The guidance counselor held up a hand to stop me. “Miss Deboise, you’re absolutely right. I don’t understand what’s going on with you, nor do I want to understand. The mere fact that the teachers here have been paid an exorbitant ‘bonus’ to give you passing grades regardless of attendance is enough to tell me I don’t have a single clue about you or your life.” Her lips pursed and she frowned at me. “I could be fired for even having this conversation with you, but I’m going out on a limb here, Riley. When you arrived at Ducis Academy, your grades were stellar. For all intents and purposes, you seemed to be a model student. Now...” She shrugged, looking severely disappointed. “I’m taking a chance here that I’ll still have a job to return to tomorrow. Butyouneeded to be aware that despite the fact that you will graduate—your family’s bribes have seen to that—you don’t deserve to. Not the way things are right now. Is that what you want?”
Was it? Hell no! I’d always been so proud of my GPA, of the fact that I’d been on a track for a decent scholarship. But when it came down to it, staying alive had become more urgent than learning trigonometry.
“Thank you for letting me know,” I replied in a shocked whisper. “I had no idea about ... the bribes. I’m sorry that you feel threatened, and I assure you that I won’t tell Catherine about this.”
She nodded, her gaze wary. “And your school work?”
Sucking a breath, I released it in a heavy sigh. “Honestly, I want to tell you that I’ll do better, and that I’ll spend the rest of the school year making up for it.”
Her brow arched. “But you won’t?”
I met her gaze head on, going out on a limb like she had for me. “Last week a group of boys here at this school dragged me into a classroom, beat me, and tried to gang rape me. Almost two months ago I was in a plane crash and nearly died. This morning, someone again tried to murder me. It’s not that I won’t try. It’s that I physicallycan’t.” The guidance counselor’s face was pale and drawn, her eyes full of fear and pity. “I’m doing my best, here, but I’m not Superwoman.”
We sat there and stared at each other for a long moment before she cleared her throat and looked down at her hands. “Yes, well. I’d say you’re coping better than Superwoman.”
Her genuine compliment brought tears to my eyes, and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep them at bay. “Thank you for your concern. I really will try harder, when I can.”
She nodded again, not looking back up at me until I stood to leave. “Riley,” she said, halting my exit. “If you ever need to justtalkto someone...” Her offer stood clear, even as a tear rolled down her cheek.
“I’ll know where to find you, Ms. Hewlett. Thank you.” I gave her a small smile, and let myself out of her office before I had a mental breakdown and told her my whole sad story. As it was, I’d said too much, but something about her seemed trustworthy.
“Everything okay?” Jasper asked when I joined him in the hallway. He was my shadow for the day, and a damn fun one at that.
I nodded, falling into step with him as the final bell chimed. “Yep, all good. Just discussing grades.”
Jasper wrinkled his nose. “But why?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I glared at him. “Maybe because I have higher aspirations in life than to end up as someone’s trophy wife with nothing more than a high school diploma that she didn’t earn?”
Jasper threw an arm around my shoulders and grinned. “Aw, come on Riles. As if Beck would ever call you histrophy wife.”
I elbowed him in the side and tried really hard not to picture myself as Mrs. Beckett. “Shut up, you. I really do need to study a bit harder. All this Delta shit has made me lose sight of my own goals.”
He kept grinning at me, but he nodded his agreement. “That’s fair enough. I’ll help you study for some classes if you want? I don’t know if you know this, but I’m actually kinda brilliant.”
“Hah! I had no idea. Thank you for informing me.” The sarcasm was heavy, but all in good humor. One thing I was coming to count on, was that Jasper could cheer me up pretty much always. Beck knew what he was doing by assigning him as my shadow today.
“Seriously!” he insisted. “In fact, let’s get you caught up on class work tonight. What’s your worst subject?”
“All of them,” I muttered with a pout, and he rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. Probably biology?”
Jasper cringed. “Yuck. Okay, I’ll call Evan. He can help you on that one.”
* * *
That evening turnedout to be shockingly normal. Evan came over and put me through a crash course on everything my biology class had already covered, and we even had enough time for Jasper to help me finish my English assignment. It would be late, but at least I would have learned something.
Dylan and Beck didn’t come by until after we’d finished dinner—homemade enchiladas, courtesy of Eddy. Both of them seemed moody and quiet, but I didn’t press them for information. No doubt they’d discovered something about the early morning assassination attempt and I was enjoying the “normal” evening we were having, so didn’t want to ruin it.
It wasn’t until later that night, when Beck slipped into my bed in nothing but his boxers, that I broached the subject.
“You found something out, huh?”
He let out a long sigh, wrapping his arms around me so that I was snuggled to his hard chest. “Yep.”
“Anything I need to be worried about?” I asked, tracing my fingertips over one of the tattoos on his ribs.
“Nope,” he replied, sounding confident. “I have to meet with Delta about it tomorrow, though, so I won’t be on campus.”
