Page 35 of Always Red (Chasing Red 2)

Someone had alerted Coach while I was beating the crap out of Justin. Coach had sent us to the dean of our department, where I would have stayed longer if not for my mom phoning him.

I tried to pull my hand away from Red’s. She held on. “Hold still.”

I felt a soft cloth on my knuckles.

“Caleb?”

I took a deep breath, calmer now that she was within my reach. Where I could protect her.

“I’m okay, Red.”

“What happened?” she asked.

I desperately wished there was a way to protect her from this, to stop her from knowing what happened, but hiding it from her would only make things worse.

She was one of the toughest people I knew, but I was also aware of how vulnerable she was. And this was a huge violation of her privacy. It made me angry that I hadn’t stopped it from happening.

“Red. Listen. I’ll do everything to protect you. I’ll make sure there are no traces of that poster. You have to trust me.”

“I don’t understand. What poster?”

I ground my teeth. “Someone saw Justin putting up a poster in the locker room. It was a picture of you at the club where we met.” My hands fisted. “It had some writing on it.”

“Tell me.”

I looked down and shook my head slightly, grinding my teeth to dust.

“Tell me, Caleb.” I looked up at her tone. Her eyes were hard.

“It had a list of…fucking ugly things that you’d do for a fee. Fuck.”

When I saw the shock in her eyes, I wanted to yell like a madman. And when the shock turned into hurt, I wanted to beat Justin’s face to a pulp all over again. I reached to gather her in my arms, but she pushed me away.

“Don’t.” She balled her hands into fists on her lap to stop them from shaking.

“No.” I reached for her shoulders, turning her to me. “Don’t shut me out. Stay with me. Right here.” I held her face in my hands and kissed her lips. “I’m sorry this happened. I’m sorry, baby.”

She nodded.

“Listen,” I said. “There was only one poster in the locker room. As far as I know, only a few people on the team saw it.”

She shook her head. “There were…there were guys following me, and one of them gave me his phone number. It makes sense now why they were asking me about…those things.”

“Asking you what? Who are they?” It was a struggle for me to keep the anger at bay. “Did they hurt you?”

“No. No,” she said. “They didn’t hurt me. Just said a few things. I don’t remember who they were, Caleb. It doesn’t matter. Justin can’t get away with this.” She took a deep breath, and when she moved away, there was fire in her eyes.

That’s my girl.

“What should I do?” she asked. “I need to file a complaint with the department—” Suddenly, her eyes widened. “Caleb! What did the dean say? Did you…get suspended?” I could hear the worry in her voice. She was more worried about me than what had happened to her.

“No.” I probably would have if my mom hadn’t called the dean. She was a member of the school’s board. I hated using my name to get out of sticky situations, especially with my mom’s help. But I would fight dirty for Red.

“But the bastard got suspended and kicked off the team,” I added. Personally, I thought he should be kicked off the planet. But I knew how important it was to Justin to be on the basketball team. It elevated his status, made him feel superior. He still had a year before he graduated, and being suspended and spending the year off the team would not be easy for him. “This wasn’t the first time he did something like this.”

“What do you mean?”

“He emailed everyone a naked picture of his ex-girlfriend after she broke up with him.”

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