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“Noah is a good guy! He plays soccer. He’s going to be a detective one day. You’re going to throw that away for this?” Chase all but spits at Jax’s feet. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had spit.

“Do you think if I had a choice, I’d choose him?” The words leave my mouth before I can stop them. Jax whips his head toward me. I can see the fury in his eyes. Little flames ignite inside those emerald marbles.

“I think you’d be drawn to me in every life, baby, and there is nothing you can do to change that.”

“I don’t think I would. That is definitely Stockholm Syndrome or something.”

“You should read a dictionary. In order for it to be Stockholm Syndrome, I would have to kidnap you. I can if you’d like,” Jax drawls. My jaw unhinges in unison with Chase’s.

I stare at my friend, afraid to face Jax, but Chase pulls his phone from his pocket.

God, please don’t tell me Chase is going to call who I think he’s going to call.

“Yeah, I’m at my friend’s apartment and the man here is-” Chase’s words are cut off so quickly that it makes me stumble backward. All I can hear is the beep of a call ending. It echoes in my head.

Beep. Beep.

I’m in such shock that I can’t stop Jax from beating him.

“I won’t fucking go back! I won’t go back!” He screams as his fist flies backward and forward over and over. Chase lies beneath him on the ground, whimpering and moaning in pain. But I’m incapacitated. Immobile. Limbs are no longer connected to my brain. My voice has left the chat.

I’ve never seen Jax so deranged and out of his mind before.

My body is shaking profusely. It feels like years go by before Jax stops.

Chase isn’t making a sound anymore.

“I won’t ever go back,” he mumbles, but I can hear the pain in his voice. I think it would end him to go back to prison. But can I let him get away with this?

“Is… Is he breathing?” I croak. I watch as Jax leans down and holds his fingers to Chase’s pulse point.

“Yeah,” he responds in a calm tone, like nothing happened at all. The touch to feel for a pulse was so soft that it seemed like an entirely different person. “I apologize.”

I step backward, putting as much space between us as I can.

What do I do? What do I do? What do I fucking do?

“If he dies, I’m done, Jax. I mean it. You won’t maneuver your way back from this one.” I yank Chase’s phone from Jax’s grip.

“You can’t es-”

“Fucking stop!” I scream so loud that it aches my throat. “I’m done with your taunting. You better go because I am calling the police. Go, leave, and I fucking mean it this time,” I grind out. My body is still shaking. I’m sweating. Anger is seeping out of my pours.

How could he do this? How?

Jax stares at me for a long moment as my fingers hit 9-1-1 on the phone.

“Three,” I begin to count down. He still hasn’t moved. “Two.” He remains a statue. “One.” I finish counting as I press the call button.

“911, what’s your emergency?” A male voice sounds the line instantly.

“A man broke into my apartment,” I begin to say as I stare at Jax, who still won’t leave. “My friend was beaten, and he is barely breathing. 342 Front Main Street, down the road from campus,” I disclose.

Jax dares to smile at me. His lips lifted into a devilish grin that you’d think would only appear in a nightmare. That’s what he is, after all, a walking nightmare.

“Ambulance is on route. ETA is five minutes,” the dispatcher tells me. He asks questions about the intruder. If I’m hurt. How did I not get hurt? Different questions that I don’t know how to answer, but with each answer I give, I’m lying through my teeth.

I’ve always been an honest person, but this jerk in front of me has me changing. He changed me from the second I saw him at that party. Dressed in black with a mask, preying on me as if he were my predator.