I thought I had experienced that emotionless mask of Rex's before, the week earlier when he told me to stay away from him and his friends, but the way he spoke now had that beat by far. He had been going easy on me.

His tone was cool, his voice almost lazy as he observed the four boys surrounding us—at least, I thought he was. My view was pretty much blocked by his back. There was an intense moment of silence, one where I'm sure the two power players were glaring each other down.

I peeked around his back just enough to study the others that came with the monster, all on the football team, all too popular to bother with someone as insignificant as me. They were sharing glances with each other, before smirks pulled on each face. The want for a fight was plastered on each expression.

I gulped and finally let the urge to press into Rex's back take over. If he cared that I was now physically cowering into him, he didn't show it. His complete attention was focused on the monster in front of us.

Jason broke the silence first. "Listen, dude, I don't want to fight you, but I will. Just give us the girl." I wasn't sure I had heard that tone in his voice before, one that sounded awfully like fear. Even if he was afraid of Rex, that was four boys against one. There was no way he could win.

"Not happening." Rex's voice was still that cool, emotionless mask, even though I could feel the hard muscles in his back tensing—as if he were preparing to launch any minute. I curled my fingers into the ends of his jacket and pressed myself flat against him.

Was I really going to let him get hurt just to protect me?

"Since when have you ever given a fuck about some girl?" The monster suddenly sneered, that fear I thought was hiding in his voice was quickly replaced with disgust.

"None of your fucking business." Still cool, still calm—still waiting.

No. I wouldn't let him get hurt for me.

I tugged gently on the end of his jacket, as the three boys Jason brought with him drew a little closer around us. My breathing hitched, and even though fear was storming through me, that panic I was so used to wasn't surfacing.

"Last chance, man. Just hand over the bitch."

Rex's back suddenly went rigid against me, his shoulders strumming with tension. I tried to glance up at his face, but he was too tall, and I was too close behind him. "Fuck off." He growled at the blond demon barely a yard away.

I tugged harder on his jacket. "Rex?" I whispered softly, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Now's not the time." He growled right back at me. His body was strumming with tension, and his hands left his pockets to curl into fists at his side. I could practically feel the adrenaline surging through him.

"Rex, I-I'll go with them. I don't want you to get hurt because of me."

That was the first time he glanced over his shoulder the entire time, his chestnut eyes holding nothing but a cold fury. Then he blinked and looked away again.

"I told you to keep your mouth shut."

I wasn't exactly sure what happened next. One minute I was pressing myself so hard into his back I was surprised I hadn't molded into skin, and the next I was being slammed back against the nearest car as two of the jocks launched at him.

I gasped, pain shooting up my side as I dropped to my knees, my eyes wider than saucers. That was the last time I ever wondered if Rex Turner truly knew how to fight.

He had hit the first jock, Andy Garson, so hard in the face the football player went down like a bag of sand, blood dripping out of his nose and his eyes closed. Rex had knocked him out in one punch.

The second one ducked just in time to avoid the same fate, but wasn't so lucky when Rex wrapped his arm around the back of his neck and slammed his knee into his chest. The boy, who I knew was Ty Elliot, fell to his knees, gasping desperately for air.

Then the third was on Rex before I could blink. He used his weight as he did in football, throwing himself into Rex's gut and trying to shove him down. Rex though, seemed to have been expecting it. Like the guy, Joe Tanner, weighed as much as a bag of feathers, Rex hooked his hands under his arms and flipped him completely over before slamming his face into the concrete one hard, bruising time. Joe didn't move.

Rex stood slowly to his feet, his back to me, those his gaze never once left the beyond shocked Jason staring at him with eyes wider than my own. Before he could say anything, Rex cracked his knuckles, flexed his fingers and took slow, calculating steps towards the now-cowering blond.

"This is ending now, Shepherd." Rex all but growled, his voice no longer that emotionless lull, but a tone so deadly it had me shivering where I huddled on my knees.

"Oh-Okay, dude, whatever you say. It ends now." The monster stammered up at the furious wall of muscle stalking towards him, one who didn't look like he was ready to back down anytime soon.

Rex let out a harsh bark of laughter, one so much more vicious than any he had ever given me. "It absolutely is." He kept walking until he stood face to face with the one person who had been haunting my nightmares the past couple of months—well, when Rex wasn't there yelling at me.

"After this, you're not going to talk about her, look at her, or speak to her ever again. And so help me God if I found out you laid one fucking finger on her I will put you in a coma. Understand?"

I stayed on my knees against the cool concrete, my hands resting against the rough surface as I watched a rather horror-stricken Jason nod at the fighting machine glaring him down. Heck! I almost nodded and Rex wasn't even talking to me! He was—defending me.

Despite the vicious fighting I just witnessed, and the blood slipping from more than one boy on the ground, my heart fluttered at the notion that Rex—Rex—was standing up for me. There was something seriously wrong with me.

Rex, unsatisfied with Jason's nod, reached up to curl his bloody fist into the monster's collar. "Do you understand me?" He hissed into the jock's face, who quickly nodded again and squeaked out a high-pitched 'yes'. Rex let go of his shirt and shoved him back, his body still tense from the fight.

My breath was caught in my throat, my heart hammering a thousand miles a minute as he slowly turned around, his eyes quickly surveying the scene in front of us before they locked on my own. I was frozen, I couldn't move even if I tried. All I could do was stare up at him with wide eyes and thank God he's never been that mad at me.

He took a step towards me, those chestnut eyes almost softening as he walked away from the monster. I hadn't realized my hands were shaking against the concrete until a bit of loose gravel lodged into my palms. He was only a step or two away from Jason, his fists slowly easing when the football player just had to dig his own grave.

"Fucking hell man." He hissed as he ran a heavy hand through his blonde hair and looked over at his bruised and bloodied friends. "No fucking whore is worth this."

I saw the change in Rex's eyes just before I realized what was about to happen. There was no calm, collected, cool attitude rolling off him now. Oh no, the look that filled his eyes suddenly made me think it was possible he could be a suspect in a murder—that he could kill.

"Rex..." I started softly, though my voice only came out as a weak croak. He was already spinning around and lunging at Jason before I could say anything else.

The blond didn't even have time to scream before Rex was on him—literally. He didn't hit him hard enough to knock him out like Andy, but Jason still fell to the floor in a bloody heap. Rex didn't stop there.

I was shocked back into that frozen state as he dropped onto the floor beside Jason, picked him up by the lapels of his jacket, then punched him so hard in the face his skull cracked back against the concrete. He did the same thing over again, then again, and again until Jason's pained groans had gone quiet and his eyes closed.

"Rex stop..." I croaked out again, the sight in front of me too vicious to be real. But it was, and he was killing him. I shook the fog from my head and climbed unsteadily to my feet. "Rex stop." I spoke louder this time, clearer, but he still wouldn't stop hitting the unconscious boy.

Fear and disgust from the sight of the blood completely gone, I stepped over the unconscious guys in front of me and hurried over to the furious punching machine. "Rex stop! You're going to kill him!" I nearly shouted when I screeched to a stop at his side. He ignored me.

I looked around frantically, as if something would magically come out of thin air that I could use to stop him. There was nothing, except me. I hadn't realized tears were streaming down my face in hot waterfalls until I literally launched myself onto his large back, wrapped my arms tightly around him and tugged back as hard as I could, my breath leaving in hard sobs.

"Rex stop please! You're killing him! You can't kill him." I sobbed into his neck my arms as tight as vines as I kept pulling as hard as I could. He grunted, slowed down a little, but still hit the beyond bloody football player.

"The fucker deserves to die, Rosalyn."

He snarled, and even though he tried to shove me off, I clung tighter to him and cried harder. "Please, please." I begged over and over again, my tears staining the skin of his neck as I clung to him like an overgrown weed.

I felt no relief when he finally stopped hitting Jason, and I couldn't let go of him either. He didn't try to shove me off. I wasn't sure how long we sat like that, him breathing heavily, his shoulders tense with rage as I cried and refused to let him go, but it felt like years—and it wasn't until shouts from the field reached our ears that either of us moved.

"Is he breathing?" I croaked against his jacket as the shouting grew closer. He leaned forward, taking me with him, and held his wrist against Jason's nose.

There was a brief pause and then "Yeah, he's breathing." The sigh of relief that escaped my lips did little to stop the tears from falling. The familiar voice of Coach Anders reached our ears just before the sight of a bunch of teachers running through the cars caught our attention.

His head snapped up, his eyes still clouded with fury as he glanced over the hood of the car in front of us. "I don't think they can see you." He announced before slowly detaching me from his back. I practically screeched and tried to latch onto him again, but those hard arms refused to let me.

"I need to get you out of here before they see you, alright?" There was a no non-sense edge to his tone, and the dark look in his eyes was once again directed at me. I could only nod and let him pull me to my feet as the teachers grew closer.

"Stay in front of me, head for my car." He spoke quietly into my ear before stepping over the unconscious Andy to grab my forgotten backpack.

His words were easier said than done. Every step I took was on wobbly legs, and he had to keep me from falling more than once. "You're fucking impossible." He finally growled and just picked me straight off the ground before hurrying to his convertible. I was far too out of it to really notice.

He held me against him with one hand, unlocked his car with the other than carefully deposited me into the passenger seat. He tossed my bag into the back seat and even took the time to reach over and buckle my seat belt before slamming the door shut.

My eyes were still leaking as I watched him run around the front of his car and climb into the driver's seat, bile wanting to rise to my throat. I closed my eyes as the engine hummed to life and he began driving in that Fast and Furious manner again. I didn't even care that I had no idea where we were going.

Like the first time he had hot-rod us away from the school, I lost complete track of time. I wasn't sure if I had fallen asleep or just completely and totally zoned out, but the next thing I was aware of was Rex shoving a Sprite into my face.

"Drink this. It will help."

I reached up gingerly for the soda, my head too heavy to pick off the head rest. "I..." I mumbled a minute later, the soda unopened in my hands. He glanced over at me, his eyes hard but no longer that furious thunder from before.

"I don't do well with stress."

"I can tell."

I watched as he took a sip of his own soda before putting it in the cup holder and pulling us out of the gas station we were stopped in. "Where are we?" I murmured some time later, a few sips of my Sprite gone. We had long since left the city behind us, and there were only mountains as far as I could see.

He shrugged. "A few miles into New Hampshire. I'll turn back if you want."

This time I shrugged. New Hampshire wasn't too bad, our little town wasn't far from the border. Though, it was a good hour from school—and my neighborhood.

"I need my phone." I murmured a few minutes later, and patted my pockets as he pulled over and started turning around. He reached over and opened the glove box before pulling out my cell.

"It wouldn't shut up, so I shoved it in there."

I didn't bother answering, nor did I look at any of the voicemails both Tate and Luce had left. I sent them both a quick text saying I was alright and would be home later before chucking the phone down at my feet. Rex didn't comment.

I watched as the sun set behind the mountains, the city slowly coming back into view. "What happens now?" I murmured softly sometime later, my stomach hurting nearly as much as my head. He glanced over at me, his eyes almost—soft before looking back at the road.

"Now you go home and pretend this never happened, while I call in a favor."

I was silent a moment, before ringing my hands together and looking over at him. "And then will you pretend this never happened either?" I asked softly as we zipped back into our home town. His hands fisted around the steering wheel.

"That's not an option for me." As if sensing my question, he continued before I could open my mouth. "I have to deal with this, you don't. It's my problem. You're... sweet." His last sentence was spoken nearly so softly I thought I heard it wrong. "I don't want this—to keep you up at night. Don't let it."

He was silent after that, and I didn't know what to say. Too many things had happened today that changed and then re-changed everything I had once thought about him. He had hated me during third period—I could see it in those cold eyes—then at lunch he still glared but it wasn't in such a menacing way as the morning or the week before.

He was almost—note the emphasis on almost—pleasant as he walked me to sixth period, completely annihilated some of the strongest boys in the school by himself, and was now claiming he basically didn't want any of this to keep me from sleeping.

My heart was being torn in more ways than his moods.

We sat in silence the entire way back to my neighborhood, not that is was necessarily uncomfortable. We were both lost in our own thoughts, almost forgetting there wasn't any noise outside of our heads at all.

My eyes jerked up in surprise when he pulled to a stop in front of my house. I hadn't even realized we were in the neighborhood. I clutched my bag to my chest, unsure of what to say as he put the car in park, but he beat me to it.

"Listen," He started softly, his eyes focused on the dark street in front of us as he reached up to run a hand through his dark hair. "This..." He paused, cast a quick glance my way before looking away again, his left-hand clenching into a fist around the steering wheel.

His voice turned hard. "This doesn't make us friends, but things at school are going to be—tense for a while after today." I clung onto his words like they were water and I was suffering from dehydration, even though the 'doesn't make us friends' part tore at my chest.

He licked his lips and let go of the steering wheel to tap slowly against the car door. "And I want you to stick with the others until it all blows over."

My eyes widened and snapped to his, though he kept his gaze purposely directed away from mine. "You... I- I can be friends with them again?" I wanted to cringe at how that sounded, and ignored the heat that flared to my cheeks.

He let out a gruff sound in the back of his throat, his hand reaching up to run through his dark hair once again. "Fucking hell." He grumbled and scrubbed that same hand down his perfectly sculpted face. "You shouldn't let anyone tell you who you can and can't be friends with, girl."

"But you said-"

"I know what I said."

I snapped my mouth shut at the dark tone that passed through his voice and clutched my bag tighter. I could practically feel that the conversation was over. His eyes finally flickered over as I unbuckled the seat-belt and unlocked the door.

I knew he wasn't going to stop me from leaving, even though most of me desperately wanted him to, so it came as more of surprise when his hand was suddenly wrapping around my upper arm as I began to step out of the convertible.

"Rose." My eyes snapped back to him, one foot already in my front yard. There wasn't hatred in his eyes as he regarded me, though there wasn't really anything friendly either. It still made my heart pound.

"I don't..." His voice trailed off, his eyes scanning my face, before they hardened. "Lock your doors, and stick with those idiot friends of mine at school."

I stared at him for a silent moment before giving a small nod. He let go and I stepped out completely. I tried not to look back as I hurried through the darkness and onto my porch, but it was harder than I could have imagined. His car stayed out front until I slipped inside and the door shut behind me.

I locked it immediately, let my bag fall to the floor with my butt slowly after it. I had no idea what he had originally wanted to say before he let me go, but there had been the softest, most endearing look in his eyes I had ever seen on him.

And it was directed at me.