“Sure you do.” He bumped her with his shoulder again. “Do you want control or do you want me in control?”

Jennifer thought about it. “I’m not sure. Maybe a little of both.” She raised her eyebrow at him.

He grinned and looked around, then back at her. “Have I told you I loved you lately?”

Chapter 31

“Can I have a piece of paper?” Steve asked when they sat down in the classroom.

Jennifer looked at the notebook and back at Steve. The smile on her face faded away. She slowly ripped a page off her pad and hand it to him. “What’d it say today?” she asked, motioning toward his notebook.

He glanced at her sideways. “You know, I’d rather just forget it for today.”

Jennifer was curious. “What did it say?”

Steve sighed and opened the book.

I am going to kill him.

Jennifer gasped and looked at Steve, her eyes wide with fright. I’ll be damned if I let that happen, she thought.

He closed the notebook. “It said something different for you, didn’t it?” He scanned the filling classroom before returning his gaze to her. “For me it said Stay away, She’s mine. Like that’s going to happen.” He rolled his eyes.

Jennifer glanced toward the front of the class and saw nothing. Her heart raced, drumming a beat in her chest like the quick tempo stanzas in Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. “No, mine didn’t say that,” she whispered, willing her lungs to relax. A distinct wheeze emanated from her, despite her efforts to control her breathing, and she focused on the instructor tapping his pencil on the podium to gain the attention of the class.

“You should have let me just forget it today,” he grumbled.

Jennifer reached over and took his hand, giving it a squeeze and letting go. She turned her full attention to the instructor.

* * * *

Steve stared at his hand and then moved his eyes, taking her in. The gesture was simple, yet it moved him. He didn’t want to be in the classroom and fidgeted in his chair, tapping his pen on the desk until Jennifer shot him a warning. He doodled on the paper and kept stealing glances at her. So adorable, concentrating on what the teacher was saying and diligently taking notes, he wrote three words on the paper and slid it across the desk to her.

Jennifer glanced at the note and blushed. It was pretty crude but she nodded, grinning at him, handing it back.

Steve sat back in the chair and folded the paper, a smile still on his face. He glanced at the table in front of him and almost tumbled over in the chair when his legs involuntarily pushed away from the counter. Blood pumped out of the notebook all over the desk. It spilled over the edge and he slid further back, shooting a glance at Jennifer. Her wide eyes were glued to the red stain spreading over the counter top.

The blood ran off the front edge, onto the student sitting in the next row. He didn’t notice the gooey liquid dripping into his hair and oozing onto the collar of his shirt. Jennifer glanced around the room, catching a glare from the girl sitting next to her.

Jennifer turned back to Steve. He slightly shook his head and put his hand out. She took it and grabbed her books. He yanked her out of the classroom, leaving the seeping notebook on the desk and the instructor irritated at their abrupt departure.

“The notebook was fucking hemorrhaging. What the hell was that?” he cried when they hit the fresh air.

“It obviously doesn’t want us together.” Jennifer’s voice shook. “I think your note triggered it.”

“It didn’t like ‘fuck me later?’”

“Imagine if you’d said ‘fuck me now?”

What a ridiculous time for humor, but it worked. He laughed aloud. “This can’t be really happening. Notebooks don’t fucking bleed.” He practically dragged her across campus toward the parking lot.

“Can you slow down a little?”

He glanced at her and then scanned their surroundings. “Sorry,” he said, slowing his pace. “I’m just a little freaked out right now.” He flipped open his phone and pressed a number. “Is anyone at the cabin?” he asked. “Okay.” He flipped the phone closed. “Looks like it’s your place.” He glanced over at her.

Jennifer scanned the parking lot. “Where’s your car?”

“I walked to campus this morning. If you drop me at the frat house, I’ll follow you.”

“Sure.”

“What did you see in the notebook?”

Jennifer started the car without speaking. “It doesn’t matter because it’s not going to happen.”

“What did it say?”

Jennifer glanced at him. “It said it was going to kill you.” She looked back at the road.

“I am not dying and neither are you,” Steve said. “I told you that the other day.” He looked out the window and gripped the door handle like it was the last rung on a crumbling ladder.

Jennifer glanced at his pale white knuckles.” You have a problem with my driving?”

“No.”

“Then why do you have a death grip on the door?”

“I don’t like being a passenger in any car. Lack of control thing.”

“Control freak?”

“Why do you think I’m a cop?”

“I don’t know, I just thought you liked handcuffs.”

His smirk morphed to a grin.

Jennifer pulled into the fraternity parking lot next to his car. “Can we just forget about all this for the rest of today?”

“Fine by me. I’ll be right behind you.” He hopped out of her car and dug the keys out of his pocket. He pressed the play button on the CD player and spun his wheels, peeling out behind her. The music filled the car and he sang while navigating the streets back to the apartment, trying to let the tune relax the tension wiring his entire body.

Jennifer might be able to forget for a while, but there was no way he would get that vision out of his head and he doubted anything short of a drinking binge would wipe it away. He pulled in next to her, hesitant to shut off the car and face reality. She approached his open door, and the way she stared at him woke up his libido and he grinned, finishing the song before shutting the car off.

He offered her his hand and the moment her skin met his, the fire in his heart bloomed. There was no way he’d stand by and let harm come to her and he made a silent vow to protect her at all costs.

“You could sing that song to me every day of my life and it still wouldn’t be enough,” she said, opening the door to her apartment and stepping aside so he could enter.

Steve grinned and put his arm around her waist, swinging the door closed. He sang the chorus of Far Away, twirling her around the entry. “I’ll sing every day if you promise to always look at me like that.” He didn’t wait for an answer, yanking her close, he crushed her lips under his, his tongue slipping in her mouth, mingling with hers and blocking the vision of the bleeding notebook.

When the kiss broke, his mind drifted back to the case and the levity disappeared. “I know you didn’t want to think about what happened today, but after what happened yesterday I want to take you out of Brooksfield.” He wiped the hair away from her face. “I don’t think it’s safe for you here.”

“You’re the one it threatened.”

“I’m a big boy, Jen. I can take care of myself. Besides, based on my research, whoever is doing this may be mimicking that old legend you told me about.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “You still think it’s a human after today?”

“Humans are capable of horrifying things, Jen,” he said. “And Murphy tells me there are some out there with the mental power to induce hallucinations like we saw today.”

She peeled herself out of his grip, grabbed her book bag and took a seat on the cushy couch, sending him an exasperated look.

“Human or not, based on the notes I’m seeing, it is setting its sights on you and I’m just in the way.”

“I need to study,” she said, opening the book in her lap. “And I really don’t want to talk about this.”