Wayward Son (Jensen Family #3) (53 page)

Under the table, Gavin’s hands involuntarily bunched into fists, he felt
his skin begin to prickle as waves of anger shot through his body. He took a
deep breath, calming himself, counting to ten, still unbe
lievably angry, he turned to Quinn.

“My Mum was a whore?” he asked
.
“I don’t think so, that title should be reserved for your Mum, after
all, she was the one on her knees begging my Dad for more after he’d given her
the ride of her life, something that your old man obviously falls short on
.
H
uh, like father, like son I su
ppose Quinn
,
seeing as I succeeded where you failed
.
” he growled. Turning his back on Quinn,
he stood and excused himself from the lesson, knowing that if he stayed, he
would more than likely beat Quinn senseless. He made his way to the boys’
bathrooms and
wrenched his phone from his pocket, he
called Novak.

“Dude, I’ve just got on the train. You were gone by the time I woke up
.
” Novak spoke
,
“I’m going to get some transportation
sorted when I get home and I’ll be back down after the summer holidays, do you
think you can behave yourself until then?”

Gavin smiled
.
“I’m not too
sure about that
,
” he said and
relayed his confrontation with Quinn to his friend.

“Gav, the guy’s a cocksucker and a bad loser. You are everything he’s not
so don’t stoop to his level,
stay out of his way and
everything will be fine. Trust me
.
”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going to miss you bro
.
”

“I know you are. Listen, I talked to your Dad about staying down there
over the winter, he’s said that he’ll keep my room for me and may even find a
vacanc
y at the club
,
so in another couple of months, I’ll be
there until spring, by which time you will probably be glad to see the back of
me
.
”

“That’s going to be awesome, for the first time in ages, I wish it was
winter. We could hit the slopes in the October
half
term
.
”

“That’s a given. I’ll call you tonight ok?”

Gavin looked up into the mirror in the boys’ bathroom as he hung up and
gave himself a stern talking to, he wasn’t going to lose his temper, he was
just going to let Quinn say anything he wanted while he smiled politely at him
knowing that actually, smilin
g at
him
would in fact irritate him more than if
Gavin were to blow up in his face. He grinned at his reflection as the bell
rang and headed to his locker to change his books.

Sorting out his books, chatting to one of his new band mates and replying
to a t
ext from Paul, Gavin was so distracted by what
he was doing that he didn’t notice the pin drop silence in the corridor, it
wasn’t until Angel spoke in a loud, clear voice that he realised the
characteristic corridor noise wasn’t present.

“Let go of me
,
” An
gel stood, pinned by her throat to her locker, one of
Quinn’s hands holding her firmly, Kiera was sprawled on the floor next to her
where Quinn had pushed her out of the way. Angel refused to struggle or to show
the rising panic rushing through her.

“Shut
up bitch
,
” Quinn spat, his face inches from hers
.
“You broke my nose, look at my bruises,
you did this
.
”
“You tried to rape me
,
” she replied
.
“Now get your hands off me
.
”

The watching students moved aside, parting like the red sea as Gavin made
his way ove
r to his girlfriend.

“She’s told you twice now to let her go, I suggest you do it
.
” Gavin spoke, his temper barely
concealed.

“What are you going to do about it if I don’t?” Quinn jeered.

Gavin held his hand out to Kiera and pulled her to her feet before a
nswering
.
“I will make
you remove your hand if I have to
,
” he said
quietly
.
“I would prefer
it if you did it of your own free will
.
”

“I would like to see you try
.
” Quinn smirked
as he tightened his grip.

Putting his backpack on the floor, Gavin wrapped his
left hand around Quinn’s wrist
.
“Trust me
,
” he said to Angel moments before he
tightened his hand, squeezing Quinn’s pressure point.

The release in pressure around her neck was instantaneous and she
immediately moved out of the way as Gavin bent Quinn’s
wrist back on itself causing him to try and turn away from the pain. As
soon as Gavin was sure Quinn was far enough away from Angel, he let go of his
wrist and turned away.

“Neat move
,
” Angel smiled
at him, comforted by his warm hand stroking her neck, mak
ing sure she wasn’t bruised.

“It’s something Dad taught me
,
” he murmured,
he stooped to pick up both of their bags and hadn’t quite straightened up when
Kiera yelled.

“Look out!”

Gavin glanced to the side to see Quinn’s knee accelerating towards his
face,
he moved slightly away but wasn’t quick enough
to avoid the blow completely; he felt his lip split against his teeth as he hit
the floor. Shaking his head to clear the fuzziness and shrugging off Angel’s
hand, he came to his feet, grabbed Quinn and slammed
him against the lockers delivering a swift, lightening quick elbow blow to his
face causing Quinn to crumple, stunned to the floor.

Grabbing his bag, he turned and headed for the door
,
“I have to go
,
” he told Angel as she trotted beside
him.

“Not without
me you don’t
,
” she grasped his arm
.
“We’re in this together
.
”

“Where are you going?” Kiera asked as she caught up with them.

“Kiera, call my Dad for me, tell him we’ve gone to Sussex
.
” Gavin asked her.

“Sure
,
” Kiera replied
.
“Are you coming back?” she call
ed to no reply.

They ran to his car, threw their bags in the back and sped out of the car
park. Angel was shaken, not only by Quinn’s actions but also by the quick flash
of temper she’d seen from Gavin, the way he had shrugged her off, entirely
focused on
his prey. She looked across at him as he
straightened the car out and reached for his seat belt, he was frowning,
hunched down in his seat, his lip was still bleeding. She rammed her hand into
her pocket, pulling out a tissue, she leaned closer to him and
dabbed at his lip.

Concentrating on the road as well as his reeling thoughts, Gavin didn’t
notice Angel lean closer, the first he knew was the sting in his lip seconds
before he flinched and moved his head away.

“You’re bleeding
,
” Angel
persisted in cleani
ng his lip, her hand eventually
being pushed away by his, his fingers touching the wound.

“It’s ok, it’s nearly stopped
,
” he answered.

“Are you ok?” she asked, he was silent for a long moment.

“I think I’ve just screwed myself over
,
”

“He hit you first
,
” sh
e pointed out.

“I know and I’m hoping that’s going to be enough
.
”

“We should go home
,
your Dad will
know what to do
.
”

“I can’t go home, there’s no point, Dad isn’t there
.
I need to be as far away from Quinn as
possible
.
”

“Why?”

“To stop me from walking
back into the school
and really taking him out, I don’t have that good a handle on my temper just
yet and he’s pushed me to the limit today
,
” he went on to explain the jibes and
insults he’d endured throughout the day
.
“I guess once he realised I wasn’t go
ing to
rise to his words, he did the only thing that he knew would guarantee a
reaction, he went after you and I gave him exactly what he wanted, I’m such a
fool
.
”

Suzanne listened to Kiera’s account of the fracas before thanking her
politely, hanging up a
nd dialling Paul’s direct line.
She heard it ring, then an odd silence followed by the voice of Collette,
Paul’s
super-efficient
, ex-lover, secretary.

“Hi Collette, it’s Suzanne, I thought I dialled direct
,
” she said, slightly irked that Paul had
dropped h
er call, he would have seen the number on
his caller display.

“Hi Suzanne, you did dial the direct line. Paul isn’t taking any calls
right now
,
he’s in the
middle of a
take-over
meeting
.
”

“He’ll speak to me, please put me through
.
”

“I’m terribly sorry but
I can’t, he said only
to put calls through if the world was about to end, his words not mine
.
”

“Look Collette, I appreciate that you are only doing as you are told and
also that you don’t want to be on the end of one of his rebukes but for all
intents and
purposes, the world is  about to end and
I absolutely need to speak to my husband
,
” she snapped, she heard Collette’s
miffed sigh.

“Hold the line
,
” the secretary
replied, all business now.

“Suzie, there had better be a major problem my love, you could cos
t me this deal
.
” Paul admonished her.

Suzanne could hear the general bustle of the office in the background and
realised that Paul had stepped out
of his office to take her call,
his meeting must have been of a highly sensitive nature for him not to
speak
to her from his desk.

“Get your head out of the deal Paul and think like a parent. Gavin’s in
trouble. He hit Quinn and now he’s running down to Sussex, he has Angel with
him
.
”