Chapter Thirty-One Alex
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
ALEX
I’ve barely spoken to Sam since my idiotic move after practice. But now, I’m standing outside her dorm waiting for her to open up.
The door swings open just as I raise my fist to knock one more time.
“Alex.” Gracie frowns at me. “What are you doing here?”
I shove the rolled-up pages in my left hand into my pocket. “Sam. Is she here?”
A second later, Sam exits their bathroom. She isn’t looking up, her attention focused on the bracelet she’s attempting to slap into place.
“Gracie. I need to run off campus for a few—” Sam pauses the moment she looks up and her eyes land on me. “Alex?”
With her brows knitted tight, she glances from me to Gracie.
“What are you doing here?”
Gracie watches us, a suggestive grin slowly forming on her lips. “I’m going to give you two a minute.”
Gracie and I turn and slip past each other, trading places at the threshold. I catch a glimpse of Gracie pinning Sam with a very animated questioning look before she walks off. When I look back at Sam, she’s still holding on to the unclasped bracelet.
I step farther into the room, closing the door behind me without taking my eyes off her. As we stare at each other, I step forward. Every instinct in my body tells me that being in her space is the kind of intimacy that’ll only get me in trouble.
The last time I got too close, the last time I breathed in her scent, I ended up with a constant hard-on for a girl who’s made it very clear she’d never let me touch her again unless I begged.
The same girl I caught practically riding my very shy, very brutish best friend’s thigh. In my house, mind you.
Seeing that affected me more than I care to admit. Sam is the only girl who has ever gotten in my head, the first girl to truly reject me. And I don’t mean the kind of denial where you play hard to get to not seem so easy. She genuinely seems to despise me. But she likes Bryden, though?
Honestly, I’m not even all that mad, because I get it. She gets to you, and once you’ve let her in, involuntarily or not, that’s it. She’s a fucking siren. Didn’t care to have it right in my face under my own roof, but I get it.
Kane didn’t seem too keen on it either. He didn’t say anything, but with how tight his jaw was, I’d say she’s gotten to him, too. But before Mountain told us to get out, I noticed the way Kane looked at her. He stared like he wanted to bite her and fuck her at the same time.
Get in line, bro.
I step closer, no words between us as I reach out and take her wrist into my hands. Sam keeps her eyes trained on me while I work to fasten the hook for her.
“I thought I was meeting you in the parking lot?” she asks, forcing me out of my daze.
Pulling the scroll from my pocket, I hold it out to her. Sam stares at it, confusion forming. “I figured it’s better that I talk about this here rather than out in public. You said you couldn’t find out why my dad’s name was on your scholarship stuff, so I looked into it.”
“You didn’t have to do this.”
I smile. “I know. But I wanted to, and it’s the least I can do.”
“Alex—” she starts, but I hold up a hand to stop her.
“Sam. I was a dick before, and you didn’t deserve that.”
The lines around her eyes seem to soften with that, a silent appreciation. She focuses back on the page, and hers grow wide.
“You were right.” I pause and Sam paces.
“My dad definitely had something to do with it. Scholarships, award letters, anything that pertains to that, come from the financial department, but not yours. There wasn’t much that I could find, not on his work computer.
I’d have to sneak into his home office. Check his personal computer. ”
“Absolutely not, Alex. I can’t let you do that.”
“It’s the only way to get the truth.”
She pauses for a beat, reading me before speaking again. “Why do you care so much?”
I stare at her, the answer dying on my tongue. The truth is, this is more for me than it is for her. That man has made my life hell, and I guess knowing there is information out there that I could use as leverage entices me the most.
“My father doesn’t do anything out of the kindness of his heart,” I answer. “There might not have been much, but I did find a name on the transfer and traced it back to an offshore account in the Cayman Islands.”
She snaps her gaze to mine.
“It’s at the bottom of the second page. There wasn’t much I could find on the company. They don’t seem to have much of an internet presence. Just a name and a barely there trail to the account.”
“What’s the name?” Sam turns the page to read the last line.
At the same time, I answer her. “Aurelian Ltd.”
She stands there, eyes wide like she’s seen a ghost. Then she’s on the move, heading straight for the nightstand next to the bed.
Her phone rings, but Sam ignores it. I watch as the screen goes black then focus back on the folder that Sam pulls out of her drawer.
She flops it on the mattress and aggressively flips through it until she lands on the page she’s looking for.
From here, I can see that it’s a photo, printed on regular computer paper. From the looks of it, it’s seen better days. Wrinkles riddle the page, and it crumples under her touch. She holds it out and stalks back toward me.
“Have you seen this picture before?”
I take in the image. It’s my turn to be confused.
It’s a picture of our moms—mine, Kane’s, Gracie’s, Christina’s, and, from the striking resemblance, Sam’s.
They’re young, probably about our age now.
They’re on campus, which makes sense given that my mother, Gracie’s, and Christina’s are alumni.
But I never knew Kane’s mom was, too. He never told us much about her.
“No, I haven’t.”
Sam hovers close to me, damn near too close.
Her signature scent envelops me, and I have to force myself to think straight.
The phone goes off again, and again she ignores it.
But this time there’s a twitch in her jaw.
Her eyes flicker toward the phone, and her fingers curl slightly against the photo.
“Look at the name of the club.” Sam points to the fine print beneath our mothers’ faces.
“The Aurelian Circle,” I mutter. “Wait. You don’t think this is the same Aurelian as the offshore account?”
Sam shakes her head before throwing her hands up in defeat. “I don’t know what to think. But it’s a hell of a coincidence, right?” She shrugs. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Because, believe me, I’ve been searching for days and nothing adds up.”
I take the photo from her and stare at it some more. It’s crazy staring at a younger version of my mother. The years hadn’t caught up with her, no grays, no crow’s-feet. I look at the date. I would have been born a year after this.
“Where did you get this?”
“The library archives. Gracie and I were trying to find out what we could about my scholarship and my mom, and we stumbled across it.”
“You had to search up your mom? Why not just talk to her?”
Sam drops her head. “I would if she was alive.”
My heart pits in my stomach. “Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
She shakes her head. “It’s fine. But she never mentioned being a student here.
And now you find the club’s name on banking information.
I… I’m so fucking confused.” She flails her arms around.
“I’m supposed to be making something of myself so that I can fight for custody of my brother, but instead, I ended up in this never-ending rabbit hole. And—”
She’s spiraling, her breathing now erratic, and tears form in her eyes. That damn phone buzzes again.
I step forward, grabbing her by the shoulders to ground her. “Breathe, Sunshine.”
She swallows then slowly drags her eyes to mine.
“Just breathe. We’ll figure it out. I’ll ask my mom, and maybe we can ask Kane—”
“He doesn’t know anything.”
“Kane knows about this?”
Sam nods but before she can open her mouth to say anything, that incessant phone goes off one more time.
“Please, answer the phone. Whoever that is is desperate to reach you.”
Sam clenches her teeth together, and her shoulders draw up tight. There it is again. That look, like she’s bracing for impact. And the phone keeps ringing. Her whole body hums with tension, locked so tight I can feel it vibrating through my palms.
I might not be the sharpest tack in the box, but anyone can see she’s scared and dodging whoever the hell that is. Without much thought, I drop my hands at my sides and stomp over to her bed in three long strides. Snatching up the phone, I stare at the caller ID. Unknown Caller.
“Who’s calling you?”
She shakes her head. “No one.”
“Sam.” I search her face, that curiosity quickly turning into concern. “Is someone harassing you?”
The screen lights up as I let it ring for a beat, waiting for Sam to answer me. But she doesn’t have to; it’s written all over her face. Heat creeps up my nape and my free hand curls at my side. I answer the call but put it on speaker and don’t say a word.
“I’m going to gut you, you fucking cunt.” The deep voice is full of malice.
Click.
My gaze darts to Sam, my brows pulled together so tight it hurts, and I instantly see red.
I know that voice all too well.
“Why the fuck is Jackson threatening you?”