The Billionaire Student's Secret.

13

Charles looked at Jade, noting her puffy eyes which had a haunted quality to them, and stepped gingerly into her tiny apartment which could fit in his apartment's kitchen.

When Jade stepped back warily, Black's heart faltered. He knew he had not come to Jade's rescue late, but what if what Leroy did to her had scared her already?

“Don't be afraid,” Charles assured as he settled himself down on the only sofa in the room, “I won't hurt you.”

Jade played with the wet mass of her brown hair nervously, “I know.”

Charles let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

Jade stood in the middle of the room, looking every inch uncomfortable in her own house. Charles knew he should leave, but he couldn't get himself to.

“Thank you,” Jade said quietly after a while.

“There's nothing to thank me for,” Charles waved away her gratitude. The day he craved gratitude for handling an i***t like Leroy Hawkins was the day he lost all sense of right and wrong.

“Quite the contrary,” Jade disagreed stubbornly, “I have everything to thank you for. Some other person would have either turned back, or joined them, or made a video.”

“Then that person would have been a colossal and sadistic fool,” Charles replied with feeling.

When he saw Jade flinch unconsciously, he calmed down. He was supposed to be a calming influence on her, not an agitator.

Charles stood, “Have you eaten anything since today?”

Jade blushed and looked away, “I'm not feeling particularly hungry.”

“Understandable after everything you just went through, but soon enough, hunger's going to kick in.” Charles warned, “get something to eat.”

“How did you know Leroy was . . .” Jade shuddered, “was here?”

“I saw you two in front of the library,” Charles confessed, “after you told him off, he called one of his clods and they followed you.”

Jade's jaw dropped, “They did? Are you sure? I would've noticed them.”

“But you didn't,” Charles asserted, “when I saw them stalk you, I knew nothing good was going to come out of it, so I followed them.”

Jade looked up at Charles with fresh tears in her eyes, “I don't care what you say, Charles. Thank you for saving me.”

Charles smiled uncomfortably. Jade settled down on a chair, “So what did you do to Leroy?”

“Like I said,” Charles repeated, “he won't be bothering you ever again.”

Jade c****d an eyebrow, “I'm not going to get anything else out of you, am I?”

“No,” Charles found himself grinning, Jade was very smart.

“So, about the food thing.” Charles offered, “do you have anything I could cook for you?”

Again, a blush suffused Jade's cheeks, “I haven't been able to stock up on groceries in a while.”

“Oh,” Charles exclaimed, feeling disappointed. For some reason, he found he wanted to cook for Jade, cuddle with her, and generally tell her everything was going to be alright. The feeling was so sudden that it prompted him to his feet. This was Mouse, the girl who had distracted him in class and who hated his guts. She was probably being nice to him only because he'd saved her.

Growling mentally, Charles announced, “I have to get going, I've wasted enough time here already.”

He saw confusion on Jade's face and felt sorry he was leaving her, but it had to be done.

“Make sure you bolt your door and your windows, and get yourself a taser and pepper spray. Leroy and his friends aren't the only predators out there.”

With his words of advice, he let himself out of Jade's apartment but not before he gave her a kind smile.

* * *

“You fool!”

Leroy barely blinked as spittle from his uncle's mouth landed on his face. The nurse in the room approached Leroy's uncle who was unattractively frothing at the corner of his mouth.

“Sir,” the petite nurse warned crisply, “it would be best if you didn't agitate the patient.”

“And it would be best if you kept out of this,” Leroy's uncle threatened fiercely.

The nurse shrugged and left the room.

Leroy's uncle was Shane Hawkins, a sports agent who represented many big names in different sports all over the world. Shane was very muscular and on the short side, so he looked like a little mountain. At the moment, his plain face was contorted in anger.

“How many times have I told you to get rid of your monkey friends?” Shane shouted.

Leroy was in a hospital with a sprained ankle. He'd gotten the sprain as a result of the beating that stupid busy body Charles had given him in Mouse's hallway, but no one needed to know that, so instead he'd lied to his uncle that he'd sprained his ankle while he was drunk at a party.

“A party, really?” Shane continued to rage, “You're going to miss more than a quarter of the semester's games now!”

“I'm sorry,” Leroy apologized, gazing at the cast that enveloped his left foot.

“Sorry?” Shane shouted, “you'll be sorry when you graduate and you don't go pro! Do you know how difficult it was to train you after your parents died? Do you know how hard I had to work to get you this scholarship?”

Here we go again, Leroy thought morosely. His uncle missed no chance to remind Leroy that he would've have been a nobody without his help.

“Without my help, you'd have ended up as some stupid thug on the streets, and by now, you'd probably die of an OD, or a stab wound!” Shane pointed out.

“I'm sorry,” Leroy grated out again, when what he wanted to do was yell at his uncle that he'd gotten his scholarship purely based on his talents.

“You will be,” Shane promised and left the room, slamming the door.

Leroy was glad he was alone. It gave him time to stew in his anger. Strangely, he was not angry at Uncle Shane. Instead, he was annoyed at Charles. Charles was the one who put him here. So the fact that he was going to miss games was Black's fault.

A knock on his door pulled Leroy out of his reverie.

“Go away!” He shouted rudely.

The person opened the door and walked in instead. It was Darin, bearing a bouquet of flowers. She wore a black ruched dress which accentuated the contours of her body.

“Hi, I heard you were hospitalized,” Darin said as she set the bouquet on top of a drawer and sat on a chair on the other side of the room.

God no! Leroy exclaimed internally, the last thing I need now is to spend time with this slutty bimbo.

“How did you know I was here?” Leroy was in no mood to be polite.

Darin shrugged and smirked, “I have my ways.”

“How did you get injured?”

“At a party, I was drunk.” Leroy repeated, “They dared me to jump from the roof of a bungalow and I did.”

Darin laughed, “I'm not buying it.”

Leroy turned to stare at her. He wasn't sure he heard her correctly, “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, I don't believe you.” Darin repeated confidently, “Which party? Off campus? Because there's no party on campus that I haven't got an invite to.”

“Yes, off campus.” Leroy lied.

“Then they wouldn't have brought you to the school hospital, would they?” Darin asked, tapping her forehead with her index finger.

Leroy knew he'd been caught in his lie, so he kept mute.

“Do you know how I think you got this injury?” Darin was obviously enjoying herself.

“How?” Leroy questioned, infusing a note of nonchalance in his voice. There was no way he'd let her know he was actually interested in finding out if she really knew how he'd gotten his ankle sprained.

“Charles gave it to you."