Page 115 of The Heart Breaker

And that asshole she loved for three years put his hands on her.

I pull the covers up over her and sit on the edge of the bed, watching as her eyes drift shut and her breathing starts to settle.

My hands curl into fists against my thighs.

I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do yet. I just know I’m not letting him get away with hurting her.

I reach for my phone on the nightstand and open the group chat with Ryan, Austin, Logan, and Nathan, and type out a text.

Me:

I need your help.

“You could get arrested,” Ryan says, falling into step beside me as we cut across the back lot behind the arena.

“Don’t care.”

“You could get expelled,” Austin adds, jogging a little to keep up.

“Don’t give a fuck.”

“Cole.” Austin grabs my arm, forcing me to stop. “Just…” He blows out a breath and shakes his head. “Think about this for a second.”

I rip my arm out of his grip. I can’t get rid of the itch under my skin, this violent, restless need to hit something until my hands stop shaking. Because every time I blink, I see the mark on her cheek, her red, wet eyes, her blotchy mouth, the sound she made when she fell apart in my arms.

“I have,” I bite out. “I’ve had hours to think about what he did to her. All I’ve thought about was how he thought he could put his hands on her and get away with it.” I look between them, myjaw tight. “I can do this on my own if I need to. Are you helping me or not?”

Austin lets out a long breath and drags a hand through his hair, his shoulders dropping. “Fuck it,” he says. “I’m in. I’m not letting that piece of shit get away with hitting a woman.”

Nathan scrubs a hand over his face. “My dad’s going to fucking kill me,” he mutters, then looks up. “But yeah. I’m in too.”

Logan nods, his usual grin nowhere to be seen. “He hurt her. That’s all I needed to hear.”

Ryan watches me for a while before letting out a sigh. “This is a terrible fucking idea.”

He’s the captain of the team and is supposed to keep us in line, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he sent us all back inside before we do something that gets us suspended, expelled, arrested, or all of the above.

Instead, he lets out a breath and nods. “No one touches one of ours and gets away with it.”

I nod once, grateful as hell for them, and shove my hands into my jacket pockets, leading the way across campus.

The whole place is already buzzing for the game, the lot jammed with people in jerseys. We cut through the lot, and the second I see him, my blood starts to boil.

He’s standing beside a black truck with three of his asshole teammates, all of them in Falcons jackets, laughing. Like he didn’t hit Aurora only a few hours ago.

He sees me coming, and the smile that was on his face a second ago slips. “Ellis.” His eyes flick to the guys behind me. “What the fuck is this?”

“You know exactly what this is.”

His mouth tightens, but he forces out a laugh. “What, did Prescott send her guard dog?”

“Nah,” I say, closing the distance between us. “I’m here to put down a bitch.”

He barely has time to blink before my fist cracks against his jaw.

He stumbles sideways, swearing, and I feel the skin split across my knuckles when I punch him again.

One of his teammates lunges toward me, grabbing my shoulder as another comes at me from the side, but Ryan shoves one of them back, and Austin is on the other before I can even blink. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch the other guy putting his hands on Nathan, and Logan loses it, driving his fist straight into the guy’s jaw.