Page 52 of Chaos & Corruption

My gaze cuts to her for a moment. I’m sure she means to insult me, but I’m too stunned to take offense. For the first time since I met her, I can actually picture her and Victoria as friends. My girl would totally say something snarky like that. Maybe there is more to Mila than meets the eye.

“Fine time for you to decide to grow a personality,” I taunt.

She rolls her eyes and I bring mine back to the road in front of me. Silence stretches between us, and I try to rack my brain for a plan.

“Are you crazy?” Mila hisses. “This is the way to Dizzy’s.”

“God nothing gets past you, huh?”

“You can’t corner Jennings at Dizzy’s. That’s absurd.”

“I’m not going to corner him in front of anyone. I’m going to wait until he leaves.”

“And what if he doesn’t leave alone?”

My fingers tighten around the steering wheel. She’s right,again. I have no fucking idea what I’m doing and that’s a recipe for disaster. If I fuck this up, there’s a good chance I won’t see Victoria again. I’ll get caught and they’ll throw my ass in jail for real.

Mila reaches into her purse, pulling out her cellphone.

“What are you doing?”

Without looking at me, she replies, “What I should’ve done a long time ago. Drive to the faculty building. There are woods behind it that run out to the main highway.”

“By the old compost?”

She nods, her thumbs flying across the screen.

“There’s no camera’s out there.” I stare at her quietly for a moment mostly wondering how she knows so much about the surroundings of the faculty building. She taps her thumb against the screen and pulls in a deep breath, her eyes scanning over the text she just sent. Seemingly satisfied and maybe a little on edge, she turns her attention back to me. “That should get Jennings there.”

My eyebrows lift.

“You sent Jennings a text?”

She flips the phone toward me so I can read it.

I know what you did. If you want me to stay quiet meet me at the scene of the crime.

When I’m done reading the text, I meet her gaze. Lowering the phone to her lap, she tucks a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

“I had a meeting with my professor about a paper I had wrote that he wanted to publish in a medical journal. Jennings followed me there, took me into the woods where some of his friends were—Webber included—and he raped me. No one saw anything. No heard me cry for help. Then he left me there—a ball of shame with the stale scent of trash clinging to my body. The next morning the rumors started. I had missed my meeting with Professor Langly because I was screwing half the staff. Webber told everyone he found my panties by the faculty building.” She shakes her head. “Anyway, it’s the perfect spot.”

I have no idea how to respond to her. No woman should have to go through what she’s been through and on top of it be judged for things she couldn’t control. The sensible part of me wants to tell her she shouldn’t get involved, that using herself as bait to draw Jennings out to the woods, may be too much for her to handle. But the other part, the protective part that belongs solely to Victoria, knows this is the only way I’m going to get him alone.

Just then her phone chimes. Simultaneously we both glance at it, reading Jennings’ reply.

Five minutes and it would be wise not to threaten me.

You can never really judge someone’s demeanor from a text, but I think it’s safe to say the motherfucker is arrogant as all hell. It would also be safe to say, he’s about to get knocked down a peg or two—until he’s the one lying face down in the dirt, his cries for help unanswered.

Mila shoves the phone into her purse and turns to me.

“Well, are you going to drive?”

I jerk my chin, but I don’t leave the parking spot. My grip tightens on the wheel.

“I’m only going to ask you once, are you sure you want to be involved in this?” I ask.

“You’re not the only person who cares about Victoria, Alex. I’ve been a shitty friend and now the girl I consider a sister, the one I basically begged to transfer to Stonewall is lying in a hospital bed because ofme.”

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