Only With You (Knights #2)

57

LANDON

I weave through the crowd, ignoring those who call out my name, and head up the stairs.

I came straight to my house after Saint texted me that Cole had arrived. It pained me to leave Julianna, but this needs to be done.

Right before I slip into my room, Jagger steps out of his, eyes double in size.

“Oh, hey, Landon, what are you doing here?”

I stare at him quizzically. “I live here.”

He shifts from one foot to another, peering over his shoulder at his door and back at me. “I thought you’d be with Juls tonight. I’m assuming it all worked out?”

“It did. I’m heading back there. I just needed to pick up a few things.”

He smiles proudly. “Damn, I’m good. If you need more relationship advice, you know who to come to. Also, you’re welcome. Sienna was insufferable to deal with. She was pissed the entire time and begged me to give her your number. Don’t worry, I didn’t, but don’t be surprised if she’s here, trying to hunt you down. If I were you, I’d get out of here before she finds you.”

It wouldn’t be a bad thing if I ran into her. I want to ask her about the Halloween party two years ago. “Thanks for that again, mate. I owe you.”

He waves his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. Though, I’m still bummed we won’t be single together, but I guess I’ll manage.”

“You guess you’ll manage? You seem to be doing just fine.” I stare at his shirt that happens to be backwards and his closed door. “Fix your shirt.”

He looks down at his chest. “I won’t hold you up anymore.” He opens the door and falters at the noise that comes from inside.

“I don’t want to hear it.” I hold my palm up because Jagger has no shame. He’ll share it all and I’ve no desire to know anything about any girl if it’s not Julianna. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Jag tries to mask his mischievous smirk, but it flashes like a neon sign. “I wasn’t planning on sharing. I’ll see you around.” He enters his room, leaving me standing here.

I question nothing because Jagger’s a satyriasis. The less I know about his debaucheries, the better. I’ve nothing against it, but while I could go without sex, Jagger needs it like he needs air.

The laugh on the other side of the door pulls me out of my thoughts, and I slip into my room and grab what I need.

Just like I knew he would, Cole stands in front of my car, fingers grazing the hood, and a can of beer in the other hand.

I’ve seen him admiring my car a few times, sometimes at school, and here when there’s been a party.

Anger wells in my chest and almost overpowers all my senses. I have to take a step back, loosen my fisted hands, and take in a deep breath because the sudden urge to bash his head has become too strong. My jaw aches from how hard my teeth are grinding, and again I have to remind myself to breathe because the fury running inside is suffocating me.

Clearing my throat, he takes a step back and barely glances at me but then does a double take.

“Hey, Landon.” He lazily smiles, taking a swig of his beer. “I was just looking at your car. This is fucking beautiful. Is that carbon fibre?”

Julianna’s words echo in my head, grounding and reminding me why I’m doing this.

“Yeah, that’s carbon fibre.”

“This is clean as fuck. Did you buy it like that or get it custom?”

For the next few minutes, he asks me questions and I answer all of them, and then asks the one I was waiting for the most.

“This may be asking for a lot, but can I drive it? Even if it’s for five minutes or two?”

“You know how to drive stick?”

He eagerly nods. “I do.”

“All right,” I reply, opening the driver’s side and tossing my overnight bag in the back seat. “You can drive it longer than that if you’d like. I know a place.”

His eyes light up and he chugs the remainder of his beer, then tosses the can on the lawn. He sees me eye it. “I swear I’ve only had one.”

“Get in. I’ll drive first.”

Cole doesn’t waste a second to get into the passenger side and spends the next thirty minutes asking me the most mindless questions. It started with my car, but then shifted to basketball and now random shit.

“We’re driving pretty far out.” He looks out the window. There’s nothing but miles of road and cornfield to the right and left of us.

“You won’t be able to drive it well around campus. There’s too much going on and you won’t get a feel for it.”

He nods, buying into my bullshit lie, and proceeds to talk about more random shit before he stalls. It’s like he’s contemplating whether or not he wants to say what he’s thinking.

I side-eye him. “What?”

“What’s up with you and Julianna?”

I grab my phone and press record. Thankfully, North Carolina happens to be one of the states where we can record someone without their consent. I did my research.

Shrugging, I hum disinterestedly. “Nothing, she lives with my best friends.”

From the corner of my eye, I see him smirk. “Oh.”

“Why? Are you interested?”

He shifts in his seat, tapping his fingers on the door. “So, nothing’s going on?”

My hands tighten around the steering wheel. “She’s hot but no, go for it.”

“I doubt she’ll give me a chance. We had an issue that she can’t seem to let go of.” He scoffs. “It happened two years ago and she’s still crying over it. It was an accident.”

My pulse ticks, red flooding my vision, but I do my best to keep my voice nonchalant. “Accident? What happened?”

I feel his eyes burn on the side of my face, probably debating what he should and shouldn’t say. He chuckles and drags his fingers through his blond hair.

“It’s really nothing. She’s just a fucking bitch who likes to be dramatic…” he trails off, pauses, but continues. “She wasn’t”—he air quotes sarcastically—“ feeling well . So me, trying to be a good person, I took her to my room to help her out.”

My body vibrates with fury. “Not feeling good?”

“Yeah, you know…”

“I don’t. It’s just us.”

“We’re cool, right?”

“I wouldn’t be letting you drive my car if we weren’t.”

“Right, right.” He laughs. “Nothing happened, I swear, but she likes to act like I raped her. I swear I thought she wanted it. If you had seen the way she was dressed, you would’ve understood. She was also throwing these signs, so I thought her not feeling well was her way of saying she wanted me. Otherwise, why would she come upstairs with me? I’m not in the wrong here, right?”

My breaths became shallow, body cold because I’m past angry. I’m fucking livid. I could really kill him right now. I could easily end it all. Right here and no one would know.

“I swear she wanted me. I swear she did because girls don’t look and dress like her if they don’t. I mean, she was practically begging for it. You get it, right? You’d fuck her too if you got the chance, right?”

“If she verbally agreed. Did Julianna tell you she wanted you?”

That stumps him. “Well—no—but she gave me her consent by coming to my room.”

I blink once, my body going deathly still. “So why does she think that you…raped her, Cole?”

He scoffs agitatedly, then yawns like remembering what happened is a burden. “Because I touched and kissed her, but it’s not like I forced my dick inside of her. And even if I had, so what? Do you know how many girls want to be with me? She should feel lucky I wanted her.”

The Devil is screaming loud in my ear to end his pathetic excuse of a life.

“But then the stupid bitch goes and stabs me in the fucking thigh and causes a scene.” He groans, rubbing his thigh like he’s remembering it. “We were just having fun. Shit just happens. I was drunk and stupid, but I swear we were just having fun. You get it, right?”

I quickly and roughly shift the gear stick, bringing my car to a stop. My vision goes black now from the anger brimming inside.

“Right, shit just happens.”

He looks at me with an easy smile, sighing in relief. “You get it.”

“Actually, I don’t. I don’t know how the fuck you think that would ever be okay, but you’re right, shit just…” I push the button to release my seat belt. His brows draw together, a deep crease settles between them, and he stares, puzzled, searching my face. But as he finally registers what I said, his eyes go wide. I firmly grab the back of his neck and forcefully slam his face against the console. “Happens.”

A sharp cry pierces the car, and he clutches his nose. He groans, squeezing his eyes shut, probably disoriented from the impact.

I take the chance that he’s out of it to take his belt and step out of the car. I round the hood and pull his door open, but he scoots back, shaking his head aggressively while holding his nose.

“Landon, stop! What the fuck are you doing? I think you broke my nose!” he yells and uses his legs to kick and keep me away, but I’m too fucking mad to feel anything. He may be about six feet, but I’ve guarded players taller than me, bigger than me. This is nothing. “Stop! What the hell are you doing? Stop!” He continues to kick me, but I manage to grab his ankles and yank him out of the car.

His back slams hard against the gravel, head bouncing against the concrete. He groans, letting go of his nose, and grabs the back of his head.

“Don’t make this hard,” I grit, dragging his body into the barren field. He tries to kick, tries to grab onto the ground, his fingers digging into the dirt, tries to pry himself from me, but I hold his ankles firmly. “She cried, right? She told you to stop, right? You knew she wasn’t feeling well. You weren’t drunk. You just saw an opportunity to take advantage of her. And then you proceed to taunt her about it.” I seethe, my voice stone ice.

“No, no, that’s not how it happened. Please, you have to understand. It’s not like that. Please listen.” He shakes his head, pleading frantically, blood running out of his nose.

“Listen? But I thought we were having fun? I thought you wanted this? You were giving me the signs.” I mimic his voice from just a few minutes ago, the laid-back, easygoing one. Dropping his legs to the ground, I stand over him, bring one foot to his heaving chest, and drag it down to his neck, and he tenses.

“Please, Landon,” he sputters a cry as I add pressure and his eyes bulge out.

I blankly stare at him. “Did you drug her, too?”

“What? No!” His ragged breaths pierce the tense air. “That wasn’t me. That was all Sienna. She’s the one who put something in her drink. I swear it wasn’t me.”

“Don’t fucking lie.”

“I swear to God it was Sienna. I have proof.” He digs a trembling hand in his pocket and holds out his phone. “It wasn’t me. I swear!”

A chill runs down my spine as I take his phone. I wish I could say he’s lying, but something tells me he’s not.

“It wasn’t me. The code is two, three, three, three,” he begs desperately. “It was Sienna. She’s jealous of Julianna. She wanted her kicked out of the sorority. I swear I had nothing to do with it.”

A humourless chuckle rips from the back of my throat. “And instead of helping her, you took advantage.” I remove my foot from his neck and stomp my foot on his crotch. He cries in agony, rolling in a foetal position as he grabs himself. I kick him again despite his hands shielding him. Still, another shrill cry leaves him. And for good measure, I do it one more time.

I fist his hair, lifting his head because I won’t crouch to his level. He sniffles, snot and blood running down his face, and he winces in pain.

“If someone says no, it fucking means no. Come near Julianna again and I swear to God, I’ll fucking kill you.”

Shoving his head back, I leave him on the ground. He struggles to catch his breath, still clutching to his crotch. I don’t look back, not when he begs me not to leave him, not when he asks for his phone back.

“Do you not know who my father is? He’ll have your ass. I swear he will!” he threatens, voice dripping with spite, but still, I hear the fear underneath it. “You’ll regret ever touching me.”

I grimace at the spots of blood on the dash and shut the passenger door. I round the hood, and before I get in, I look at him and my lips twist wryly. “You know where to find me.”