Page 55 of Commit

“That’s not from football,” I snarl.

“Just leave it.” He slams the glass down on the counter and moves to leave.

I reach for him. “Abbot?—”

“I said, fucking leave it.” He body checks me as he walks by, taking off upstairs.

I start to follow him but stop at the bottom of the stairs. What am I doing? He doesn’t want me up in his face, and all my presence will do is piss him off further. Instead, I go to my office, pull out a tracking device, and head out to his car. I stick it in the wheel well, knowing he won’t see it.

With a sigh, I look up at the sky, imagining Eloise looking down at me with a smirk on her face. “Yeah, I know I’m fucking this all up, but what did you expect from me?” I mutter, heading back inside.

I order food from a local Italian place, getting enough so we can eat the leftovers tomorrow, and then try to figure out what to do with myself while I wait for it to arrive.

I can’t hear any shouting or yelling coming from upstairs, so at least I know he’s not taking whatever happened out on Starling. Still, I don’t like being kept in the dark. So, I pull out my cell phone and check the camera in their room.

What I see has me sitting down on the sofa in confusion. Abbot has his head in Starling’s lap, her hand stroking his hair as he cries body-wracking sobs. I can see Starling crying softly, like she’s trying to hide it from him. His pain clearly hurts her. She really does love him, and I’m using that love as an all-access pass to her body.

“Fuck.” I don’t feel guilt often, but I know there’s no way she won’t get hurt in this. I’m too far gone to leave her alone, even though I know the right thing would be to walk away and keep this as nothing more than a dirty secret.

But I can’t. I’m not that guy. There’s nothing noble or self-sacrificing about me. I want her, and so I’ll have her. It’s as simple as that.

I look at Abbot and focus on him for a moment. His pain is visceral, and yet instinctively, I know it has nothing to do with the bruises or bloody nose. So what the fuck is going on with my kid? I’d love nothing more than to force the truth out of him, but he doesn’t trust me. I guess I can’t argue with that, since I’m blackmailing his girlfriend to ride my dick.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to fuck her out of my system sooner rather than later, and this time next year, I’ll be nothing more than a bad memory. She’ll be gone—words I remember from the coffee shop.

A stab of pain shoots through my heart at the thought.

Standing, I walk to my office and turn on my computer before I get to work. It only takes me a few minutes to hack through the school’s firewall. I’m not sure they can call it security at this point because there’s nothing fucking secure about it.

I take in everything I can about Starling, from her average grades to her attendance record to her behavioral reports. It’s interesting seeing her through a different lens. From what I can tell, she’s a bit of a loner. She’s not a problem child, but she isn’t a star student either, so she falls into the gray area where most of the time teachers don’t notice her. I see all the comments made are generic and probably repeated with dozens of other students.

They probably know what she looks like but have no idea about her wants, likes, or dislikes. Hell, I bet most of them have no idea about her home life or how it’s taken a strange turn recently. I wonder what they would think if they knew she was fucking her new guardian.

They couldn’t stop me, of course, even if they wanted to. Starling is eighteen and old enough to make her own decisions. Though I tied her hands, she made her choice when she let me slide into her tight pussy.

There’s one teacher who’s been helping her fill out applications for colleges offering scholarships and partial scholarships. It’s not an easy way to go, especially with her grades being just average, so the colleges she’s applying to aren’t anything special. The thing they have in common, though, is that they’re all on the other side of the country. That will never do.

I note the names of the colleges and then get to work accessing their systems. The college security is better than the high school’s, so it takes me a little longer to hack in and access the applications. I delete the scholarship requests and withdraw her application completely from one college, saying that she’s accepted a different school, knowing that the file will be closed by tomorrow.

For the other two applications, I change her grades, making them a little lower than before, and remove the letter of recommendation. Now, there are hundreds of applications far more enticing than hers, and with limited spaces available, I don’t see her being offered a place. If she does get in, I’ll need to figure something else out. For now, though, she isn’t going anywhere.

I shut the computer down when I hear the door and go grab the food. I give the delivery guy a tip and take the food into the kitchen, leaving it on the counter in the bags as I check the camera app. Abbot seems to have fallen asleep, but Starling is still sitting there stroking his hair. I clench my fists as I shove my phone back in my pocket and head up to their room.

I knock on the door lightly and push it open. “I ordered some food. Come and eat while he sleeps.”

She looks up at me, then at Abbot, whose face is turned away from me. “How did you know he was asleep?” she asks, looking back up at me.

“Because he hasn’t yelled at me to get the fuck out of his room.”

She frowns but nods, buying my explanation, thankfully. Telling her there’s a camera in here and almost everywhere else in the house wouldn’t go down well.

“Is he okay?” I ask, knowing she thinks I’m a monster. And yeah, she’s right. I am, but that doesn’t mean I’m heartless.

“And you care?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.”

She opens her mouth to say something, but then her eyes drop to Abbot, and she shakes her head instead. “He will be.”