Page 54 of Reckless At Raleigh High
“About us? Getting married?”
“No. Christ.” He stops abruptly, dropping into a crouch in front of me at the end of the bed. His hands are like ice when he reaches out for me and threads his fingers through mine. He’s wearing that look that people get when they know they’re about to say something that’s going to shatter someone’s world into pieces. “Cam’s upset because…he drove me to the school. He wanted to talk. When we were done, we realized there were people standing on the steps outside.”
“Okay. Sometimes they have teacher training after the students leave, right? Or a janitorial crew might have been—”
“It was Darhower,” Alex says, cutting in. “That DEA prick was with him. And so was…” He blows out, hard.
“If you don’t spit it out, I’m gonna scream. For real. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Jacob.” His voice cracks on the name. “Jacobwas with them.”
I blink, and then I blink again. Alex is out of focus. My vision sways and warps like someone just dosed me with acid. “I’m sorry. Did you just say Jacob was outside the school?Jacob Weaving?”
Alex nods, worry pulsing off him in waves. “I had to wrestle your dad back into the car and drive him home. That’s why I was gone so long.”
“Dad got out of the car?”
“Yeah. I think he would have tried to kill him if I hadn’t grabbed him first.”
Everything is so muffled, like wads of cotton wool are blocking my ear canals. I can’t quite… seem to understand…
Frowning, I narrow my eyes at Alex. “That’s not possible, though. Jacob’s in prison. They took him away. They have so much evidence. Your witness statement. The photos of Zen. All of the charges they slapped him with for helping his dad. It can’t have been him. It must have been someone else.”
Alex winces. “Cam made a couple of calls as I drove him back to your place. Sheriff Hainsworth said he couldn’t discuss the matter, but one of his deputies called back a couple of minutes later. She heard the Sheriff and said it wasn’t right, what was happening, and that we…thatyoudeserved to know what was going on. Apparently…” Alex looks off to the left, staring, his mouth slightly open, as if he doesn’t really know how to proceed. “Apparently the DEA are dropping the charges against Jake. His dad cut a deal with that Lowell fucker and said he’d give them the names of five big drug smugglers if they lessened his sentence. Jake won’t be held responsible for anything he did while working for Caleb. The rape charges still stand, but they’ve let him out on bail until his hearing.”
Unwittingly, my hand moves to the base of my neck. Fuck, the rope is still there, tightening around my throat, cutting off my air supply. “What about the attempted murder charge?”
Alex lets out a tight, scathing sound. “Dropped. They’ve replaced it with an assault charge instead, which is absolute fucking bullshit. You dad thinks that they lowered that charge as part of Caleb’s deal with the DEA as well.”
I hug my knees even tighter, staring at the floor. “So…that’s it. They just let him out?”
Alex huffs, his head hanging low. “Yes.”
“And…if he was at the school, then what does that mean? They’re just gonna let him come back? Like nothing fucking happened?”
“I don’t know. Darhower yelled across the parking lot, but I didn’t exactly get a chance to stop and speak to him. I was too busy trying to get your dad to calm his shit.”
“I can’t imagine that,” I say numbly. “Youtrying to calmhimdown. I’d have thought it’d be the other way around.”
“Believe me,Argento. I wanted to peel the bastard’s fucking face off the moment I laid eyes on him. Darhower and Lowell were there, though. It would have been a one-way ticket to jail for me if I’d even spat in their direction. They can’t watch over him twenty-four seven, though. He’ll find himself alone at some point, and when he does, I’ll be ready and fucking waiting for him.”
This is so, so bad. Alex’s rage is unparalleled. He’s simmering with it—it won’t take much for him to bubble over. We’ve been through this already. If he hurts Jake, it’ll be the end of the line for him. And he won’t just hurt him this time. He’ll kill him. And then what? I only get to see him a couple of hours a week? For the next thirty fucking years? He’ll be fifty by the time he’s released from prison, the best years of our life together gone. Jacob will still have fucking won.
I’m not stupid enough to tell Alex not to hunt him down, though. It’d be a waste of breath. He saw me hanging from that rafter with a rope around my neck, andIsaw the fear and the pain on his face when he thought he was going to lose me. Jacob has to pay for what he did, and Alex won’t rest until he sees it come to pass. But there has to be another way.
Slowly getting to my feet, I sniff, surprised to discover that I’m crying.
“Silver?” Alex whispers.
I step around him, picking up my bag from the floor by his bedroom door. Inside, I hunt down the small card, still tucked into the zipped interior pocket. It’s a bit rumpled and dog-eared on one corner, but the number’s still perfectly legible. I hand it over to Alex, knowing that I’m handing over a piece of my soul with it—a piece I will gladly sacrifice if it means that Jake finally gets his just desserts.
Alex scans the card with quick, assessing eyes. “What’s this?”
“The doctor who treated me…I think her boyfriend might be the kind of guy you pay to make people disappear.” The words don’t sound real coming out of my mouth. They sound like something someone else would say, reading off a script in some kind of movie. Things like this don’t get spoken about in real fucking life. I barely feel any connection to the statement at all. Instead, crazed laughter bubbles up the back of my throat, spilling out of me in bursts, like deranged hiccups.
Alex frowns at the card. “A hitman? You think your doctor’s boyfriend is ahitman?”
“Yeah. He had a weird name. Zeus, or Zane, or—”
