“I’m…” Jerry gulped. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? Be specific.”
“I’m sorry… for blackmailing you.”
“Blackmailing me with false information,” I added.
“Right. I’m sorry for blackmailing you with false information, Professor Carrington.”
Jace got up and gestured. “Congratulations on making the best decision for the rest of your academic career. Now get the fuck out of here.”
Jerry stared at him like it was a trap, then abruptly scrambled out of the booth.
“Oh, I’m wiping your phone,” Cam said with a smile. “And the laptop you have connected to the school Wi-Fi right now. Have fun reinstalling Windows!”
Jerry threw his hood up to cover his head, then disappeared out into the night.
Jace turned his attention on me and narrowed his eyes. “Hi, Lila. What are you doing here?”
44
Lila
Now that Jerry was gone, I remembered how I had gotten here.
By not listening to the three men I trusted most.
“What are you doing here, Lila?” Jace repeated. “We had a plan.”
Brock got up from the next booth and slid in next to me. Jace and Cam took the side across from me.
“That was fun!” Cam said. “I love giving assholes what they deserve.”
Jace kept staring at me. “We can celebrate in a minute. I was scolding Lila about meeting with the blackmailer.”
“Oh. Right.” Cam cleared his throat. “We’reverymad at you, Professor.”
“How did you even know I was here?” I demanded. It felt better to go on the offensive. “Are you tracking my phone or something?”
Cam recoiled like he’d been slapped. “What? Of course not. I wouldn’t hack into your phone like that.”
“You’ve been known to do exactly that,” Brock pointed out.
“Yeah,” Jace agreed dryly. “And peoples’ Tinder accounts.”
“I would never do that to someone I care about,” Cam clarified. “That would be a huge violation of trust. I may be a hacker, but I have a moral code.”
“To answer your question: Kayla called me,” Brock explained. “She said my favorite patron was here alone. It was easy to figure out what you had done after that.”
“It went better than I expected,” Jace said. “While driving here, I was afraid it would devolve into a fistfight.”
“Once we had his porn history, it was over for Jerry,” Cam said with a huge smile.
“Did he really have… what you said he had?” Brock asked.
“Horse porn? Oh yeah. Big time.” Cam grimaced. “That image is going to stick in my head for a long time.”
“Thank you for your service,” Jace said, clapping the younger man on the back and putting an arm around him.
