Ugh.We almost made it to the end without incident. And things were going so well before the talk of Christmas break.
Ethan and I watch them walk away, then he leans forward and whispers, “What’s going on, Avery?”
* * *
SHANE
One of myneighbors sent footage from a couple days earlier. It looks to be about midday. A guy, who’s dressed in black with a baseball cap pulled low over his face, walks past my house twice in the span of five minutes. He looks at my place and into the yard. On the second stroll, he turns his face enough for me to recognize him. Todd Bardoratch.
Son of a bitch.
So Bardoratch cased the house even before the frat party. My shutting down his bullying on the video call and sending a message that he needed to let Avery take the lead on the project obviously infuriated him.
I don’t blame him for coming after me. I stripped him of his power and made him look pathetic and weak in front of his friend and a woman who threatens the pecking order in the class. No guy like him wants to let that go.
But to try to burn me alive, especially when Avery was with me, makes me think he’s a psycho. The only thing Avery’s done to cross him has been to stick up for herself and the female victims of a serial kidnapper. Only a dickhead would retaliate against a girl for doing that.
Someone comes to stand next to me, which prompts me to look up. It’s Avery’s mom Sheri, and I can tell by her grim expression she’s got something on her mind.
I slide my phone away.
“I know you hate me, but please don’t hurt my daughter. It’s such a vile, cowardly way to get back at me. I’ll do whatever you want to make amends—just please don’t hurt Avery.”
Jesus Christ.Here we go with the melodrama.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sheri.”
“Why can’t you leave her alone?”
“I did leave her alone. I didn’t even want her at Granthorpe. Didn’t Ethan tell you?”
“Ethan knows people at the school. He felt it was a good place for her to be, not too far from home and in a community that he still feels a part of. Then Casanova—” She blows out a breath. “The irony is not lost on us, I promise.”
When I don’t respond, she leans forward, giving me a whiff of her three-hundred-dollar-an-ounce trophy wife perfume.
“So, if you’d just give us a break,” she says softly. “We’d really appreciate it.”
“Avery came looking for me. You want her to stay away from me? Tell her.”
“I’m talking to you for the same reason I always did. Guys are the ones who go too far.”
Too far?Sheri is fucking unbelievable. My temper’s a grenade where this woman is concerned, and she’s tugging at the pin. “You can’t rape the willing.”
Her mouth drops open, and, once again, she looks shocked. “Are you saying that you’ve already—”
“I’m not saying a damn thing, other than that I don’t get off on forcing myself on women. Which you should already fucking know.”
She jerks back. “I was wrong about that night when she was drunk. I apologized to you.”
“That apology was bullshit, and you know it. Deep down, you still think the reason nothing happened is because I didn’t know she was out there.”
“Can you blame me, Shane?”
“Yes.”
“With the family you come from? And the way you look at her? From the minute you guys met…Iknowthat look.”
Sheri’s a complete lunatic. Of course, I was attracted to Avery. She was super cute. But I don’t buy for a second that Sheri read anything sinister on my face when I looked at fifteen-year-old Avery. I protected her from everything back then, including my own urges.
