“Okay.” She giggled as I led her back into the house.

I felt my phone go off in my pocket and I pulled it out.

Alex: I’m home. Happy?

I shot her back a reply.

Drew: Ecstatic!

I was glad that she was home, but the son of a bitch she went out with was up to something and I was determined to find out what. I pushed my phone back in my pocket and led Sara to the keg. I saw Russell talking to a short blonde and a tall brunette near the bar. The little blonde was hanging on his every word while the brunette seemed less than interested, focusing more on the dance floor than on him, but he was definitely interested in her. He kept touching her arm or her shoulder, and she kept pulling away from him. He was making her uncomfortable, but it wasn’t escalating quite yet.

“Drew,” Sara whined, “I wanna dance.”

I looked down at her, and while she was seriously hot and would probably serve her purpose nicely tonight, I needed to keep an eye on Russell and she was just going to get in my way. I smiled down at her and said, “Not tonight, babe. Not in the mood.” Then I walked away, heading to the bar.

“Asshole!” Sara shouted at me as I retreated into the party. I deserved that one.

I spent the rest of the party watching Russell’s every move. He left the brunette earlier, but never took his eyes off of her. His buddy kept bringing her and her friend shot after shot as the night went on.

When it was obvious both the blonde, who I figured out was Megan, and the brunette, who I assumed was Chelsea, were hammered, Russell made his move. He came up behind Chelsea as she danced in the living room. She waved her arms above her head and hooted as Russell grabbed her hips, moving to the music right along with her.

I mean, it was kind of a dick move to go to dinner with one girl and grind on another at a party that same night, but this was college. It wasn’t like he and Red were in a relationship. For all I knew, the date could have been a dud and he was taking advantage of another opportunity. I figured it was time to give the guy a break and headed to the kitchen to get a beer.

I spent some time talking up this girl named Randi. She pointed out that it was Randi with an “I” like that was a very important detail. From my experience, girls who spell their name with an “I” tend to go down faster than the others, if you get my drift.

I hit pause with Randi with an “I” to head to the bathroom. The two downstairs were occupied, so I went upstairs. Since David had lived in the house, I knew the layout pretty well and knew there was a bathroom in the back of the house up the stairs.

Upstairs was a little quieter compared to the chaos going on downstairs. I reached for the door when I heard a soft, “No,” coming from the room just to the right of the bathroom. I stayed where I was, listening to see if I would hear it again.

“Stop,” the voice said a little louder, but it sounded off. I pressed an ear to the door and could hear the faint sound of rustling, but nothing else. I tried the knob and it was locked. I didn’t know what was going on in there. It could be just a couple hooking up, but something didn’t feel right.

“Don’t touch me,” I heard a girl say. Her voice sounded lazy, like maybe she was drunk or high. That was my cue. I took a few steps back and kicked open the door. I stormed in and saw that Chelsea girl draped on the bed in just a black thong and Russell standing next to her, taking pictures of her naked body. She was half passed out and obviously had had way too much to drink.

“Get the fuck out!” he shouted at me.

I took one look at him and saw red. I took two steps toward him and slammed my fist into his nose, the impact making a sickening crunch noise. He doubled over as blood poured down his face.

Chelsea didn’t move. I draped the comforter over her so she wasn’t so exposed, then grabbed Russell by the collar and dragged him down the stairs and out the front door, dropping him, dazed and bloody, on the front lawn.

A crowd started to gather out on the front porch after seeing me drag him out of the house. I leaned in close to him and he retreated.

“If I ever see you come anywhere near that girl up there, and especially Alex, I will kill you. You got that, you son of a bitch.”

I turned and headed back into the house and saw Frankie looking at me, trying to figure out what happened. I walked right up to him. “Hey, man. I’m going to need your help.” Frankie nodded and followed me up the stairs to where I left Chelsea on the bed.

After explaining what I saw to Frankie, he helped me get her dressed and we found her friend, Megan, who wasn’t in such great shape herself. We were able to at least find out where they lived.

I got down to find Chelsea’s other shoe and saw the camera the douche had used. I picked it up and scrolled through the pictures. There were at least three other girls on there in addition to Chelsea. I handed it to Frankie, who flipped through a few of the photos and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. Frankie was the president of the fraternity. This was not going to be an easy thing for him to deal with. He would have to deal with a hell of a lot of fallout if this got out.

Frankie sighed and met my eyes. “I swear, man, I had no idea this shit was going down.”

I dropped a hand on his shoulder. “I know.”

Frankie and I got the girls home and deposited them safely in their rooms. I seriously doubted either of them would remember anything that happened, but Frankie left his number in case they needed anything.

On the way home, all I could think about was Red. What if he had pulled this shit with her? God only knows what he does with those pictures. Just the thought of finding her like I had found Chelsea, helpless and naked with no way to fight back, made my skin crawl. I should have trusted my instinct and kept him away from her. At least he wouldn’t be coming around anymore.

I thought about calling her to tell her what happened, but she was constantly telling me that she could take care of herself. I was afraid she wouldn’t believe me. The only proof I had was Russell’s broken nose, which he could easily turn into a sob story about how I attacked him. Besides, Frankie needed to deal with Russell on his own. If anything got out about what Russell was doing, it would be really bad for the fraternity.

I trusted Frankie to take care of it quietly. He would make sure that son of a bitch paid for that bullshit and that nothing like that would ever happen again.

As long as Russell stayed away from Red, then there was no reason to tell her.

Chapter 12

Alex (Now)

The week went by pretty quickly and I even managed a small sense of normalcy with Drew. I was hopeful that I could get through this. I could get over him and no one would have to get hurt, myself included.

I had a last minute conference call on Wednesday, so I was a little late getting to The Den. When I walked in, everyone was already there. I said a quick hello to Papa Jack and headed back to our table.

“Hey guys, I’m sorry. I…” I froze. There, sitting in my fucking seat, was Gwen “Bitchface” Stevens. I was completely stunned and fucking furious. What the holy fuck was she doing here? My jaw was on the floor. I had to have stumbled into an alternate reality. It was the only explanation for why she was here.

I looked at Drew, who seemed nervous. He was quite literally backed into a corner since Gwen was blocking any chance he had of escaping.

Gwen beamed up at me with a Cheshire cat grin. “I heard you talking about trivia the other day. You made it sound like so much fun, so I thought I would check it out. Sean here was nice enough to ask me to join you guys.”