Chapter 19 Asch
ASCH
No matter how long I stare at the homework, the words don’t start making any sense.
This is easy stuff, basic fundamentals of economics, and there’s no reason I should be having so much trouble with it.
But I can’t focus, and the letters seem to swim together in front of my eyes.
I’ve just tapped over to my messaging app to see if I have anything new when I hear a firm, insistent knock on the front door.
Weird.
Blaze and River wouldn’t sound like that, and neither would Pandora.
So who’s there?
Sighing, I haul myself to my feet and head to the living room. I unlock and open the door, expecting some sort of door-to-door salesman.
“We aren’t int—” I stop abruptly when I recognize the man in front of me as the new head of the fraternity, Ezio. “Blaze isn’t here,” I tell him.
Ezio nods. “I know. I actually wanted to talk to you.”
I don’t have anything to say to him.
I eye him, but I take a step back to allow him to enter the house. I gesture to the couch. “Have a seat,” I tell him. I don’t bother asking if he wants a drink. I’m not prolonging this visit any more than necessary. I cross over to the armchair, perching on the edge of it. “What do you need, Ezio?”
Ezio doesn’t bother to sit down. “Frankly? I want to know where Zayden is. Blaze is being vague. I went to check out Zayden’s hotel room, but of course that’s been cleared out.
His stuff that got recovered from the frat house has long since been dumped.
” He fixes his eyes on me. “If you’ve got any idea where he might have gone, if you’re covering for him… ”
“I have no idea,” I reply, fighting off the waves of unease. “Zayden hated me. He wouldn’t have told me shit before up and leaving.”
“But you’re close to Blaze. Did you overhear him talking with Blaze about anything?” Ezio crosses his arms. “This is a serious matter. Zayden’s father is an important family friend.”
“No,” I tell him. “Have you talked to Blaze? I’m sure he can tell you something.”
“Blaze says Zayden ran off and he has no idea where he went.” Ezio’s eyes bore into me. “Maybe you were more observant than Blaze. At this point, I’ll take any clue.”
“Sorry,” I say, “but I don’t know where he is. I don’t have any clues.” My heart is pounding, but I ignore my anxiety. I’m not technically lying. I don’t know where most of Zayden is.
I only know that he’s never coming back.
“Hmm.” Ezio gets closer to me. “You aren’t concerned about him? It’s been almost a month since he disappeared. That’s a long time for anyone to drop off the face of the earth. No texts, no social media posts, no ATM withdrawals… Disappearing is hard even for an adult. How did Zayden manage?”
“No, I’m not concerned,” I reply bluntly. “He and I weren’t friends. If he wanted to bail, he did a good job. I don’t know what you expect me to say, Ezio. If I knew anything, I’d tell you, but I don’t.”
Fuck.
There’s no way he’s going to believe me.
But what am I supposed to tell him? The truth?
I should. Pandora has ruined my life.
That doesn’t mean I can tell Ezio that she had something to do with his disappearance.
Ezio lets out a sigh. “Yeah. If you don’t know, you don’t know.” He holds up his phone. “Let me give you my number though, in case you do remember something. Zayden’s parents are getting worried.”
“It took them a month to ‘get’ worried?” I can’t stop myself from asking. “Wow. Guess they’re going for the parent of the year award.” I take my phone out, putting his number into my phone. “I’ll let you know if he shows up.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” Ezio takes a look around the room before he waves and heads to the front door. “I’ll see you around. If you decide to stay as a brother, of course.”
That, more than anything, takes me off guard. “What?” I ask.
What has Blaze said to him? Does he know I plan on bailing for NVU next year?
He couldn’t talk to me about anything important, but he could discuss me with Ezio? Hurt and betrayal race through me, damn near leaving me breathless.
Ezio pauses by the door. “What, ‘what’?”
I shake my head. “Nothing,” I mumble.
Fuck him.
Fuck Blaze.
“See you,” I say, ready for him to be gone.
He leaves after flashing me an obviously fake smile, and I close the door behind him with a little more force than necessary.
I should go upstairs and do my assignment, but I’m too unsettled by the conversation. I head to the kitchen instead, where I know my dirty dishes from the morning are still in the sink. I turn on the water, rinsing them off.
Ezio knows something.
He may not have all the pieces of the puzzle, but he’s started to put together what he does know. I have a feeling this isn’t the last time he’s going to try to corner me in hopes that I’ll tumble down like a house of cards.
I shove the dishes haphazardly into the dishwasher, and I’m turning to head back upstairs when I hear keys in the front door.
I tense, unsure of whether it’s going to be Blaze or River.
I really don’t want to see either of them.
Glancing over my shoulder, I see River entering the kitchen. Better than Blaze, I guess.
I’ve always been a light sleeper, which is the only reason I know River has been getting home in the early hours every night for the past week.
The quieter he tries to be, the more noise he makes, and I’ve gotten tired of being woken up from him rustling around in the kitchen and banging around pots and pans.
“Asch?” he asks.
I glance at him, noting that he has a black eye he definitely didn’t have the day before.
It’s not like we’re friends, and we don’t hang out, but I see him often enough to where I can tell he’s been coming home with injuries. The visible bruising, the way he sometimes walks like he’s wincing in pain… He’s getting into fights, and I don’t think it has anything to do with boxing.
I wonder if it has to do with Pandora.
“Tate still giving Pandora trouble?” I reply.
River blinks at me. “What?”
I gesture to his face. “The black eye? Who’re you getting into fights with?”
His face shutters. “None of your business, Alvarado,” he says, and while his voice is as flat as his expression, there’s still something there.
I shrug. “Okay.”
I sound more nonchalant than I feel.
I don’t think it has to do with Tate, who would have to be downright suicidal to go against Blaze once he’s put his foot down. Tate might not think Pandora is a threat, but he knows Blaze is.
Does that mean he’s doing business for the Bouchards? Has Blaze let River in?
Has he replaced me?
“What are you doing?” River asks me, heading to the fridge to pull out a package of chicken.
“Dishes,” I say, gesturing to the dishwasher.
He glances at me, arching a brow. “Decided to help out today?”
I glare at him. “I help out,” I retort.
“Not with the dishes,” he replies.
“Whatever,” I mutter. I watch him season the chicken, trying to figure out what to say. I want to push about the bruise, to find out what he’s doing, but I doubt he’ll talk to me.
“You talk to Blaze yet?” he asks me.
I tense. “No. Why would I?”
“The two of you need to bury the hatchet and work things out before you drive all of us crazy. You do know you’re doing exactly what Pandora wants you to, don’t you?” he asks me as he puts the chicken in the pan.
“Yep.” But I can’t stop thinking about all of the lies, all of the times I’ve been made a fool of over the past several years of my life. Blaze knew that I hadn’t earned a damn thing I’d been given, but he’d let me believe I had.
He’d let me think I’d mattered.
All the while, he’d been planning on pushing me out of the family business as soon as we’d graduated. It doesn’t make any sense. The more I think about it, the more I wonder what angle they could possibly have if they intended to shut me out instead of using me.
It would’ve been one thing if he’d insisted on undying loyalty to his family.
He hadn’t.
Had he really been trying to protect me?
He’d known there was no way I’d have gone along with trafficking women. Would I have turned a blind eye to work for the Bouchards? I wouldn’t have gone to the police, that’s for sure, but I might’ve wanted to separate myself from them with that knowledge.
Maybe it’s for the best that he’s pushing me out of the family business.
Thinking about it gives me a headache.
“Ezio stopped by,” I tell him, needing to change the subject.
River scowls. “What did that shitbag have to say?”
I think back to the conversation, to how he’d had to make a comment about me potentially not being in the frat next year. “Nothing. He asked a lot of questions, though.”
His lips purse, but he flips the chicken in the pan before he replies, “He’s pushing, and he’s eventually going to push his way right into figuring out what really happened.”
I sit down at the kitchen table, turning the conversation over in my mind. “Yeah. Pandora should’ve covered her tracks somehow, put some effort into making it look like he actually bailed instead of disappearing without a trace. Fake withdrawals, social media. I don’t know. Something.”
River scoffs at me. “Like Pandora ever thinks anything completely through.”
He’s not entirely wrong. Pandora is more the type to do something in the heat of passion, and that only makes her that much more fascinating to me.
How the fuck has she managed to get this far under my skin?
“She thought through the whole thing at the party,” I point out. “That took some serious planning. And it’s not like she left the whole body for someone to find.”
River exhales slowly, then he nods. “All right,” he says. “So we need to figure out what to do with Ezio before he connects the dots.”
“I think he’s already connected the dots a little,” I tell him. “It’s not really that hard to follow. Shit went down, Pandora stabbed Declan, everyone knows she’s responsible for the fire, then there was the…”
I grit my teeth, not really wanting to think about the night in the gym.
“Anyway, she has the most motive to want him gone, and it’s not like there are plenty of other candidates for that,” I finish.
“Well, we’ll just have to give him something else to chase,” River says grimly. He takes the chicken out of the pan, setting it onto a plate.
“Whatever that is,” I say. “You should talk to Blaze about ideas.”
“Or the three of us can talk about it,” he retorts. “Together.”
“No,” I reply.
“You have got to get over this, Asch. Didn’t you get revenge on him already?” he asks as he joins me at the table.
“It’s not about revenge,” I say.
And it’s not.
Mostly.
“Uh-huh,” River says. “Ezio is a problem. Not to mention, he’s a smarmy bastard.” His jaw clenches. “He wanted to try to milk Franklin’s family for money.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me one bit,” I say.
“He wants me to push fundraising efforts outside of the frat,” River replies, starting to eat. “Like people on campus really feel sorry for Kappa Alpha. I don’t know, Asch.”
This is Blaze’s problem, not mine.
If things weren’t the way they were, I’d take some responsibility. I’d be determined to figure this out with him.
But they are what they are.
“What would I even do against him?” I mutter. “It’s not like I’ve got resources.”
River spears his chicken with his fork viciously. “Pandora does.”
“Pandora? We’re trying to keep her away from Ezio.” I stare at his plate instead of looking up at him.
We have to protect her.
Despite everything she’s done, we can’t let Ezio find out the truth.
“No. I mean.” River takes a bite. “She had footage from Tate’s hazing. She knows about whatever dark shit Kappa Alpha facilitates.”
And she knows about my own dark secrets.
My stomach turns. If she was to play the recording of my little secret, my life would be over. There’s no way George Bouchard would look the other way if he found out what I’d done to his son.
Then again, maybe he’d blame Blaze for not stopping it somehow.
He’s not that much better of a parent than Zayden’s, at the end of the day.
“If she has all that information….” I inhale sharply. “She has information on Ezio too. That’s if she got all of it. If it goes back that far. I think he was a brother like ten years ago.”
River nods. “I bet it does.” He pauses, then grimaces. “I hope it does. That would make things easier.”
“Would it, though?” I reply. “Pandora with years and years worth of footage from the frat… It’s already dangerous enough that she has the past few years.”
“Well, it would be a good thing right now,” River says. “Don’t be so negative.”
I glower at him as he continues to eat, and only when he’s finished do I say, “Let’s talk to her. She’s serious about all of this, right? She wants to find out about her friend.”
“Yeah,” River says. “And she’ll help us if we help her.”
He takes his plate to the dishwasher and puts it in.
I pull out my phone, sending her a message.
Asch
We need to talk. Where are you?
It takes a surprisingly long time for her to respond, when usually Pandora’s replies are near instantaneous. River has finished washing his pans before I get the text.
Pandora
Oops, couldn’t hear you. Just got in!
She includes a photo of Club Sin, one of two dance clubs in Harmony.
Asch
It’s important. Can you meet us back on campus?
Pandora
It’s too loud, you’ll have to speak up!
The photo she sends this time is a selfie. She’s in full makeup, wearing a skin-tight dress that’s very low cut. Her necklace and earrings have snake designs, of course.
Pandora
Think somebody here will fuck me in the toilets?
I growl at the phone. River leans over the table so he can get a look at the chat log. He scowls too.
“She’s baiting you,” River says.
“Yeah, well, it’s working,” I mutter, getting up. “Come on. Let’s go.”
I’ll be damned if I let anyone else touch Pandora.