AllFreeNovel
Share Us
For the rest of the lecture, Lucy continues to look over her shoulder, trying her best to pay attention to the professor and ease her paranoia—though I guess it’s not paranoia if she’s right. I slip out the back, just before the class comes to an end, and walk outside. Waiting for her to do the same. She usually heads to the café. Something about her messages seemed off to me though. I don’t like where her thoughts were going.
Why is she questioning her worth?
I know he’s there before he makes himself known. Axel. My idiot cousin who is very high on my shit list right now. “You’re either brave or really fucking dumb,” I grunt at him, while my eyes remained glued to the door.
“Need me to play wingman? Introduce you to her? Most people would just go and say hi, ask her out on a date or some shit,” he counters.
“If I see you so much as breathe in her direction, I will break one of your limbs,” I hiss out between clenched teeth.
“Woah, shit. They all said you were touchy, but fuck… I’m your cousin, Dom. I’m the last person you need to worry about stepping in on your territory. I would never do that to you.”
If I trusted anyone, it would be my family. They’ve never given me a reason not to.
“You got something you want to say?” I ask him. “Seeing as last I checked, you don’t go here.”
“Can’t I just come and hang out with my favourite cousin?”
“What do you want?”
“Nothing.” He holds up his hands in a placating gesture while I watch Lucy walk out. I follow behind her. As suspected, she’s heading for the café. “You know, you could just go and sit with her. Tell her you’re Dominic McKinley and she’d probably fawn all over you like every other chick in a fifty-mile radius,” Axe says.
“She’s not like that,” I tell him.
“They’re all like that.” He rolls his eyes.
“She has a trust fund bigger than yours. She doesn’t need my money.”
“How do you know how big her trust fund is?” He raises a questioning brow.
“I hacked into her bank accounts.”
“You do know that’s illegal, right?”
“So is feeding your cousin to the family pigs. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it.” I smirk.
“Funny.” He shudders at the thought. The kid’s always been creeped out by my uncle’s pigs.
“Since you’re here, make yourself useful and get me a coffee,” I say before pushing through the door.
“You do know that you’re the Richie Rich one here, not me?” he mumbles, even as he keeps walking.
“You’re hardly living on the poverty line, Axe,” I call out after him. The Williamsons always give us McKinleys shit for being a few notches higher than them on that wealth ladder.
“Fine, but you owe me one.”
“I’ll wait out here.” I point to a table located just outside the café and make my way over to it. From this vantage point, I can see through the windows. I can seeher.
TWELVE
I must be asking for a painful death. One where my limbs are removed from my body piece by piece and buried around random parts of Melbourne. I’m sure whoever my stalker guy is, he’s getting a thrill from me contacting him today. I must have been desperate or sleep-deprived. Lack of oxygen to the brain maybe. I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ve just spilled my deepest insecurity to a stranger.
A stranger who is obsessed with me.
I guess time will tell if I’ve just secured my spot as one of Australia’s latest statistics. I feel like I should be a lot more afraid of this man than I am. I keep remembering his voice, the way he made me come over the phone. His messages of unwavering devotion to me…
They weren’t exactly unwanted. Okay, I wanted them more than I’d like to admit. Maybe not from this man in particular. But that kind of devotion is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Just in a less “I’m going to lock you in my basement” and more in the “I’m going to make you my queen” kind of way.
I walk into the little café on campus, order my usual caramel latte, and then go and sit in one of the single armchairs. I stop here between classes because of these chairs. They are so comfy you just sink into the cushions, the seat conforming to your body. If you could sit on a cloud, this is what I imagine it would be like.
