OBSESSED Series

Chapter 33

“Think I’ve got a chance with her now?” taunts the receiver, lashing out in his embarrassment over having his ass handed to him in front of a crowd. “Tell me the truth. She’s all cute and innocent in the streets, but she rides it nasty in the sheets, doesn’t she?”

I knock him out cold.

There is no word for the mixture of terror and rage inside of me. I’m sick to my stomach. I’m scared she’s in danger. I’m destitute without her. I hate myself.

Teeming with the sharpest edges of these emotions, I turn and run for the locker room. I have to get the keys to my truck. I have to go find her. Now. Now. Right the hell now. I’ll explain everything and I’ll apologize until she forgives me. There is no other option. I can’t live without Stella. I don’t want to. People call my name, but I hear next to nothing, save the rapid pounding of my heart. A heart that will stop beating without her.

In nothing but football pants and cleats and pouring sweat, I peel out of the parking lot minutes later, racing home. Hurtling through the entrance and shouting her name. She’s not there, though. She’s not there. Only her addicting scent. Battling the crippling disappointment, I struggle to think for a minute, then drive my truck back to campus and search her old dorm room while her roommate babbles at me and takes selfies with me in the background.

Not here.

Where is she?

Where…

And then I know.

I know exactly where to find her.

My blood runs ice cold.

I sit huddled in the embrace of the cove, the wind carrying droplets of salt water and stinging my cheeks. The moonlight keeps the beach from being totally dark, but that didn’t stop me from stumbling and falling twice in the forest on my way down the path. I have blood on my knees and the heels of my hands, but I don’t care. I’m numb. I’m shaking. I can’t move. It took all of my strength to get here and now I’m a statue on the sand. A monument to being gullible.

A sob breaks from my lips and I draw my knees up to my chest, rocking, tears coasting down my cheeks and over my mouth, dropping off my chin.

Stupid. How incredible stupid can I be?

I don’t have a chance to answer that for myself, because I’m distracted by the roar of an engine. Once the hum cuts out, I sit, immobile, staring at the clearing, positive some drunk students are going to come stumbling out onto the beach any moment, searching for privacy in which to make out. I never expect Gage to come striding out of the woods, bare chested in football pants. “Stella,” he chokes out, slowing to a stop and doubling over. “Oh thank God. Thank God you’re okay. I found you.”

Even now, when I know the awful truth, my heart still clamors at the sight of him. “You should be celebrating,” I murmur, dazed. Exhausted. Devastated.

“I don’t want to be anywhere but with you.” He approaches me slowly. Almost cautiously. But his eyes…his eyes are wild. Bloodshot. When he glimpses the blood on my hands and knees, he turns as pale as a ghost. “You’re hurt. You’re fucking hurt.”

“No, I’m not. I’m fine.”

He tears at his hair. “You shouldn’t have come here in the dark—”

“Stop.” I cover my eyes. “Just stop.” Quit acting like you care. It hurts.

A beat passes. “Stella, I can see you’ve closed yourself off to me. The way you’re looking at me is different and I can’t fucking stand it, honey. Please don’t do this. Please don’t believe what that idiot told you.” He falls to his knees in front of me and it’s impossible not to acknowledge how gorgeous he is. How chiseled. A God draped in moonlight, fresh from victory. “I lied. I lied to them.” He takes me by the shoulders, shaking me gently, the breath rattling in and out of his chest. “You showed up at practice and they…they were all lusting after you and it’s arrogant, God, I know it sounds arrogant, but the fact that you locked me down piqued their interest. No one has ever even turned my head. And they want to know why you did. They wanted to sample my treasure. And I couldn’t allow it. I’d go fucking mad if someone laid a finger on you. So I tried to…I told them I was only using you to repair my image, so they would fuck off and stop wanting what’s mine. I messed up. I knew right away I’d messed up and I was going to fix it tonight. I was too late.”