4. Blaze
BLAZE
“You could have had her mouth,” I say to Asch. “I would have held her down for you.”
“I know,” Asch says. “I wasn’t?—”
He stops short when we enter the frat house and spot Zayden directing the cleaning efforts. Fuck, I was hoping to avoid all this. That’s why I’d convinced Asch to grab a late dinner with me.
Fucking Pandora was a nice bonus.
She’d looked amazing on her knees, glaring up at me.
Fighting me.
I thought she’d roll over easily, a slut like her. But even when she’d used her teeth, that had only gotten me harder.
It’s a contradiction.
Easily agreeing to fuck us one minute, shooting us down the next. Cutting Asch—and the thought still makes me seethe—then getting on her knees in fear.
I don’t know what to make of her, and part of me wants to take her apart to see what makes her tick.
Break her, smash her to small bits, and put the pieces back together into something new and different.
She thinks she’s strong.
I’ll show her she’s nothing .
“Yo, Bouchard, good timing!” Zayden says with a very pointed look. “We got a bit of a situation.”
That doesn’t sound like he wants me for cleaning. I glance at Asch, then wave him away. “I’ll join you later.”
Asch bristles at being dismissed, but I’m not about to let him get involved in whatever’s got Zayden upset enough to need my help.
“Yeah, okay,” Asch says. “I’ll go help clean up, I guess.”
I watch as he goes to join the others, taking a trash bag and tossing empty cups inside. If he can help clean the frat house, why is it so hard for him to keep his own room clean?
I shove that thought aside and follow Zayden to the private room we use to entertain the more important guests.
I put on a gracious smile when I see an older man with graying hair, a bad combover, and oversized glasses sitting on the plush leather couch.
The suit he’s wearing looks like he bought it at a designer store but neglected to get it tailored.
This is Percival Stringer, the dean of the university, who ostensibly has power over the entire school.
We all know that the school’s entire funding could easily be taken away if he pisses me or my family off. That nice suit he’s wearing? He won’t be able to afford it if he crosses us.
He might not get to go home to his wife and kids at all, if he so much as breathes wrong around us.
“Dean Stringer!” I greet amiably. “What can I do for you?”
Zayden shuts the door behind us while I take a seat opposite Dean Stringer.
“As I was telling Zayden,” Dean Stringer says, “I just wanted to get your perspective on this situation. Somebody showed up at campus security this morning, claiming she’d been… well, taken advantage of at a party you hosted last night. But I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding. ”
My vision goes hazy.
It’s because of the passed-out chick last night.
“I’m sure it is,” I agree smoothly. “You know that Kappa Alpha Omega Sigma is dedicated to upholding its upstanding principles. We’re about brotherhood, community, and academic excellence.”
Dean Stringer nods along. “I know that, yes. But the young lady in question, she says she has proof of what happened, and… well, her demands are silly, but she’s threatened to go to the police—and to post her proof publicly.”
“Demands?” I repeat.
“Yes. She wants the entire fraternity investigated, and certain members expelled.” Dean Stringer looks at me expectantly.
Jesus fucking Christ.
I’m going to murder whoever roofied the chick.
I don’t particularly care about the girl, but doing it at the first party of the year, one attended by several hundred students, was beyond stupid. It’s not like there weren’t plenty of easy lays available last night anyway.
Like Pandora .
Except she wasn’t so easy after all.
“That won’t be happening, of course,” Dean Stringer assures me when I say nothing. “But I thought I would let you know and ask how you want to proceed.”
“Yeah. Tell her the allegations are being investigated.” I share a look with Zayden, and he nods. “There’s nothing to find, of course, but if she continues to make demands, I’ll talk to her personally.”
We all get up, and I shake Dean Stringer’s hand.
“I’ll let my father know how helpful you’ve been,” I tell him, and that puts him at ease.
Dean Stringer smiles back and allows himself to be led out by Zayden.
I grit my teeth and storm out to the main hall, where everybody is still busy mopping and throwing out empty cans .
“Which of you fuckers roofied the girl last night?” I demand, looking around the room.
They all freeze. Asch looks at me with confusion.
“Nobody?” I go around the room, peering at everyone’s expressions carefully.
They all look sheepish, and a few of them cower in fear. Only Asch is still relaxed.
I know he wouldn’t do something so stupid.
“Okay. If nobody is willing to come forward, that’s fine,” I say, smirking. “I’ll have to assume it was a group effort. Keegan, Brock, and Holden.”
The three of them jump to attention, and I notice the others relax a fraction.
“You three are on toilet duty this week. And the next. And the one after that,” I say cheerfully. “Until we can figure out who actually did it.”
“Hey, that’s not fair!” Keegan complains. “We’re paying a maid to do all that shit. You can’t make us do it.”
I go up to him and poke him in the chest, still smiling.
“You think I give a shit? You three will be on toilet duty for the entire fucking year, unless you can figure out who fucking roofied a chick at a public party and left evidence behind.” I glance around the room.
“If there’s DNA evidence, I’m not just going to make you clean.
I’m going to break your fucking fingers for being so goddamn idiotic. ”
Everybody visibly swallows. Keegan looks like he wants to protest, but he’s figured out that shutting his yap is the smarter choice.
Asch subtly motions toward another guy, the only one who is looking down instead of at me.
“Anything to add, Declan?” I snap.
Declan jumps to attention.
He tries to play it cool, but a bead of sweat trickles down his forehead, and there’s palpable fear in his eyes.
Like a shark that has smelled blood, I circle over to him and box him in against the wall. He’s only an inch shorter than me, and he tries to stand his ground, but he doesn’t have the balls.
He didn’t grow up with violence like I did.
Declan’s used to getting everything he wants because his mommy has all the money in the world. He’s never had to watch a man get cut up or beaten because they crossed somebody.
He’s never had somebody so much as threaten him.
I smirk at him. “Why are you so scared now, Declan?”
“I’m not,” Declan mumbles. “It’s… I mean, who even cares? It was just some chick.”
I slam my fist against the wall next to him, and he inhales sharply.
“I care because that chick is crying about it and threatening to take it all to the authorities.”
“We can make that go away,” Declan says, but he’s less sure now.
“ I can make it go away,” I agree. “But it’s more fucking trouble than I want to go through for some loser who can’t figure out how to be fucking discreet. This looks bad for the frat, it looks bad for the university, and it looks really fucking bad for you, Declan.”
“Why… Why do you think I did it?” Declan asks, and he doesn’t back away, but I can smell his fear now.
“Because out of all the guys here, you’re the one who didn’t want to look at me.” I stroke his jaw, and that fear on him almost hides the small hint of disgust.
Yeah, he doesn’t like being touched like he’s the roofied chick.
I grip his jaw and squeeze hard. Declan cries out and struggles against me, but I knee him in the stomach, and his next breath is a sobbing wheeze.
“How many fingers should I break?” I whisper against his ears. “You think you can keep playing basketball with only one good hand?”
“None!” Declan pushes against my chest, but I slap them down.
I wrap my hand around his throat, and Declan’s mouth opens wide in an attempt to scream.
Nobody in the room does anything .
“You’re fucking lucky,” I say to Declan, “that publicly ousting you would be an admission of guilt from the frat. So you can keep your fingers—for now. But when I tell you to do something, you’ll do it.
And if you do anything that could make us look bad again, I’m not breaking fingers. I’m cutting them off. Got it?”
Tears roll down Declan’s cheeks, and he nods.
I wait another few seconds, until his face is going from red to purple, before I release him.
Declan gasps and falls forward, coughing and clutching at his throat.
I turn around and turn to the others. “That counts for all of you fuckers too.”
Everybody nods quickly.
Soft.
Weak.
They don’t understand what the real world is like.
The world that supports their rich parents and provides them with riches and comfort.
The world that I’m going to inherit, once my father has deemed me worthy.
“Only the strong matter. Everybody else gets crushed. Are you strong, Blaze? Or are you going to be crushed like the weak and the stupid?”
Yeah. I’ll prove to him that I can do everything necessary to run our sordid business.
“Then finish cleaning here and you can pretend none of this ever happened,” I say. I turn around and head toward the stairs, but I catch Zayden waiting for me.
“Nice job,” Zayden says. “I think you could have gotten your point across with less choking, but not bad.”
I roll my eyes. “The choking’s the fun part. And these guys wouldn’t have taken a few words seriously.”
“Grayson and Jordan are downstairs, if you want to discuss how we’ll deal with the chick. And there’s a whole rush week thing we have to prep for.”
I groan, because the last thing I want to do is go to a frat leaders’ meeting. All I want to do is drop into bed. I didn’t even get to enjoy my post orgasm high because of stupid Declan.
“Blaze?”
I hear footsteps behind me, and Asch approaches us. I drop my arm around his shoulders.