Rush (14 page)

Max caught me with an arm around my
shoulders, and I could have kissed him with relief. “She didn’t want your help.”

I looked at my pursuer. He was watching
us with a sneer on his face.

“How would you know?”

“I heard.”

The guy gestured to his friend in the
car. “There’s two of us and only one of you. How do you think this is going to
go down?”

Max drew himself up, and even though his
arm was still around me he seemed to grow taller and broader, his form filled
with menace. There was something almost eerie in the way he radiated threat
without even holding a weapon. The other two men shrank back as they exchanged
an uncertain glance.

“Leave,” Max said. Even his voice seemed
deeper and sharper. “Get in your car and drive away.”

“Okay,” the first guy muttered. “Yeah,
sure.”

They turned tail and ran back to their
car. The doors slammed and the car peeled away with a screech of rubber. I
slumped against Max’s body.

His arm tightened around me. “Are you
all right?”

“Uh huh. How did you do that? Was it a
Jedi mind trick?”

“Not exactly. They didn’t hurt you?”

“No. They didn’t have time.” I looked up
at him and frowned. Why was he walking around alone at night in this
neighborhood? There was almost nothing but frat and sorority houses here. “Wait
a minute. What are you doing here?”

“Just good luck, I guess.”

I pulled back a little. “You just
happened to be walking in the neighborhood?”

“Yeah,” he said in a careful tone,
apparently seeing I was getting angry.

“No way. Too much of a coincidence. I
don’t buy it.”

He pursed his lips. “I had a feeling
something bad was going to happen. That’s all.”

“A feeling. About me?”

His eyes grew wary. “Yes.”

I shoved at his chest. “You
are
following me.”

“No, Caroline, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. How else would you just
happen to be in the right place at the right time? You’re stalking me.” And now
I was alone with the stalker. My confidence that he wouldn’t dare hurt me
evaporated. We were standing in the dark in the middle of the night and he
could probably do anything he wanted. No-one would notice. Maybe he’d use that
mind trick on me to keep me from yelling for help.

Who would help me, anyway? The guys in
the car? I was better off on my own.

“Stalking you?” he said angrily. “What
kind of person do you think I am?”

The kind who would shoot his little
brother. “Do you know those guys? Is that how you were able to chase them off
so easily?” I shoved him again, harder this time, and he let me go.

“I never saw them before tonight.”

“When tonight?”

“Just now.” He extended a hand toward
me. “Caroline, you’ve got it wrong. I’m not stalking you. I had a hunch I
needed to be out here tonight and I followed it. Why can’t you believe that?”

“Because it’s bullshit, that’s why.”
God, I couldn’t believe I’d almost kissed him. I’d almost thrown my arms around
him and kissed him. What an idiot.

“Stay away from me, Max.” I spun around
and stalked away.

I’d forgotten the shoes on my feet. My
ankle wobbled and twisted on the uneven pavement. A stabbing pain ripped
through my lower leg. With a cry, I fell to my knees, catching the force of it
on my hands.

Max leaped to my side. “Are you hurt?”

Damn. Damn, damn, damn. Now I couldn’t
run away from him or anyone else. I gritted my teeth against the pain and
blinked back tears.

“Yeah. I’m hurt.”

He crouched down beside me. “Your ankle?”

“Yes.” I was so furious with myself that
I snapped at him.

“Do you think you can stand up?”

Why was he being so understanding when I
was being a bitch?

“I don’t know.”

He took me by the elbow. “Let’s try.”

I grabbed his arm and leaned heavily on
him as I tried to stand. As soon as I put weight on my injured ankle, fresh
pain shot through me and I gasped.

“I can’t.”

“Okay. Lean on me and let’s think about
this for a second.”

I didn’t want to lean on him. He was a
stalker. My boyfriend had been kissing another girl. The only thing I wanted
from men tonight was to tie all of them together and use them as one big
punching bag. But my foot and ankle hurt so much I could hardly think straight,
so I leaned on Max.

He felt strong and solid under my
weight, and so warm I decided leaning on him wasn’t so bad after all. For the
first time, his presence didn’t leave me feeling overwhelmed by the achy
butterfly sensation. I was too overwhelmed already by pain.

“We can try to make it back to your dorm
this way,” Max said. “Or I can carry you.”

“Carry me? Get real, Max.”

“On my back.”

“Piggyback? Seriously?”

He looked down at me, his mouth curling
up at the corners. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t trust you.”

His budding smile disappeared. “I won’t
hurt you. Ever. Do you hear me? I’d never hurt you, Caro.”

“Don’t call me that. My name is
Caroline.”

He sighed. “You need help and I’m here.
Let me help you.”

“What if you drop me?”

“I won’t drop you. Want to try it?”

I groaned in defeat. “I’m not sure I
can. I’ve been drinking and I don’t know how well I can hold on.”

“Yeah, I thought I smelled alcohol on
you. Were you at a party?”

I didn’t want to discuss it. “Yes. It
sucked.”

He laughed. “Okay. Well, we’ll try
hobbling along like this until you’ve had enough and then we’ll put you on my
back. How’s that?”

I shrugged ungraciously. “I guess that’s
okay.”

“All right. Ready?”

No. “Yes.”

We started forward at the pace of a
speeding earthworm. My ankle screamed in agony every time I put the least
amount of weight on it, and even leaning on Max, I had to touch it to the
ground with each step forward. My face screwed up into a grimace as we inched
our way down the street.

“We should get you to a doctor,” Max
said after one painful block.

I groaned again. “I can’t make it that
far.”

“I wouldn’t make you walk all the way,”
he said, a smile in his voice. “I’d leave you at a cafe or something and get my
car.”

I just grunted.

“I think that’s a better idea than
taking you home, just in case you’ve broken something.” He stopped walking.

“It’s not broken. Just sprained.”

“How do you know?”

“I can feel it.”

Max snorted. “You’re just trying to get
rid of me.”

That was true. I wanted to be on my own.
I could get help from someone in the dorm and then I wouldn’t have to deal with
Max.

“It’s not going to work,” he said. “I’m
taking care of you tonight whether you want me to or not.”

“Fine. Whatever. Take me to the
emergency room. No, I can’t afford that. Take me to the dorm. I’ll put some ice
on it and tomorrow it’ll be fine.”

“Like hell.” He scowled down at me.

“Max, I really don’t have the money for
an emergency room visit. Do you know how much they cost?”

“How about one of those urgent care
centers?”

“Maybe.” They were expensive, too, but
my parents did have insurance and as a dependent I was still covered under
their policy. I sighed. “Okay. Urgent care.”

“Good. Can you stand on one foot?”

“Huh?” I gave him a baffled stare.

“Until I get in front of you. I want you
to climb on my back.” He pulled away from me, leaving me to balance on one
precarious foot. Then he slipped off his jacket and handed it to me. “Put this
on. You look cold.”

I was cold, but I hadn’t noticed it
until now. I’d been too keyed up, what with the party disaster and then those
creepy guys. “Thanks.”

The jacket smelled of leather and some
kind of masculine spice I’d never smelled before. Different from Trent,
muskier. Sexier. Essence of Max. It sent a shivery, aching sensation through
me. God, I hated how much I wanted him.

I put on the jacket. It was still warm
from his body.

Max sank to his knees. “Okay, get on.”

I clambered awkwardly onto his back and
wrapped my arms around his neck. This position put my face so close to his that
if he turned his head, we could kiss. The achy butterflies were back. “Are you
sure I’m not too heavy?”

He pulled my calves up over his arms, so
that I was wrapped around him, and stood. “I’ve backpacked with more weight
than this.”

“No, you haven’t.” Who had a backpack
that weighed over a hundred pounds?

“Yes, I have.” He started walking with
no apparent effort at all.

“Why would you have such a heavy pack?”

“Because it had everything I owned in
it, including my food and drinking water.”

Oh. That must have been when he lived on
the street.

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want your pity, Caro.”

Didn’t I tell him not to call me that? “It’s
not pity. I just don’t like thinking of you that way.”

I shouldn’t have said that. Apparently
the adrenalin rush hadn’t truly destroyed the alcohol in my system. It was
still in there, making me blab like a fool.

Max bent his head for an instant, as if
what I’d said moved him in some way. Then he straightened up and strode forward
like nothing had happened.

We continued in silence for another
three blocks. I have to admit I was impressed with Max’s strength and
endurance. My weight didn’t seem to bother him in the least, and while I’m not
very big, it’s still a lot to carry even a petite adult on your back.

We reached the edge of campus. A string
of shops and little restaurants lined this side of the street. On the opposite
edge of the sidewalk sat a long, low concrete planter filled with pansies and
flowering kale.

“You can put me down there,” I said. “I’ll
sit on the edge of the planter.”

He lowered me to the makeshift bench. “I’m
going to get my car.”

“Okay.”

Max glanced around at the empty street.
At one in the morning, everything was closed except the tavern in the next block.
A couple of guys came out the door, whooping with laughter, and staggered down
the street away from us.

He gazed down at me, glowering. “I don’t
like leaving you here by yourself. Especially not dressed like that.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Like you were earlier?”

He did have a point. “Do you have your
phone? We can call a cab.”

Max rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe I
didn’t already think of that.”

After he called a cab, we had nothing to
do but hang around and wait. Max sat down next to me on the lip of the planter.
His jacket kept me from feeling the chill in the air, but I missed the
sensation of his hard, warm body clasped in my arms and legs anyway. And that
was so wrong. How could I force myself to stop thinking of him that way?

“What happened at the party?” he said,
staring off into the distance.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Yep.”

He glanced at me. “You gonna be all
right?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Would you tell me if you weren’t?”

“No.”

He bent his head and rubbed the back of
his neck. “I don’t know how to—I just want to help. That’s all.”

This was so confusing. I didn’t really
know who he was—the creepy brother-murderer Trent described or...someone else.
Someone likable and kind who’d made a terrible mistake as a kid. My stomach
ached every time I thought about that drawing he’d made, the words he’d written
under it.

Maybe I was being unfair to him.

I turned my body toward his. “I’m
grateful you were there tonight. I really am. And for helping me get here and
call a cab and everything. But you aren’t responsible for me. I can take care
of myself.”

Max just looked at me.

I flushed. “Okay, I wasn’t doing such a
great job tonight, I admit. But normally I’m fine.”

“I guess you have no reason to trust me,
and you probably don’t even like me. But you should know that if you need
anything, if there’s something Paige can’t help you with, I’ll be here for you.”

I couldn’t meet his eyes. I just couldn’t.
The problem wasn’t that I disliked him; it was that I liked him too much. A guy
who’d killed his brother, a guy hated by his own family, a guy who kept trying
to get me to see him even though he knew my boyfriend didn’t want me talking to
him. Or was he that other guy, the kind one I wanted to know better?