And. I. Snap.
“Crazy? Fuckingcrazy? Logan, I am so far from crazy. I’m insane. Utterly unhinged. I am certi-fucking-fiably deranged when it comes to that girl. I know you don’t get it, and I don’t think you could even begin to understand, but she’s not just some random I have a thing for. I know you think I’ve gone off the rails, and maybe I have, but I don’t care. If my life without her was what it was like to be sane, then I don’t ever want to be sane again. I want the crazy. I want to be so psychotically obsessed with her that I bleed for her, kneel for her, live for her, die for her. I’d do anything forher, and you won’t stop me.” I end my speech, breathless and itching to get out of here and go find her.
I start walking back towards the door, knowing exactly where I need to go before I go after Lana.
“Well, then I guess I’m coming with you,” Logan grunts, and I hear him pick up his keys, though I don’t wait around for him. I head straight to his car, waiting beside the driver’s side door. Normally, he’d never let me drive his car, but he must know I’m in no mood for arguing over it because he just throws me his keys and climbs into the passenger seat.
“If I ever get like this over a girl, I want you to shoot me,” he mutters as I put the car into drive.
“Deal.”
Rather than heading straight to the road that leads to the entrance of campus, I drive towards the staff buildings, knowing that there’s a section partitioned off for the dean.
“What are you doing?”
“We have a stop we need to make first,” I say and climb out of the car. “Stay here,” I mutter to Logan and run up the path that leads to Dare’s living quarters. I bang on the door, calling out his name.
Dare answers the door in only a pair of sweats and bed head.
“What the fuck do you want?”
I growl under my breath before answering, “We need to go. Now.”
“Explain to me again what the dean of the school is doing with us, and why he’s dressed like that,” Logan says once we get in the car, waving to the back seat whereDare sits with his arms crossed over his chest, dressed in black tactical gear and his tattoos on display.
“None of your damn business. What I want to know is whyyouare here,” Dare replies, and I shake my head.
Dare realized where Lana was going once he had checked the tracking app for himself and arranged for us to fly there by private jet. It’s only a short drive to where the jet is waiting for us, and we should get to where she’s headed in around two hours, not too far behind Lana.
Apparently, my little menace is heading to the Richardson estate, a wealthy family that runs in my family’s circles, though our families have never had a close relationship.
What they want from Lana, I have no idea. Dare wouldn’t give me the details either. Whether that’s because he’s pissed that I brought Logan along or because he doesn’t want to tell me Lana’s business without her knowing, I don’t know.I just know he wasn’t very insightful as I stood there grilling him while he got dressed.
“He’s here because he can be useful,” I say, looking in the rear-view mirror at Dare before turning to my best friend. “And the dean is here because… well, because we need him, okay? Just trust me.”
“For the love of fuck, please stop calling methe dean.Just call me Dare.”
Logan snorts. “Isn’t your name Darren?”
I click my tongue and shake my head. We have more important things to be thinking about right now. Like Lana’s safety and how we’re even going to get to her.
It isn’t long before we reach our destination, park the car, and board the jet, though it feels like forever. Every second I don’t have my eyes on Lana feels like an hour. After this, I’m going to handcuff her to me so she can’t go anywherewithout me. She’ll just have me trailing around after her, looking like thegood boyshe accuses me of being.
“Tell me everything you can,” I say to Dare once he takes a seat opposite Logan and me.
I’m grateful Logan came with me, especially considering he has no idea what’s going on, just that I’m walking into a dangerous situation. He came along because he’d never let me go it alone.
He sighs. “I’m not going to get into everything, but what I can tell you is that the Richardsons have had it out for Lana’s family for years. She was well hidden until she turned eighteen and received an inheritance. The hits that were previously placed on her family were still in place for Lana, and she was safe until her dad died and people started tracking her down here in Blackwater. Two years ago, when her father was the head of my old… organization, he used his contacts to get me the job as the dean of the school as a fail-safe should anything happen and Lana needed somewhere to go. Riko was my best friend, and I promised him I’d never let anything happen to his little girl. So, we’re going to find her, put down the bastards that are so intent on killing her, and bring her home in one piece, okay?”
I take it all in, absorbing his words and trying to picture what life must have been like for my girl. Having to look over her shoulder at every turn, having people after her, losing her family, and then all of the shit I put her through…
God, I’m such a dick. If I could go back and rewrite the past, I would.
“What do you know about some guy who goes by the name of The Shadow?” I ask Dare, and his brows rise.
“Why are you asking?”
“Because I spent half of yesterday burying him in a gravein the forest after Lana killed him for breaking into our place.”
