“Mr. Ellis.” His voice is too smooth, too calm. “Right on time.”
“Where’s Elijah?” I ask, not attempting to hide my sarcasm.
That earns a low, pleased laugh, the kind that immediately makes my skin crawl. “You really are a smart boy, aren’t you? But you have to admit I had you curious.” He flicks his cigarette over the railing. “Unfortunately, curiosity can be fatal.”
When he steps closer and holds his hand out, I force myself not to back away.
“Give me your phone.”
My pulse stutters.
“Nah, I’m good.”
He cocks his head, smiling like he’s indulging a child. “If you don’t, I’ll take it from you. And I promise you won’t like how.”
My stomach twists in on itself, and I try to keep my hands from shaking too hard as I pull my phone from my coat pocket, glad I deleted the texts between me and Isaac. I grip it tight, briefly staring at the faint reflection of myself on the screen before handing it over.
Grant takes it and unlocks it. When he sees the voice recorder open, he looks back up at me with a smug smirk.
“Nice try. But you’ll learn I’m always one step ahead. Like when you made it all too easy to install remote access software on your laptop that day you left it in the study hall after getting into a fight with my son.”
My stomach drops.
How long had he been planning that? Nothing had even happened between me and Isaac by then. Had he been watching me just because I was outed?
He didn’t just take advantage of a careless mistake. He hunted for one.
And I walked straight into his trap.
He hurls my phone over the stone wall of the bridge. It lands on the frozen river with a sharpcrackthat echoes up the banks, then skitters across the brittle ice before it finally goes still.
Grant steps into my space, close enough that I can smell the smoke on him.
Again, I hold my ground.
I’ve been here before. On this bridge in the dark and the cold. Afraid. While I’m more scared of Professor Grant than I ever was of Isaac, I’m also not the same person I was the last time I was here.
“I got a very interesting visit from the dean at the end of the day. Apparently someone lodged a complaint about me.” His eyes darken, and his nostrils flare. “I’ve been suspended pending an investigation.”
I’m not surprised, but a cold rush of air still slams into me.
My dad acts quickly when it matters, and he made it clearthismattered.
“I didn’t—”
“Oh, don’t even try that with me. You were the match. Your father simply struck it.” He takes another step forward. “I warned you, Jackson. If you had just ended this with Isaac, we wouldn’t be here.”
“Leave Isaac out of this.” My throat is tight, causing the words to shake.
His expression softens in that mocking way that makes me want to punch him. “You think anyone cares what happens to a boy like you? To a disgraced professor like him? He’s failed so many people. He’ll fail you too just like he did Dylan. Elijah.”
I swear the air I exhale freezes, a cloud of ice crystals in front of my face.
“Elijah? What…what do you mean?”
Grant laughs, a low, menacing sound that turns frozen between us too. “You think this all started with you? That you’respecial?” He leans in, voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “I was Elijah’s teacher all those years ago. He was…promising. Beautiful. And stupid enough to think rejecting me wouldn’t have consequences.”
My heart stops.
