Spinning in a circle in the hopes of spotting Noel, I answered. “Hello?”
“How do you know?” he asked without a greeting. “What happened? Where is he now?”
I gulped. Oh, great. I couldn’t tell him Cora was the culprit. But then I spotted Noel. “Ooh. There. I’m following him across the main quad right now. He’s walking between the history and math building. I think he’s headed toward the ball diamond.” Which was a good mile from here, but from the way Noel was stalking, I don’t think he cared.
“Thank you. I’m in the history building right now. Be right there.”
Quinn hung up. I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do, so I kept following Noel. I had to run for a while to get close enough, and then I still had to half jog to keep up with his determined stride. Afraid he might actually make it to Belcher before Quinn could intercept him, I called, “Noel?” as soon as we hit the beginning of a parking lot.
He jerked his attention to me and snorted out a hard laugh. “My sister got to you, didn’t she? Told you I wasn’t allowed to know. Like I didn’t have the right to defend my own girlfriend.”
I flinched and cowered back. He was mad, as mad as my father would get right before he’d take out his anger on me. Breathing heavily, I lifted my gaze even as I kept my chin lowered.
Instead of telling him that it had been Quinn, not Caroline, who’d informed me of anything, I said, “I...I was just trying to help protect you.”
“Protect me? Me?” With a snort, he stepped menacingly toward me. “I think its Belcher you’re trying to fucking protect.”
I cowered down even more, but refused to shift my feet even the slightest inch away. I’d been hurt by a man before; I could handle it again, especially if it was for a worthy enough cause to save his, his girlfriend’s, and maybe even Caroline’s future.
“What would happen if you went after him?” I asked in a small voice.
“I’d fucking defend my woman, that’s what would happen.”
He stepped even closer to me, and I held my breath, trying not to hyperventilate. If he charged, maybe I could duck behind a car and escape. Maybe he’d get so preoccupied with trying to catch me and hurt me that he’d forget all about Cain Belcher.
“But I thought it would hurt her more if you went after him.”
His face contorted with rage and hot, angry color. I closed my eyes and turned my head aside, bracing for a blow when someone shouted. “Hey!”
I barely heard the pounding of approaching feet before someone grabbed my arm and yanked me against a warm, solid mass. When I realized it was Quinn and he’d pulled me behind him to position his body between mine and Noel’s, I gratefully gripped the back of his shirt and buried my face into the warm cloth, right between his shoulder blades.
“Don’t you ever intimidate her like that again.” The serious tone of Quinn’s voice was almost as lethal as Noel’s, but instead of being afraid, I felt comforted. I knew with absolute certainty he would not let anyone hurt me.
I shuddered with the overwhelming realization, and he must’ve felt it because he reached an arm out behind him and caught my hip as if trying to reassure me.
“Man, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Ten spun Noel to face him. I guess Quinn must’ve gotten a hold of him too. “How is killing douche-bag Belcher going to solve anything?”
“Because it’d make me feel better,” Noel roared.
“Yeah, and then it’d get you kicked off the team, and then out of school completely, where your woman will be exposed to the world, and then ruin the futures of your brothers and sister.”
“Damn it.” Noel squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head. Easing my grip on Quinn’s shirt, I watched Caroline’s brother lose his cool. “How can I just let that fucker get away with doing that to her?” When his voice cracked, I swallowed, feeling awful for him. His face twisted with despair right before he fisted his hands, roared out his frustrations and pounded his fist down onto the trunk of the nearest car.
I jumped and Quinn tightened his hold on me, shifting until I was more securely behind him.
“I want to kill him. I want to kill him so bad.”
“I know. I know, buddy. And I’m sure you can. Someday. Just not today.”
Noel clenched his teeth hard. “But I want to kill him today.”
As Ten wrapped his arm around Noel’s shoulder and kept talking to him as he walked them away, Quinn eased his grip on me.
“Are you okay?” He turned to catch my chin, and force me to look up at him.
“I think so.” Staring into his bottomless blue eyes made me shudder from a different kind of fear, a fear that I’d never feel this way when I looked into anyone else’s eyes again.
He nodded. “He wouldn’t have hurt you. Noel can bluster, and he can go off the deep end when he’s mad enough, but he’d never physically hurt a girl.”