Страница 8 из 62
“Steve,” she said, and when he glanced at her, her heart skipped a beat.
“I can’t.”
“Okay. I won’t ask.” Perplexed, she took a deep breath and leaned back. “I don’t have any classes today,” she replied, handing him her schedule. Her Tuesdays and Thursdays were loaded, and with the exception of a couple Wednesday classes, the rest of her schedule was blank.
Steve handed it back. “Bitch.” He tilted his schedule so she could see. “I’ve got classes every day starting at eight.”
“Aww,” Je
“Here they come,” he said under his breath.
Je
“Was it really that bad?” Steve asked.
Je
“It wasn’t all that pleasant for me either,” Steve barked at her. “You are a bitch.” He stood and walked away.
Je
Bill took off after Steve, grabbing his arm and swinging him around. “You need to apologize to her.”
“Fuck you.” Steve yanked his arm from Bill’s grasp and stormed away, disappearing around the rear of the student center.
Bill’s jaw went slack and he headed back to where Je
“What the hell were you two thinking?” Je
Bill looked away. “He didn’t seem like one when I met him over the summer. I thought you two would be perfect together. You both know what it’s like to lose someone and I thought…,” he trailed off and shrugged.
Her eyes narrowed. “That was the qualification of setting us up?”
“Jen,” Tracy sighed.
“That is such a bullshit reason!” She started to walk away and Bill caught her arm. “Let go!”
“Don’t be mad at Tracy. This was all my idea, not hers.”
Je
“I’m sorry, Jen. I thought you two would hit it off.” Tracy wouldn’t meet Je
Je
“It’s a haul, Jen,” Bill said.
“Then I’ll swing by the frat house. Someone there can bring me home, right?”
Bill shrugged. “True.”
Je
“Are you mad at me?” Tracy asked.
Je
“You know I love you, right?”
Je
Chapter 6
Je
Steve rammed her against a big oak out of sight from the walking path. His eyes sparkled. “Sorry I scared you.” He leaned in to kiss her and stopped inches from her lips, staring into her eyes. “I’m not so sure you really know what you want.” He pulled back a little and let the edges of his mouth curve upwards.
Je
“You what?” Her ragged breath smelled like ci
Je
Steve stared up at her with wide eyes from his vantage point on the ground. “Damn girl,” he uttered when he regained the capacity to breathe.
Je
“I’ll have to spar with you sometime.” He picked himself up and brushed the dirt off his shorts.
“You would lose.”
He laughed, musical and full. “Next time you’ll be on the ground.”
“Want to bet?”
He snorted and began to walk away. Je
“So what did I win?” He barely concealed a smirk, masking it with a devilish grin.
A thousand thoughts flew through her mind but the one that slipped through her lips almost made her laugh. “The right to protect me any time you want.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “That’s a given.” He stood and helped her up, attempting to brush the dirt off the back of her pretty, white skirt. “You’re go
She arched, trying to look at the back of her skirt but only saw the edges of dirt. “Can you take me back?”
Steve glanced at his watch. “Sure, I’ve got a little time.”
They walked to his car, keeping an eye on the parking lot and the student center for Bill and Tracy. Fortune ran with them. No one they knew saw them slide into Steve’s car.
“Who do you work for?” she asked after a few miles of silence.
“I told you I can’t discuss this with you.”
“Local police? State police? What?”
“Let it go.” He gave her a sideways look before focusing back on the road. “Please.”
Je
Steve sucked the air in and shook his head slightly. Je
Je
“Jen?”
She turned back.
“I need to go somewhere and I’d really like company.” He offered a nervous smile.
“Oh. Okay, I’ll be a couple minutes.” She trotted inside.
* * * *
Her dirty skirt swayed with her stride and Steve smiled a little. He sighed, closed his eyes, and tilted his head back against the headrest.
He had been doing field operations for close to five years, recruited right out of high school. He graduated at the top in his class from the academy and received a commendation for his first undercover assignment at Yale nailing a serial rapist.
Peggy went everywhere with him, and after his first collar he asked her to marry him. The relationship had been a quiet one, no tension, no fighting, nothing, just simple adoration and no warning signals hinting at her unbalanced state. After re-examining their life together, over and over and over, every day since she killed herself, he still didn’t see any clear-cut sign.
After she died, he turned reckless with his career and his private life, requesting the most dangerous assignments and bedding every hot babe he came across despite his boss’ reproach. He felt no fear, no remorse, no passion, just a cold shell driven by a boiling anger.
This assignment was a little slower pace than the rat race of drugs and mafia games he chased over the last couple of years. When undercurrents of bizarre hazing rituals found its way into the bureau, they pulled him from a job in the city. His boss wanted him here, wanted his insight and his ability to blend in. And catching the son of a bitch was no longer a choice for him, not since finding the carnage in the woods this summer. It was now a need motivated by fury.
He opened his eyes and looked at the building. Je