Disgusted, I approached, and he stood, that gun back on me. I lifted my hands again. “Bryce—”
“No. Fuck!” He brought the gun up to his temple, shaking again and my eyes grew wide.
“Bryce.”
“No, Knight. No!” A blubbering mess, tears shot down from his eyes. “You know the pressure. You know who we are to this place, and I can’t, I…” He stabilized the gun against his head. “I can’t go down for that.”
His finger moved around the trigger, and outside of everything else, even when I had that gun pointed toward my face, I hadn’t been experiencing the terror that froze me now. It was because I knew what he was about to do…
And what the would mean for me after.
Greer
Knight Reed…
Holy fucking shit.
The beer bottles shook in my hands as I made my way upstairs. Bryce said he headed up to his room to get something real quick and I could give him his there, my brain spinning at the course of events. I hadn’t seen or heard from Knight in at least ten goddamn years, not since he’d gone crazy, killed a dog, and basically gotten my mom and me kicked out his house.
Wild.
He’d really gone fucking crazy. Had to have since he’d killed a dog. I mean, what kind of eleven-year-old boy did that? And had the nerve to look triumphant about it. The whole thing had been sick, and needless to say, it’d scared the crap out of me. I’d told my mom who’d told his grandpa, and though I’d been pretty young at the time, his grandfather’s annoyance at the whole thing had been pure fact. Next thing I knew, my mom and I had been asked to leave Knight’s house, my mom jobless, and later, the two of us homeless. We’d literally lived in my mom’s car until I hit middle school, searching for steady work and a safe place to live that long. There had been no hope in Maywood Heights, not after Knight’s grandpa had gotten through with us. Again, I’d been young, but from what I understood, I’d been a witness to scandal and his grandfather hadn’t wanted any of that for his grandkid.
The golden boy with a chip on his shoulder.
God fuck, had he been smug now, asking all nonchalantly how my mom was like he hadn’t put us both out on our asses so many years ago. My only annoyance was that he’d been fucking hot, large with these big hands that could just…
Shaking all the shit out, I basically gave a little war cry. I could handle Knight Reed. I might not have been able to then, being young, but I could now. In any sense, I clearly was hanging with his friend Bryce tonight so maybe I wouldn’t have to see him anymore.
I forced out the images of a strong back and huge arms that could probably take no effort at all to rail me freaking good. I didn’t have a whole lot of experience with that considering I was a virgin, but my dildo, Mr. Sprinkles, definitely did the job any college guy could do.
At least that was what I convinced myself.
Blowing air through my lips, I forced the thoughts of Knight out of my mind and headed to the second door on the left. Bryce’s text said that was his room. Lifting the bottles, I started to knock, but heard voices, Bryce’s and someone else’s. Muffled, I couldn’t really hear anything, and they might not have heard me knock anyway. After all, they were talking.
Instead, I decided to invite myself in and almost dropped the bottles on the floor the moment I made contact with Knight Reed’s eyes. He was in there, in there with Bryce, and the instant I waltzed through the door, his dark gaze slipped over to me. I had no idea what to make of that until my own gaze shifted over to Bryce. He said something, something about not being able to go down for something.
A pop, just one, and reality as I knew it shifted before me. The beer bottles dropped from my hands as I jumped, something wet hitting my face, and when I opened my eyes, my arms were covered in red. My white, long-sleeve shirt had spots, my hands dotted the same, and when I gazed down, I saw Bryce amongst shattered glass and wasted booze, a flow of blood pooling the floor around his head. He had a gun in his hand, a freaking gun.
“Greer…”
My gaze shot over to Knight Reed, eyes the color of a young buck’s coat twitched wide with absolute horror. The expression on his face matched, my body and limbs covered in blood like something out of Carrie.
I fell, so slow and like nothing in the movies. It was like I was outside of myself watching me fall, peering on as Knight called my name again. Things went so, so hazy.
But then they gratefully went dark.
Chapter Three
Knight
I caught her before she hit the ground.
Shit. Shit. Fuck.
Honest to shit I hadn’t expected Bryce to actually off himself. I’d just wanted to scare him a bit, threaten him with the truth…
But not this.
Greer’s weight felt nothing but light in my arms. Most barbells I lifted were three times heavier than that. I tapped her face with my fingers. “Greer?”
She’d seen everything, but gratefully wasn’t seeing anything now. A Coventry with a hole blasted into his head, but at least that was the side he’d fallen on.
My grandpa is going to freaking kill me.
The man wasn’t one for drama and this whole situation would definitely do that for him. I obviously had to call him after this, bring in the heavy artillery to get me the fuck out of this, but at the present, all I was seeing was a flush face, a girl with her eyes closed and covered in blood. She looked awful, and this was my fault.
What do I do? What do I do?
My first thought was to run with her, get her out of this situation. If she wasn’t here, she didn’t see anything and the fact that no one was rushing up here now let me know the party downstairs was at least doing something. That base I could feel in my chest, our frat house in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. We had a bit of a cabin setting over here, out in the nature and the woods for hiking and shit. There was a lot of money that came through here, therefore we got the privacy we wanted.
And thank fuck for that now.
I gave it no more thought before picking Greer up and hooking her arms around my neck. I was going to get her out here, no witnesses but Bryce and me. The fact of the matter was she was a loose end my grandfather definitely didn’t need to know about that.
“Greer? I need you to wake up for me, baby.” Where the “baby” came from I didn’t fucking know, my finger curled against her jaw. She moaned, but didn’t do anything more than that, and without thought, I cursed before holding her and wiping away any evidence she or I had been in the room. Obviously, the beer bottles were there, but for all the police would know, Bryce was just attempting to get piss ass drunk before killing himself.
At least that’s what Grandfather would most likely convince them of.
I’d be calling him as soon as I got Greer out of here, and after taking my scotch and the glass, I headed out the back way through the room. All our rooms led to balconies and then outside, something I took advantage of right away. The garages were out back there too, and after finding my ride, a dark Escalade, I shoved Greer inside.
She moaned again, lolling her little head, but gratefully didn’t wake up. I didn’t need her fighting me. I was trying to get her out of here. I strapped in, opened the garage, then zoomed the fuck out of there. I put the cabin in my rearview mirror as I headed off in the direction of campus. I didn’t know where I was going, but at the present, any place was better than where we were.