Page 31 of The Devils They Are

The other two look up, easily spotting what I'm already staring at.

Across the courtyard, Bexley is standing, eyes locked on us with a crowd of blue-wearing jerseys behind her. A dozen easily, they all stare at us with cunning smiles, and it makes my blood fucking boil.

Bexley's gaze falls onto me first, her pink lips twitching. She then does the same to Tai, before landing on Rylan, who powers up to his feet and takes off toward her.

Tai and I quickly follow, jogging to catch up as his heavy footsteps approach her.

I nearly expect some of them to retreat with how murderous he looks, but none of them flinch. Bexley actually takes a few steps forward, meeting Rylan face to face.

"You changed your shorts," she says softly to Rylan, body scanning him.

His fingers spasm by his sides, itching to reach out and strangle her. "My card, Spencer," he spits out with a threatening tone.

She smiles, not answering immediately as we flank his sides. "And here we have three little Musketeers," she tells the group behind her. "Pretending to be wolves."

Rylan finally snaps, hand shooting forward. But Bexley catches his wrist in her grasp, holding it tight. "Don't bother, Astor. All it will do is make me smile. And you know what they say about a woman if she smiles when your hands are around her neck…"

My eyes flick to the glass windows lining the courtyard, hissing quietly as I find people pressed up against it, watching our encounter and power struggle. Around the courtyard, everyone has stopped what they are doing, a silence lingering in the crisp air.

We're in trouble. We need to defuse the situation and take back control as quickly as possible. With all the eyes and ears on us, and things spreading fast on socials, damage control needs to happennow.

Sensing that it's still too raw for Rylan to chill, I step forward, taking over their exchange.

"Listen here, Duchess. You've made a grave mistake fucking with us. We were going easy on you out of pity, but if you want a fucking war, then that's what you'll get."

Her emerald irises flick to me with interest. "Is that right, Hunter? Out of curiosity, did you know that the classrooms have cameras?"

Of course, I did. It's not as if they are hidden from sight. But my bewilderment at her question diminishes instantly with realization, body shaking with growing fury. "Don't. You. Dare," I whisper darkly. "You'll regret it, Spencer."

Bexley turns to her side, to that little errand boy of hers. "Arch?"

He taps his cell, grinning with a nod. "Done."

As his hand drops, I catch a glimpse of the screen, and as expected, there it is…A video of me in Smythson's room with the desk affixed to my ass.

She turns back to me, offering a sickly-sweet smile. "I know how much you hate being kept out of the know. So, we posted it on Youtube for you and shared the link to the public Willowbrook forum. Hopefully, you can find it. Your father is a member of that group, right? Since it's full of alumni?"

Tai actually appears offended by the idea that someone has hacked into the cameras—like he's taking this one personally. But I don't have time to dwell on his feelings. Not when I need to get rid of that evidence.

I realize that Bexley is still holding Rylan's wrist, so I slap her hand down, forcing her to release him. I shoot a dirty glare at Rylan, wondering why he didn't bother to escape already when he could have easily done so.

People are still gawking in disbelief, and my stomach sinks when I spot a few people with their cells up, recording our standoff.

"Enough of this!" I snap, turning to the nearest Willowbrook student I can find. "Grab our bags and follow us."

I walk around the Cedar Heights group, silently demanding that Rylan and Tai follow.

Tai follows but Rylan stays put, again asking, "Card, Bexley."

"I don't have it," she shrugs lazily. "Maybe it fell out of your bag in the locker room."

The longer we stay and argue, the worse it makes us look. So, I snap at Rylan again to follow, which thankfully, he does this time.

Once we're back inside the main building, I head straight for Dad's office. Elizabeth will at least be able to delete the post from the Facebook group since she's an administrator. Then, we can use the staff credentials to delete that footage of me from the servers—not that it will do any good now that they have a copy. But it will make me feel a little more at ease.

After that, I'm going to beat the shit out of everyone who shared the picture of Rylan, even if they've already taken it down.

Tai might even be able to locate the source of his anonymous number spree and block it, so he doesn't have to wait until the end of day.

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