AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Didn’t know why I did that, because the door was closed.
I wanted to smack myself as I tiptoed over to the peephole, peering out to see who it was.I fumbled as I adjusted my shirt, making sure all the important bits were covered. If my stomach was in my gut before? When I saw who stood in the hallway, looking as fresh and as handsome as ever, it fucking dropped to the floor.
Travis.
His tattooed hands were stuck in his pockets, meaning he could have something in them. Something to hurt me with, some drug to try and force down my system, knock me out so he could take me again and chain me up better this time—or, hell, maybe I’d pissed him off so much he simply would try to kill me.
As fucking if I’d let him into this room. Not with my one hand useless. Not with Declan passed out from blood loss in the bathroom. Not when I highly suspected him of Sabrina’s murder.
Yes, murder.
The last words in her diary had said: I think he might try to hurt me. Those were not words one used willy-nilly. Those were words one used when they were scared for their life. Sabrina had known something was off with Travis, but she’d figured it out too late. Me, on the other hand? I’d known it from the first moment we’d met…and yet I hadn’t run away. I talked to him, laughed with him, let him catch me in his web.
Never again. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, it was on me. Fool me three times? I must have some kind of death wish.
I studied Travis’s clothes the best I could through the peephole. His black hair was almost blue in the hallway light, slicked to the side. He wore a short-sleeved shirt, so the dragon crawling up his left arm was visible. A thick, black tribal design sat on his other arm. His sapphire eyes were narrowed and focused, and his mouth was drawn into a line on his square jaw.
My breath caught in the back of my throat. Even after what he did, my body still reacted to his. My heart still sped up like the traitor it was. Why did I have to find him so attractive? Why did I have to have those urges to touch him?
Why the fuck did I want to unlock the door and let him in?
“I know you’re in there, Ash,” Travis spoke, his low, rough voice sending a chill down my spine. He said nothing else as he moved closer to the door, resting a flat palm against it. His hand was clean, free of blood, as were his clothes, but I knew being blood-free did not take him off my suspect list.
Declan might’ve been depressed, but I knew he didn’t do this to himself. Just like Sabrina, someone had tried to make it out like he’d cut himself, hurt himself on purpose. This night would not end in a ruled suicide. This, I knew without a doubt, was attempted murder.
“It’s okay,” Travis whispered, a small crease forming between his dark brows. “We have all the time in the world. I’m not letting you go.”
I closed my eyes at his words, a sense of deja vu creeping over me. They never, ever wanted to let me go.I drew the crazies like pigs drew the flies in the hot summer months.
My uninjured hand curled into a fist, and I mustered up the courage to speak through the door, “If you don’t leave right now, I’m going to call the police.” A pause before I added, “I’ll tell them everything, Travis. Everything, including what happened with Sabrina.” I added that last part in, knowing he had to have some clue about what I took from his dorm.
Travis was smart. He would’ve seen his messed-up drawers and double checked everything was still there. And everything was, except for Sabrina’s pink journal. He wouldn’t be getting that back.
Killers didn’t deserve trophies.
At the mention of Sabrina, Travis pushed himself away from the door, staring at the peephole. It was as if he could see me, as if there was no door between us. No barrier. It was like he could stare directly into my soul, and he wasn’t afraid of the blackness dwelling within.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Travis spoke evenly.
I chose not to address what he said, instead asking, “Do you think I’m bluffing? I might have one fucked up hand, but the other is quite capable of calling 911.” Again. I didn’t tell him that part because I didn’t want him to know I’d made it here in time.
If Travis came here while I was sitting at McDonald’s reading Sabrina’s journal…I’d hate myself for half a dozen more reasons than I already did.
Travis only nodded, sticking his hand back in his pocket. “Alright,” he relented. “I’ll be seeing you around, Ash.” And then he walked away, as if nothing was wrong. As if he hadn’t just tried to kidnap me, chain me to the floor in his dorm room as some kind of messed-up punishment for my date with Sawyer.
As if he didn’t try to kill Declan.
But he had to have, because if it wasn’t Travis, who could’ve done this? Who could’ve killed Sabrina?
Whatever. Tonight was not the night to spend worrying about what happened or what didn’t happen. Tonight was simply a try-to-survive kind of night. A 'make it out alive and live to tell the tale' kind of night.
Once Travis was gone and I stared at nothing but the empty hallway through the peephole, I returned to the bathroom, checking Declan’s pulse, his breathing. His chest rose and fell with slow, soft breaths. He didn’t look good, but he was still alive. My tourniquet was doing all it could to staunch the blood flow and keep him alive.
“It’s going to be okay,” I told him, knowing he couldn’t hear me. I wasn’t one of those believers that the unconscious and comatose could hear all we said. I wasn’t a fan of sappy. But here, now? I wanted him to hear me; I wanted Declan to know he wasn’t alone in this. I would stay by his side, even when the hospital staff tried to drag me away and into my own room because of my dislocated thumb. “You’re going to make it, and then we’re going to make Travis pay for what he did.”
A promise to Declan. These guys thought they could get the whole campus to bully Declan? Fuck that. Together, Declan and I would turn the tables. If Travis thought he’d ever catch me off-guard again, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Next time, I’d be ready. Next time, I’d have my own trap set up.
