Page 46 of The Pawn

Biting my lip, I answer, "Sure thing... if you can tell me what they did to Reggie first."

"You didn't hear?" Chrissy is ready with the latest gossip, as always. "Cole and his friends got Reggie expelled for selling drugs out of his dorm room. That's not it, either–Hector got suspended for not ratting on his own friend sooner." She shakes her head. "Reggie only did it because he couldn't pay for the uniform fees they were charging him for, since his first set of uniforms got ruined. And you'll never guess who ruined them."

My heart sinks into my stomach. "I'm guessing Cole had something to do with it."

Tricia answers, "Him and Tanner, like always. Though we think Blake and Lukas are the ones who ratted him out to the administration."

"For all we know, they planted the drugs," Chrissy adds.

"Oh, don't be naive, Chrissy." Tricia shakes her head. "Everyone knew that Reggie was dealing."

"Yeah, but out of his own dorm room? He wasn't that dumb. Anyway," she says, taking a sip of her coffee, "his parents are sending him to military school now. It's off to the army after he graduates, or he's getting cut off—permanently. And to think, there are no consequences for the Elites, even though we all know they've bought drugs plenty of times."

My morning mood has been thoroughly deflated by this piece of news. Here I thought Cole's ceasefire might really have to something to do with Holly being around. But this whole time he was just switching targets, and he got what he wanted without a single hitch.

I have to accelerate my plan to destroy him.

Chapter 23

Blake isn't our teacher's assistant anymore. He's just another student now. The teacher makes a brief announcement about it without mentioning the video at all. She just tells us that we won'thavea teacher's assistant anymore, and that from now on we'll turn all our assignments in to her.

A murmur goes through the classroom at this news, and I notice the way people stare at Blake. He's sitting in the back of the middle row, his thin laptop in front of him, stylish black-framed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. I can't keep myself from looking over at him from my spot a few rows to his right.

He doesn't look any different. His life has changed; he's not a TA anymore, people are gossiping about him, and all the Korean gossip sites are speculating that he'll have to make a public apology to save his family's reputation there. Commenters either think he should stay in America forever, far from his mother's homeland, or be gathered up and shipped back to Seoul to stay far from his father's Hollywood influences forever.

Meanwhile, his dad has been M.I.A. in the American press. He's filming his new movie in Norway, a spy thriller starring some of Hollywood's hottest actors. No doubt he'll be discussing how to handle the video's release with his publicist soon.

But as far as anyone can tell just from looking at Blake's face, there's no sign that he's going through any turmoil at all. The angry boy in the club that night is hidden so completely that it's like he doesn't exist at all.

He looks over at me, catching me staring. I don't know why, but I don't look away. Some dangerously curious part of me wants to see if I can find the boy I saw on that tape, the one with the darkness inside him that called to the fire in me.

At first his expression is just placid, maybe even friendly in a neutral way. But then something shifts inside him, and like a tiger stirring from slumber, he changes from the sleeping beast to the waking predator.

Darkness flows into his eyes. Makes his mouth turn up just slightly in the corners. His hand, on the desk surface, curls into a fist. In an instant, he looks nothing like a well-behaved boy.

He looks like the boy in that video who wanted to destroy everything around him.

Yanking my eyes towards the front of the classroom, I shiver.

And wonder if, by exposing Blake Lee for the beast he truly is, I've made it so he has nothing left to lose anymore.

* * *

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since I put the spiders in Cole's locker. Holly confided in me the evening after the rock climbing event—apparently Cole had something close to a nervous breakdown afterwards about the whole thing. He wasn't just angry; he was genuinely freaked out.

"Spiders are a big fear of his. Not quite a phobia, but pretty damn close," she said, while I schooled my face to neutrality, knowing Cole wanted her as far away from our feud as humanly possible. I already knew about his dislike of spiders; it's why I used them in the first place. "But it's not just that. He was soangryabout it. I told him it was probably just a stupid prank Tanner or Blake pulled on him, but he told me he knew it wasn't them. The way he acted, Brenna... he was manic. I swear, he has this darkness in him I don't understand. Sometimes I wonder how it is we've lasted this long, and if we'll make it to graduation at this rate."

She's sighed, flopped back on her pillows, and added, "I'm glad we'll be going into town tomorrow to do some shopping and make up for missing out on the rest of the rock climbing trip. You'll get that makeup I told you about, right? It'll be so much better for your skin—that foundation you use is clogging your pores."

I'd smiled at her and promised to buy it, already anticipating the price tag hitting Georgia's credit card account.

That conversation was two days ago, on Saturday. Cole has been planning something ever since; I know he has. I just don't know where he'll strike, or who else might be involved.

I posted through the Legacies social media, putting the call out for any information related to Blake Lee or the group he's in, the Elites. I tried to make it sound like they might have something to do with his angry outburst in a nightclub in Seoul, not that I think they did. But as long as everyone is talking abouthim,I want them to talk about his friends too.

And I want them to send me dirt about them.

As I head to lunch, already anticipating this evening's ice cream social, I feel eyes on me in the hallway. Looking over, I spot Tanner lounging against the lockers, a curious smile on his face.

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