Chapter 30 Quinn
Sitting in the theater seats while Onyx directed the dean and the maintenance manager like a well-conducted orchestra was truly something to see.
He had insisted that Ava identify the janitor she had made the arrangement with, and he had been hauled in too, to confirm her story and validate that he had told the greasy sleazeball that we were using the theater.
Dean Porter wasn’t happy to have Ava’s story collaborated, and I remembered she was on probation, and from the fear in Ava’s eyes, she was very much aware how thin the ice below her feet was too.
Onyx caught my worried look at Ava as the dean turned to the maintenance manager and stepped closer to me. “What is it?”
“She’s on probation,” I told him quietly and winced when his hard stare cut into mine.
“You really are a piece of work,” he muttered before he moved over to the dean. “Why are we still here?” he asked in the tone that made me want to punch him most of the time, and from Dean Porter’s expression, so did he.
“Because a student committed assault.”
“On a guy who’s already assaulted her physically and then tonight emotionally, so I’ll ask again, why are we still here?”
“Why are you here?” Sleazeball asked Onyx. “She’s a little too young for you, is she not?”
Onyx snorted in disgust. “Says the guy who tried to pick her up in a bar.” He shook his head. “I suggest you keep your words of wisdom to yourself.”
Douchebag glared at me before he turned away, and I took a perverse delight in looking at his blackening eye. “I want to press charges,” he said as he glanced back at Onyx.
“So do I, but Quinn has already refused to raise the complaint against you, and I think you should show the same courtesy, don’t you?
” Onyx fixed his cufflink, and I took in the impressive figure he cut.
With thick dark hair, slight stubble, broad shoulders, and a trim waist, he didn’t play the game, but he still kept himself fit.
He was stunningly attractive, and I think it was one of the many reasons I disliked him.
The guys were all good-looking, and Gray made my tummy flutter, but Onyx was a cruel kind of beauty.
He looked stunning until you looked into his soulless eyes and realized a monster was lurking in his depths.
Dean Porter harrumphed, and I switched my attention to him as Onyx took his time to divert his attention from the creepy janitor.
“I think we would be best saying neither party is innocent here and—”
“Water under the bridge?” Onyx clapped once in mock delight. “My thoughts exactly. Quinn, ladies, let’s go.”
“I wasn’t finished,” the dean said coldly.
He looked at me, and I returned his look with my own impartial mask.
“As always, there is little I can do to a Santo.” His lip twisted in a sneer when he said their name.
“And I knew upon application, Miss Lawrence was just another Santo.” He turned his attention to Ava.
“But you and I have had a very recent conversation, Miss Bryant, about acceptable behavior on this campus.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Ava said to him, her outrage making me widen my eyes in warning at her.
“Yes, you did. You approached the janitor, and you offered him money to keep the theater open. Bribing staff is not acceptable behavior for our students.”
Ava’s eyes were wide with fury as she looked between the dean and the janitor. “I didn’t!”
“Mr. Cairn says you offered him one hundred dollars.”
“Mr. Cairn is full of bullshit,” Ava snapped. “I’ve never had a hundred dollars to offer him!”
“That may be, but bribing the staff of the college, or implying a bribe,” Dean Porter held his hands up as if he was truly sorry for what he was about to say, “I’m afraid you’re in breach of your scholarship.”
“What!” Ava clutched Mia’s hand as she stared at the dean in shock.
“Bribing the janitor is fine,” Onyx spoke up, sounding bored. “Bribing a member of the academia is a punishable offense. Last I checked, the janitor wasn’t a member of the staff faculty in that regard. Have I missed an update?”
“He’s staff.”
“As am I,” Onyx drawled with a lazy grin as he looked at the dean. “Or are you forgetting I sit on the Board? And I know the rule book a little more thoroughly than you.”
Dean Porter’s lips were white with fury, and Onyx turned his attention on Ava. “Scholarship?”
“English literature,” she mumbled as she looked at him with hope shining in her eyes.
“Nice, well done.” Onyx dipped his head to her.
“You must be very talented and intelligent.” He looked her over.
“And yet you’re with Jett?” His eyes sparkled with laughter, and Ava grinned at him.
Onyx turned on his heel to look at the dean.
“The girl breached nothing. The janitor? Fire him. This one?” He looked at Dickhead.
“Fire him too. Perverts on the staff do give us a shady reputation, Dean.” Onyx looked at me, and I steeled myself.
“Perhaps a commendation to the young woman, who defended herself when attacked, rather than a judgment would have been better? Pity. Hopefully, we’ll keep this debacle from the local news. ”
Onyx gestured to me. “Ladies, please, I have other places to be,” he instructed as he started to walk up the aisle.
“I’ll sue!” Sleazeball shouted, causing Onyx to stop. He walked back down to him and reached into his inner suit pocket.
“My card, call Monday.”
“Why?”
“So I can write you a check, and you can fuck off out of my face. My secretary will expect your call. You breathe one word to anyone, no check.” Onyx looked at Dean Porter as he walked past him and smirked. “That’s a bribe.”
He walked past the three of us with such complete confidence, I never knew my mouth was hanging open until Mia nudged me to follow him, and I grabbed the karaoke machine.
Hastily, I caught up with him as he waited at the main doors.
Ava and Mia were looking at him with complete awe, which he ignored and focused on me.
“I’ll drive you home.”
“I can walk,” I said as I remembered vividly the last time I was in his car.
“Good for you. Get in the car.” He looked between the three of us. “All of you. Now.”
Biting my lip, I got into the car with Ava and Mia slipping into the back seat. Onyx drove them to their dorm and exchanged simple pleasantries as they left.
Ava, God bless her, hesitated when I remained in the car. “Quinn?”
“Stays with me.” Onyx turned to look at her. “Don’t worry, I only bite when she begs for it.”
Ava’s eyes widened, and I got out of the car and encouraged her to take a few steps back. “I’m fine. He’s a dick; he hates me.”
“I knew things were tense, but,” she looked back at the car, “I think he really doesn’t like you.”
“Meh, it is what it is. He helped this evening, so I have to be nice to him.” I smiled at her to soften the words. “Plus, he’ll want to make sure he can tell Gray he has me.”
“Call me,” Ava said firmly. “Charge your phone and call me.”
“Will do.” I reached over and hugged her. “I’m so sorry my drama caused you both a shit night too.”
“It’s fine, the guy’s a creep, and I’m kinda glad he got fired.” Ava hugged me quickly again, and then she hesitated before she walked past me and bent down to look at Onyx. “You were awesome tonight. Don’t fuck it up by being a dick to Quinn.”
I didn’t hear his response, but I wish I could’ve. With a shake of my head at Ava’s balls, I slipped into the car and looked at him as he glared at me, while Ava waited on the sidewalk.
“You’re like poison. Do you brainwash them?” he asked me casually as he drove away.
“Maybe I’m just a nice person,” I badgered.
“Well, it’s not your jokes, that’s for sure,” he murmured as we drove, and I realized he was taking me to the football house.
“Why?”
“Your apartment is shit for security. I can secure the house and know you’re inside, and the team is away, so even you can’t fuck up in a house alone.”
“You’re so considerate.” Onyx snorted, and I glanced at his cufflink with the Devil insignia. “You’re still a Devil,” I said softly.
“Always.” Onyx grunted as he parked in the drive and got out of the car. I had no choice but to follow him.
“So . . . you expect me to sleep here, in Gray’s room?”
“Or Ash’s? Jett’s?” Onyx tilted his head as he considered me. “Or have you moved on already?”
“I love your brother. You know this, so why are you so cruel?”
Onyx said nothing as he let himself into the house, and I didn’t even ask why he had a key. Why wouldn’t he? He was a Santo and a Devil at that. He walked to the kitchen, and I followed slowly. As he considered the contents of the fridge, I sat on a stool at the breakfast bar.
“So, you love him?” Onyx asked as he pulled a water out and passed one to me.
“Yes.”
“And Ash was what?”
“A relationship that has nothing to do with you.”
Onyx sat on the opposite end of the breakfast bar and stared at me. “You see, that’s where you’re wrong. You know as well as I do, my cousin is very dear to me.”
“Well, he’s your family.”
“He is.” Onyx drank from the bottle and placed it in front of him. “You assumed he didn’t care, because you clearly didn’t care, but he did.”
“This is none of your business,” I said quietly as I stared at the counter. “This conversation, if it needs to be had at all, should be between me and Ash. I could care less what you think.”
“It’s I couldn’t care less.”
“Fuck off.”
“Charming.”
“Just tell me what you want.” I opened my own water and took a long drink, wishing it had some kind of alcohol content.
“I want you to break up with my brother. Both of them, and my cousin.”
I laughed. When I realized he was serious, I glared at him. “No.”
“I’ll give you however much you want.”
“I don’t want your money,” I snapped at him angrily. “What the hell is wrong with you?”