Warner, Kenji and I are heading back from New Year's Day brunch with Tracey when I spot the note on the door first. Warner's eyes are on the dorm parking lot, inspecting it up and down like he is looking for something. I tug on his hand, earning those glowing green embers in return.

I shift my eyes in the direction of the door with a tilt of my chin.

Warner's attention shifts to the envelope that has been taped up. His strides get longer, making him pull me just a little as we close the distance to the dorm. He doesn't bother opening the door before tearing the blank white envelope across the top, yanking out an index-sized card from inside.

The first sign I have that something is wrong is the flexing of a vein in his temple, then the corners of his eyes wrinkle, and finally his jaw clenches. He looks up and turns around, sweeping up and down the street in one glance. His grip tightens before unlocking the building door and hurrying Kenji and me inside.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

His eyes cut over to me, wide and battling some unknown war I have no clue of. I kind of expect him not to say anything, to keep me from worrying but Warner shoots me a hard look instead. His hand tugs on mine. "I'm leaving for a bit. Stay with Kenji and lock the door after me. Don't open it for anyone you don't know."

Oh crap. I nod at him. "What if you don't come back?"

"I'll come back. I just need to show this to the police." He trails his fingers over my knuckles. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Kenji and Warner exchange some sort of look I don't understand and before I can get a goodbye kiss I am shoved into the elevator and headed to our floor.

"Are you going to tell me what that was?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Nice try Jdawg you aren't getting any information out of me." Kenji ruffles my hair and I frown at him.

We get off the elevator onto my floor when my phone pings with a text making me look down at it.

I gulp and try to hastily shove my phone back into my pocket but Kenji notices.

"What did it say?" he asks opening the door to our floor for me.

"Oh nothing, just a text to pick up—uh...tampons?" My voice has gone up five octaves and I feel myself break out into a sweat.

I couldn't have come up with a better lie?

"Really? Let me see your phone then." Kenji stops in front of me and grabs my phone before I can swat his hand away.

"Give me that!" I scream, kicking him in the back of the knee.

He holds the phone out of my reach using his height advantage against me. "Give it back!" I jump up, grabbing ineffectively.

His mouth purses, suspicious eyes calculating my flushed face and high-pitched voice. "Why are you so scared to let me see your phone?"

I'm not scared." He hears the lie, I'm sure of it. "Give it back." I scrabble desperately, but it's no use. He's too tall and I feel myself getting shorter with every jump. "I mean it Kenji, Hand it over! I'm serious. This is my personal property and keeping it from me is illegal."

Kenji's gaze slides to my phone and his thumb moves as if to tap the screen and bring my notifications to light. I freak out because I don't know if I am going to show anyone yet and the next thing I know, I'm hanging off his back. My arms are around his neck, which gets me closer to my target, but he is squirming to get me off.

Give it!" I shriek. "It's mine!" I lose all sense of which words are coming out of my mouth and which are nonverbally exploding in my frantic brain. "Do what I say, or else!"

Kenji backs up against the wall. He doesn't do it softly, either. I yank at his hair and he spins, falling backward onto the couch. It's a move he shouldn't have made because I lock my arms and legs around him with an iron grip and he's now a turtle on his back. I expend a burst of precious energy launching him off the couch, facedown on the floor, and revel in my moment of triumph before he starts fighting back.

"Get off!" He rolls us, but I'm scrappy and I'll do anything to protect my friends which means keeping this text message a secret.

I am straddling him now and I've got my hands on his throat. "Give me my phone!"

He throws my phone at the armchair across the room. I consider diving for it but my elbow still hurts from where he squished me against the wall, so I pull his shirt up over his face like a fifth-grade bully and pinch his nipples. Kenji shouts.

"Lie still!" I command pulling his shirt back down.

"You are crazy!." His face is red and he's struggling more than he'd like to admit. I feel a rush of power to know that I'm actually a decent foe here.

I hear doors opening and glance up to see Adam, Maggie, Winston and Abby all standing in the living room watching us have a UFC fight over my phone.

"You bumped me into that wall on purpose you swine!" I yell.

"I did not, you little goblin." He grunts.

"Just stop being nosey and we can end this fight." I shift for a better grip on his squirming lap, and a jolt of surprise electrifies me when I discover he's hard.

All the air punches from my lungs as I burst out laughing. "Oh my god, why?"

His face has gone red. "Your top is low and you're writhing all over me. What do you expect?"

That only makes me laugh harder and the more I laugh the angrier he looks. I use his moment of embarrassment and distraction to roll off and make a break for my phone. He seizes my ankle and pulls me back, but the smooth motion of gliding across the floor against my will is like an amusement park ride and instead of irritating me it just makes me laugh.

I turn to our friends who look both confused and amused and shout "Kenji got hard from us fighting!"

I turn and grin at a red-faced Kenji, "Give up on trying to get my phone and I won't tell Warner about your...excitement over me."

He glares at me "You wouldn't."

I give him my best devilish smile, "Oh, but I would."

"You can't! Warner will kill me, or worse cut off—" he glances down and winces. A second later he releases my ankle and I grab my phone. After a small victory dance, I am so out of breath that I need to sit back down on the couch and catch my breath,

It's silent for a full second until the whole room bursts into laughter. First Adam loses it, followed by Abby and then Maggie and Winston. A few seconds later Kenji joins in and when I catch my breath, I let out a snort of laughter as well.

Until I remember the whole reason, I was hiding my phone in the first place and my laughter dies quickly.

Do I respond?

Do I tell Warner even though it specifically says not to? I know he would want to know and he said no more secrets but I don't want my friends getting hurt.

I make excuses to everyone about needing to do some studying. When I get to my room, I text Warner the same story and then I spend the rest of the day messing around on my laptop trying to research everything I can about Warner's dad and trying not to lose my mind over the position his goons have put me in.

I finally force myself to crack open my textbooks in the afternoon and then I crawl into bed when my eyes feel as though they're bleeding around midnight.

I'm woken at four in the morning by my phone ringing.

I ignore it because fuck whoever is trying to ruin my week by waking me up right now. I roll back on my bed and shove a pillow over my head when the phone starts ringing again. I know better than to ignore it but I'm so tired.

The thumping on my door that starts ten minutes later isn't as easy to ignore. I might murder whoever is here.

I spring out of the bed and rip the door open, only to find Warner standing there, panting and freaking the fuck out. I forget my fury at the wake-up when I see how panicked he is.

"Where is your phone? Why the hell haven't you answered it?" Warner croaks and brushes past me to stalk into my room.

"What happened? Warner, what the hell is going on?" I shut the door and lean back against it, as he paces around, eyeing everything like he's expecting to have to defend us both against an entire freaking army that's lying in wait in my room.

"Kenji told me you got a text and then freaked out. There have been threats against you and you weren't answering your phone. I had to check for myself."

Shit. This is getting out of hand

My fear has me snapping at him, "I don't need a babysitter!

He spins back around to me, "Then answer your fucking phone!"

His eyes narrow at me and then his chest heaves as he takes a deep, calming breath, the type that probably means he's trying to find a little patience to deal with my bullshit.

"Why are you so mad at me? I'm sorry I didn't answer my phone, okay?" I step towards him.

I watch as he grinds his teeth, something he clearly does when I piss him off. But then his face softens when he sees how scared I am. He gently places a hand on the side of my cheek. "Because I am terrified of losing you! I try not to let it show how scared I am Jules but God...I'm terrified." His voice is softer and seems he has calmed down now that he sees I am safe.

"Tell me what the text said, please?" His voice is velvety and compelling and it

I think back to the Paul scenario and how upset he was I didn't tell him.

You should've come to me. Anyone comes to you with any threat at all and you come to me. I don't give a shit who it is. You tell me everything! That's what trust is about.

Warner and I are past all the secrets and the lies. I may be able to keep things from Kenji but I can't do it to Warner...not anymore. I swore I wouldn't keep things from him.

So, I grab my phone and hand it over to him so he can read the text, he frowns immediately at it and I see the wheels turning in his mind.

"This is good." He says, taking me completely off guard.

Well, that is the last thing I expected from him.

"How on earth is a threatening text good?" I ask.

"I met with some of the guys at the station today who have been working on the case. They know about the threats to you and said we should set up a meeting where we can be wired. This is perfect. We can show up to the meeting wired and the police will be listening to every word that's said, okay?"

"What do you mean we? It clearly says to go alone."

"I don't give a shit if the police are listening, I am not letting you go alone. I am going with you. We can finally put these bastards away."

"What if something happens?" I croak, picturing Warner being held at gunpoint or something even worse.

"If you aren't comfortable, we won't do it. I would never suggest doing something if I thought it wasn't safe. I will be right next to you and there will be police surrounding the place."

I nod reluctantly still doubtful of this plan.

He senses my reluctance and sweeps my feet from under me, deposits himself on the edge of my bed, draping me over his lap casually. One arm goes around my back and the other rests on my thigh. Up and down he strokes the bare skin there.

Warner doesn't talk as he kisses my forehead and my nose so gently it worries me. And he doesn't say a vowel or a consonant when he brushes a hand through my hair.

He eventually tilts my face up to his, eyes intense on mine, "It's all going to be over soon baby, I won't let anyone else hurt you."

"I want to be there when your dad is put in handcuffs."

Warner presses his cheek to my forehead. "That's my girl."

_________

It's Monday and tomorrow we will be wired up and meeting with some possible psychopaths. I am trying to enjoy the day with Warner, but I can't help but keep thinking of tomorrow and all the things that could go wrong.

We are driving back from dropping Maggie off. She had to go back to school but Kenji is staying longer to help out with Warner's dad. Since he already knows everything, he came with us to meet with the police and go over the plan.

I can't stop worrying about the fact that I'm not going alone. Warner walking up with me could mean a bullet in his leg or someplace worse. I wish they would let me go alone, if the police were listening and on the property, I don't see what the problem is.

"What's going on in your head?" Warner asks breaking me from my thoughts

"What?"

"In your head. You're a million miles away."

I sigh

Of course, I am. How could I not be?

"I just... I was thinking."

"This doesn't sound good. Maybe you should stop thinking." He looks at me, moving his eyes from the road to me for a split second.

I roll my eyes at him.

"It's just... I don't know. I was thinking... Maybe I should just—"

"No."

"What?"

"No."

"I didn't even finish what I was saying."

"You don't have to. It's stupid." His eyes are still locked to the road, his brow furrowed in frustration.

"Excuse me?"

"I said it's stupid."

"That's rude!"

"Were you about to tell me that I should let you go meet them alone tomorrow?" He sounds annoyed at the thought.

How does he know these things?

"I just don't want you to get hurt." I grab his hand and give it a squeeze.

He pulls into the soccer stadium parking lot. It's dead and we are the only ones here since it's nighttime. However, Kenji sent us a text to pick him up here. Apparently, he was running the track but is too tired to walk back.

Warner stops the car and turns to me "This is all my fault, I brought you into this. There is no way in hell I am letting you go there alone. I love you, Jules. I have spent half of my life loving you and the other half hiding how much I love you—" he pauses to collect himself "You talk about me helping you, but you have no idea how much you have done for me. Without you I would still be working for my dad, I would still be miserable. You gave me something to come home to. You gave me a reason to get away for good."

"I love you too Warner. Tomorrow you will be away for good, and then you can be a normal college student that doesn't have to worry about his dad threatening him. It is all going to get better." I squeeze his leg in reassurance.

"Tomorrow after this is all over, I want to go on a date normal college couples go on. No angry mom's yelling at us or dad's threatening us. I want to go see a bad movie, drink cheap beer and make out in the backseat of your car." I reach over the middle console and give him a quick kiss.

Warner clearly doesn't want it quick because he hooks his arm around me and pulls me in for a longer one. "It's a date. Don't worry baby, tomorrow it will all be over. Now tell me you love me one more time."

I snort at how needy he is being but say it anyways, "I love you, Warner Brooks."

Warner crosses over to the passenger side and opens the door for me. I step out and know something is wrong immediately. We only get a step away from the car when Warner notices something is wrong. He tries to shove me back towards the car but it's too late.

A gunshot rings out from across the parking lot.

Right at us.