AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Apollo waved a dismissive hand at her, but I smiled in thanks. She ducked her head in acknowledgement and hurried out. I slid off the table and went to sit by Marco.
“…and they thought taking Harlow would put an end to it?” Apollo scoffed.
Marco shrugged. “I don’t know what they thought.”
“It’s been weeks since the car race. Why now?”
Here Valen and Marco exchanged another glance. Marco included me in it this time. I understood; we still weren’t telling Apollo that this wasn’t the first time I’d been put in jeopardy.
“Opportunistic?” Marco guessed.
I could tell he didn’t think that at all. I was very interested in what he did think it was, but I doubted he’d be forthcoming in front of Apollo, let alone with me.
I looked up and saw Valen’s eyes trained on me like he didn’t dare take them off. I felt utterly naked under that gaze, but I tried not to be affected by it. He’d made his choice. Whether he thought he was protecting Apollo or whether he had been playing me this whole time, I didn’t care. The choice was the same.
“Why wasn’t Valk there?” Apollo asked Marco.
I was pretty sure it was because Valen was avoiding me and gave zero shits about what happened to me. But Marco’s answer was just as valid.
“Because Valk would have just killed them all. Then we would have had five dead bodies instead of one to escalate the problem further.”
“Of course, I would have. No one touches God’s princess and lives.”
A memory floated to me unbidden.I’d kill any man who touches you.But I shoved it away.
Had I been in a forgiving or forgetting kind of mood, I might have thought that his words were a bit emphatic. I might have thought there was too much emotional vehemence in his words to be from a man claiming I was nothing but a game. As it was, I didn’t give a fuck what his motives were. He could just as easily have been acting the way Apollo wanted him to.
They argued some more about my safety and what they were going to do about it. Making extrapolations I neither confirmed nor denied with my insider knowledge of my experience. I was tired. I was numb. Emotionally. Physically, I ached in places I didn’t even know existed. My hands shook unless I held them firmly in my lap. My head still pounded and felt fuzzy even though the doctor had pumped me as full of pain meds as she felt safe.
I just wanted to go to my own bed and forget that the horrors of my world even existed.
“You’re awfully quiet, Miss Vanguard,” Valen said smoothly, and I realised there’d been a lull in their conversation for a for moments. “Care to tell us just where you’ve been in that get-up?”
Oh, I was getting mighty sick of the impudence of this jerk. ‘That get-up?’ I looked gorgeous. At least, I had before I’d been beaten and bruised and cut and covered in dirt.
“Leave her alone, Valk,” Apollo said gently. “She’s obviously tired and hurt.”
“She’s obviously been somewhere she shouldn’t have been,” was Valen’s retort.
“What are ye?” Marco asked him. “Her keeper, now? Miss Vanguard has a right to go where she wants when she wants. She’s nobody’s prisoner.”
There was a shadow hanging over Apollo and I didn’t know what was going through his head. Was he just worried about me? Did he believe the insinuations in Valen’s voice and think I was out with another guy? Although, mighty bold of Valen to suggest I was out with another guy when we’d never had to leave campus to be together before.
“Harlow,” Apollo said firmly, “has a good explanation, I’m sure.”
They all looked at me expectantly, but what did I have for them? I was too tired and wired from too much alcohol and adrenalin and medication to come up with an excuse. The only thing that played across my head was ‘escape, escape, escape’, and I couldn’t tell any of them that Florence and I had sprung my cage just so I could have one night where I could be anything other than Apollo fucking Callahan’s fiancée.
“Or she’s hiding something,” Valen said, crossing his arms.
“Harlow?” Apollo pressed, like he was entertaining the notion I was hiding something.
“Is there something you’d like to share with the class, Miss Vanguard?” Valen accused.
“Leave the woman be,” Marco snapped at him. “Can’t ye see she’s been through a tonne of shit last night?”
“And who’s fault is that?” Valen snarled. Apparently now, blaming just me wasn’t enough and he was back to blaming Marco as well.
Marco and Valen squared off as well as they were able with Marco lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV, and Valen standing imposingly beside him.
