Chapter 25

I hurried down the hall and back up the ramp to the stands, rushing along the walkway, my hand trailing along the railing as I counted off the sections. The dance team had been across from the thirty-yard line way on the other side.

A few people lingered, doing some last-minute chatting, their conversations upbeat and lively thanks to our win despite the late time. I was exhausted myself, but after hearing Jet’s news and winning the championship, I was completely jazzed. Not to mention such an amazing start to my day with Tucker. I couldn’t wait to update everyone tonight. Or maybe I’d wait until the morning. Let this night be Jet’s.

He so deserves it.

It was the perfect ending to our senior year’s season. And my Baste Academy audition was now just days away.

I felt like I was flying almost, flitting along past the last of the remaining people. It was the happiest I’d been since this whole pregnancy thing came out, and I just knew it would be one of those nights, one of those days, I’d never forget.

I hurried up the steps when I reached the right section, having to go several rows up, nearly to the top before I found where I’d been sitting, and my breath puffed out in huge sigh of relief when I saw the shiny red and black of my pom poms tucked under the bench. Grabbing them, I spun around and then reeled back a step when someone moved in front of me. Not like they hadn’t seen me there. It was deliberate, their body coming full stop in front of mine.

I looked up, confused, and then gasped at who it was, every nerve in my body instantly on alert. My reaction honestly surprised me. It wasn’t the first time Zane had managed to corner me when I was alone. Like he was waiting and watching. I shuddered. Or he just has the most impeccable timing. Yeah, I’d go with that.

“Hey, Izzy. I was hoping to get the chance to talk to you. You look gorgeous tonight.” His voice was smooth as he flashed me that sexy grin I’d come to hate. I did my best not to cringe. Looking around and peeking past his shoulder, I could see the stands were mostly deserted now, and a flare of unease settled in my middle. Why did I leave my phone in my bag?

“Are you looking for someone?” Zane asked, now looking amused.

My eyes shot up to his. “Just seeing if Tucker was on his way over. He said he’d follow if I wasn’t back after a few minutes,” I lied.

Zane’s expression shifted, one of his brows lifting as his mouth went flat, though there was still a glint in his eye. He loved this. Loved having me alone. And he knew I was lying.

“I better make it quick then, huh?” His smile turned into more of a devilish smirk, and he reached out, running his fingers through a lock of my hair that was blowing wildly about in the cool wind, thanks to the open retractable roof.

I didn’t flinch this time, refusing to let him get to me like before, but inside, I was screaming, putting everything into the twin vibe that linked my sister and I and praying for someone to come.

Forcing the tense fear from my throat, I shifted it to the pit of my stomach so I could speak in the unwavering tone my gut told me I needed to use. “I really don’t have time, Zane. My friends are waiting. If you want to talk so badly, how about you try finding me when I’m not alone for once?”

I pushed past with my shoulder, just making it to the steps, when Zane reached out and grabbed the railing, blocking me again.

“Don’t be like that. You know I can’t talk to you with the others around. They guard you like you’re precious metal. Which you are. Precious by the way,” he said as he stepped closer, his voice calm in his familiar persuasive tone. The old me, the me from last summer, would have found it alluring. The me from now knew far better. I was sick of whatever games he was trying to play.

“I’d like to say thank you, but it honestly just confuses me to hear that, considering how you’ve treated me.”

“You mean like you’re worth groveling for? Because no other girl has ever gotten my attention the way you have. Is it really that bad that I want a chance to talk?”

“About what?” I tossed an arm out in frustration, forcing myself to sound confident even though nervous butterflies swarmed my middle. The baby gave a few strong kicks, and my hand moved to my stomach, hoping to calm my little girl.

“About us, of course.”

Not again.I groaned in frustration. He just didn’t make sense. Why couldn’t he leave me alone? “I don’t understand you, Zane. We’ve been broken up for months. You’ve gone out with other girls. I know you’ve slept with some even if you won’t date them. You could have anyone. So why do you keep bugging me? You know I’m pregnant now. I’m with Tucker. Even if you didn’t want to accept it before, that should be the end of it.”

He groaned, his face contorting with a grimace. “Don’t say that.”

What? The truth? But I stared at him, studying him now with his tone. Was I crazy? Or did it sound like he was almost begging?

“Why not?” I asked, softening my voice. It wasn’t that I thought there was any chance for us, but if I could maybe at least understand him, I could find a way for this headache to end.

He reached out, tucking that same lock of hair behind my ear, and I swallowed, forcing myself not to move. There was so much tension in the air between us. “Because I want you. I need you,” he admitted, sounding like it honestly pained him to say it. “Or did you forget that you’re my light in the darkness?”

“That you intended to beat the second I wouldn’t put out. We’ve been through this before, Zane. If you actually wanted me, you wouldn’t have cheated and you wouldn’t have touched me. Not like that. All you really cared about was getting some.”

He shook his head, desperation in the dark inky depths of his eyes. “No, I mean, yes. A small part of it may have started out that way. I was attracted to you. Pulled to you like I’ve never been to any other girl before. But the more I got to know you, the more I wanted you, and not in the way you just meant. I messed up, but I know that now. I’ll be better this time.”

This time?Does he really still think there’s a chance? Why couldn’t I get through to him?

“I just…I don’t know. You hurt me. Not just my body but my heart. You broke my trust. I don’t give it that easily, so what’s so different about you now that makes you think I should give you a second chance?”

Not that I ever would, but I was humoring him for now. Biding my time until someone came or he’d let me leave. Praying either came quickly.

Zane sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know. I just know my world’s not right without you by my side. There’s just something about you. You’re shy and stubborn and full of fire when you’re angry. You don’t put up with my shit, and you calm my demons when they try to run wild. You can turn any guy’s head, and when you dance? Fuck.” He scraped a hand over his jaw. “But it’s the chemistry between us that leaves me reeling.” He gestured between us. “You leave me reeling. I hadn’t realized how much you meant to me, how deep it all went until I lost you. I’d needed you that time while you were gone, when I asked you not to go, and that night that everything went down was rough. I wasn’t in a good place, but not one time have you ever thought there might have been more to it.”

“So that makes it okay for you to smack someone around?!” I snapped, heat claiming my cheeks. He’d never even once said he was sorry. It was only about him.

He grabbed my shoulders, his strong fingers gripping me tightly but not actually causing pain. “Don’t you think I regret that?!” His face was pained, his voice filled with ferocity. Not at me but at himself. Even with that recognition, his severity still caused me to cringe. He lowered his head, his eyes still fixed with mine, so much swirling in their depths. But I was past falling for his charm.

“I guess you’ll just have to live with that regret,” I spat. “I’m with Tucker. I love Tucker. I’m having his baby, Zane. I. Don’t. Want. You.”

“But you want Tucker?” He scoffed in angered disbelief. “Half the time we were together you barely spoke.”

I shook my head at the exaggeration. “We had a rough patch, yeah, but that doesn’t mean he’s not worth choosing. He’s been there for me through everything. He’s my everything. And he didn’t screw around behind my back! Don’t forget he also saved me. From you. And we knew exactly what we were doing after he kicked you out that night!”

Several expressions flickered across Zane’s face: shock, pain, anger, betrayal. He looked down at my stomach and then up to my furious gaze.

“So, you deny me and then crawl into bed with your pathetic best friend?” he said in whispered disgust. “Like I said before…at least I know it’s not mine.” He paused, his tone turning to one of intrigue. “But, somehow, I don’t care. I still want you.” He ran his fingers through my hair past my shoulders, wonderment mixed with curiosity crossing his face. “Makes me want to find out what else you’d be willing to do if I get you worked up. I’d wait until after you popped that out, though.” He glared at my middle and then gripped my neck, the changes in his mood throwing my nerves in a loop, not knowing what to expect next. Disgust filled me as he stroked along my neck with his thumb in a gentle caress.

No one but Tucker was allowed to touch me that way.

Why hadn’t Annie felt anything yet?

I raised my hand from my stomach to smack him away, but he was too fast. Catching my wrist, he yanked my arm down by his side while his other hand pressed at the center of my back, pinning my free arm against me. He pulled me against his hard frame with so much force that I would’ve stumbled if he hadn’t been holding onto me so tightly.

Fear flared through me, and like a shot, I was sent back, sensations, smells, sounds, everything from my nights of triggers swirling through me. It was the baby that brought me back with a harsh kick, and I gasped, locked in Zane’s stare, his eyes so intense that I couldn’t have screamed if I tried. Fear gripped my throat too tightly.

“That’s the anger and sass that gets to me,” he rasped, his voice as intense as his gaze. I tried to respond, but his lips crushed against mine so fast I barely saw it coming.

I struggled against him, my anger only climbing at how defenseless I felt with him again. Fueling the command of Zane’s lips against mine. The night he’d last tried to force me came back like a fresh wave, triggering my tears. I fought desperately to control them, not wanting Zane to see how weak he made me feel, but the seconds ticked by like hours.

I screamed for Annie in my head, the traitorous tears close to flowing at will, and I jolted when Zane’s grip was suddenly torn from my frame.

He struggled to hold on, reluctant to let go, and I stumbled forward with his pull as his fingers gripped my clothes, barely managing to balance myself. I looked up just in time to see Tucker pull back his arm to strike Zane in the nose with his tightly clenched fist.

“I warned you not to fucking touch her!” His arm retracted as Zane fell backward among the long, metal benches of the stands, stunned at the unexpected blow. I gripped the back of Tucker’s shirt as he pulled me behind him in fierce protection.

Zane stood back up, blood seeping rapidly from his nose, dripping down from his jaw and onto his leather jacket in a deep, crimson red. The stain of the blood should have been enough to hold my gaze, but something about his eyes caught my attention as he lunged for Tucker. There was so much fury in his glare, so powerful that in my escalating fear I took a small, involuntary step backward.

Almost instantly, panic struck my chest, zipping through my entire body as I felt the back of my shoe drop past the open edge of the step I was standing on. Only my toes were temporarily secure on the metal, but my weight was leaning on the heel that had missed the step.

Scrambling, searching for footing but never finding it, my pom poms dropped from my hand as I grasped for the elusive railing, my fingertips only brushing over the metal bar just out of reach.

I wanted to sigh in relief when my foot met the step below but never got the chance. My ankle twisted on the poor landing, my body leaning too much into the stance for what the discomfited position could support. I’d swear I heard the snap but never felt the pain. Shock gripped me too tightly.

I screamed, but neither of the guys looked my way, too engrossed in their fight.

Or perhaps my mouth was only open in alarm.

As it happened, I watched Zane slam into Tucker, the force knocking him hard against the steep, metal steps above. A maneuver that would have slammed me into the railing behind him if I was still there. Zane leapt forward, pounding his fist into Tucker’s jaw only once before Tucker threw him from his body.

His eyes shot to the step where I’d been standing only seconds before and then widened in horror, the look of unadulterated terror in Tucker’s gaze the last thing I saw before I heard a deafening crack, and everything went black.