Devil Incarnate (Boys of Preston Prep #4) - Angel Lawson Page 0,81

let me go—”

He grunts when my fist catches his chin, grabbing my wrist in a bruising grip. “Would you calm down? We get it, you like it rough.” He gives me a sleazy, booze-scented grin. “I’ll give it to you good, baby.”

I try to yank away, but he grips me tighter, fighting against it. “I’ll tell Collins about this, asshole! You know as well as I do that he’s zero tolerance on harassment.”

“You think they’ll believe you?” He wedges a hand between us and I hear the rake of his zipper lowering. “You think Collins will believe the school whore, or the fine, upstanding young man with the perfect GPA? He even let Wilcox back in the henhouse.”

Ryan laughs while Jase shoves me toward the play structure, tearing the sleeve of my shirt in the process. I panic, lashing out as my heart hammers wildly. Frantic adrenaline courses through my veins, so I don’t even feel the pain of how tightly he’s pressing me against the wood and metal. I just feel what I’d felt earlier in the pool—the urge to fight. The instinct to get out of this.

What Jase doesn’t know is that, at the treatment program, I had to take classes, and one of them was self-defense.

And I aced it.

Spinning quickly, I try to kick his feet out from under him. It doesn’t exactly work, but while he’s off balance, I bring my knee up in a quick, sharp jerk, driving it right into his balls.

The feeling of my kneecap jabbing into soft flesh would have made me cringe at any other time. Instead, I hear the shocked wheeze from Jase, who falls to the ground like a sack of bricks, and just run.

I bolt across campus, chest tight as I dart through the lacrosse field, back behind the bleachers, following the tree line. Once I’m away from the playground and on the backside of campus, I glance back to see if they’re following.

Which is exactly when I slam into something, hard.

“Oof!” I fall back, landing on my ass.

“What the fuck?!”

I look up at the person I just crashed into. Heston is frowning down at the brown bag of food smashed against his stomach and then at me. The shopping bags he’d been holding are scattered around his feet. A box of new shoes. New shirts. A Bluetooth phone speaker.

A seed of a notion takes root in my brain, connecting the dots. Heston is a gambling addict, and Jase is making bets. I shoot to my feet, rage rippling through me as I slam both of my hands into his chest. He doesn’t budge.

“You son of a bitch! Just when I think you can’t get any worse, you pull something like this?!” I give him another ineffectual shove. “What is wrong with you?”

He watches at first with parted lips, blinking in confusion, before his expression hardens. “Yeah, I’m going to need a little more than that to narrow down whatever it is you’re being such a bitch about.”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know.” I glance back over my shoulder, but Jase and Ryan aren’t there. That doesn’t mean they aren’t watching or waiting for me to be alone again. “You set up a bet on me, didn’t you?”

He stares back at me, voice even when he replies, “I have no clue what you’re talking about, Haynes.”

“Sure you don’t.” He gives me a blank look. “The bet? To see who in the freshman class can fuck me first?”

His eyebrows shoot up his forehead. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah, I know all about it.” I push up on my toes, like that makes me more intimidating. “God, you’re the fucking worst.”

“I’m a lot of things, but I didn’t set up any bets with the Freshmen.” His jaw tightens as he bends down to gather up his dropped shopping bags. “How would that make any sense? Didn’t I tell you I’d only do this if you weren’t fucking other people?” He tucks the shoebox under an arm, fixing me with a glower. “Use your head, woman.”

A twig snaps in the distance, and I flinch, whipping around to look over my shoulder. When I turn back, Heston’s staring at my torn sleeve, gaze moving over my shoulder for a long moment.

“I think you should come inside.”

“I-Inside?” He strides past me and unlocks the door to what I’m now realizing must be his apartment. Nodding, I shove my trembling hands into my pockets and follow him up the stoop, heart only just slowing to something resembling