Page 102 of In the Danger Zone
I winced a little. “What happened?”
“Do you know a Brie Harding?”
“Sadly, yes.”
“I have an email from her. I mean a deleted one. I never saw it…” Sam muttered out a few swears under her breath. “Look, I have a really bad habit of leaving my computer open. My emails too… This idiot forgot to cover his tracks, though, because I can clearly see that he forwarded that email from her to himself. Did this girl really try and offer me ten thousand dollars for those photos of you?”
With a groan, I fell back on to my bed and hoped that staring up at the blank, white ceiling would take my headache away. “God, what a m-mess.”
“I’m so sorry. This is my fault. I keep my computer on even when I go out for my break. He must have seen it when I was on lunch or something. I’m sorry, Daisy. Tell me what I can do to help.”
“This isn’t your fault,” I said, my eyes slowly closing for a minute. “N-None of this is. You don’t have to do anything. I’m n-not angry at you. Patrick sent them to m-my ex’s coach. A-Asher’s off the team now, and he obviously didn’t handle that well.”
“What did Asher do to you?” she asked, her voice laced with concern. “Did he touch you? Are you okay?”
“N-No. He did something worse. I’m okay, though. Kind of. I just wanted to get to the b-bottom of this whole thing…” I said with a tired sigh. “I hate everyone b-back home. Except for you and m-my parents.”
“I’m gonna get this asshole fired,” Sam insisted. “Or put something weird in his coffee.”
I managed to let out a laugh. “You don’t have to do that. Thanks for your help, Sam. You’re the b-best.”
“You can call me anytime, okay? Anytime at all. Stay safe over there for me. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you,” murmured Sam.
“Thank you. I guess I’ll get out of your hair n-now.”
“I don’t mind having you in my hair. Call whenever you want, okay?”
“Got it. Thanks, Sam. Goodbye.”
“Bye, hun.”
I let Sam end the call and dropped my phone to the bed. My eyes were still stuck on the ceiling, my brain instantly focusing back on Evan and what he was doing and who he was with.
He was too hard to forget.
Chapter 45
DAISY
I wanted to rip every memory I had of Evan out of my brain. At the same time, I never wanted to forget them. If you held a gun to my head and asked me if I missed Evan, I’d say yes in a heartbeat. Any other answer would be a lie. Because I still craved him. His touch, his laughter, his kindness.
But he had gotten rid of that kindness so quickly when he thought I had wronged him. What would happen if we fought again? Would he go straight for my weakness? I couldn’t deal with that. Not another time.
“Daisy, wait up!” I heard a deep voice yell out behind me.
I turned around, spotting a grinning Tanner. He sent me a wave, and I wasn’t sure if it was better to just go up the flight of stairs so I could hide in my room or just pretend like I didn’t know him.
“Don’t worry, Evan’s not here,” Tanner explained when he got to me. “He’s stuck in the library. He has some big essay he’s been ignoring all semester.”
“Okay,” was all I could say.
Tanner sighed as our eyes locked. “Can I say sorry about the other day? I know Evan is the one you really wanna hear it from. But I’m sorry too. It wasn’t fair to corner you like that and scare you. And what Asher said about your stutter wasn’t cool at all.”
“Okay,” I said again.
“Daisy, please.” He sounded desperate. “I’m sorry. I really am. I’m not a bully. I’m not like Asher. I know you might be used to guys like that. You probably think I’m a dumb jock or whatever. And I kinda am, and I guess I have to work on that. Asher got into our heads that day. He’s good with that manipulation shit. But I’m sorry for upsetting you and scaring you and making you feel bad. You didn’t deserve that.”
I didn’t know how to react to that. I just stayed quiet, giving him a little nod.
