Chapter 4 #2
My skin is too warm for comfort. Nothing feels right. I need to get the nuts fastened again and I can drop the hood and be done for today. I love my classic Mustang more than most things in the world, but my brain is fried.
Maybe I need release.
Why the fuck am I so pent-up?
“Sev,” I hear from behind me in the lot. I hear the flick of a lighter behind me, and get one more nut finished before turning to look behind me.
“Kieran.”
I reach for another sip of whiskey as Kieran heads over. He’s taking a drag from a cigarette as he walks toward me, wearing a forest green beanie over his curly brown hair.
“Car giving you issues?”
“No. She’s fine.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “Doesn’t seem fine.”
I lift an eyebrow and he holds a grim stare. “I fixed the heater box, and now I’m almost done. What’s with the thousand-yard look, Kier?”
His hands fly up into the air. “Jesus, Sev, maybe it’s because you’re looking at me like you’re about to knock me out cold. The fuck’s wrong, bro?”
Great.
He’s flying off the handle quickly, just like he’s been doing all the time about simple shit recently. Kieran’s been a Double Daggers member for as long as I have, and I’ve watched him slowly go from taking some stimulants when he needs to cram for a paper to… this type of behavior.
Popping any kind of stimulant he can get, multiple times a day. Smoking too much when he does it, too.
I pull in a long, slow breath. “This repair was bad. And the rest of my day wasn’t much better.”
“Your legs bothering you?”
I use the drill to tighten another nut, then pull back out from under the hood. “No. Surprisingly, the legs are fine, today.”
“Then talk to me,” Kieran says, stepping toward me. “Ever since your injury I swear you don’t even feel like a Daggers member, anymore. You still loyal, Sevan? Or do you give a fuck at all?”
I give him a hard look. “Do me a favor and don’t talk about my injury, or other things you don’t understand. Get it, Kieran?”
He puts out his cigarette and flips me off. “What’s your fucking problem?”
Problems, plural?
Lots of things.
And you’re one of them right now.
I don’t respond right away.
I don’t hate Kieran, even if I do wish I could fight him right now. I don’t want to make a small problem worse.
I reach back under the hood and finally finish the installation, then slam the hood back down and drop my drill back into its case.
As I clean up, I decide to throw Kieran a bone.
Acting like an animal, so here’s what you’ll get.
Scraps.
And only the scraps I’m comfortable giving.
“My mom called me earlier,” I explain to him. “After class. You’d think she would be used to divorces after doing them so much, but this one is somehow still bad for her, apparently.”
Kieran frowns, his whole expression changing as he gives me a sympathetic nod.
I don’t talk much about my personal life to other Daggers guys or really anyone other than my cousin, but I’ve briefly mentioned things about Mom. People know that she raised me as a single parent, and that she’s had awful luck with men.
They don’t know that one of her ex-husbands drained her of tens of thousands of dollars, and she was too nice to demand it back.
Or that another ex cheated on her with two other women.
And they certainly don’t know that my mom used to have a dependence on painkillers, and that every single time her dating life is bad, I worry that she’ll turn to pills again. There’s a reason Kieran’s pill-popping concerns me, even if his vice is uppers, not downers.
“That blows, man,” Kieran offers. He bends to pick up the drill case, helping me bring it back into the garage.
I wave him off. “My mom’s a trooper. She’s probably already back on the dating sites looking for Prince Charming 5.0.”
“She was chill when she came down last Parents’ Weekend. Maybe you should get one of us to start dating her. Think you’re ready for a stepdad—”
“Kieran. Fuck. Off. Do you want to be killed tonight?”
I give him a shove and he suppresses a laugh. “Sorry. Look, Sev, go take a shower and I’ll meet you in the backyard? We need to talk about the alumni dinner. We need to put Onyx into the ground.”
I tip back my glass and finish my whiskey. “Meet you out there in twenty.”
Kieran’s out in the hot tub already when I head down into the backyard after scrubbing myself clean in the shower.
“So. The alumni dinner event. Let’s talk,” I tell him, submerged under the water in front of a strong jet.
“We cannot have a repeat of last year.”
“It was a massacre.”
The societies hold a very fancy dinner event every year, for Crimson College secret society alumni and current students. People rub shoulders, network, and schmooze, and after the dinner, many society members get offers for summer internships at prestigious companies around the globe.
Last year’s alumni dinner was a shitshow.
Only Onyx Society students got offers.
Every.
Single.
Position.
In the days after the dinner last year, not a single Luros Sorority girl got an offer for a job or internship for the summer, and none of us in Double Daggers got one, either.
It was unprecedented.
Ever since then, we’ve been certain that Onyx Society must have been involved in foul play.
“Someone fucking bribed someone, last year,” Kieran says now, his eyes wide as he looks at me.
He takes a long pull on a vape, then leans back on the edge of the hot tub, exhaling a thick cloud that smells like peach.
“We aren’t letting that happen again. And if we can catch them in the act, we can ruin Onyx. ”
The blue-white glow from the hot tub lights his face from the bottom up, making him look particularly ominous.
I furrow my brow and run my wet hands through my hair.
“The goal isn’t to ruin Onyx,” I correct him. “The goal is to just have fair opportunities for every society member.”
“No. I want to fuckin’ destroy them.”
“Kieran, you know my cousin is an Onyx Society member now. You’ve met Niko.”
He blinks. “Right. Sorry.”
“We’re not destroying anything. People from both societies got expelled last time a fucked-up frat war happened.”
He chews his lower lip. “Obviously I’m not going to let myself get expelled. I need this too badly.”
Kieran doesn’t tell many people that he’s at Crimson on a full scholarship, and that his family background isn’t privileged like most of ours are.
He wants to be an environmental lawyer one day, and one of the law firm execs attending this year’s dinner is a very successful woman, Liv Callahan, who was a member of Luros Sorority years ago.
Kieran’s career goals are very noble. He gives a shit about environmental causes, even if he’s been a little fucked up and cutthroat lately.
“I know you need it, Kier. And you’re going to get the Callahan firm internship this year.”
“I still know something dirty happened last year. You think it was Roman, with his mafia family connections? Or Hunter and Weston, with their dad?”
Kieran’s eyes are intense again.
Suddenly he looks like he’s trying to unveil a corrupt scandal, like he’s taken it upon himself to become a rogue whistleblower.
“Wes couldn’t play dirty if he tried. Trust me,” I say flatly.
Kieran shrugs. “You call him Sheriff. Cops are corrupt sometimes, aren’t they?”
“Weston Knox is terrified of me. Even if he had something to do with last year’s dinner, it won’t happen now.”
Weston’s terrified of me and he’s desperate for my cock, apparently.
Ready to deep-throat me like I’m his king.
“All I’m saying is we need info on Roman and Wes,” Kieran says.
“What are you asking, exactly?”
“I want you to spy them, Sev. You know you’d be the best at it.”
I stand up in the tub fast. “Can I spend one hour of my day not hearing about Wes fucking Knox?”
“I hate him, too. That’s why we need to step up.” Kieran exhales another white cloud.
I swing one leg out of the hot tub and sit on the edge for a second, letting the cool air dry my skin.
“If you want me to act like some sort of private investigator for you, I’m sorry, but that’s not on my to-do list for the rest of this year.”
“Your cousin’s in Onyx, though. You already have an in with them.”
I give him a cold look. “Yes. And my cousin is half-brothers with Weston, if you recall.”
Kieran nods. “That’s why you’re the perfect person to be our spy. Roman Petrov is like a stone, so he isn’t good to get close to. Hunter is always busy with his tongue in Rayne’s mouth these days. But I think you could get to Weston Knox.”
“How would I do that with the guy who hates me more than anyone else in Crimson?”
“Get chummy with him,” Kieran says. “Pretend you’re trying to hold out an olive branch, after your guys’ stupid rivalry. I don’t know.”
“Interesting.”
“You spent most of last year bitching about how much you hate Knox’s ass, so I know you’re not going to feel remorseful for going secret-agent on him.”
“I do hate Wes. That’s why I’m not psyched about you asking me to get chummy with him.”
“Not telling you to suck his dick, Sev, just saying you could find out if Onyx is really playing dirty.”
My skin prickles with goosebumps.
Kieran has no clue how loaded those words were.
But it still makes me curious, sitting here feeling my cock twitch at an offhand joke about Wes sucking my dick.
I hop off the edge of the hot tub and grab my towel, wrapping it tight around my waist.
“I’ll ask Niko if he’s heard anything. Can’t promise anything else.”
“Sevan,” Kieran calls to me before I walk inside. “If you really want to piss Weston off, I know how.”
“Yes?”
“Heard he tried to hook up with Darren last week at a party. Got hardcore rejected. Knew Darren was into guys, but Weston Knox? That’s news to me.”
Very interesting.
It’s not that I give a damn that Weston tried to hook up with another guy before me. I’m not usually possessive. I’m the opposite of possessive, with the girls I fuck. Although I did think I was Weston’s first attempt at anything involving men.
But I don’t like the way Kieran said it.
“I’m not going to fuck with someone over the fact that they’re exploring their sexuality. Not my thing.”
“No, no,” Kieran says. “Trust me, I’m not telling you to be homophobic. I’m not a monster.”
“Then what?”
“I’m saying he probably already thinks you’re hot. Even if he hates you, I can’t imagine anyone who’s attracted to dudes wouldn’t want you at least a little.”
“You think he’s going to suddenly let Onyx secrets slip just because I have a good body? If there are any Onyx secrets.”
“Just try. Do it for the rest of us in Daggers, even if you don’t care?”
I wave a hand back at him and head inside, beelining straight for the whiskey bottle.
It’s an easy task.
Spy on Weston Knox.
Get close to him.
Even if Kieran is dead wrong, there could be other benefits to getting close to Weston.
Because if Wes is already trying to fuck with me, then I’m more than ready to fight fire with fire.