“Sorry!” I call out as I push open the door to the lecture hall and jog down the steps toward where a table is set up, the materials stacked on it.
“I figured you would stand me up,” a voice says and when I look up, I’m face to face with Professor Keller. A scream bubbles up in my throat, threatening to let go and I want to run, but my feet feel like lead. This has to be a bad dream, a total fucking nightmare.
How am I stuck in here alone with Professor Keller?
“You going to say something, Ruby?” he asks, a smarmy smile on his face.
“I’m just here to pick up my materials and then go,” I quickly respond, looking for my name on the stacks.
“Here you go,” he responds, handing me my things. I take them and don’t even bother to make sure I have everything. I quickly move toward the stairs, hoping like hell he doesn’t say anything more.
But I’m not that lucky and my heart begins to race as I feel him follow me to the exit.
“Don’t,” I say, that scream I quelled has now returned, ready to escape my throat and echo loudly in this large empty room.
“Don’t,” he repeats my word, his tone mocking, lips pulled up in a sneer. “Don’t you fucking tell me don’t. After what you’ve put me through. You fucking owe me. You’re lucky I haven’t found your boyfriend and retaliated.”
I want to scream in his face. I want to tell him he’s fucked, but engaging with this psychopath seems like a terrible idea, and all I really want to do is get out of here. I have no idea what he’s willing to do to shut me up or what he’s conjured up in his head to get back at Caleb.
I know what he did to Meagan, and in this empty lecture hall, I could be next.
“I’m leaving,” I say, a firmness in my tone that I hope projects that I’m not fucking around, but instead, he grabs for me.
I drop everything I’m holding, yanking away from him as I run for the door. He doesn’t get to control this situation and I’m not going to just give in. But he’s taller than me and grabs hold of my shirt, pulling me back to him.
His arm is wrapped around my waist, my back flush against his chest now as he grabs my face with his free hand, holding my head still.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” he hisses into my ear, his hot breath making me feel like I might vomit.
“Like hell I’m not.”
Chapter Thirty
Caleb
I run the whole way home, my phone to my ear as I continue to call Ruby, each call going unanswered until they get to her voicemail. My heart pounds in my chest, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I run up the front steps and unlock the door.
“Ruby?” I yell out, but I immediately know she’s not home, the silence of the house only amplified back at me as I yell out her name again. I try calling her phone again and when I hear the sound of it ringing in our room, dread pools heavy in my stomach.
“Oh fuck,” I murmur as I make my way to the bedroom we share.
Her phone is on the bed, half buried beneath some clothes, the screen illuminated and now displaying the eight missed calls from me. I slip it into my back pocket, my eyes scanning the room as though she’s somehow here and I’ve missed her.
But she’s not and the room is empty.
“Ruby?” I hear Reid call out as the front door closes, the sound of footsteps echoing on the wooden floor of the living room.
I walk out of the room to find my sister and Reid standing in the kitchen, worried looks on their faces. “She’s not here,” I tell them, holding up her phone. “I don’t know where she is.”
“Fuck,” Reid mutters, glancing at Sie. “Do you think she went to campus?”
Sienna shrugs. “I don’t know, maybe.”
I exhale, shoving a rough hand through my hair as I try to quell the anxiety that’s now bristling beneath my skin. I can feel it, the way it courses through me, threatening to consume me if I don’t get it under control.
I can’t afford to lose my shit right now, not when I have no idea where Ruby is or why she doesn’t have her phone with her.
“I’m going to go look,” I say, walking toward the front door.
“We’ll come with you,” Sienna says.
“No,” I say quickly. “Someone needs to wait here in case she comes home.”
Sie glances up at Reid who nods once before turning to me. “Sie will stay,” he says. “I’ll come with you.”
I stop, my gaze locked with Reid’s. He isn’t saying it, but I know what he’s thinking, what we’re all thinking.
What’s going to happen when I find Ruby. What I’m going to do if I find her and he’s there.
Given what happened last time, I don’t blame them. Hell, even I have no idea what I’ll do. But I also can’t take the risk of leaving Sie here alone, not when we now know what this asshole is capable of.
“Can you stay?” I finally ask him, my question more like a plea as my gaze flicks quickly to Sie before moving back to Reid.
Reid stares back at me, his eyes searching mine for some kind of answer to the million questions I’m sure are running through his head right now. Eventually he nods once. “You good?”
I tip my head in acknowledgement even though we both know it’s a lie. “Yep,” I say before turning and walking out, not wanting to even consider what’s going to happen if I do lose my shit when I find her.
Or what the hell happens if I can’t find her.
Outside, I run all the way to campus, grateful that after meeting Ruby after class so many times, I know which buildings she’ll hopefully be at. Still, it doesn’t mean she’s going to be there now and as I make my way toward the psychology buildings, I try to push down the worry about where I’ll go next if she isn’t.
Maybe I should call the police or campus security?
But what the fuck would I even say?
Oh hi, I’m the guy who beat the shit out of that professor for jerking off outside my girlfriend’s bedroom window. Yeah, so it turns out he’s been stalking her and now I can’t find her anywhere. Think you can help me?
Not a chance in hell they’ll do anything other than hang up on me as soon as they find out who I am. Especially given they haven’t even believed the other women who have come forward with complaints about him. About stuff that’s far worse too.
“Fuck,” I half shout as I round the corner of her psychology building only to crash head on into a guy coming in the opposite direction. He’s carrying a stack of books in his arms and they all go flying everywhere as the two of us collide into each other.
“Shit,” he says, as he stumbles back, a stunned look on his face as his books scatter on the ground around us.
“I’m sorry,” I stammer, pausing only briefly as I try to move past him. I’m being a dick and I know I should stop and help him pick up all his stuff, but I don’t have time. I need to find Ruby.
“Hey, I know you,” he says, a questioning tone in his voice.
I glance back at him, already knowing what he’s going to say. “Yeah, I get that a lot,” I say sarcastically as I brush past him.
“Wait,” he says, his hand on my arm. “You’re the guy who beat up Professor Keller, right?”