“Did you not get theRules of Conducthandbook from the dean?”
He chuckles, shaking his head. “All I got was a map and my class schedule.”
“Oh...” My eyes narrow, the dean’s words bouncing in my head. Why would she tell me we’re not allowed to leave if—“Maybe it’s only me who needs permission,” I mutter more to myself than Nash, inwardly cursing my father’s lies.
Healing in a neutral environment my ass.
“And why would that be?”
My heart thumps faster as I stare out the window, all the reasonswhyflashing through my head. “Good question.”
16
Carter
Cigarette in hand, I stand outside the window of the coffee shop where Hailey and I are taking a break after a frenzied stationery-shopping spree.
She bought more supplies than necessary for journaling, including forty-eight colorful fineliners which are now haphazardly scattered over the table. Leaning over the notebook, she’s pouring her thoughts over the lined pages.
Loose, blonde strands of hair fall across her face, not for the first time. I’ve already caught myself twice, reaching out to curl those strands over her ear. An involuntary reflex. One thatneverhit me until today.
In my lousy defense, not being able to see her face even though she was sitting across from me was fucking infuriating. She’s fascinating to watch. I’m learning everything there is to know about her facial expressions. By now, I could probably write a thesis about the disparities between her confused and annoyed frowns.
The dim, intimate lighting casts a soft halo over her head. She’s so engrossed in the task at hand she didn’t notice me leave when Rhett called.
It’s quite insulting, but I let it slide, watching her scribble away, chewing the tip of her pen whenever she can’t streamline her thoughts fast enough.
“So you’ve got shit all,” Rhett barks, not happy about the little progress I’ve made. “You were supposed to break her the minute she got there.”
Like that wouldn’t be suspicious.
“Didn’t you say I should play this smart? What if I do all the don’ts and they fail? How the fuck would you expect me to earn her trust afterwards?”
He makes a disgruntled noise at the back of his throat, one that tells me he’s not happy I’m right.
I’m not either.
Hailey doesn’t deserve mercy and Aalyiah deserves revenge.
“She started to remember as soon as I got a chance to start the don’ts,” I continue, filling my lungs with smoke.
It’s true. The moment I saw her sitting alone on the dark boat platform, an array of enticing scenes of me torturing this girl until she breaks filtered through my mind. All I had to do was play my cards right, wait a few minutes to make sure no one followed her and then...
And then she threw me way off, implying my dick’s small.
Cheeky little thing.
Before I got my head back in the game, she had that fucking flashback, her memories saving her at the last moment.
“It’s safer to find out what she knows, Rhett. You can’t be sure Alex told her anything but if he did, if she knows where he hid the evidence, we’re better off destroying it than waiting for someone else to stumble upon the files.”
Another unhappy noise. “Fine. Do it your way but speed it up. Once you know where the evidence is, make her suffer.”
“Killing her isn’t the way to go. Vaughn will know it was you,” I cut in, feeling a badass headache take root.
Rhett’s not easy to deal with. He has a plan in his head, but doesn’t let you in on it, only telling you what he thinks you need, then changing his mind more often than the clip in his gun, and that’soften.
“You’re clever, Carter. Creative. I’m sure you’ll find a way to stage an accident. Hailey’s the reason your sister is dead, son. ShekilledAalyiah and I want her to suffer, you got that?”
