The hand over my mouth clamped down as I fought, panic searing through me. My phone landed on the floor, flashlight now whirling and throwing twisted shadows all over the desk and dusty walls of library.
"I said stay where you are," the voice hissed again, and then the shock hit me like a bucket of ice-water.
Jayce.
He whirled me around, his pretty face contorted with the fury I'd never seen in it before. He looked wild, his eyes not focused at all was he drunk? High? Both?
"Jayce, what the hell."
"Shut up!" He shoved me against the closest bookshelf, and with a crash that sent books tumbling to the floor, locked his mouth over mine. "Just keep quiet and let me see!"
"You're hurting me."
"Good! You deserve it!" Spit flew from his lips. Do you even know what you've done? Everyone's talking about you. Whispering. Saying you're fucking a professor. You make me look like a fool!"
"I'm not."
"DON'T LIE TO ME!" He had his hand around my throat, not exactly choking but letting me know he could. "Scarlett told me everything. How she saw you with him at the party. How you've been sneaking around. How you were giving up everything we have for some old guy!"
Fear spiked through me. I didn't know what to do with Jayce the way I was seeing him for the first time, unhinged and violent and dangerous. This was not the sweet, thoughtful boyfriend who brought me flowers.
"Jayce, for the love of God, you don't know what you're even saying."
"For the first time, I'm thinking perfectly clearly." His face was inches from mine, reeking of alcohol. "I gave you everything. I forgave you for being such a bore in bed." For you, for you I stayed even though Scarlett is ten fold. And this is how you show your gratitude?"
"You cheated on me!" I pushed at his chest, but he wouldn't move. "You banged my stepsister for months!"
"Because you weren't enough!" He seized my wrists and held them against the wall above my head. "But I still chose you. I still came back. And you blew it by spreading your legs for your professor!"
"I didn't."
"Liar!" His grip tightened painfully. "Scarlett doesn't lie. She loves me. She protects me. Unlike you, picking on me in front of the school."
"Let me go, Jayce. You're drunk. You're not doing what you think you are."
"I'm well aware of what I'm doing." His hand slipped down my side, possessively and menacingly. "I am reminding you who you belong to.
Tears streamed down my face. "Please."
The library door crashed open.
"Get your hands off her. Now."
Daniel was standing in the doorway, and he looked like murder. He seemed disheveled as if he had been running, with his shirt untucked and hair unmanageable.
Jayce laughed but it was humorless, a hollow sound. "The professor. Perfect. You here to save your little slut?'
"I said get off her." "And that is why we leave it," Daniel replied, his voice dangerously level as he advanced.
"Or what? You'll hit me? Then that really is the end of your job." But Jayce let go of me and pushed me out of the way. I tripped and grabbed a bookshelf for support.
Daniel was on him in an instant, the hand tight around Jayce's collar shocking him into slamming his back against the wall. You lay a hand on her again, and you'd lose my job was the least of your problems.
"Real tough talk from a dude who fucks his students," Jayce spat.
There was a loud cracking noise as Daniel's fist made contact with Jayce's jaw. Jayce collapsed, blood running from his lip.
"Daniel, stop!" I seized his arm as he reared again for a blow. "You'll make everything worse!"
He stopped cold, his chest heaving, hand still balled into a fist. He dropped his hand again, but kept his gaze fixed on Jayce.
"Get out," Daniel said quietly. "Easy with all the talk, before I forget I'm supposed to be a professional."
Jayce got to his feet, swiping the blood from his mouth. "This isn't over. You think Scarlett's bad? You haven't seen anything yet. I'm going to kill you both."
He lurched away, leaving his threat dangling.
As soon as he'd left, Daniel turned to me, cradling my face in his palms. "Are you hurt? Did he."
"I'm okay." But I was shaking, adrenaline coursing through my veins. "How did you find me here?"
"I didn't send that text." His jaw clenched. "I received a text…I was at my apartment when I got an anonymous message that said you were in danger at the old library. I knew it would be a setup, but I couldn't take the chan—" He wrapped me in his arms, squeezing me against his chest. "God, Brooklyn, when I saw him with his hands on your body, I lost it."
"You hit him." I pulled back to look at him. "You hit a student. Daniel, you could get arrested."
"I don't care." His eyes blazed. "He put his hands on you. He threatened you. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
"This is exactly what they're looking for. Don't you see? Scarlett set this up. The Text to Me, the Text to You. She wanted you to find us, together, she wanted you to do something stupid."
"Then fine, if she got herself what she wanted." He raked a hand through his hair, frustrated. "I've had enough of playing it safe, Brooklyn. I'm tired of pretending I don't feel what I feel."
"What are you saying?"
To hell with the rules, I say. To hell with my job. To hell with everything." He grabbed my hand. "Come with me. Right now. We're going to get out of school, we're going to leave this town. Let's move back where they can't touch us."
"Daniel, you're not thinking."
"I've never been so clear-headed in my motherfucking life. His hands cupped my face with his thumbs wiping my tears away. "I am not going to be your professor. I don't want to hide. I want to be with you, and fuck the consequences.
My heart was knocking against my ribs. This was insane. Reckless. All the things I'd been hoping to skirt.
"We can't just run away."
"Why not? What is there left here for either of us? I'm already suspended. You're being harassed. Scarlett has leverage. Jayce is unhinged." His forehead pressed against mine. "I know this is crazy. I get we hardly know each other. "But I haven't felt this alive since ."
"That night," I whispered.
"That night," he agreed. When you was just Brooklyn and I was Daniel. Before everything got complicated."
I wanted to say yes. I was ready to take a leap of faith and run off with this man that I felt all kind of things for that I'd never felt before. But reality was returning to smash my face in.
"They'll use it against us. Scarlett will tell them you abducted me. Coerced me. You'll go to jail."
He shut his eyes, knowing I was correct. "Then what do we do?"
"We prove she's lying. We discover the proof of her blackmail, her manipulation, her affair with Jayce. We fight back."
"How?"
I hadn't answered the question before my phone was vibrating on the floor where it'd fallen. Daniel opened it and read what was displayed there, his face growing dark.
"What is it?"
He showed me. A text from Scarlett with a video.
Video The video clip showed Daniel punching Jayce. Clear as day. Damning.
Scarlett student attacked by faculty member. This gets better and better. Check your email, Professor. I sent you something special.
Daniel's phone buzzed. He removed it, opened his email and turned white.
"What?" I demanded.
He swiveled the screen in my direction.
The email also contained a set of photos, the picture from my party, but others I had never seen. Daniel and me at the bar that first night, walking out together. Us close together in his office. Photoshopped photos of us kissing in different places on campus.
Email from Scarlett: Professor Anderson, I've got everything I need to prove your predatory behavior toward my stepsister. Do what I say and these go to the cops, the dean and every paper in the state. You will be charged with sexual misconduct for a student. Brooklyn will be kicked out, branded a homewrecker. Your choice. I shall let you know my demands.
Daniel's hand trembled as he put down the phone. "Some of these are fake. Photoshopped. But mixed with the real ones..."
"They'll believe her," I finished. "She's covered all her bases."
We were in the deserted library, with all its dust and shadows, Scarlett's trap heavy around us.
"There must be a way out," I said, overwrought.
"There is." There was a new voice in the library.
We both spun around.
Addison was in the doorway, but she didn't have that smug mean-girl smirk on her face. She looked... Scared.
"I can make you well," she murmured. "But you have to trust me. And you have to move quickly, because Scarlett is orchestrating something worse than blackmail."
"Why would you help us?" Daniel demanded. "You're her best friend."
"Was her best friend." Addison stepped forward, taking out her own phone. "Not until I realized what she's actually up to. Professor Anderson, she doesn't want to use it just to blackmail you. She is going to get you charged with assault. Real assault. Against Brooklyn."
My blood ran cold. "What?"
"She has rohypnol. Drugs. "Drugging Brooklyn at a party, pinning it on you," he wrote. You'll go to prison. And with your suspension and all this evidence..." Addison's voice cracked. "I can't let that happen. Even though I'm not that cruel."
Daniel shielded me with his own body. "Why should we believe you?"
"Because Scarlett is bat-[expletive] crazy and I am waking up!" Addison's hands shook.
"She presented me with her 'evidence' tonight. Joked about how easily he could manipulate everyone." Just like the first thing that popped out of her mouth when I was once behind bars she said Now that Brooklyn is gone and you're in jail me and Jayce will be happy at last."
"What are you after for your help?" "And what do you want?" I said, skeptical of this spontaneous turnabout.
Addison met my eyes. "Immunity. When this breaks I'm not going down with her. I'll testify, I'll give you everything texts, recordings, the proof of the pictures being photoshopped. But you have to protect me from her.
Daniel and I exchanged glances.
"And what if this is just another trap? he asked.
"You don't." Addison played a voice recording on her phone. "But this might help."
She pressed play. Scarlett's voice sounded through the library, clear and blasting:
"Brooklyn's going to have wished that she never crossed me. By the end of it, she'll be kicked out, her teacher will be in jail and Jayce will belong to me. Nobody does and gets away with it."
The voices rolled on, expressing each detail of Scarlett's scheme the drugs, the frame up, everything!
"I recorded her tonight," Addison said. "She was drunk and bragging. I couldn't, I couldn't be part of this anymore."
Hope flickered in my chest. Real evidence. Proof of Scarlett's manipulation.
"When is she doing this?" Daniel asked urgently.
"Saturday night. There's a Halloween party at Delta Sigma. She's going to—"
Addison's eyes widened, and I saw them pass us to the door.
"Run!" she screamed.
We turned.
And Scarlett was standing in the doorway, and not by herself. Chloe was there, as well as three big guys from the football team.
And in Scarlett's hand was a gun.
"Nobody's going anywhere," she said flatly, smiling but psychotic. "You just had to mess with it, didn't you Addison? Had to play the hero?"
"Scarlett, dropping the gun," Daniel began.
"Shut up!" She pointed it at him. "You ruined everything. Both of you. All I wanted was Jayce. I just wanted everyone to get out of the way in Brooklyn. But no, you had to complicate things."
"This is crazy," I said, my voice trembly. " "You're going to shoot everyone in the middle of campus?"
Scarlett laughed. "Who said anything about finding you and shooting you in here? No, we're all going for a little drive. Somewhere private. Where nobody will find the bodies for a very, very long time."