Max’s Land Rover roared around the corner on two wheels, screeching rubber as we turned onto Lake Drive. Max had been to the fucker’s house, the day he’d helped Cora get her things, so he knew just where we were going. But I don’t think any of us knew what we’d do when we got there. Get her, of course, but I knew one thing was on our mind: would we be able to stop ourselves before we killed Matt?

The little piece of shit had filmed us. I didn’t give a fuck about my reputation, or my career. That’s not why I was so fucking mad. I was furious because he’d violated her by sneaking around watching us. He’d made her feel vulnerable, and awful, and threatened her with what he’d known would make her break, all so he could put his fucking hands on her.

I fucking hated that she’d gone to his place, knowing what he was after. But I knew she was only here because she thought it was the only way to protect us. I knew she thought she was doing what she had to do — that she was being the rock she had to be to get us all through this.

But I’d be damned if I let that piece of shit touch her. I was going to murder him. Fuck my job. I was going to bury his ass in a shallow grave and piss on it if he’d harmed her, or even touched her.

The SUV tore around the corner onto the side street where Matt lived, when suddenly, we came to a screeching halt.

Oh fuck.

Smoke poured out of the top floor of the shitty brick apartment building, flames licking at the windows.

“That’s his fucking building!”

Max was out of the car before it even came to a full stop, with us right on his heels. My pulse roared like a freight train, every muscle in my body coiled and clenched tight. My eyes locked onto the blazing fire shattering the glass in Matt’s windows, with one thought and one thought only on my mind: Cora was in there.

We could hear sirens blaring in the distance, but there was no time. The three of us slammed out through the small crowd of gawkers and onlookers, rushing right for the fire blazing around the front door of the place, when suddenly, they pushed open…

She walked out like some sort of phoenix angel — her beauty wreathed in flames as she floated out the front door, her face slowly curling into a smile as she saw us.

“Cora!”

We rushed to her, all three of us scooping her up into our arms and holding her so damn tight we might’ve broken her if she hadn’t started to just laugh.

“What happened?!” Garret gasped.

She giggled, her eyes wide and a little delirious looking.

Fuck, she was in shock.

“Cora,” I growled, crouching down in front of her and taking her hands, looking up into her face.

“Cora, what did he do?”

She blinked, glancing at us.

“Who, Matt?”

“Your texts,” Max muttered. “They were…” He trailed off and looked down, sighing heavily. “They were coming through on my laptop. You were still signed in.”

Her face went red.

“Oh, oh, GOD no!” She made a horrified face, shaking her head as she started to grin. “No, God, no he didn’t…”

She bit her lip, leaning in to us as the crowd grew, snapping pictures excitedly and as the sirens wailed closer.

“I did smash him over the head with his own laptop and light it and everything else electronic in his apartment on fire though.”

My jaw dropped. Actually, all three of our jaws about hit the ground as we stared at her, dumbfounded.

“Wait, you did what?” Garret looked at her incredulously.

“I wasn’t going to let him hurt us, or destroy this thing we have,” she hissed fiercely, her hands pulling us all close and her eyes flashing blue fire. “Not a chance.”

She started to laugh, still looking a little out of it.

“You set the kid’s apartment on fire?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I—”

Suddenly, her face went white, and a look of realization broke through the shock on her face. Her hand flew to her mouth as she seemed to snap out of it.

“Oh my fucking God, I did!” Horror washed over her face as she darted her eyes across ours. “Oh fuck, he might—”

“I’ll get him.”

Max was on his feet before we could stop him, rushing at the front door and shouldering it open as he tumbled inside, into the flames. Cora screamed, lunging for him, but we held her back, holding her close and stroking her back as shock fully wore off and the tears started to pour down her face.

Fire trucks came roaring down the street, when suddenly, the front door to the place kicked open and Max came stumbling out, coughing with the piece of shit in his arms. He stumbled over to us, all five of us pulling away from the flames as Max dumped a groaning, wheezing Matt onto the sidewalk.

“I can’t believe you actually saved him,” Garret growled.

“I dropped him on the way down the stairs,” Max muttered, grinning.

“Twice.”

Slowly, coughing, Matt started to come to, his eyes blinking open as he looked up. Suddenly, he seemed to realize where he was and who we were, and his eyes flew open.

“Oh, fuck, you—”

“I want you to listen to me very closely, Matt.”

My voice was like a dagger as I leaned close to him. To anyone else, it must have looked like I was helping him, but I sure as fuck wasn’t.

“Whatever it is you think you saw, weigh it against your college career.”

Matt coughed, and then sneered up at me. “You can do that, asshole, it’s—”

“Blackmail?” I hissed. “Yeah, so is threatening a girl to get her to fuck you cause you’re too much of a piece of human garbage to get her normally, you absolute piece of shit.”

I spat the words at him, barely containing my rage as my hand closed on the collar of his shirt.

“I’ll personally watch your transcript burn to the fucking ground. I will make sure you never attend college anywhere else. I will make sure you enter your adult life with a royal fuck-up on your resume.”

His face paled, and I leaned in closer, letting him feel the full wrath of my fury.

“Weigh all of that carefully, Matt. Weigh it against realizing that what you think you saw wasn’t what you think it was. Realize the importance of silence, and you can just go on living your life as you planned.”

Matt swallowed, his eyes darting to Cora for second before I growled lowly, tightening my grip on his collar and yanking his attention back to me.

“Just live your life, Matt, and don’t come after her.”

He nodded quickly, his eyes wide.

“Yeah, that’s— yeah that sounds good.”

“Great,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes at him. “Oh, and Matt?” I leaned close, letting him feel my wrath.

“You ever even look at her again and I’ll break your fucking head, okay?”

The color drained from his face as he nodded. “Yeah, got it. Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes sir!”

The EMT truck blared onto the scene, screeching to a stop as the paramedics started to run towards us. Max leaned down close to Matt.

“How you feeling, Matt?”

“Huh?”

“Feeling better? You know, after I saved you from that freak fire?”

He started to open his mouth, but then it snapped shut, and he nodded. “Much better,” he said quickly.

“You know you really shouldn’t have been smoking cigarettes in bed, Matt,” Max growled, leveling his eyes on him. “What with it catching your blankets on fire and all.”

His look hardened, and Matt quickly nodded.

“Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, I shouldn’t have done that.” He laughed nervously as we backed away just as the paramedics ran up.

Our statement to the cops was easy enough — that we’d been heading out to a bar when we saw the blaze and stepped in to help two of our students — “as any educator would do.” We made sure the paramedics checked Cora out, who got a full clean slate of health, and then we headed home.

Home, with her.

Home that’d never felt like home before she got there. She was the missing piece to all of this, the part that brought us all together.

The part we were never going to let go of.