Chapter 6
SIX
I’m woken by a quiet knock at the door.
Instinctively, I reach for my knife before my eyes even open, but the room is as dark and peaceful as it was when I crawled into bed.
Avery is in her own bed beside mine, and judging by her slow and even breaths, she’s clearly still asleep.
It takes me a second to realize what has woken me up.
Fumbling around in my bed for my phone, the light of the screen almost blinds me, and it takes me squinting at it blearily for a hot minute before I finally read and actually process the time.
It's two in the morning.
Nothing good comes from being woken up after midnight.
As I slide out of my bed, the knock repeats, louder this time and more insistent.
My stomach twists as I stumble over to the door, my knife already clutched in my hand, but when I check the peephole, I find Ash standing there.
Of all the non-threatening people to be standing out there right now, he’s in the top five that I don’t want to see.
I mean, I’m aware he threatens me all the time, but he’s also not the Jackal.
Glancing back to Avery, she still hasn’t woken up, and it has me hesitating over what the hell I should do.
It’s been two days since our confrontation, and a fraught sort of truce has been established between us for now.
The only way I’ve achieved this is by avoiding him completely, but it’s pretty hard to do that with him standing out there, no matter how much I don’t want to see him now.
With a sigh, I open the door.
Only after it’s open do I realize that I’ve never seen so much as a bare ankle on Ash before. He’s always wearing a full uniform, pressed to perfection and spotless, which only leaves his hands and above his neck uncovered.
And now he’s standing in front of me in boxers and a loose tank top, the armholes so big that I can see his nipples peeking out.
Sweet Lord . Jesus have mercy .
Fuck me, my soul has left my body .
They’re some damn good nipples.
“Yes?” I manage to squeak out. I force my gaze to stay firmly above his shoulders, which isn’t much kinder to my poor libido.
His hair is rumpled and adorable; he’d give Blaise’s sex hair a run for its money.
He raises an eyebrow at me, his eyes cold.
The look calms the chaos of my hormones enough for me to remember that he’s an utter dick, and I muster up a glare to throw back at him.
“I’m not here for you,” he snaps as he shoves past me, somehow managing to not touch me in the process.
I sigh like the entire universe is against me, because it obviously is, then I accept my fate and swing the door shut behind him.
After I’ve gotten all of the extra bolts in place, I head back to my bed.
Ash climbs onto Avery’s bed and wakes her.
She looks cranky for a second and then she softens.
Ash glares over his shoulder at me, but I’m already slipping my headphones on, hellbent on forgetting he exists enough to get back to sleep.
It might have worked, too, but his damned nipples keep popping into my head, starting a whole new crisis inside me.
Am I some sort of pervert? Men’s nipples shouldn’t be this…
enticing, right? Maybe the Bay messed me up more than I ever thought.
With another huff, I roll to face away from them to try to clear my head. When it actually works, my last conscious thought is a quick prayer that I don’t snore as I slip back to sleep.
When my alarm wakes me again at six, I find Ash asleep on one of the couches.
My breath catches in my throat looking at him with his head pillowed on his bicep.
There’s a blanket tangled up in his legs, and he’s frowning even in his sleep.
Avery is sitting up in her bed, tapping away on her phone.
She glances up at me and grimaces, her eyes a little red.
“Joey,” she whispers. “He’s been telling Senior a load of crap about Ash and now that man is sending all sorts of lovely messages to him. He’s under so much pressure from them both—I’m really worried.”
I swing my legs out of bed and tiptoe over to sit beside her so we don’t wake Ash. “Is your dad… like Joey?” I ask hesitantly. We haven’t covered this with our truths yet. Avery sighs and nods.
Great.
I scrub a hand over my face before smiling at her. “We’ll add that to the list of things we need to sort out then.”
Avery scoffs as I head into the bathroom. “There’s no sorting Senior out, Lips. There’s only surviving him.”
I always thought that about the Jackal, too.
But I have some ideas and plans in the works.
Now, I have the desire to get us out of this mess alive and relatively unscathed.
All of us, even Ash. He might be an asshole to me right now, but he loves his sister, and before Joey fucked things up, we’d been close to being…
friends? On friendly terms at the very least.
Very friendly, I’d say, because I remember the tutoring sessions in the library.
The day Joey almost killed that student and Ash helped me give him CPR, before that happened, we were joking around together…
some might even call it flirting, but there’s no way that’s what he was actually doing.
The smirk he gave me flashes into my mind, and I mentally bat it away, ignoring my cheeks heating up.
Intent on forgetting about that entire mess, I shower and get ready for class.
When I walk back into the kitchen to grab a coffee and some fruit for breakfast, Ash is gone and Avery is still in her bed on her phone.
I have no idea who she would even call in to help with this. I sit on my bed to face her.
“When you’re ready, we should talk about your father. I can’t help if I don’t have the full scope of the problem,” I say, trying to sound gentle. I don’t know if I succeed.
Avery looks up and her eyes are wet. It’s the closest to crying I’ve ever seen from her, and I panic a little. Avery Beaumont doesn’t cry. Just like Lips Anderson doesn’t do girl talk. It’s fucking weird.
She clears her throat. “There’s nothing you can do to help, Lips.
On the surface, Senior is a well-respected businessman.
He was born filthy rich and will die that way.
He has three beloved children he’s raised on his own since his beautiful wife died under tragic circumstances.
He’s on the board for multiple charities, and he’s a highly sought-after bachelor. ”
She stops and takes a deep breath. “His legitimate businesses are all a front for the illegal ones. He has a lot of say on what happens in politics, there are senators answering to him, and he makes sure that legislation that helps his business and crushes others is pushed through. He enjoys hurting women and beat my mother every day when she was alive. He’s in a gentleman’s club and they bet on awful, depraved things that I can’t speak about. ”
I nod and blow out a breath as I think. “He knows Joey kills people for fun and he covers for him. He knows he’s hurting Ash, too. He knows Joey killed you and he covered for him then as well. I’m guessing Joey is his favorite?”
Avery drops her phone.
Fuck.
I forgot we hadn’t talked about any of that. The Jackal gave me that information when I was trying to sort Joey out after he’d attacked another student.
“How-how did you know that?” Avery whispers. She looks beyond shocked, haunted, and terrified.
I grimace. Not a good way to prove I’m trustworthy. “Last year I did some digging into your family. I was trying to figure out how much of a danger Joey really was. I should have told you, I’m sorry.”
Avery stares at me, her eyes unblinking, and I start to really think I’ve fucked up. She recovers and swoops down to grab her phone. “Ash will lose his mind if he finds out you know.”
Typical Avery, always protecting her brother first. I speak carefully, measuring my words. “I found all of this out last year when you were trying to get me to drop out. If I wanted to spread it, I would’ve done it then.”
Avery nods, then whispers, “We haven’t even told Harley or Blaise. Ash doesn’t want anyone to know.”
Holy fuck .
I start to chew my nails, a habit I’ve kicked, but unless I can find some whiskey, it’ll have to do.
“I’ll take it to my grave, Avery. I swear to you, I will never tell a soul.
But I need more information so we can get you both out of there.
” She nods reluctantly and I go on, “Why doesn’t Ash stop him?
He’s bigger, and he wins all of his fights in the boys’ dorms.”
Avery traces the stitching on her pillow with one of her long, manicured fingers, refusing to meet my eye.
“It’s because of me. Joey told him he’d kill me if he fights back.
The summer before last, Ash lost his temper and hit him.
Broke his jaw with one punch. That night, Joey strangled me.
Ash had to call Harley to get me to the hospital. ”
A helpless sort of shame threads through her words.
It makes sense, considering how much she loves her brother, but it’s still jarring coming from her.
It hits me like a ton of bricks how completely clueless I am about how to be a good friend in these sorts of situations.
Keeping secrets? Solid. Digging for intel?
I’m down. Handling threats? I’m your girl.
Comforting and reassuring my best friend?
I’m practically useless. God, it shouldn’t be this hard for me!
I’ve survived more than my fair share of traumatic situations, so I can relate, but it’s not like I can copy the comfort I was given during the worst of it because no one ever showed up for me in those moments.
Not until Avery.
Still scrambling over how to not fuck this up, I stick to keeping my eyes away from her seeing how desperate she seems to not look at me.