ENEMIES(64)

I knew. I so knew.

“Hey! You’re the chick!” A guy suddenly appeared out of the crowd going past us. He was tall, lanky, a Texas C&B ballcap on his head, and he was wearing a Texas Kings shirt. He shoved his phone in my face. The video on the college’s website right there and playing…loudly.

“…don’t direct questions at her.”

“Just fans, man. Don’t need to be a dickhead…”

I reacted. I didn’t think. I just reacted, hitting his phone away from me. It fell to the floor, breaking, and the guy started to yell, “What the fuck?! You bitch.”

“Hey!”

Two guys muscled their way in, blocking me from the phone guy. I had another split-second warning, glimpsing their backs. They were tall and strong, and imposing as fuck. One growled, “Back the fuck off her! You shoved that phone in her face. We saw the whole thing.”

The guy started to cower, then his face crunched and he shot back, “She broke my pho—”

The second guy was growling, too. “Let me shove my fist in your face, see what you do. It was a reflex, you little fuck.”

The first guy, “Get lost!”

The second guy helped. “Or we’ll fuck you up. I know your name, little prick. You play JV baseball. I have buddies on the varsity team. They’ll give me all the details on where you live, who your friends are, everything. Get in her face again, and this won’t be an empty threat. Got it?”

Nacho.

It took me a second. My heart was pounding so loud in my eardrums. The hallway, the crowd that had stopped to watch, they were starting to swim around me in circles. Faster and faster.

A hand grasped my arm and I heard a female voice, “Are you okay?”

I looked up. That wasn’t Siobhan. I was looking up, not down. It was Mia.

I had died. Only explanation for all this.

Mia was in my hell, and she was concerned. Then she shifted, looking at the guys. The second guy was Wyatt. No, wait. Maybe I wasn’t in hell. Maybe this was real, and then Lisa was there, too. She wasn’t turned toward me, but looking at the guy, instead, and she snarled. “I know Katja. She told me all about your dick. Stay away from our girl or I’ll put out a fucking announcement about how much you suck in bed.”

Lisa was defending me now?

No. I was wrong again. Hell had frozen over. We were all still alive, so that meant hell came up to us.

“Whatever. I just wanted to get Reeves’ autograph. That’s all.”

“By almost assaulting his woman? Great fucking idea. I’m sure he’d be happy about that.”

But the guy was leaving, along with his buddies.

Everyone turned to regard me then, and Lisa was first, still snarling. “Tell me that shit hasn’t been happening all morning?” She gestured down the hall. “I saw the guy recognize you and zero in. What a loser.”

Wyatt. Nacho. Mia. Lisa. They all came to my defense, and now they were all taking me in, then looking past my shoulder to Siobhan and Trent.

Wyatt put his hand out. “Hey. Wyatt. You’re friends with Dusty?”

A more tentative hand came from behind me, shaking Wyatt’s hand, and Trent’s voice matched, sounding shaky. “Uh. Yeah. We have class together.”

Lisa was nodding to Siobhan. “Dusty’s our housemate. We’ve gotten a little protective of her. Nice to meet you.”

Now that the coast was clear, Mia let go of my arm. She was back under Wyatt’s arm, his free hand hanging over her shoulder. And she wasn’t looking at me. Her nose and mouth were pinched, as if all of this was beneath her.

Lisa was the opposite. Her hands on her hips. Her eyes still flaring. “I’m fucking pissed! That phone was in your face. It almost hit you. I would’ve taken his balls if it were me. Is that how it was for you on Saturday? I can’t imagine Stone keeping his cool if it were.”

There were still people walking by. There were still people standing around, watching. The more they talked, the more I wanted to skip my last two classes and hide in Stone’s bed.

“I—” My voice cracked. “It wasn’t like that, but yeah. The guys got pissed Stone didn’t want to talk.”

“I can’t imagine. I’d be in jail by now if it were me.” Lisa grinned at Nacho, who put his arm around her shoulders. “Aggravated assault and battery. That’d be me.”

“Yeah.” He tapped her arm. “You don’t handle people being in your face that well.”

She waved her hand in the direction of where the guy went, a quick and almost savage motion. “I’d hospitalize the guy.”

Nacho said to me, “But you’re okay?”

Wyatt added, “Want us to call Stone?”

Jesus. They had his number. I wasn’t surprised. But I shook my head. “No, no. I’m good.”

“We got practice, but the girls could run you home if you needed?”

“Yeah.” First time Mia spoke, now looking at me again. “How’d you get to school today?”

More questions. More information. The crowd was still around them, but once they decided to stop dealing with them, it was like poof, they disappeared. But that wasn’t how it went, and there were still eyes, phones, and ears all around us.

But this was their world. I was just now a full-fledged member because of my association with Stone.