AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But listening to her be sexually harassed is the last thing I expected to hear coming through my earpiece.
I tune back in when her voice comes to life."I'm not going out with you, Matthew,"she says. Every fiber in my being wanted to march into her class and drag this guy out before beating him to a pulp. But I need to stay in character. She doesn't even know I'm listening to her right now, and it'll probably be unusual for me to morph into her knight in shining armor. I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths to calm myself. At the end of the day, this is still a mission. She’s still the target, and I can’t afford to get too close to her.
“...you should totally start an OnlyFans. I’d pay a premium price for exclusive content of that ass.”
I grip the steering wheel until my knuckles turn white. I’m surprised she didn’t slap him for that kind of comment, but she doesn’t have to worry. After I have a little chat with him after class, he won’t be bothering her much longer.
When I no longer hear his voice, I assume she’s moved away from him, as the teacher’s booming voice fills my ears soon after. The rest of her class goes on without any other incidents before they're finally dismissed. I quickly get out of my car and rush toward the English building. It doesn't take long to figure out the culprit, especially seeing how he's continued his harassment before he's stopped by their professor. I watch through the window as Morgan scurries out of the classroom, leaving the guy behind with a disappointed professor who scolds him. The kid looks completely uninterested as if the professor's words are going in one ear and out the other.
I tighten my jaw as I move away from the window and round the corner to stand near the entrance. Morgan is long gone, my earpiece filling with other voices that speak to her as she makes her way to her next class. My hands open and close into fists repeatedly as I anxiously wait for the guy to come outside. After what feels like an eternity, the door opens, and a douchebag in a letterman jacket strolls out, his jaw working as he chomps on a wad of gum.
My body reacts before my mind can catch up. I throw him against the wall and deliver blow after blow against his torso and face before he has a chance to process what's even happening to him. My anger melts with each hit that connects as I replay all the vile things he'd said to Morgan not long ago. I finally grip his jacket and roughly pull him up onto his feet before pinning him to the wall.
"What the fuck is your problem, asshole?!" he exclaims, wiping at the blood from his lips and looking at his hand in disbelief.
"Stay away from Morgan," I growl inches away from his face. "If I find that you've even uttered a single word to her ever again, I promise I will end you."
"You don't know who my father is?—"
"Can your father stop a bullet?" We stand in a silent stare off for a few beats, and I watch in satisfaction as his defiance melts into fear. "I didn't think so. Stay away from Morgan. Are we clear?"
"Yeah, man," he replies.
"And that goes for in-person and online." I release my hold on him by giving him a rough shove away from me. "Now get lost."
He wastes no time scurrying away from me, nearly tripping over his own two feet as he tries to run as fast as he can in the opposite direction. I roll my shoulders back and head back to my car, satisfied that I at least got a little payback on Morgan's behalf and to know that he's now the least of her worries.
The rest of the day is fairly uneventful. She goes to the rest of her classes and has a few rather normal conversations with other students between. I can't help but grin when she crosses paths with the guy from earlier.
"Jesus, Matthew, what in the world happened to you?" her angelic voice asks, alarm and concern weaving through her voice. I chuckle when he never answers. I guess he knows how to take direction after all. I can only imagine how he looks after his injuries have set, especially since I haven't seen him with any ice in the couple of times I'd seen him while watching Morgan. I almost wish I'd put a bug on him so that I could hear what people are saying to him while he moves around campus with a bruised face and swollen lip.
I move around campus discreetly, keeping an eye on Morgan and keeping tabs on things that may be of importance in her conversations. Even with me being so close to her, she hasn't noticed me lurking close by. She's too carefree to be planning a bomb attack, and she usually shows no kind of situational awareness to know if she's being watched or tracked. She moves around like a normal college student who doesn't believe they're in danger.
And to think, I've been sent here to kill her,I think to myself. When it’s close to 3:30, I return to the parking lot. I move to a parking spot close to her Jeep and wait for her in front of my car. My phone vibrates in my pocket, a text notification from her displaying on the screen when I pull it out.
Morgan: Hey, I'm on my way to the parking lot. I'm not sure where you're parked, but I'm in parking lot A near the English building.
Trent: I'm in the same parking lot. I'm standing in front of my car, so you can't miss me.
She gives my text a thumbs-up, and I slip my phone back into my pocket and wait. It's strange that I'm actually kind of excited to be going out with this woman—a woman I'm responsible for taking out if what we know about her is true. She's quickly growing on me, which isn't what I intended when I posed as a college kid to get closer to her. But the more time I spend with her, the more complicated this hit becomes. If I'm not careful, I might end up compromising this whole mission and cost many lives if I end up being wrong about her.
"Hi," a sweet voice says, pulling me out of my musings. I look down to see Morgan smiling up at me. She looks beyond me at my car and gestures toward it. "Nice car."
"Thanks. Always had a thing for more sporty vehicles." I slip my hands in my pockets. Something unfamiliar passes over her face as she looks between me and the car, an unspoken question in her eyes. It's then that I realize I might not be playing the "college kid with a rough life" role as well as I think I am. I can only imagine how it looks to say that I struggle to make ends meet while driving a car that was the price of a small house. I clear my throat to break up the uneasy energy. "Ready to go? I can drive."
She hesitates for a moment, biting the inside of her cheek as she looks back at my car. "I think it's best if I follow you. I don't like leaving my car on campus," she finally says.
I nod. "Cool. I know this diner nearby that has the best food. Just follow me," I say as I head over to the driver's side. She nods and quickly crosses the parking lot, getting into her Jeep and starting it up. I led her through traffic to a small casual diner not far from campus. She hops out of her car and approaches me.
"I've passed this place many times but never thought to stop here," she says as she falls in step next to me.
"It was one of the first places I discovered when I moved here." I open the door for her and allow her to walk in ahead of me. The different scents of fried foods waft under my nose and make my stomach growl as we weave through the occupied tables and settle in at an empty one near the back. "Since you've grown up here, I'm surprised you've never been here."
"Honestly, I don't get out a ton. My dad kind of...hovers a lot," she says. Her gaze falls to my hands and frowns. "What happened to your hands? I don't remember them looking like that when I saw you this morning."
I look down, noticing how my knuckles were red and a little swollen from my run-in with Matthew. "Oh, it's nothing," I say, waving her off. "I accidentally scraped them against a wallearlier. Kinda tripped and tried to catch myself before I fell and scraped my hands in the process."
Even though she nods, I can tell she doesn't believe me. Scraping my hands explains the redness, but it doesn't explain the swelling. Thankfully, she picks up her menu and focuses her attention on it.
