Rule (Marked Men #1)(73)

“Where are you going? I have to be at the shop at one.”

“I’ll be back before then.”

“Rule…”

“Just don’t Nash; it’s long past time for me to lose my shit. This ass**le is going to hear it from me that if he keeps messing with her that I’m going to annihilate him.”

“You’re asking for trouble and not in a good way.”

“I don’t care. I’ll be back in a few just keep an eye on Shaw and if she asks where I am make something up. She doesn’t need to worry about anything else today.”

He begrudgingly agreed but I could tell he was not stoked with what I was about to do.

I jumped in the truck and drove to the school. I knew that Shaw had class the same time as Gabe on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays so when I found a place to park it only took a nod at one co-ed and a wink at another to find my way to the where all the political science classes were held. It was cold outside and students were hurrying from building to building with their heads down so no one really paid any attention to me as I lurked around the building that I was sure Gabe would eventually come out of. Fortunately for me I didn’t have to wait long and campus security had already passed my direction without so much as a pause because twenty minutes into my vigil the doors opened a group of dudes that looked like they had emptied out a J Crew store and topped it off with all off L.L Bean’s winter line came pouring out. They were all laughing and talking about something and Davenport looked so self-satisfied I just wanted to knock his pearly whites down his throat.

I waited until the group dispersed and it was just Davenport by himself. He pulled the collar of his Patagonia jacket up around his ears and pulled out his cell phone. I pushed off the wall of the building I was leaning against and followed him silently until he reached the parking lot. When he stopped by the Lexus I reached out and grabbed the back of his neck and shoved him forward so that his face was smashed against to freezing metal of the roof. He let out a surprised sound and the bag with his books and computer in it clattered to the ground. He struggled but I had a good grip and was fueled by a living fury so he didn’t have a chance. I leaned forward so that my elbow ground painfully into the base of his neck and tightened my fingers until I felt his skin start to resist.

“You want to harass someone, scare someone, terrorize someone you might want to pick someone that doesn’t have a pissed off boyfriend waiting around the corner preppy boy. This is the last time I’m going to tell you to leave Shaw the hell alone. If you don’t that fancy Ken Doll face you seem so fond of is going to end up like hamburger.” I gave him another shove so that the metal smacked unforgivingly against his cheek. People were wandering around the parking lot and stopping to stare at us but I didn’t care. “Are we clear?”

He grunted and got his hands under his chest so that he could lever himself off the side of the car. I let him go and stepped back, hands hanging loose at my sides in case he decided he wanted to throw down right then and there. He smoothed down the hair my rough handling had messed up and glared at me while working his jaw back and forth.

“We both know my father can keep me out of jail, what can yours do for you? Change a tire, help you move?” He laughed bitterly and spit out a mouthful of blood that narrowly missed the toe of my boot. “You aren’t a match for me in the real world. You can call yourself her boyfriend all you want but the fact of the matter is she simply isn’t allowed to walk away from me for someone like you. That’s just bad precedent.”

I thought he was just spoiled and annoying but the more he talked the more I started to wonder about his sanity. The guy talked like a lunatic.

“Dude go f**k someone else. Shaw isn’t into you, she never will be and harassing her is just pissing everyone off. If you think I’m scared of what your dad or anyone else can do to me if it means protecting her than you’re in for a shock and even if you manage to get me out of the way there is a whole group of people out there ready to take my place. You aren’t going to get anywhere messing with her and if you ever touch her again I’m going to snap every single one of your fingers off and cram them down your throat.”

He scoffed at me and poked a finger in my chest. He was lucky I didn’t knock him in the mouth. “You’re so stupid, so uneducated and low class to think it has anything to do with sex. I can get sex anywhere, you really think I let Shaw dangle her ass in front of me for six months and didn’t get some on the side? Sex is irrelevant and if she’s giving it up to you I don’t want to go near her with a ten foot pole. This is business and image; she can’t set a protocol that I’m replaceable with a tattooed punk that has nothing to offer. I can’t have people remembering that.”

I grabbed the wrist of the hand that was poking me and shoved him back into the car. “If you think sex with Shaw is irrelevant than you’re the one that is uneducated jackass. Get over yourself, if I can prove that you had anything to do with her car we’re pressing charges. If you keep harassing her we’ll keep going to court and eventually someone will notice your old man covering your ass. I’m telling you this stops now or you can go to the hospital and I can spend some time in jail, got it?”

We stared each other down but by now there was a decent size crowd gathered around while we sized each other up. I didn’t see the security guard until he was getting in between the two of us. Before he could start asking questions I flipped Gabe off and headed back to the side street where I had parked the truck. The guard called something after me and I heard Davenport’s raised voice but I didn’t stop until I was back in the truck and had the heater blaring. I flexed my hands repeatedly on the steering wheel and took a few deep breaths to get myself back under control. The last time I had felt this impotent amount of anger, this unfinished need to destroy something was when I had watched them put my brother in the ground. I wanted to tear his perfectly tailored body apart seam by seam and watch him suffer. Pushing him around and making him uncomfortable just wasn’t enough. The darkness, the unpredictability that lurked inside me reared up again and wanted unbridled vengeance but I had to put it back in the box because I wasn’t going to make Shaw wrestle with it again so soon.