Page 10 of Eat You Alive (Court Legacy 4)

He had to be bluffing. Had to.

He didn’t look like it, his smile shifting into a smirk. It was arrogant, devious, and how stupid I’d been for falling for hisburying the hatchetshit before. It’d been too easy, and I’d given this guy way too much credit. His head cocked. “Wouldn’t even need to call him,” he said, peering over my face again. He did that a lot. Like he was looking for something, digging. He leaned forward. “After all, a background check would do the job just fine.”

My heart stopped, and he became translucent before me. He blurred, and I jumped when he touched my face.

His chuckle followed.

He drew a lazy line down my cheek, his thumb brushing over my lower lip. It came away red, my lipstick.

“Thought that’d get your attention,” he said, smearing my mouth more. I moved my head away, and he jerked it back with my hair. Tears pricked my eyes, but all that did was make him grip it more.

“Stop it.” I tried not to cry, beg, and I think his threats hurt more than his actual hand in my hair. I shook my head. “I’m sorry for what happened. I’m sorry if I hurt you but,please,you don’t need to—”

He got my jaw, his mouth hovering over mine. He dampened lips, and when he did, my eyes flashed. He looked like he’d kiss me.

Instead, he laughed.

All too quick he let go, his laughter full as if taunting me with the very thought. I gazed away, and he reached into his pocket.

“I’ll be texting you a time and a place,” he said, acting completely normal as if he hadn’t just threatened me. His thumbs tapped his phone casually. “Get your phone out.”

I did despite myself. He asked for my number, and though I didn’t want to give it, I did.

I wasn’t sure I had a choice.

He had so much power,informationthat could ruin my world. This school and that internship I’d been working toward for longer than this guy probably even had any goals for himself beyond masturbation and smoking weed. They were goals I was fighting for. Goals I needed.

Goals we needed.

I saw my life flash before my eyes when his line flashed on my screen. I didn’t answer but didn’t have to when he hung up.

“And when I do,” he said, continuing on with his earlier thoughts. Dark eyebrows narrowed. “You are to show. I don’t care where you are. I don’t care what you’re doing. You show up, and once you do, you might have an actual shot at me not making your life the complete and utter hell you deserve.” His expression chilled. “Because I haven’t forgotten about that shit you pulled. I won’t, but I might have a way to look past it.” He folded his arms. “I suppose that’s up to you. You show up, and when you do, we talk about a way you can repay your debt.”

He made it sound like I owed him something.

I supposed in his sick mind I did, and his friends were right about him. This guy was nothing but an animal, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

And I’d somehow become his next kill.

CHAPTERFOUR

Ares

Fawn Greenfield showed up on time.

Way to go, Red. You can follow directions.

She’d entered Jax’s Burgers with a camera bag on her arm, a thing she most assuredly took everywhere since she was shameless as shit. I’d dealt with my fair share of reporters, photographers. Things were finally starting to get normal in my life.

At least in that regard.

She noticed me right away at the back of the restaurant and hesitated by the door.

I lifted a hand, gesturing her forward. She came but not without slow steps in my direction.

And she actually looked like herself today.

A pair of ripped jeans hugged her thick thighs, her top cropped and displaying a sliver of her waist. She wasn’t shy about showing skin, her arms exposed and something different was her tattoos. A sea of blooming flowers trailed down her arm, watercolors. They blended into the scene of a koi fish swimming along her shoulder and reminded me of the tattoo on her foot. She’d had watercolors there too.

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