Holding On To Heaven (Allendale Four 2)

“What about the other two girls?” I asked. “Samantha and the redhead.”

“Ruthie,” Anderson said. “She has bio with us and there’s something going on there.”

“Something how?” Jackson asked.

“She watches us a lot and it definitely unnerves Heaven. I think she gives her flashbacks to high school drama.”

“What do you want to do? How do we handle this?” I asked, “Because she shut me out.”

“Me too,” added Hayden.

“Call her mom?” Jackson asked.

I shook my head. “She’d kill us and with everything going on with her dad…god knows how he’d handle it.”

Anderson and Jackson exchanged looks. “How about we go over. See if we can get her to talk? Maybe she needed a minute to cool off.”

I didn’t think so, but it wasn’t a bad idea. “You guys do that. We’ll wait here with the car if you need us.”

Anderson nodded and Jackson stuck out his fist for me to bump it. “Take care of her,” I said.

“We will. We’ll get her the help she needs.”

Hayden and I watched as they hopped off the porch and into the rain.

“I’m worried about her,” I admitted. “Really fucking worried.”

Hayden threw his arm around my shoulder. “Me too, but it’ll be okay. We’ve been down this road before.”

I knew he was right, but as Anderson and Jackson ran toward her building I couldn’t shake the feeling building up inside. Heaven was in trouble and I may have destroyed any chance I had to help her.

26

Heaven

“Be safe.”

It was something I couldn’t promise Oliver. Not when everything around me was falling apart. I rode the elevator to my floor and unlocked the door with my key. Sam

antha sat on the couch, headphones on and the distinct sound of a couple having sex floated through the room.

I connected eyes with Samantha and whispered, “Amber?”

But a man’s grunt caught me off guard and I glanced toward the closed door of Ruthie’s room. Wow.

I froze, listening to Ruthie and her partner reach their climax. They were loud and totally abandoned. Samantha wisely clamped her earphones back on her head. For some reason, my feet wouldn’t move.

That was until the bedroom door opened and Ruthie stepped outside wrapped in a silk bathrobe, her long red hair hanging over her shoulder. My eyes flicked behind her and I saw her partner in the bed, hair wild and face sweaty. My heart jerked in my chest when I saw him; Noah, shirtless and well-fucked in Ruthie’s bed.

“Sorry we made so much noise. I hope we didn’t disturb you,” Ruthie said, rummaging around the refrigerator.

My gaze shifted between the two and Noah just shrugged with a smirk on his face.

Rage took over.

“What the fuck?” I said, barging into Ruthie’s room. I heard the refrigerator door shut in the other room. Spinning, I slammed the door right in her face and locked it. “What the hell are you doing?”

“You bailed on me tonight, Heaven, and an interesting opportunity presented itself.” He frowned and whispered conspiratorially, “I don’t think your roommate likes you very much.”