Page 6 of Men Who Yearn
Sweat drops roll down my back as I nod.
“Don’t move.Don’t make a sound,” he adds, his voice low … almost threatening.
Not wanting to aggravate him further, I agree.It’s the best shot I have at getting away from him as soon as possible.He removes his hand, but when I turn to see who it is, my jaw drops and I feel faint.
“Mr.Rivera?”
His dark eyes bore into mine, as if to impale me with a secret I’ll be forced to keep or die with.
I swallow down the panic.
What is he doing?
A rock flicks against the stone we’re huddled behind.
SNAP!
His hand dives into his pocket and my eyes widen again when he pulls out a gun.
Oh God.
He gets up, and my eyes instinctively close to avoid looking into the barrel as I expect to be shot.
“Stay down,” Rivera barks.
BANG!
My body jolts up and down from the sound.Someone groans in pain.
BANG!BANG!
Something makes a thudding sound as it drops to the floor like a sack of potatoes, and it makes my eyes burst open again.I slowly move to peek around the corner of the big stone.Somewhere a few feet away from us, between the trees and on the piles of leaves, lies a body … dripping with blood.
Fuck.
Mr.Rivera tucks his gun away and checks the man on the ground, turning over his floppy body to empty his pockets.All I want to do is make a run for it, but my body feels frozen against this cold stone.Mere seconds ago I thought I was the one who was going to die.
“Who is he?”I ask.
Mr.Rivera looks up at me after he’s done inspecting the man.Mr.Rivera wipes his hand on his pants and hisses, sucking in a breath.“Do you want the truth or a lie to soothe your conscience?”
He takes a step closer and I crawl backwards, but he winces in pain and falls to his knees, grunting.
I hold my breath, watching him for a moment.
He shot someone in cold blood right in front of me.
The dean of Spine Ridge University shot someone in the middle of the night right outside campus.In front of a student.
And it didn’t even faze him.
Is he going to kill me next?
Or did he try to protect me?
He lifts up his head and glances at me again before his hand rises from his outer thigh.
Blood cakes his palm.
