“On a guy who’s already assaulted her physically and then tonight emotionally, so I’ll ask again, why are we still here?”
“Why are you here?” Sleazeball asked Onyx. “She’s a little too young for you, is she not?”
Onyx snorted in disgust. “Says the guy who tried to pick her up in a bar.” He shook his head. “I suggest you keep your words of wisdom to yourself.”
Douchebag glared at me before he turned away, and I took a perverse delight in looking at his blackening eye. “I want to press charges,” he said as he glanced back at Onyx.
“So do I, but Quinn has already refused to raise the complaint against you, and I think you should show the same courtesy, don’t you?” Onyx fixed his cufflink, and I took in the impressive figure he cut. With thick dark hair, slight stubble, broad shoulders, and a trim waist, he didn’t play the game, but he still kept himself fit. He was stunningly attractive, and I think it was one of the many reasons I disliked him. The guys were all good-looking, and Gray made my tummy flutter, but Onyx was a cruel kind of beauty. He looked stunning until you looked into his soulless eyes and realized a monster was lurking in his depths.
Dean Porter harrumphed, and I switched my attention to him as Onyx took his time to divert his attention from the creepy janitor.
“I think we would be best saying neither party is innocent here and—”
“Water under the bridge?” Onyx clapped once in mock delight. “My thoughts exactly. Quinn, ladies, let’s go.”
“I wasn’t finished,” the dean said coldly. He looked at me, and I returned his look with my own impartial mask. “As always, there is little I can do to a Santo.” His lip twisted in a sneer when he said their name. “And I knew upon application, Miss Lawrence was just another Santo.” He turned his attention to Ava. “But you and I have had a very recent conversation, Miss Bryant, about acceptable behavior on this campus.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Ava said to him, her outrage making me widen my eyes in warning at her.
“Yes, you did. You approached the janitor, and you offered him money to keep the theater open. Bribing staff is not acceptable behavior for our students.”
Ava’s eyes were wide with fury as she looked between the dean and the janitor. “I didn’t!”
“Mr. Cairn says you offered him one hundred dollars.”
“Mr. Cairn is full of bullshit,” Ava snapped. “I’ve never had a hundred dollars to offer him!”
“That may be, but bribing the staff of the college, or implying a bribe,” Dean Porter held his hands up as if he was truly sorry for what he was about to say, “I’m afraid you’re in breach of your scholarship.”
“What!” Ava clutched Mia’s hand as she stared at the dean in shock.
“Bribing the janitor is fine,” Onyx spoke up, sounding bored. “Bribing a member of the academia is a punishable offense. Last I checked, the janitor wasn’t a member of the staff faculty in that regard. Have I missed an update?”
“He’s staff.”
“As am I,” Onyx drawled with a lazy grin as he looked at the dean. “Or are you forgetting I sit on the Board? And I know the rule book a little more thoroughly than you.”
Dean Porter’s lips were white with fury, and Onyx turned his attention on Ava. “Scholarship?”
“English literature,” she mumbled as she looked at him with hope shining in her eyes.
“Nice, well done.” Onyx dipped his head to her. “You must be very talented and intelligent.” He looked her over. “And yet you’re with Jett?” His eyes sparkled with laughter, and Ava grinned at him. Onyx turned on his heel to look at the dean. “The girl breached nothing. The janitor? Fire him. This one?” He looked at Dickhead. “Fire him too. Perverts on the staff do give us a shady reputation, Dean.” Onyx looked at me, and I steeled myself. “Perhaps a commendation to the young woman, who defended herself when attacked, rather than a judgment would have been better? Pity. Hopefully, we’ll keep this debacle from the local news.”
Onyx gestured to me. “Ladies, please, I have other places to be,” he instructed as he started to walk up the aisle.
“I’ll sue!” Sleazeball shouted, causing Onyx to stop. He walked back down to him and reached into his inner suit pocket.
“My card, call Monday.”
“Why?”
“So I can write you a check, and you can fuck off out of my face. My secretary will expect your call. You breathe one word to anyone, no check.” Onyx looked at Dean Porter as he walked past him and smirked. “That’sa bribe.”
He walked past the three of us with such complete confidence, I never knew my mouth was hanging open until Mia nudged me to follow him, and I grabbed the karaoke machine. Hastily, I caught up with him as he waited at the main doors. Ava and Mia were looking at him with complete awe, which he ignored and focused on me.
“I’ll drive you home.”
“I can walk,” I said as I remembered vividly the last time I was in his car.
