Elite (Eagle Elite #1)(63)

Tears streamed down her face.

“Wake up.” Chase was directly in front of her now. “You will never be as good as Tracey. You will never be good enough to freaking lick the pavement where her shoes have been. Now listen and listen very closely.”

She nodded.

“You will never look at her in the eyes again. If I hear that you do. I’ll ruin your perfectly caked up face. If you breathe the same air as Tracey without my permission, I’ll show you what it feels like to suffocate to death, and if you spread anymore rumors about her or the Elect…” He chuckled. “You won’t make it to Christmas break, without at least one of your pretty manicured fingers missing from your hand. Do we understand each other?”

Cara was full on bawling now. She nodded lamely and ran off.

“Have a good day!” Chase called.

Stunned. I just stood there staring as Chase happily sent off a text and began whistling.

“What the—”

“What?” He shrugged. “Hey, let’s go inside. I’m cold.”

“Right.” I numbly followed him into the building and to the elevators where he swiped his card and kept whistling.

I always thought Nixon was the scary one. The one everyone was afraid of.

It’s possible I had underestimated Chase… big time.

We stood in silence. I really didn’t know how to start that particular conversation. You know, the one that starts with… “What the crap just happened?”

Instead I just went with, “So, you can be scary.”

Chase shrugged. “It’s a family thing.”

No crap.

“Great.” I kept eying him. He was as cool as a cucumber. Sure, I wasn’t even involved in that little exchange and I still felt like I was going to throw up. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if I saw Cara on the evening news because she attempted to murder Chase in his sleep.

The elevator doors opened. Chase waited for me to walk by him, then he followed me to my room and glared at any girl who dared to give me the stink eye. No doubt rumors of his run in with Cara would be around campus by dinner.

“Thanks for walking me home.” I opened my door.

Chase followed me inside.

“Um, what are you doing?”

“My job.” He grinned and lay down on my bed. “Now get your homework done so we can watch a movie.”

“We?”

“Yeah. As in you and I? What you have a cow hidden in here somewhere?”

I blinked.

“Holy crap, do you have a cow? That would be awesome.”

“Yeah, Chase. I have a cow under my bed. It’s invisible though so you can’t see it. But sometimes at night it comes out to play. What the hell is wrong with your brain?”

He winked and pulled my vampire novel off my bed stand and began reading. “Homework,” he ordered, sounding bored. “Now.”

“Okay, Dad.”

“Oooh, say it again. Only this time call me daddy while you’re—”

“CHASE!”

Cackling, he licked his lips, blew me a kiss and opened the book again. If he was my permanent bodyguard, I hoped to God that Nixon or Grandpa would figure out what to do with me while I was at school. No way could I handle Chase’s presence day and night.





Chapter Thirty-one


Oddly enough, my life fell into a sort of routine. I’d go to class. Chase would threaten anyone that looked cross-eyed at me. And after three weeks of his insufferable presence we had become friends. If one could call Chase Winter a friend. I was still trying to figure him out. All things considered, I had no doubt in my mind that if I told him I needed someone killed, he wouldn’t even ask questions. He’d simply ask who and jog away.

Wow. Never was there ever a truer friend.

To be honest I felt suffocated. If I as much as coughed, Chase freaked out, called Nixon and Grandpa, and informed them that I was coming down with a sickness and needed to be taken to the hospital.

Sometimes I coughed just to get him to move away. I think Chase had a thing with germs.

Once I tripped and Chase swore up and down that if I didn’t learn how to walk like a normal human being he was going to lose his mind with worry. What? Because a scrape was going to be the end of me?

When I asked him if we could go out for ice cream, he said it wasn’t safe. No, instead he brought ice cream to me. Not in typical boy fashion. No. Because that would be too easy, and Chase did things the hard way. I had forgotten about asking him until later that night. He showed up with a makeshift stone and a guy who worked at the local ice cream shop. The worst part was he set up shop in the dorm room lobby and ordered the dude to make me whatever I wanted. We had enough ice cream to feed an army.

And I probably gained five pounds in two days.

I clicked my pen and waited for class to start. I just wanted things to be back to normal. My heart still hurt. I mean, there was no way that crap was going to heal, especially considering Nixon avoided me like the plague.

Chase said I dreamt about him, that sometimes I called out to him.

It used to embarrass me, now it was bordering on pathetic, especially when Mo had to constantly wake me out of my sleep and hold me while I sobbed my eyes out.

I seriously needed to look into taking sedatives at night.

I pulled out my US History book and nearly swallowed my gum when Nixon walked into the room.