Chapter 51 – Clover
Chapter Fifty-One
Clover
“Shut up!” Sylvia says suspiciously. “Can we stop talking about hooking up?”
“You’re shit at secrets,” Thomas snorts.
“Clover?”
I elbow Thomas hard in the stomach. He groans and then puts his arms over my shoulder. Sylvia notices, but she doesn’t react. For once, I don’t throw Thomas off my shoulders. He’s warm. He smells nice and he’s not being a complete asshole, despite dropping my ass on the ground while we kissed.
I’m slowly forgiving him for that.
“Can we get a new plan going?” Sylvia says. “I’m worried about Kola and I’m doing everything I can to help her.”
“Does shagging Theo help her?”
Sylvia takes a book off my desk and throws it at Thomas’ head. Don’t worry, I put those books there in case we needed to throw them at his head. I rest my head on Thomas’ shoulder after Sylvia misses and he mutters an apology.
“Is that really where you were?” I ask her.
“Can you two keep a secret?”
“We already know,” Thomas says. “So we really ought to talk about Kola.”
“Theo’s going to help,” Sylvia says.
“Does he still refuse to claim you in public?” I ask her. I won’t look at Theo the same until he proudly claims Sylvia.
“It’s not that simple.”
She explains and for now, I have to accept her explanation.
I can’t imagine that guy teaching history.
I hope I’m not in his class. For that matter, I hope Sylvia isn’t either.
I don’t want him manipulating her because of her grades or anything.
I don’t know. I guess I don’t trust guys easily.
Sex is one thing, but trust is another. Thomas fingers stroke my palm.
He’s being so affectionate in front of Sylvia and normally, I would want to scream. Tonight just felt different.
He’s not such a bad guy. It wouldn’t kill me to trust him.
“Crispin told me the cops searched a ten mile radius. They’re attempting a trace on Kola’s phone, but the laws in the UK make it hard to act quickly,” Sylvia explains.
“We’re thinking of it all wrong,” Thomas says. “We have to work backwards from Molly. We have to think of why someone would kidnap Kola.”
“We got too close,” I whisper. “Someone convinced Molly to do this or worked with her.”
“We’re sure it’s not Kola,” Thomas says. Sylvia and I both throw books at his head.
“I’m serious!”
“You just defended her last time we spoke,” I snap at Thomas.
He shrugs. “I’m being a thorough investigator.”
“Kola wouldn’t do this,” Sylvia explains. “She has no motive.”
“She hates white people,” Thomas says, as if his theory makes a ton of sense.
“Clover?”
I elbow Thomas again. He groans and mutters something under his breath that he probably deserves a slap for. Sylvia’s phone vibrates and she glances down.
“Stop sending nudes to Theo, it’s disgusting,” Thomas says.
Sylvia rolls her eyes at him.
“It’s not from Theo,” she says, her voice drawing in nervously. I know that look. My heart rate quickens even before Sylvia speaks.
Sylvia’s hand shakes as she hands her cell phone over to me, completely incapable of forming words.
“It’s an email,” I tell Thomas before I read the email out loud.
From: spicyfreak69@
To: srichards@
Subject: dead slut.
Your bitchy friend is ready for you.
Boathouse under the bright lights.
I took something from her that she can’t ever get back.
I’ll be in touch.
“We have to go down there,” Thomas says, grabbing my cricket bat.
“We have to call the cops,” Sylvia says.
“We can do both.”
Sylvia already has her phone out and Thomas has his shoes back on.
We need another weapon. I grab that knife I stole from Jude and stuff it into my hoodie pouch as Sylvia opens my bedroom door.
We have ? of a mile on the trails before we get to the boathouse.
If we don’t run, we won’t make it before the cops.
Outside the dorm door, Thomas glances over at both of us.
“I hope dancing got you girls in good shape.”
“We can make it,” Sylvia huffs. “We can get to her.”
“Let’s go,” I grunt, exerting as much force as I can to sprint down the trail to the boathouse.
The three of us run together, trying to match Thomas’ really fast pace.
We run as fast as we can and after around painful minutes, we arrive at the boathouse.
I hurry down the hill toward the river water, thinking that Kola would be in the water drowning or something, but as I get closer to the dock, I see her right where Spicy Freak told us to expect her.
“SHE’S THERE!” I shriek. It’s Kola. She’s naked and it’s cold out.
I don’t want Thomas to look at her. I don’t want anyone to see her like this.
I run over to her and touch her face. She’s warm.
She’s alive. But there’s something definitely wrong with her.
Blood all over her thighs. Cuts all over her body. She looks beat up and bloodied.
I throw my hoodie off and cover her. Thomas gets close but once he realizes she’s naked, he turns around.
Sylvia’s still on the line with the police and she’s trying to describe the trail.
Cars can’t get down here easily and they have to call the campus first to get permission to come on because it’s private property.
Kola’s alive, but something horrible happened to her.
“Kola,” I whisper. “Kola, are you awake?”
She doesn’t make a sound, but when I touch her, she groans and shrinks up into a ball. Thomas has all his shirts off and he throws them to me so I can cover her up.
“Keep her warm,” he says. “Keep her warm until they get here.”
When the paramedics arrive, we have to go through everything again, except this time it’s worse.
I can hear them talking about “signs of sexual assault”.
I can hear them discussing Kola’s condition and then the deans come.
We aren’t blamed for leaving the dorms because we still have hours until check-in.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. We found Molly.
We locked her away. We can’t have someone running around raping Kola.
Even if everything else was about some fucked up hatred of Thomas Bainbridge, this can’t possibly be the motive for what happened to her.
Thomas puts his arm around my waist once the paramedics and deans get ready to dismiss us.
He leans forward and whispers into my ear, “This is the last night you sleep in fear. I promise.”
He can’t possibly promise that, but I lean back into his arms and let Thomas hold me for once without running away.
* * *