RICHARD (A BAD BOY ROMANCE) (16 page)

“I’m worried,” I said
again, lying back against my pillow.

“I know you are,” she
whispered soothingly over the phone. “And you’re tired. You should get some
sleep.”

“I guess,” I muttered,
though I didn’t know how I’d ever be able to close my eyes with the thought of
Jessica in Michael’s clutches running through my head.

“I love you, Richard.”

“I love you too, Jess,” I
whispered back before I heard the soft beep that signaled the end of the call.

I sat awake in bed for what
felt like hours before I eventually managed to close my eyes and drift into a
fitful sleep. All the while I hoped that somehow my stepsister would be okay,
and that after all of this was done, I’d be able to hold her in my arms again.

_
NINETEEN
_

Jessica

AEΩ was throwing their
annual party to welcome their pledges as full brothers, which was a perfect
time for me to get close to Michael. Just the thought of it had my skin
crawling as I stood in front of the full length mirror that Becky and I both
shared.

I was dressed in a short
mini-skirt with a tight black top that clung to me in way I wasn’t used to from
my clothes. I shivered as my stomach peeked out from the bottom of the top,
exposing the bottom half of my bellybutton. Normally I was covered from neck to
knee, my tops barely ever showing even an inch of my cleavage. While most girls
had spent their time in school trying to get people to notice their bodies, I
had always done my best to make sure everyone ignored mine.

Seeing how I looked now, I
knew that I was going to be very hard to ignore.

“Are you sure about this?”
I asked looking over at Becky. “I feel so weird wearing this.”

“I know, sweetie,” she
said, giving me a distressed smile. “It’s not my usual fare either, but we need
something that will help you blend in with the kind of girls who go to parties
at AEΩ.”

I sighed, trying to tuck
the bottom of the top down over my exposed midriff, which only served in
exposing more of my substantial cleavage, enhanced all the more by the push-up
bra I was wearing underneath. This felt so strange, so…
not
me.

“You’re going to do great,”
Greg said. “I’m going to be listening in to everything that happens, and you’ll
be able to hear me.”

He walked over, holding out
what looked like a flesh-colored lump of plastic.

“What’s that?” I asked,
frowning at it.

“An earpiece,” he said.
“Can’t really have you on your phone the entire time, can we?”

I looked at him, my
eyebrows raised.

“Where did you get all of
this, Greg?” Becky asked, picking up what looked like a black rectangle from
the bed. “It looks really expensive.

“A friend of mine needed to
get some of it out of his dorm before an inspection,” he said, smiling
nervously as I took the ear-piece from him and tentatively fitted it into my
ear. “Look, don’t try to think about what he was doing with it… Just be glad it
was there. Stuff like this isn’t exactly permitted on campus… or
anywhere
.”

“Are we going to get in
trouble for having this stuff?” I asked, frowning at the thought of campus PD
opening my bad to find a slew of contraband electronics.

“Oh, definitely,” he said,
trying to play it off with a laugh. “But only if we’re caught.”

I sighed, turning back to
my reflection. I barely even recognized the woman staring back, and that scared
me almost as much as the crazy stunt we were about to pull.

“Run me through it again,”
I said, taking a deep breath to try and calm myself, albeit unsuccessfully.

“You’re going to have the
device in your purse while you’re at the party. All you have to do is find
Michael. Stand within at least five feet of him for about ten minutes or so. I’ll
send him a text message that sets everything off. We’re using a zero-day
exploit, and it works fast. Same tricks those hackers used to get all the naked
celebrity pics. Anyway, that’s about how long I need to clone his phone. Becky
and I will be close by with city PD on speed dial if anything goes wrong. I’ll
be able to hear you with the microphone in your choker, it picks up the sounds
in your throat instead of the noise around you.”

“What if he sees me?” I
asked, swallowing hard as I imagine Michael’s cold eyes turning their gaze on
me, that hungry glint burning behind his stare. “What do I do?”

“Keep calm and just wait
for my signal to leave. He won’t know what we’re doing so long as everything
goes according to plan.”

Less than an hour later, I
was walking through the doors of AEΩ, clutching my purse close to me as I
scanned the crowd for any sign of Michael. I swallowed nervously as I pushed
and wove my way through the crowd of bodies as the base thrummed through my
body and down to my bones. The sound reminded me of Richard, the way he’d
turned my whole life upside down and shaken me to my core that night at my
going away party.

“Everything okay in there?”
Greg’s asked over the ear-piece, his voice faint compared to the sound of the
stereo system.

“I can barely hear you,” I
said, my voice low.

“How about now?” he asked,
the sound in my ear a bit loud, but enough that I could hear him over the
people and the music in the background.

“Better. I haven’t spotted
Michael yet.”

“Just keep looking,” he
said. “Knowing him, he’s probably watching over everyone, pretending to be the
big man in charge.”

I glanced over toward the
main staircase, keeping my head low so as not to attract attention from anyone
who might recognize me. As much as I hated them, I could at least owe it to
this crowd for keeping me somewhat hidden.

It only took a few more
minutes of searching to finally spot Michael, sure enough standing at the top
of the stairs, looking down his nose at the crowd below. He sneered, looking
down his nose at the people who had initiated him into their ranks like they
were all slugs that he longed to squash.

“I see him,” I said,
swallowing around the lump in my throat. “I’m going to try and get closer.”

“Just remember,” Greg said
as I wove my way toward the stairs, “you need to get close, Jessica.”

Easier
said than done
,
I thought. Five feet was plenty close enough for him to grab me, to pull me
somewhere that he could do to me what he’d done to Becky. After everything that
had happened between us in the past, I didn’t expect much in the way of mercy
if the worst should happen.

I situated myself against
the staircase just underneath Michael as he surveyed the crowd. With my back
against the wall I could feel the rumble of the bass with every note, vibrating
my skull. I glanced up nervously, hoping that I was close enough to him for the
device to do its work.

“I’ve sent the text to his
number and I’m starting the process. Just stay close Jessica and don’t let him
get away.”

“Yeah, right. 007, out,” I
muttered mockingly, forgetting that the microphone could even pick up my
slightest whisper.

“I heard that.”

I sighed, shaking my head
as I felt the seconds tick by and wishing that Richard were here with me. I
only hoped that he hadn’t ignored my warning. We were so close to being free of
Michael, and if he even saw a hint that Richard was there, he might ruin
everything. I felt awful leaving him out, but I knew it had been the only way.

A loud crash from up above
tore my attention from my thoughts and up toward the top of the stairs where
the noise had come from.

As I turned my gaze upward,
my gaze immediately fell on Michael, watching in horror as his eyes met my own
for a lingering moment. I watched his face twitch slightly, though I couldn’t
tell if he recognized me. He turned, walking up onto the second floor and out
of sight.

I panicked, scrambling over
to the steps and trying to pick my way through the party goers that littered
the stairs. If I didn’t find a way to get close to him again this entire stunt
would have been for nothing.

“Jessica? What’s happened?
I lost the signal,’ Greg said, his voice edged with tension.

“He went upstairs,” I said
softly, though I couldn’t keep the panic out of my voice. “I’m following him
now.”

“Just be careful,” he
replied, and I could almost feel the worry in his voice.

Once I’d managed to get up
onto the second floor I found myself in an almost deserted hallway, the only
occupant was a passed out member of AEΩ sprawled halfway in one of the house’s
bedrooms. I looked around, slowly creeping along the hall in the hopes of maybe
catching Michael unaware.

“I’ve got the signal
again,” Greg said over the earpiece. “He’s close by.”

Those words made my heart
skip a beat, worsened only by the smug whisper from only a few feet behind me.

“Looking for someone?”

That cool familiar voice
chilled me to the bone, my heart suddenly pounding away at my ribcage like a
xylophone. I gulped nervously, steeling myself as I turned around, watching
Michael step out of one of the bedrooms, both hands in his pockets as he
strolled toward me.

“It’s funny,” he said, his
thin lips curling into a cruel smile, “I was
just
wondering how long it would take you to realize that brother
of yours is hardly a match for me. And here you are, crawling back to me
dressed like the little whore I always said you were.”

“Jessica? Is everything
okay? What’s going on?” Greg asked.

“Michael, I—”

“You don’t have to explain,
Jessica,” he said, putting up his hand to stop me from speaking. “I understand.
You want a real man—someone who’ll treat you like you know you
deserve
to be treated.”

“Stop it,” I said, my voice
trembling as I took a step back. “Stay away from me.”

“Excuse me?” Michael asked,
his head tilting as though he could hardly believe what he’d just heard. “Did
you just give me an
order
you little
cunt? There’s no need to play hard to get. I know you didn’t come here for the
party.”

“Jessica, get out of
there,” Greg said, and I could hear his own panicked voice practically matching
my own. “You need to run.”

“I can’t,” I said, taking
another step back as Michael advanced. “He’s blocking the stairs.”

“Who are you talking to?”
he hissed, lunging forward and grabbing at my purse, pulling me forward along
with it. Everything toppled out all at once, the heavy black device slamming
onto the floor.

I felt his hand on my
throat, crying out as my shoulder exploded in pain as he threw me into the
wall. I felt his fingers digging at my ear, pulling out the earpiece and
throwing it onto the ground.

“What the hell is all
this?” he snarled, “Huh? Tell me!”

I tried to cry out, to get
any kind of sound past his steely grip on my windpipe. His face was inches from
mine, and I could feel his hot, stinking breathing right against my skin. I
could barely draw breath, my head already beginning to swim from the lack of oxygen
and the shooting pain radiating out of my shoulder.

I watched his entire face
turn a bright shade of red, blood rushing up to declare his rage. He didn’t
know exactly what I had tried to do, but knowing that I’d come up with some
kind of plan against him was enough to raise his ire to levels I’d never seen
before.

“I’m going to fucking kill
you, bitch—”

His breath caught in his
throat as something massive slammed into his side. All of a sudden I could draw
breath, taking air greedily into my lungs as I crumpled against the wall. I
blinked away the stars that had formed in front of my vision as I looked up to
find out just who my savior had been.

“Richard?” I whispered,
watching in awe as my stepbrother reared up and began slamming his fists over and
over into Michael’s prone form, the wet sounds of his knuckles meeting his
flesh filling my hearing. I’d never seen my brother so enraged, roaring as he
grabbed Michael’s now limp form and tossed it against one of the closed bedroom
doors, caving the wood in with a loud
crack!

Satisfied with the
unconscious form of my former boyfriend at his feet, Richard turned toward me,
his expression immediately softening as he knelt down to check on me.

“Are you all right?” he
asked, cupping my face in his hands.

“I am now,” I whispered,
smiling up at him before pressing my lips to his.