Page 91 of Riot Act
I blink and my hand is locked around homeboy’s throat, and his back is shoved up against the projector screen at the front of the classroom. I have a vague awareness that Chase is safe and standing on her own two feet, out of this guy’s reach, but I honestly have no fucking clue how she just got there. None of it is making sense.
“Back…the fuck…off,” I snarl. “She doesn’t wanna go with you. She’s made that abundantly clear. It’s time for you to leave. Unless you’d like to check out our new clinic. It’s state of the art.”
Jonah tries to dislodge my hand from his throat and fails. I’m lucky. He’s a big fucking guy; he must work out. If he wanted to throw down—and he most definitely does—and I’d given him any warning, I’d have had a real fight on my hands. Thankfully I caught him off guard, and I’ve got a mean fucking grip on his esophagus.
Scowling, he tries to wrench my hand free, which only causes me to tighten my hold on him. “All right, all right, man. You’ve made your point,” he wheezes.
“The point is that you pass out.”
“Wha—?” The word squelches in his throat, cut off by the pressure I apply against his esophagus. The blood begins to rise to the surface of his skin, turning first his neck a deep shade of purple, and then his jaw, and then his cheeks. Clawing, he attempts to tear my arm away, but my legs are spread, feet planted, and this ain’t my first fucking rodeo. His eyelids flutter, eyes rolling back into his head.
“Pax? Stop! Enough. He’s not worth it. That’s enough, Pax! Hey,I SAID THAT’S ENOUGH!”
Chase shoves me. I hardly move an inch, but I’m very aware of her hands touching my arm and my side, and it’s as though the fierce tension inside of me, a rubber band being stretched and stretched and stretched, snaps. I release my grip and turn around, taking three giant steps away from the fucker. I need to put some space between us. I can’t guarantee that I won’t still launch my fist into his jaw.
“Christ!” Jonah hacks, spitting onto the carpeted floor of the computer lab. “What the fuck is your deal, man?”
“I’ve heard from numerous sources that girls don’t like it when you make them do things against their will.” Irony bites at me. Oh, don’t I sound like such a good guy right now, making my good guy speech? I’ve hazed and fucked with girls beyond the bounds of what other people consider right. I’ve caused plenty of pain and suffering. I haven’t given a single shit about a girl’s feelings. Fact of the matter is, I’ve relished being the source of countless girls’ unhappiness in the past. But one thing I’ve never done is laid a finger on a girl without her permission. I’ve never used my greater strength or weight to incapacitate a girl and force her to do something she doesn’t want to do.
I am a monster. No two ways about it. A monster with one hard limit.
Whipping around, I face Jonah, lancing him through with a narrow stare. “Go. Now. Before your day gets really bad.”
“What, you gonna call the cops on me?” Jonah winces, rubbing his throat. “You really think I give a shit?” He turns to Chase. “It’s too late for you to go spreading lies about me now, Red. I was smart. I waited until…” His eyes rake up and down her body. “Don’t think you can go back on our deal, now. That’s all I’m saying, okay? They’ll never believe you without any evidence. The cops won’t do shit to help you now.”
My skin prickles. Adrenalin rolls through me, pushing, pushing, pushing me to do something reckless. I manage to swallow down my rising need tokillthis motherfucker. But only just. I laugh. “You see any cops here, asshole? Worry about the threat that’s standing right in front of you. There’s no fuckingdue processwith me. Get the fuck out of here right now before I rip your fucking tongue out of your head.”
Toe-to-toe, eye-to-eye, there really isn’t much between me and this guy. He’s big. He works out. I can tell he just lifts to look good in a t-shirt, though. All of that muscle is for show. It isn’t functional muscle, whereas mine most definitely is. I could shatter every bone in his fucking face if I wanted to. Just as I’ve got a good measure of him, Jonah knows this about me, too. He blinks, and I see the faintest flicker of reason take hold in his eyes. He looks at me, fully focusing on me for the first time, not constantly shifting his attention over to Chase, and I see nothing in him but madness.
“What’s your name?” he asks quietly. “And don’t bother refusing to give it to me. I can fi—”
“Pax Davis. I live in the house off the mountain road, halfway down the hill. Come find me whenever. I’ll always have time to talk toyou, motherfucker.”
Jonah blinks again. Too slow. Processing. He glances over to Chase, something nasty and hungry flashing across his face. “Just remember our agreement, Presley. I wouldn’t want t—”
I grab him by the face, wrenching his gaze away from her. “You don’t look at her. You look atme. You don’t talk to her. You talk tome.”
Angrily, he pushes my hand away. I only let him go because he begins walking backwards out of the computer lab. “That’s all well and good for right now, Pax Davis. But I’m her brother. I’ll know that bitch for the rest of her life. Are you always gonna be around to play bodyguard?” He smiles extra wide, and a sick sense of foreboding makes a knot of my insides. “I don’t fucking think so.”
34
PRES
“Wanna tell me what that was all about?”
I hurry along the hallway, a monster headache pounding in my temples.
“You can start by telling me why you were unconscious when that fucker carried you inside the building, Chase.”
Pax is a furious whirlwind of questions. His Joy Division t-shirt is straining across his chest; he’s still so wound up that he looks like he’s about to hulk out of the damn thing. His pale grey eyes flash murder.
I’m so alarmed by what just happened that I keep stumbling over my own feet in my haste to get away from him. I need to be alone. “I got lightheaded. I wasn’t feeling well for a second. I fainted.”
“Do you do that a lot around that guy?”
I stop quickly, facing him. “No! I—” I close my eyes. Take a deep breath. Open them again. “Look. I didn’t have breakfast this morning, and I was late, and I guess I just pushed myself a little harder than I should have. I passed out. It’s totally normal for girls. We—”
“Fuck that.” Pax folds his arms across his chest, glaring at me.
