Her Love Ran Crimson (Crimson Series) Read Free Page A

and figure out my next move. I may have to get out of town sooner than I thought.
     
    ****
     
    I dreadfully make it through the day. I make a stop at my locker before I head out to leave to make a quick drop off of books I don’t need tonight for homework, trying to make my back pack as light as possible. As I walk down the hallway I get this chilling feeling all over my body. I glance around noticing nothing is different, so I try to shake it off. I make my way to my car. Just as I am entering the gate I freeze, totally shocked to see what is in front of me. All my windows have been broken out and my tires are slashed. As I stare at the calculated mess, I feel panic start to set in. He wanted me to have no way out. I look in every direction trying to find him . I can feel Dixon’s presence. I know he is watching me. Dixon is getting a good thrill out of me being stuck with nowhere to go. Arms fly around me. I start swinging my arms at whatever is holding me when I hear Jase say calmly in my ear, “It’s okay. I got you. It’s just me, Jase.”
    I instantly relax a bit. It’s strange that for the moment I feel a little safer. He draws me away from him just a little bit and looks at me. I melt in his arms. Instead of the disgust I was expecting to see in his eyes, I saw sincere concern.
    “Who did this? We need to make a report with the police. How did this happen? The gates are locked when the bell rings. Nobody can get in or out?”
    I want to tell him. I want this off my chest. I know it’s not something I can do, so I just make an excuse, “No, it’s okay. I am going to call my stepfather to pick me up and see what he wants to do. The car is under his name, so he will have to file a report, not me.”
    “Please, Maddie, let me take you home at least. You look pale and scared and I want to get you out of here. This doesn’t look like a random act of vandalism. I won’t leave you here by yourself.”
    I can tell he is not going to take no for an answer, so I just stand there looking at him, trying figure out what to say. When he puts his hand on the small of my back to guide me toward his car fireworks go off inside me. It feels like an electric current running through me. I don’t make a move to try and escape his touch. He hits the unlock button on his brand new shiny black Range Rover, helps me into the seat and closes the door. He walks around the front of the car, watching me like he is afraid I am going to throw the door open and run away. What he doesn’t know is I won’t run. I don’t know why, but I feel so safe in his car with him here that I wouldn’t run. Not now. He gets in the car and turns to me not breaking eye contact.
    “Are you okay?”
    I nod, knowing it is a lie, but I just don’t have any words at this moment, so I sit here drinking him in. He is the only person who has tried to help me. Everybody else here looks at me like I’m a monster. I’m going to allow myself, just one time, to be caught up in the moment because I know this is going to end the day he hears what happened when my heart died and my world fell apart.
    When he finally pulls his eyes from me I ask him the one question I need to know. “Why are you helping me? I haven’t been very nice to you and there are plenty other girls that are prettier than I am that you can be having a good ole time with?”
    He chuckles as if what I had just said was amusing. He clears his throat and calmly states, “Because I want to help you. Something has drawn me to you and I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t leave you alone. I have a pull to you that goes deeper than your outer beauty.”
    Did he just call me beautiful? I start to feel uneasy and nauseous. Dixon told me I was beautiful. He said he was doing this because I was beautiful and he wanted to ruin what was beautiful about me. He said it was payback to Frank for screwing him over and to me for my smart-assed attitude toward him, always acting like I was better