Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains novel Chapter 24

His voice was a dangerously quiet growl.

Without another word, he guided me gently but firmly behind his back, stepping forward to shield me completely from the Foom. He converged on Lexi.

“How dare you lay your hands on her,” he boomed, the sheer power in his voice making Amelia and the other girl take a frantic step back toward the hallway.

Lexi, however, let out a scornful, high–pitched laugh, trying to mask her sudden nervousness with bravado.

“Oh, please, Elijah. You can stop the dramatic protector act now. You don’t have to put on a show for her. I’ve known you for way too many years to buy this-

“Shut your mouth, Lexi,” Elijah cut her off, his voice dropping into a lethal whisper that instantly stopped her mid–sentence. My lips parted slightly as I watched his back. I was completely disoriented, my mind struggling to process what was happening.

Elijah was standing in front of me, his shoulders tense and dangerous

Just few weeks back, he had explicitly told me that Lexi was the girl he wanted, the one he was using our fake relationship to get close to.

Yet here he was, completely derailing any chance he had with her, stepping directly into the line of fire for my sake.

The pure rage radiating from him didn’t look like an act. I was entirely torn by the contradiction.

If this was still just a game to him, he was an Oscar–level actor. He was terrifyingly good.

Otherwise, I had to face a reality I wasn’t prepared for: that he cared deeply enough about me to completely ruin his chances with the girl he supposedly loved.

“I don’t care who you think you are on this campus,” Elijah warned, taking another step into her space until Lexi actually had to look up at him.

“Anybody else on this campus might tolerate your bratty, psychotic tantrums, but I will never tolerate anyone putting their hands on my girlfriend. If you ever touch Victoria again, or if I even hear a rumor that you’re speaking her name, I will personally forget who you are. Man, woman, family or not–I will make sure your life becomes an absolute misery. Try me.”

The room fell into a dead, suffocating silence.

Lexi swallowed hard, her mouth opening and closing like a fish, completely stripped of her usual arrogance.

I stood behind Elijah, my heart hammering against my ribs, a strange, overwhelming warmth blooming beneath the panic in my chest.

Lexi opened her mouth to argue, her voice trembling. “Elijah, you can’t talk to me-”

“Don’t,” he snapped.

“Hey! You can’t talk to her like that in my apartment,” Caleb finally intervened, pushing himself up from the couch using a crutch, his face darkening as he tried to reclaim some semblance of authority in his own home.

The sound of Caleb’s voice drew Elijah’s attention.

He turned slowly, a cruel, mocking smirk spreading across his lips as he looked Caleb up and

He walked over to the edge of the sofa, looking down at Caleb with absolute disdain.

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“And look at you,” Elijah mocked, his voice dripping with condescension. “The great Caleb Ashfield. A complete coward. You sit there on your couch and let these shallow little girls trash the one person who has actually stayed loyal to you. You let them treat your supposed ‘best friend‘ like garbage just so you don’t lose your spot in a spoiled girl’s bed.”

Elijah leaned in closer, his dark eyes flashing.

“You’re worse than the devil, Ashfield. At least the devil is honest about who he’s going to burn. You just let the people who love you get consumed while you watch from the sidelines.”

Elijah turned back to me, his features instantly softening into that calm, commanding expression I had grown used to over the past week. He extended his hand toward me.

“Let’s go, Victoria. You don’t belong in a place like this.”

I looked at his open palm, then looked back at Caleb one last time.

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