Page 102 of Fighting Fate (Granton University 1)

“Where are they?” Bailey asked, squinting as she eased closer. “Is that…is that the food court?”

The food court?

Paige forgot to breathe as she studied the buildings instead of the dead person lying on the ground. It was the food court, less than a block away from The Squeeze.

“Logan!”

She didn’t think, she just moved, lunging for the doorway. Bailey caught her just as she unbolted the top lock. Hooking her around Paige’s waist, she hauled Paige backward, Tess joining in to the assist her when Paige resisted.

“Paige! What are you doing? Are you insane?”

“He’s out there.” She struggled harder against both girls. “Let me go! Oh my God, let me go.” When a sob hiccupped from her throat, she wiggled and twisted with more fervor.

Bailey cursed and Tess ducked when Paige’s elbow inadvertently swung her way. Finally, her suitemates propelled her backward enough to tackle her onto Mariah’s bed.

“You…are…not…leaving…this room.” Bailey panted, out of breath.

Tess stroked her hair in a soothing manner. “Just relax, sweetie. Logan is fine. He’s just fine.”

Paige only tensed harder, trying to buck her friends off her. “How do you know that? He said he was going to—”

“Well, you’re not going out there to check on him without thinking. God, Paige, think!” Bailey sat up and off her, brushing her multi-colored hair out of her face. “You didn’t even try his cell phone first.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Tess sat up too. “Let’s just call him and have him tell you he’s okay.”

“Okay.” Paige wheezed out a breath, forcing herself to calm down and think logically. But her body just wouldn’t unwind; alarm warnings were going off all over inside her. Logan was in trouble; she just knew it.

She couldn’t lose him. She’d already lost too many people in her life. Not Logan too. She still itched to dash for the door and physically find him.

But she did the rational thing first. She called his cell phone with fingers that could barely dial through all the shaking.

“He’s not answering.” She squeezed her eyes closed. “Why isn’t he answering?”

Tess bit her lip and glanced at Bailey before saying, “Maybe he hadn’t gone to the juice bar yet to pick up his phone.”

Or maybe he was that shadowed figure lying in his own blood they wouldn’t take off the screen of her television.

Her whole body began to shake.

The gunman had disappeared down another dark alley and was out of the view of the camera, but the motionless figure in the middle of the street hadn’t moved, would probably never move again.

Tears flooded her lashes. “Logan, where are you?”

Chapter Thirty-Four

PAIGE ESCAPED THROUGH THE BATHROOM.

After she, and Tess, and Bailey called every possible place Logan might be with no answer from any of them, she went into the bathroom, telling her friends, she needed a moment alone. But as soon as she closed the door to her room, she opened the door to theirs.

She unlatched all the locks with trembling fingers, trying to be as quick and silent as possible so her suitemates wouldn’t hear. And finally, she was in the hallway, free to find Logan. A few doors opened, big round, scared eyes peeking out, asking her what was going on. But she didn’t pause as she rushed for the exit at the end of the hall. She took the stairs two and a time and pushed her way outside within seconds.

The world was eerily quiet, the campus lawns totally deserted. In the distance, she saw the news helicopter hovering over the food court district and headed that way.

She raced down the street, keeping close to the bushes and trees for cover. When she neared the west end of campus, her breathing escalated.

Scared to death, she plowed forward anyway, more afraid she’d never see Logan again than actually encountering a madman with a huge gun.

Reaching out to touch the solid surface of Jamison Hall, the arts department building, she slowed her pace with growing hesitance, not sure how to creep up to The Squeeze without crossing an open, exposed street.

---