Chapter 3

CASSIAN

Red.

That was what I had called her the night we first met but when her eyes met mine across the rink earlier today, it was obvious she didn’t remember me.

I wasn’t sure why I’d helped her, all I had known and thought at that moment was Derek going completely out of line before my mind went blank.

Now, as I carried her toward my truck, Nico’s question replayed inside my head.

“Why do you still have eyes on a woman who doesn’t even remember you? You could have any puck bunny on campus.”

I could… but they weren’t Violetta.

Violetta Monroe was simply… fascinating.

Over the last three months, my eyes had developed the irritating habit of finding her wherever she was. 

Whether she was sprinting across campus with a camera hanging around her neck or laughing with her friends outside the journalism building, somehow my attention always drifted back to her.

My fascination with her also made me realize Logan Whitaker was nothing but a pathetic coward hiding behind a charming smile and a loyal swooning fan base.

Nothing he’d done tonight surprised me.

I told myself I wasn’t watching Violetta because I cared. She just happened to be in my line of sight.

That was all.

Yet ever since she’d walked into the party with her head held high, pretending the entire world hadn’t laughed at her, I’d found myself keeping an eye on her.

She refused to leave despite the mockery and kept interviewing players with a forced smile on her face.

“You’ve been staring at her for twenty minutes.” Nico said as he dropped into the chair beside me, handing me a beer.

I didn’t take it.

“I’m sure you’ve got somewhere better to be than bothering me.”

He barked out a laugh, “Yeah, right.”

“If you can’t help yourself, I can always help you shut the fuck up.” I slowly looked at him.

Nico leaned back comfortably.

Among everyone on the team, he was one of the few people who could talk to me like this and walk away without a broken nose.

Across the room, I had watched as Violetta accepted yet another drink… watched as she had walked towards seated drunks.

I couldn’t hear what the group around her was saying… I didn’t need to because the look on her face as she faced me a second later told me enough.

Her cheeks were flushed as she started making her towards me.

Everything inside my head went completely blank as she grabbed my jersey, all I had seen was her glossy green eyes that shone beneath her then she kissed me.

I should have stopped her but I found myself pulling her closer as I kissed her back.

By the time she pulled back, horror had replaced whatever courage the alcohol had given her.

Without another word, she ran.

“Well, I definitely didn’t see that coming.” Nico whistled beside me.

Neither did I.

Then I noticed Derek, one of Logan’s minions following her outside. There was something about the look on his face that bothered me.

I followed and everything that followed after that happened too fast. 

One second I had seen his hands on her and the next, he was airborne.

I had him by the collar before I even realized and all I could see was the terrified look on her face. By the time we reached my truck… she was asleep.

My phone was flooding with calls and messages from Nico.

I was fucked!

Halfway home, she stirred awake.

“Ohh that stupid fuck…” she mumbled. “After everything I had done for that fuck face he just ruined my life…”

I glanced over and she caught my stare.

She frowned thoughtfully before slowly looking at me.

“Well… well…” she slurred, squinting. “If it isn’t Leonardo the First…”

I blinked, “Who??”

She ignored me before reaching out to poke my cheek, “You silly…You’re one strange menace, coming in to save the day.”

Then she giggled to herself before mumbling something incoherent and passing out again.

The second I carried her into my apartment… she threw up directly onto my jersey.

I looked down, “…Seriously?”

She blinked up at me with watery eyes.

“…Sowwy.”

Then she threw up again, this time on my couch.

It was funny to watch her murmur curses under her breath.

I slowly closed my eyes as a miserable sigh escaped me, “You owe me four eyes, you just fucking ruined my couch.” 

“Well that makes two of us except my entire night was ruined by the cunt I thought loved me.” She hiccupped… I was supposed to be mad at her.

She looked so pitiful that I couldn’t even bring myself to be angry.

My phone rang.

Nico.

“What?”

“Dude, where the hell are you?” Nico asked. “We’re all heading to Jake’s place, the least you can do is drink your mess off!”

“I’m home.”

“Already? You do know this meeting is kind of compulsory and we need to talk about what you’d tell the coach.”

“Also why is Jace saying you kidnapped the campus sweetheart!”

I looked toward my living room where Violetta was currently apologizing to my trash can.

“I’m hanging up, goodnight, Nico.”

He seemed to be talking to one of the guys before he said, “are you really sure of what you are doing?”

I wasn’t but there is no way I was telling him that so I hung up.

After helping her clean up, I gave her one of my shirts and left a bottle of water with something for the headache that would hit her tomorrow, on the nightstand.

She fell asleep almost instantly.

I didn’t, I dragged a chair beside the bed and sat there, watching to make sure she didn’t throw up again.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I heard was someone pounding on my bedroom door.

“CASSIAN!”

Another loud bang rattled the frame.

“Dude, open the damn door!”

I groaned, rubbing a hand over my face just as the door swung open.

Nico stormed in first.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he barked. “First of all, why the fuck did you lock the front door? And second…” He held up his phone. “Your fight video is everywhere.”

The rest of the guys,  Jace, Matteo and Declan,  crowded into the doorway behind him with a scowl on their faces.

“Derek was admitted to the hospital last night,” one of them said.

“The coach is losing his damn mind and wants you there before the athletic department gets involved.”

“They’re rumors of expulsion.”

Everyone spoke over one another until the room was filled with nothing but noise.

I pinched the bridge of my nose… it was way too early for this shit.

Nico threw both hands into the air, “Please tell me she was worth getting expelled over.”

I didn’t answer.

My eyes drifted toward the bed.

The sleeping redhead was curled beneath my blanket, almost completely swallowed by my shirt.

Without thinking, I shrugged.

“Yeah.”

Every single person in the room froze as the room immediately went deathly silent.

I wasn’t about to explain that just a few months back, although she didn’t remember, she’d unknowingly saved me from a woman who’d tried to drug me at a club.

Back then, I thought she’d only stopped me from making a fool of myself before a game but weeks later, my family’s investigators uncovered the whole truth.

The drink had been part of a setup meant to leave me accused of rape, trapped by a fake pregnancy, and stripped me of hockey.

She’d disappeared before anyone could even learn her name.

“I… kind of have an idea that could help.”

Every head in the room turned toward the bed to see that the redhead was awake.

For a second, I wondered how much of our conversation she’d heard.

She pushed herself upright, my oversized shirt slipping off one shoulder, then reached for the painkillers and the bottle of water I’d left on the nightstand.

After swallowing the tablets, she turned back to us.

“I think we can help each other.”

“The internet thinks I’m a liar.” She looked directly at me as she continued, “and sees Cassian is a violent psychopath which after last night it is a fair assumption.”

Several of the guys snickered.

For someone who had literally kissed her way into my life and somehow ended up sleeping in my bed… she was awfully mouthy.

“We really can help each other by controlling the narrative this early and Cassian will be left justified as we’d let them think he defended his girlfriend.”

The realization spread across the room one face at a time.

Nico nearly choked.

Everyone suddenly had something to say about it.

“Out.”

Nobody argued.

Within seconds, they were filing out of the apartment, still throwing curious glances over their shoulders.

Nico was the last to leave and before he did. He pointed dramatically between the two of us, “If you kill each other, I’m not cleaning up the bodies.”

I shut the door in his face before leaning against the door, folding my arms across my chest.

“So what exactly do you have in mind, four eyes?” I looked at the redhead. “What exactly does this fake dating involve?”