Page 126 of Degradation
I show the others, so angry I can barely move.
‘What is this shit?’ Mav asks, his eyes narrowing as he goes through the list and the points.
‘They told us to mess with her,’ Jayce answers. ‘They said it was part of the hazing, that the Seamen okayed it.’
I’m too furious to even snigger at the nickname I came up with.
‘They said the ones with the most points at the end would get in,’ Greg adds.
I scan the list of names. Did one of these assholes throw coffee all over her? Is one of them responsible for the notes? For breaking into the security system in the name of becoming a full member of KIP?
‘There’s videos,’ Jayce mutters, nudging Greg again who nods, and I get a link to a folder a couple seconds later.
‘You...didn’t know about this?’ Greg asks, looking a little relieved.
Shade’s jaw ticks. ‘Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Greg. Jayce. You aren’t in any trouble. Keep this to yourselves for now.’
He waves them away.
‘Where are Marcus and the other two?’ he asks very quietly.
‘They haven’t been around,’ Mav says, just as low. ‘But when they are, I think it’s time for another talk followed by some violence.’
I nod and Shade does too, sitting back and rubbing his temples. ‘Why is that girl constantly in trouble?’
I glance at him. ‘She lives at the frat. She’s smart, but vulnerable. She’s a Novelle regardless of her legal last name. She has your dad for a guardian. We’re assholes. Take your pick.’
‘Jesus, how many people are we going to need to destroy before everyone gets the message that she’s ours?’ Mav snarls.
‘Maybe we need to start taking her out with us, show everyone that she’s with us. Untouchable,’ I say.
Mav begins to nod slowly. ‘But what about Sauvage? Things are just going to get worse until we can fix Envy.’
‘Agreed,’ Shade mutters, closing my laptop. ‘He’s going to start leveraging the things we care about if we don’t figure this out.’
Standing up, Shade levels us both with a look. ‘And I don’t know about you guys, but there’s one thing I really care about right now. It would be best if no one knows. That means doing the opposite.’
‘He’s going to figure it out sooner or later,’ I argue. ‘Maybe it’s best if we’re the ones who control the narrative.’
‘What do you propose?’ Mav asks.
‘Exactly what I said. We take her with us to the club, wherever else we can go where she won’t learn things about us that we don’t want her to know. We make sure the frat knows she’s protected, thatthey need to make sureshe’s protected when she’s not with one of us. And we make sure people know what happens if they don’t treat her like theNovelleprincess she is.’
‘I don’t think she’ll like that name,’ Shade says, crossing his sizeable arms. ‘I don’t either.’
‘I don’t care whether you or she likes it, or not. It’s protection,’ I retort. ‘Now, one of you grab her some food for when she feels better.’
‘What are you going to do?’ Shade asks suspiciously.
‘What I should have done a couple weeks ago.’
We go our separate ways. Mav and Shade, out to grab something for Daisy. Me, up to the second floor on the other side of the house where the juniors’ rooms are located. I see a couple of them leaving and they eye me warily. Then I see Samuel getting back from class.
‘Marcus here?’ I ask.
‘He went home for a few days,’ Samuel tells me then he looks from side to side and lowers his voice. ‘Pete’s here though. I’ll...go downstairs for a while.’
I smirk as he drops off his stuff in his room and then disappears down the stairs.
