaney. It was a big deal when he did it on Friday, and it was a big deal when he kissed you this morning, and it’s a really big fucking deal that he fought over you. Deke Marlow is one of the three most influential and powerful people in this town, Delaney. His interest in youisa threat to your agreement with Winston. If Deke is playing for keeps, how is Winston supposed to compete with that?”
“Jesus Christ, Ava,” I muttered. “It’s not like we’re getting married after graduation or anything. We’re not even supposed to get married for another four years. And who’s to say Winston doesn’t meet a girl who rocks his world while he’s at college? It’s an agreement between two families made years ago, not the damn Ten Commandments.”
“Maybe all of Winston’s whoring around blinded you to the fact that this arrangement is real to him. I mean, the agreement wasn’t signed in blood or anything, either one of you could change your minds now that you’re adults, and your parents couldn’t do anything about it.”
