But my gut is churning and for some reason I feel uneasy.  Maybe I can just wait around for a little while until I’m more at ease.  If I see him coming out of the building, I’ll beat the shit out of him until he tells me which apartment is hers.  The thought of burying my fists in his cocky face makes me feel slightly better so I flick off my headlights and turn on the radio to keep me awake while I stand watch.

The beer and the late hour are making it hard to stay awake so I blast the air conditioning, hoping the cool air will send life back into my limbs.  I’ve been sitting for over an hour now, and no sign of, well…anybody.  I’ll give it fifteen more minutes before I drive back home.  With the minimal activity around the building, I’m feeling pretty confident Tatum is home safe and alone.

I really screwed up tonight.  Not once during my schooling or student teaching did it cross my mind that I would be in a situation like this.  I’ve endured through the flirtatious smiles and blushing, giggling girls with no effect on me whatsoever, but Tatum isn’t like those girls.  Tatum is strong, driven, and real.  And damn if she doesn’t get right under my skin.  I’m starting to like her there.

That kiss, the one where I pinned her outside the bathroom?  I couldn’t fucking help myself.  And no matter how hard I try to talk sense into my head, it won’t change the fact that I wanted it.  Wanted to kiss her again.  I wanted her.  I still fucking do.  And she retaliated.  Listening to her beg me to kiss her was my undoing.  Those sweet lips dripping with the innocence of her need.  Is it really so wrong?  We met before I was her teacher.  We kissed before she was my student.  Her circumstances make her different than any other high school girl out there.  She isn’t living life like a teenaged girl, she’s living her life like a twenty something adult who’s trying to survive.  Hell, I went through it.  Harper and I went through it together…

The sound of a low rumbling muffler stops that train wreck of emotions before it gets started.  I need to focus.

A burgundy Chevy truck pulls up beneath the streetlamp and parks, but nobody gets out.  Ducking lower into my seat, I watch the unmistakable blue hue of a cell phone illuminating the dark cab and the single occupant within.  I don’t have to see who’s inside to know it’s him.

As I watch, the light travels up towards the window and back down several times.  He must be calling her, and she’s not picking up.  Four, five, six times the light tracks toward his ear and back down.  Despite the air conditioning still blowing on high, my skin prickles and heats with the anger flushing my system.

I reach back and flip the switch off for the dome light and crack the door open.  As carefully as I can, I slip out into the dark night and gently rest the door closed without making a sound.  This guy is jacked up on something, I guarantee it.  Creeping alongside my car, mindful of the gravel crunching beneath my boots, I click open the trunk.  My fingers fumble along before grasping the cool smooth metal of the tire iron.  One glance back tells me he hasn’t moved, and the prick is still calling her.

Images of Tatum, scared and alone in her apartment flash rapidly through my mind.  I need to get over there.

Taking the long way, I creep behind the row of cars and circle the small parking lot.  I’m crouched behind an SUV one car away, when I hear, rather than see, his door fly open.

“Fucking bitch,” I hear him mutter as he steps out of the cab.  He leans back in over the seat to grab something, and I don’t hesitate to rush him.  For all I know he’s grabbing a gun or something to coerce her to let him in.

My approach startles him.  He spins around looking disoriented.  His eyes sweeping from side to side, a telltale glaze in his stare.  The tire iron whooshes through the air as I slap it against his throat.  A chill ripples across my skin as his eyes gloss over with recognition and resentment.

“You need to leave,” I spit out between my gritted teeth.  “I told you to stay the fuck away from her.”

He grins a lopsided smirk, and I fight the urge to drive my fist into his mouth.  “Ain’t scared of you.  Besides, she wants me here.”

“I doubt it.”

“Swear to God.  She called me to come over.”  Amusement dances behind his icy blue eyes.  Something about this guy is off, and I don’t want him within a mile of Tatum.

“You’re lying.”  I press the metal wand tighter against his throat.  His eyes round noticeably as he tries to hide the erupting panic.

It wasn’t enough because he taunts further.  “M’not.  Swear.  Don’t be jealous because she wants what only I can give her.”  I don’t know what this guy is on, but he isn’t slurring like a drunk.  His speech is more lazy and drawn out.  I can feel my control slipping with every word out of his fucking mouth.

“Stay away from her.  She doesn’t want anything to do with you.”

“You’re wrong, buddy.  She wants me, even when she says she doesn’t.”  His eyes roll back slightly, and he lets out a groan.  When his meets my stare again, his mouth lifts in a smirk.  “I’ll never forget how drenched her pussy was when I fingered her in the school.  She really liked that, man.  She didn’t even get that wet when I fucked her the day before.  She sucks cock like a pro and has the sweetest tasting cunt—“

Blood red tinges the corners of my vision, and as the tire iron digs deeply into his throat, my hands shake.

“What’s the matter, buddy?  Can’t breathe?  Should I choke you out like you did to Tatum?  Cut off your air until your face turns fucking purple, and the light leaves your eyes?”  My hands press harder.  “What’s that?  I can’t hear you.  You’re never going to see her again?  Never going to bother her or call her?  Don’t even fucking look at her if she drives by you.  Say yes, you son-of-a-bitch, or I’ll choke you off right here.”  I twist my wrist and a vein rolls in my forearm.  A sick sense of satisfaction rises in my chest as his hands grapple with the metal against his throat.

With eyes wide on mine, he gives his head a miniscule nod.  I shove the bar one last time before releasing him, where he collapses in a choking, coughing heap at my boots.

I raise the bar above my head and kick him over with my foot.  “Which apartment is hers?”

He just shakes his head and keeps coughing, his body rolled into a tight ball on the cold, black pavement.

I drive my boot into his chest.  “Which apartment?”

He coughs again before wheezing, “306…306.”

“If I ever see you here again, you’re dead.  Get the fuck out of here.”

He scrambles into his truck and throws it into drive before spinning away from me.  I wait until his taillights disappear around a bend in the road before barreling up the stairs to the complex.  She’s not staying here after that.  I need to reassure myself that she’s okay, and then she’s coming home with me.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

Tatum

I pull a pillow over my head as Wyatt calls again.  Over and over for the past half an hour.  He needs to take a hint.  I’d turn the thing off, but I don’t want him to know I’m by my phone.  If I just don’t answer, maybe he will think I’m asleep and leave me alone.  Somehow I doubt it, so I’ve kept all the lights off in my apartment, and I’m laying quietly in bed with nothing but my own thoughts.

This week has been a mess, but tonight is a new low.  I don’t know what is wrong with me, coming on to Jacoby the way I did.  Yeah, he’s ridiculously hot if I’m being honest, and he’s been willingly taking care of me when nobody ever has before.  And I am an adult, clearly capable of making my own decisions.

But he’s still my teacher.

Even if he were interested in me—which he’s clearly not as so defined by his actions tonight—I’m certain he could lose his job over dating a student, regardless of my age.  All signs point to how bad of an idea this all is.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop my mind from wanting him.