With Every Heartbeat

Crap. This was bad. This was so bad. He was going to beat up Belcher.

“Cora!” I hissed, grabbing her arm. “How could you tell him that?”

“What?” She scowled and jerked her arm out of my grip.

“Quinn didn’t want him to know that guy’s name.”

She shook her head and wrinkled her face. “Oh, whatever. Quinn never told me that. Why would he care anyway?”

“Because,” I started, only to stop myself. It’d take too long to explain right now anyway. “Never mind.” I hurried past her. “I gotta go.”

“Don’t forget your first session Monday,” she called after me.

I waved over my shoulder, letting her know I’d heard her, and took off after Noel in hot pursuit. I dug my cell phone from my pocket and tried to punch out an explanation SOS text to Caroline, all the while trying to keep up with her brother enough to know which direction he was headed.

Caroline didn’t respond. She probably had her phone turned off for her next class. Great.

Fingers shaking, I tried Quinn next. “Noel just found out about Belcher.”

After I pressed send, I looked up to keep track of my target, but he’d disappeared. “Oh, no.” My heart sank into my stomach and I yelped out my surprise when my phone rang in my hands. It was Quinn.

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.