Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains (Victoria and Elijah) novel Chapter 101

Elijah’s POV

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The walk from the campus parking lot toward the criminology department was already loud, even this early in the morning.

The courtyard was filled with students huddling in small groups, their voices carrying through the open air.

As I headed toward the main entrance with nothing but my phone and a couple of pens in my pockets, a distinct chorus of giggles and whispers reached my ears.

“Go on, Crystal. I dare you,” a voice whispered from a group of girls lingering near the stone pillars. “He’s literally right there. The worst he can do is say no.”

Crystal scoffed.

“He’s not going to say no to me,” she replied arrogantly, adjusting her hair as she watched me approach. “No one ever does

I kept my eyes straight ahead, rolling them mentally. I knew exactly who they were talking about, and I didn’t have the patience for campus royalty games today.

“Excuse me? Elijah, right?”

A tall brunette stepped directly into my path, forcing me to halt. It was Crystal-the undisputed queen bee of the sophomore class, wearing an outfit that looked more suited for a nightclub than a three-hour examination hall.

She offered me a dazzling, practiced smile that probably worked on ninety-nine percent of the guys on this campus.

“I’m Crystal,” she introduced, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “A few of us are heading to a lounge downtown after finals are over. You should come with us. I can give you the details.”

“I have plans after my exam,” I replied, my tone perfectly polite but entirely dead. “Thanks for the invite, though.”

I stepped to the side to walk past her, but she moved quickly, placing a hand flat against my chest to stop me.

Her manicured nails dug slightly into the fabric of my shirt.

“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that. I know guys like you, Elijah. You like to play hard to get. Fun fact, I usually get exactly what I want. So you might as well save us the trouble.”

She reached into her pocket, pulling out a small slip of paper with her number scribbled on it, and tried to tuck it into my front pocket.

“Take it. I know you’ll change your mind once the stress of the day wears off.”

A small, entirely cold smile touched my lips.

The polite facade vanished. I reached down, my hand clamping around her wrist with a grip that was tight enough to make her breath catch.

I pulled her hand away from my chest, leaning in until my mouth was just inches from her ear.

“Listen to me very carefully.” I whispered, my voice completely calm. “I don’t play games, and I don’t change my mind. If you touch me again, we’re going to have a very different conversation. Clear out of my way.”

When I pulled back, the practiced confidence on her face had completely shattered.

She was staring at me in absolute shock, her lips parted as her cheeks flushed a deep, embarrassed red.

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11:39 Sat, Jul 11

Chapter 103

I resigned myself to the situation, keeping my face completely blank as I stared at my booklet.

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Instead of moving my paper, I kept my eyes on the front of the room, studying the specific timing and rotation of the security camera mounted near the projector ceiling.

The lens panned from left to right every forty-five seconds, leaving a blind spot over our row during the middle of the

sweep.

I waited. The camera clicked, turning its nicehanical eye toward the far window.

The proctor turned her back to check a student’s ID sheet on the opposite aisle.

Moving with absolute minimalism, I shifted my left arm just an inch to the side, exposing the bold, clear text of my response to question four.

My fingers tapped a silent, rhythmic code against the desk-three rapid taps, a pause, then two-signaling the subsection of the profiling index he needed to reference.

Behind me. I heard the frantic, hurried scratch of a pencil against paper. Brock had caught the hint.

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