Ruthless Heart Read online

  “Ladies, how did you like the set?” Alex asked as he came up to us.

  “You were great,” I told him truthfully and smiled when Shane joined us, handing a bottle of water to Alex.

  As Mia talked to the guys, I couldn’t help but track the Santos as they spoke to Wade. Wade looked like his usual self, and he was talking happily to them. There was no universe that existed where Wade and the Devils were in the same orbit. What on earth were they talking about?

  “That okay with you, Ava?” Shane asked me, and I turned back to them.

  What? “Of course,” I agreed.

  He smiled at me, and then both guys were heading back to the stage.

  “You have no idea what you just agreed to, do you?” Mia said to me, her voice heavy with amusement.

  “Tell me,” I urged as I watched the Santos leave the bar. Jett didn’t even look over his shoulder or in my direction at all. It was as if I didn’t exist. He had held me to him and hadn’t let me go when I tried, what did that mean? Did any of it mean anything?

  “It’s nothing to worry about, we’re going to hang back at the end and then go to Orchard together.”

  I nodded and flinched back when her hand appeared in front of my face.

  “Now, are you going to tell me what you were all up in Jett’s space about?” Mia asked me curiously.

  “I was?” I asked her incredulously. “Did you even see the way you and Ash reacted to one another?”

  Mia looked around the room. “Ash?”

  “You’re ridiculous,” I murmured as the band began to play and the music made it impossible to speak anyway.

  Mia and I helped clean the tables when the music was over, and Sheryl was delighted with our help. When the band was all packed up and the bar had its normal Thursday night clientele, we waited outside for the guys to load the van.

  “Who’s ready to party?” Wade cried when we were all in the van, and I laughed as he waggled his eyebrows.

  I felt my shoulders relax as we got ready to leave the bar. I was looking forward to the party.

  “It’s a Thursday night, it’s hardly going to be an all-nighter,” I reminded Wade.

  “Why? I got no classes until twelve tomorrow,” Wade said smugly as he started the van. “We played really well tonight, and I’m up for getting lit.”

  “And Sticks doesn’t go to class on a Friday,” Shane said with an amused look over his shoulder at the drummer.

  “You have no classes on a Friday?” Mia asked him in surprise. “Lucky.”

  “I have class,” Sticks told her as he twirled a drumstick in his hand. “I just don’t go, ain’t got no time for that shit, it’s Friday.”

  Mia looked at me, and I giggled at her expression. Sticks once told me he lived to the beat of his own drum and no one else’s, and although I was sort of impressed at his own self-awareness at the tender age of twenty-one, I also knew he was stoned when he told me. In fact, Sticks was usually stoned.

  “So, Wade, you got Devil groupies?” Mia teased as we drove, and my heart almost stopped in my chest at her complete lack of discretion as she just blurted it out.

  “Yeah.” Alex looked excited. “We need them to spread the word they were there,” Alex said to Wade, leaning forward. “Word gets out we have Devils in our fanbase, man, we’ll be made.”

  “They’re just guys,” I grumbled.

  “Yeah, they are,” Wade said with a grin. “But I don’t think they’re fans,” Wade said cheerfully as he looked in the rearview mirror. “I met Jett last Friday. Guy was looking for his keys.”

  “His keys?” I asked Wade.

  “Yeah, he lost them. Was pretty worked up about them too.” Wade shrugged. “I asked him where he’d been, and he said he’d been at a party on Cedar. I was heading that way, and I told him I would give him a call if I saw them.” Wade snorted out a laugh. “He full on tells me he doesn’t answer unknown numbers, so I made him give me his number, and I texted him so he’d know who I was if I found them.”

  “He must have,” I said more to myself than the van. “Found them, I mean.”

  “Yeah, or one of his brothers was home,” Wade spoke to me.

  “Brothers? Ash is his cousin,” I corrected.

  “You know a lot about the Santo guys,” Shane said to me. His look was searching.

  “Ava’s a huge football fan, she knows the team’s stats,” Mia piped up, and for the next few minutes, I was tested on my football knowledge.

  It broke any weirdness between Shane and myself and answered my curiosity about Jett. As we headed into the basketball players’ dorm house, I tugged Wade’s arm to get him to stop.

  “He came all the way to the bar to say thanks for not finding his keys?”

  Wade looked at me, his face thoughtful. “Why are you so curious?” he asked. “Thought Spence was your QB of choice.”

  “He is. It just seems so anti-Santo.” I nudged him with my shoulder. “I’m just nosey, let’s go.”

  “I’m fucking with you,” Wade joked. “You give me or him, I’m not sure who, too much credit. I never told him I didn’t find his keys, and he didn’t come to say thanks. Either way, you’re thinking about it too much. They were in town, heard the music, came in. He saw it was me and said hi. The brother, the fierce-looking one, he grilled me, but Jett told him to cool off. He’s an alright guy.”

  Ha.

  The party was in full swing when we went in, and we inevitably got separated before meeting again. The room wasn’t as full as it would be if it were a Friday night. Sticks disappeared to the basement pretty quickly, and Wade saw a guy from his class he needed to talk to. Mia dragged Alex to dance, and then it was just Shane and me. We stood in companionable silence for a while, and then he said he was going to rescue Alex from the dance floor, and I suggested we take them outside. It was too hot in here, and I needed air. My top was sticking to me.

  As I went ahead of them into the backyard, I was almost relieved to take a deep breath, even if the air was thick with humidity. I watched two guys get into an argument, and opting to stay out of the way, I crossed the yard to take shelter at the corner of the house. A flare of cherry red alerted me to the fact that there was someone further in the shadows, smoking a cigarette.

  “Sorry,” I told them. “Didn’t mean to encroach on your solitude.” I grinned to whoever stood in the darkness. They moved forward, and my jaw dropped. Jett looked at me, half hidden in the shadows. What was he doing out here, smoking? Wait, why was he smoking? “You shouldn’t smoke!” I berated him, taking a step towards him in irritation. “You’re an athlete. Your body needs to be at its best!”

  He took a long drag of his smoke, his eyebrow lifting in challenge. “A full night in the bar and you’re still uptight.”

  “I’m not uptight.”

  “Sure,” he scoffed as he took another pull of his smoke before he stubbed it out on the side of the house. “My body is at its best, you know that.” He gave me a sly look as he took a step towards the light. His attention was caught by the guys arguing, who were now swinging punches. A bottle went flying through the air, and Jett grabbed me, pulling me out of the way as the projectile flew through the air coming towards me.

  I had no idea where the bottle landed, because I was pressed up against the side of the house with Jett pushed up against me, one arm resting against the wall as he leaned into me. I hated smoking, but weirdly, the smell of nicotine mixed with the scent of him, which was almost cedarwood-like with an undernote of vanilla, made me breathe him in.

  “They missed,” I said to him in a low voice when I realised that he knew I’d basically just sniffed him.

  “Mm-hmm.” Jett didn’t move, and as we were away from the lights of the house, I could no longer see his face clearly.

  “You can move,” I reminded him.

  His answer was to press his lower body into mine. “You’re so...nervous. No. Not nervous, jittery.”

  “Jittery?” I gave a low chuckle as I looked up a
t him. “Well, a guy I hardly know has me pressed against a wall in a dark backyard,” I hissed at him.

  “Hardly know? Now, now, Uptight, you’re forgetting we’re old friends.”

  I felt his hand skim down over my hip and onto my thigh. He bent slightly, and feeling my skirt being gathered in his hand, I might have stopped breathing. “What are you doing?” I asked him as I felt air around the top of my thigh.

  “Testing something,” he murmured as his fingers trailed over the top of my leg.

  “Testing what?” I was rooted to the spot, my head turned slightly to look towards the backyard, and somewhere I realised in my head that he had tugged up the side of the skirt so that no one could see if anyone came looking.

  “Just…” He paused, and then his fingers skimmed over my pussy, and I gasped. I mean, I knew he was probably going to do something, but still it was a shock when he touched me. “Relax,” he whispered against my cheek, and I knew he had to feel the racing of my heart as his fingers caressed over my panties again.

  “I don’t think—” I almost bit my tongue when he pushed my panties to the side and his fingers slid through my gathering wetness. My head fell back against the wall as I could feel Jett watching me as his fingers rubbed over the small bundle of nerves, which were the only thing my whole entire being was concentrating on.

  “Keep your eyes open,” he instructed as he slid one finger inside me, and my hands gripped his arms. “Jesus.” I heard his low voice as he pushed another finger inside me, and then he moved them both, in and out, while his thumb rubbed gently over my nub.

  My knees were close to buckling as my tummy clenched again and again with need, almost like hunger. I needed more.

  “Fuck, your pussy wants this,” Jett’s voice was hoarse as he continued to finger fuck me.

  I had no words. I could feel it building in my toes, I needed the release. My head tried to drop forward onto his chest, but Jett gripped my neck and held me so I was looking up at him.

  “Eyes on me.” His voice was harsh. “Are you close?” I didn’t even get to answer before he was answering for me. “Yeah, I can feel you gripping me, hungry pussy.” His head dipped, and I wildly thought he was going to kiss me. His mouth hovered over mine before he moved to my ear.

  “Frustrating isn’t it, to be on the edge of something, knowing it’s just within reach and not quite being able to grasp it.” Jett withdrew his fingers, fixed my panties and then stood back.

  “What?” My voice was shaky, and my breathing was rapid. I was so close. What was he doing?

  Jett popped two fingers in his mouth and sucked as he watched me, and then with a smirk, he walked away.

  What the fuck was that? Hastily, I fixed my skirt, my panties dampening from his ministrations, and I leaned against the wall, trying to sort out what had just happened.

  “I don’t see her.” I heard Mia’s voice, and in my panic, I remembered I was supposed to be meeting my friends. My friends, who at any time could have seen me flat against the wall, with a Devil’s fingers inside me.

  What if they had seen Jett walk from this side of the building?

  Shit.

  Looking to the other side, I noticed the overgrown shrubbery and seriously contemplated scrambling over it to avoid any awkward questions.

  “Maybe she saw the fight and went back in to find us?” I heard Shane say and a few murmurs of agreement.

  Go inside, please go inside.

  “Okay, we’ll do a sweep of the floor again. It really isn’t like her…” I heard Mia telling them as they walked away.

  I gave myself a few minutes, my hands patting my hair, trusting I hadn’t messed my messy bun up. My hands shakily straightened my top and smoothed my skirt. With a deep breath, I collected myself as I rolled my head on my shoulders, and then with a confidence that I wasn’t feeling, I went into the party to join my friends.

  Friday classes sucked balls. Not only had I not slept a wink because all I could feel was the frustration of an impending orgasm my fingers couldn’t give me, but I didn’t understand why he hated me so much.

  Or did he hate me? Did you do what Jett did last night if you disliked someone? I didn’t know. Nor did I know how to ask the question of Mia without telling her everything, and I didn’t want to say the words. I didn’t want to share the shame of my crazy one-night stand.

  Plus, the whole campus was alive with the mayhem the Devils had caused last night. No one of course was accusing them outwardly, but it was obvious they had been up to their tricks. In the early hours of the morning, three classrooms had been completely emptied of furniture. Every car parking space had a desk and a chair in it, and when people had tried to park, the pile of furniture had begun to grow as the traffic backed up.

  Most of the students lived on campus, but the admin staff, the lecturers, the maintenance men, the groundskeepers, all of them commuted to work. Morning classes had been disrupted, and chaos had overtaken Cardinal Saints College.

  Not only had they done this, but a devil’s trident had also been tagged onto the side of the stadium, and apparently Coach Bowers had been explosive in his rage, screaming on the walkway to get the fucking Santo shits to his office.

  They were due to travel this afternoon to Missouri for the game tomorrow, and the only time I had been alert all day was when I heard some guy in my class tell his friend that he heard both Ash and Gray were being made to stay behind.

  The rumour was a false one. I happened to be behind one of the assistant coaches in the coffee queue when some guy asked him if the full offence was travelling this afternoon, and the coach had told them it was a full complement, minus QB8 of course, who was still nursing an ankle injury.

  Huh, his ankle didn’t look injured, I thought to myself, but I wasn’t a sports therapist.

  As I sat under my tree, I watched the maintenance men and groundskeepers traipse back and forth, putting the desks and chairs back inside. All the trolleys had also been “misplaced,” and the poor guys were doing it by hand.

  “Hey.” Mia dropped beside me as she watched the to-ing and fro-ing. “Carnage,” she snorted as she took out her lunch bag. “How did they do it?” she asked me curiously.

  “They’re claiming it wasn’t them.”

  “It has Devils’ Mayhem all over it,” Mia scoffed as she uncovered her lunch. It appeared to be lettuce, cucumber and sliced avocado.

  “What are you eating?” I asked her as my nose wrinkled in distaste.

  “Edamame beans.” She handed me a small pack of the soybeans, and I frantically shook my head. “They’re full of fibre,” she advised me.

  I didn’t doubt it but said nothing as I sipped my caramel latte, my eyes returning to the men working.

  “So.” Mia popped one of the beans into her mouth. “Jett and you are…” She waited expectantly.

  My head snapped to hers in question. “Nothing?”

  “He spoke to you at the bar, and I heard they were at the party we were, but I didn’t see him, did you?”

  I swallowed. “No.”

  “Maybe he was here playing with tables and chairs.” Mia giggled.

  “It would have taken them hours,” I stated as I returned to watching. “Well, I guess they would have had the moving trolleys. But wouldn’t someone have seen them?”

  “No idea, I do know it meant my computer science class was cancelled as the professor couldn’t get into the parking lot.”

  “Yeah, I got off without Leitch this morning. Maybe we need to thank them?” I gave her a small smile, and Mia chuckled.

  My phone rang, and I looked at the unknown number.

  “Hello?”

  “Ms Bryant?” The woman’s voice had a crisp edge to it that made me sit straighter.

  “Yes?”

  “This is the dean’s office on campus. Can you come to the dean’s office at one thirty? He would like to speak to you.”

  “Um, is everything okay?” I asked as I looked up at Mia, who had stopped eating.<
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  “Is one thirty convenient?”

  “Yes, of course.” It wasn’t, I had a class, but the lady was satisfied and hung up.

  “What is it?” Mia asked me with concern.

  “The dean wants to see me at one thirty.”

  “Why?” Mia asked as she resumed eating. “You win something?”

  “What? No.” I chewed my lip as I thought about it. “Why would you think I had?”

  Mia shrugged. “What else could it be? You’re a model student.”

  “Yeah.” I didn’t stop fretting as I thought about it. “What if I’m in trouble?”

  “You look guilty!” Mia laughed. “You don’t do anything wrong, Ava. Some underage drinking, yes, but then the whole campus would be in the dean’s office.”

  “Yeah.” I nodded again as Mia opened her phone. Looking over campus, I saw Jett and Gray standing watching the guys working the desks and chairs. Several people were calling out to them, but they remained stoic as they watched. Ash came down the steps from the law building and slung his arms over his cousins’ shoulders. I saw Jett nod, and then Ash was walking towards one of the maintenance men. I heard the guy start laughing, and then with a high five to Ash, he and another guy disappeared into the building.

  A few minutes later, they came out with the trolleys, and the remedial work to the grounds and parking lot was smooth.

  When I looked over at where the Devils stood, Jett was watching me, his face blank. He slipped his shades on, and then the three of them walked towards the stadium.

  “Hey, look, they found the trolleys,” Mia exclaimed as she looked up from her phone.

  “They did.” Standing, I brushed off my shorts. “I have to go, you be okay?”

  “Library?” Mia guessed with a smile.

  Not this time. “Yeah.” I nodded, and with a small wave, I hurried back to the apartment. I needed to change and be more presentable. I had a bad feeling about this afternoon’s meeting, something wasn’t sitting right with me.

  My leg was bouncing as I sat on the chair outside the dean’s office. The guy hated me and my family; why he took this job was beyond anyone’s understanding. Why he was offered this job was also beyond my comprehension. My dad told me it was because he needed to be the better man. My uncle told me it was because my dad was an idealist and eventually reality would bitch-slap him if he didn’t first.