I wait.
"So he went after Nessa." He doesn't turn around. "And he fucking posted it."
The word what comes out of me before I've decided to say it. That's the only word I have. I knew Cody was capable of petty — I've watched him operate long enough to know the full range of what he'll do when he feels cornered — but this is not petty. This is worse than that. This is Cody looking at Theo's most important vulnerability and putting his hand directly on it.
"Don't," I say when he starts to tell me what it was. "I don't want to know what it was. Did you delete it?"
"Of course, I deleted it."
I exhale. "What's the plan?"
Theo turns from the window. "I'm taking him out. He went too far."
I nod. There's no version of this where I tell him he's wrong. "Okay," I say. "I'm in."
Theo
The video of my sister sits in my stomach like rotting food for days.
I can't eat. I can't sleep with it there. I go to practice, run drills, watch Cody skate like he didn't do what he did, and feel it sitting there, heavy and putrid. I think about all the ways I'm going to make him understand what he chose when he pointed a camera at Nessa.
This means fucking war.
Every time a request comes in with his name attached, I don't open it. When the requests for him and Nessa start flooding through, I throw up my dinner in the toilet and sit on the bathroom floor for ten minutes.
Nobody touches my sister and gets away with it.
When I talk to Nessa, she tells me they're dating. She says it like she believes it completely. It makes me fucking sick. He knew she was off-limits, and yet he went after her anyway.
For the two weeks after he tried to quit, I didn’t let him. And now this…
I follow Cody to Puget Sound. He's still with his girlfriend. The real one. The rich one.
I could end it. I could send any of the footage I have of Cody to her and watch the whole thing explode from a safe distance.
Instead, I open the folder I've been building on Adela Kalkaska.
I've watched her in pieces. Her social media first, which told me one version of her — careful, curated, the presentation of someone who is aware of being watched. Then the footage Cody doesn’t know I have. Her bed. The tub. Her alone, unguarded, not performing for anyone, using her own fingers to pleasure herself.
Breaking up his relationship isn't enough. That's not pain. That's inconvenience. I want him to go down. I want him to lose something he can't get back and know exactly who took it from him.
The game against UCLA is the right cover. I let Jax get some good ones in because the marks on my face will be useful for what comes this weekend.
The day after the game, we're at Serena's house on Nob Hill. I put Beckett in the room with his dick out. Silas and I fuck Serena while Beckett waits for his turn. It used to be Cody, but Cody has decided he has principles now, so I need the footage, and Beckett owes me enough to say yes.
I text Cody that if he's not here in an hour, I will release everything I have on Adela Kalkaska.
And then, because I want to watch what happens, I tell him to bring her.
Cody
I stare at the threat on my phone.
It’s her birthday. I'm going to miss her birthday song, and she's never going to fully forgive me for it.
But I can't let him release whatever fucking videos he apparently has of her.
Right before I go upstairs to say goodbye to Adela, Julian catches me.
