AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her voice got dark. “It should have been Drew’s neck.”
Chris smiled. There was his girl. “You’re kind,” he said. “You took those notes for me even though I’d been a total prick.”
She made a face. He felt it. “You probably didn’t even read them—”
“I read them. Every word.” Okay, he might have skimmed some of it. It was World History, after all.
But now she was in the present, with him, not trapped in some horrible memory. He had her attention. He loved the feel of her face between his hands, could stand here with her in the rain all night.
“You’re beautiful,” he said softly. “Innocent.”
The word made her flinch. “I’m not—”
“Yes,” he said, feeling anger leak into his voice. “You are. Just because a few idiots treat you like ... like that—doesn’t mean you have any idea what it’s supposed to be like.”
She went still again.
He moved closer, bringing his face down to hers so he could speak low, through the rain. “You’re not stupid, Becca. Not at all.” He paused. “I am.”
“Why?”
He felt her breath on his face when she spoke. Pure torture.
“Because,” he said. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I fell for you the night you drove me home. I just didn’t do anything about it. And then you started dating some stupid tool who couldn’t figure out that letting you go with Drew was a bad idea.”
She stood frozen, her eyes barely gleaming in the shadowed field. “Chris—”
“It’s okay,” he said. It was better this way. He and his brothers probably weren’t going to last the week. “I just wanted you to know that you’re better than what you think you are. Don’t let Drew define you, Becca.”
Thunder cracked, wind streaking across the field. She jumped, and he caught her.
“Just a storm,” he said, glad for the distraction. He didn’t want to hear some gentle letdown—and that wasn’t what his little speech had been about anyway.
The raindrops fell heavier. He’d been gone forever. His brothers were going to be flipping out. “We should walk back.”
Silence hung between them for a moment. Then she nodded. “All right.”
But when he turned to walk, she caught his hand and held it.
“If I tell the cops,” she said, “will you go with me?”
“Yeah.” Thunder cracked again, and her grip tightened. He glanced down at her. “You’ll be all right, Becca.”
She nodded.
The rain began to fall harder, heavy drops that rolled down his cheeks. He was so focused on Becca that it took him a minute to realize each drop felt thick with power.
And it wasn’t his power.
Lightning struck near the edge of the field, still a good distance off, but lightning on its own looked for something to strike. Lightning hitting the ground meant someone was giving it direction.
Chris straightened, thinking of Hunter’s trick in the gym. He stared out into the darkness, willing the shadows to reveal more than just an absence of light. He hadn’t wanted to hurry Becca, but now he did. He tugged at her hand. “Speaking of our local narc, just what do you know about him?”
“Hunter?” Her head lifted. She must have heard the note of danger in his voice. “Why? What happened?”
He opened his mouth to respond—but lightning struck the ground ten feet in front of them. Chris had never seen Gabriel call lightning of this force, a solid pillar of electricity bolting into the ground.
Becca had practically attached herself to his arm. Chris spun, looking for an attacker, dragging her with him.
