“Hayden’s a friend. My father knows that.”
“Does he?” He slipped the phone back in his pocket. “That website had some interesting information. Whoever concocted that plan was pretty smart.”
“Spencer is a psychopath.”
“Those two things are not mutually exclusive.” He ran a finger down my cheek and I jerked away.
“Two weeks,” I told him. “My father gets the funding and you get the hell away from me.”
“Or what?” he said.
“You don’t want to know the leverage I have on my side,” I said, knowing that if the guys found out about Noah they would tear him to pieces. I didn’t want that. It was too risky and they had too much on the line but the threat itself was solid.
He tilted his head at my statement, undeterred. “Study with me, tomorrow night.”
“Where?”
“In my room.”
The girl’s warning from earlier rang in my head.
“Not a chance.”
He lifted his chin, amused. “Library, then.”
“Main floor. In the study area. Nowhere private.” I gave him a smirk. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to be alone like that. I’d hate to tell my father that you’re pressuring me.”
If I thought sticking up for myself would make Noah back off, I was wrong. If anything, I was learning he liked a challenge. Noah Hancock wanted to break me—I had no doubt about that now.
I took the chance when a few of the other girls I learned lived in my dorm were leaving and followed them out the door. I was quiet on the way back, trying to figure out a way out of this situation. My father was no help. My mother was caught up in his world. The guys…they’d kill him. The best thing I could do was wait it out and hope he stuck to his promise.
The sun beamed down the following day, bathing the University in one last day of warmth before fall entered winter. The leaves had all fallen and the mornings and evenings were cool, but for a few hours in the afternoon everything was perfect, sunny, and warm.
I walked toward the dorm and heard the loud, familiar rumble of an engine turning down the road outside Stetson Hall. Shading my eyes, I looked up and saw Oliver hanging out the window.
“What are you doing?” I asked, walking up to the car.
“I came to see if you wanted to go for a ride.”
I looked at the stack of books in my hands and frowned at the idea of a study date tonight with Noah. “I’ve got a ton of work.”
He smiled, drop-dead gorgeous and persuasive in a way that had always hit me in the knees. His hair tousled in the fall breeze and his still-tan-from-summer face lit up when he looked at me. “Just for a few hours. I’ll get you back in plenty of time to shove your pretty little nose in those books.”
Just being in his presence was like a hit of adrenaline. “Okay,” I said, breaking into a grin. “Let’s get out of here.”
He crawled through the front seat to open the passenger side door and I tossed my books in the back. I’d worn a black skirt that went down to my knees and a soft gray sweater. The silver cross my daddy gave me hung around my neck and it glinted in the sunlight when I caught my reflection in the rearview mirror. I tried to ignore the dark cir
cles under my eyes, flipping up the visor.
Oliver took my hand and revved the engine, announcing to the world we were leaving campus.
The leather seats were old and cracked but they had a worn softness. I sunk into them and played with Oliver’s hand.
“I’ve missed you,” I said.
He lifted my hand and kissed it. “I didn’t know we’d been apart.”
I felt like it though—I felt like I’d gone on a trip for weeks, barely coming up for air. The sanctity of our relationship had been tested by an outside force and I didn’t know if I had the energy to keep it all up.