Chapter One
Shane
I couldn’t shake the ominous feeling when Erica messaged about class letting out early. As her bodyguard, I was supposed to keep her safe. I raced across campus to her location and pushed aside all thoughts except getting to her.
I slipped through the breezeway and wove through students exiting, and as I rounded the back of the building, I saw red. Erica’s ex—Luke Green—had her pinned against the brick, roughly kissing her. She struggled then managed to turn her head and cry out as my hand clamped on his shoulder.
He was an inch taller than me, but that didn’t matter. Brown hair cropped short, a lean but muscular build, and an entitled chip on his shoulder. His family had money. He thought he was untouchable. The reports Erica had filed against him had gone unresolved, so her parents had hired me to keep her safe.
A sneer curved Luke’s lips, and I matched it.
“Go away, Luke!” Erica shouted. “I don’t want anything to do with you anymore. We’re over.”
“You heard her.” I moved left, sweeping Erica behind me while herding Luke back a few inches. “Walk away.”
“I don’t think so.” Luke tensed, his face an ugly mask of outrage.
He shifted his weight, and I saw the punch coming before he wound his arm back. I ducked, and his fist sailed past my head. I was done. He’d been asking for it for too damn long. Curling my hand, I put power behind my fist as it connected with his jaw.
The force of the hit jolted his head back as his eyes rolled into his head. His body followed, losing the ability to hold him upright. I stepped back as Luke went down. Fuck. I saw it too late. He hit the corner of a cement step. A dull thump echoed through the building pass-through, followed by Erica’s scream.
Bile climbed my throat. I should’ve grabbed him. But I hadn’t. And as he lay there, his head at an awkward angle against the cement step, blood pooled beneath him. Fluid leaked from his nose and ears. I knew what damage I’d done, how his skull must’ve cracked from impact on the corner. The sound played on a loop in my mind.
Erica pressed against my back. Her body convulsed, and her ear-piercing scream dissolved into sobs. I gathered her in my arms, blocking her view of Luke as I fumbled for my phone. Once I had it out of my pocket, I called 911 and, after that, campus security.
Students trickled in our direction. I yelled out that an ambulance was coming and to stay back. Erica’s tears soaked my shirt. I held her tightly. She would’ve crumpled to the ground if I’d loosened my grip.
I couldn’t not look at Luke. His chest wasn’t moving. The fluid pooling beneath him grew. The minutes slowly ticked by, and I wished for a do-over, but nothing would change the fact that, today, I’d punched Luke Green—once. The power behind my fist as it made contact with his jaw had knocked him out cold, and he’d hit the ground, never to wake again.
I’d killed someone. Involuntary manslaughter. I couldn’t white-knuckle my way through it.
“What’s going on—oh, shit.” Campus security had arrived.
“An ambulance is coming.” I didn’t need to tell them.
The sirens grew louder the closer they came.
One of the guys lifted a radio and directed whoever was on the other end where to send the ambulance. The other guard got to work moving people back. My body was cold. I wasn’t sure what would happen.
Luke Green’s parents were heavy hitters at Thane University. They donated tons of money, and it was why Erica’s complaints against him hadn’t been handled. I had little hope that his parents would leave me be. They would come after me with everything they had when they discovered what had happened. And a part of me couldn’t blame them.
Erica’s sobs eased, but her trembling did not, and I worried she was in shock. As security pushed back the gathering crowd, Erica and I moved to an area where onlookers could not film us.
I read one of the campus security guy’s name tags—Robert Fredrickson. He seemed to be the most take-charge one of the three on scene. And once the scene was as controlled as possible, Robert approached. I was ready for him. I just hoped Erica was too.
“I’ll need your names.” He held a small notebook, his pen poised and ready. Then his eyes narrowed, and a wide smile curved his mouth. “Shane Bennett. Gerald Bennett and I go way back. He told me to watch out for his grandsons.”
“Nice to meet you, sir.”
“Quite a year you’ve had, even with the injury. Both you and your brother are breaking football records.” Robert glanced back at the body and grimaced. “Unfortunate time to meet. All right, let’s get the story.” He turned to Erica. “And you are?”
“Erica Williams.”
“You’re also a student here?”
“Yes.” Her voice trembled, and tears leaked from her eyes in a steady stream.
“And that is?” Robert’s eyes snapped back to mine as he motioned to the body not far from where we stood.
“Luke Green.” Erica’s voice shook. “H-He attacked me.”
I clenched my teeth, knowing her accusation could be misconstrued. But maybe not, as Robert was clearly a football fan.
“What do you mean? He hit you?”
“No. But he pushed me against the wall and kissed me. He wouldn’t let me go. I told him to stop. I said no.”
“And why are you here, Shane?”
He turned to me, dismissing Erica for the time being. I hadn’t checked for cameras, but I hoped there were some. “The Williams family hired me to keep their daughter safe when she walked from classes to her car. Her ex-boyfriend”—I indicated Luke—“wouldn’t take no for an answer and had been harassing her. Incidents have been filed with the university.”
“If you were with her, why did Luke have the chance to make advances on her?”
He gave nothing away when he questioned me. I could do nothing but tell the truth and hope that, somehow, the tragedy would be seen as the accident it was. “Her class let out early. Erica messaged me about it and said she was going to her car. When I found them, I had to pull Luke off her. He took a swing at me, and I retaliated.”
“You hit him repeatedly?”
“No. Once.” But that had been all it took. One swing, and everything had changed in that second.
The ambulance arrived, and paramedics spilled from the vehicle. They bent to assess Luke and came to the same conclusion we all had. A squad car parked alongside the ambulance, just behind the path we would have been on to the parking lot if her ex hadn’t intervened.
Two officers crowded around us, and we exchanged the same information. When they realized I was on Thane’s football team, their tone of questioning changed as it had with Robert. Erica backed me up, reiterating my story and that it was a horrible accident. We gave our contact information and were told we had to go to the police station to file a statement.
Erica’s complexion was alarmingly pale. I got her to my SUV since she was in no shape to drive, then we went to the station. We gave our statements and were fingerprinted, processed for evidence, then told we were free to go, that it was a clear case of self-defense. I had to assure them we wouldn’t leave town. I mentioned I would be at my mom’s after dropping Erica off. It felt like a mistake, them letting me go, but I hoped I was wrong.
I ushered her out of the station and took her to her parents’ house. We explained the altercation to them, and as I left, Erica called out to me.
“It wasn’t your fault. It was self-defense.”
Was it? I wasn’t so sure. I had control. I could’ve stopped it—or at the very least stopped him from falling.
Not knowing what else to do, I went to Mom’s house. I didn’t remember the drive. Somehow, I was inside my mom’s home, where I’d grown up, feeling lost. I’d killed someone.
“Shane.” Mom rounded a corner from the back to find me standing in the foyer. “I wasn’t expecting you.” The happiness that had lit up her face melted away when she got a good look at me. “What’s wrong?”
A wave of despair washed over me. I had to tell her. She would find out, and I would rather it be from me. So I did. Every detail—from being hired by Erica’s family to what happened that day.
“It’ll be okay. It’s not your fault.”
But she was shaken. I could tell. And she was wrong. It was my fault.
Being released and told I was free to go felt too good to be true. And I would soon find out that it was.
