Chapter 16 Jett
I finished typing up my assignment as I heard a knock on the door, and, making sure I had saved the document, I called out for them to enter.
“Hey,” Ash said as he poked his head around the door. “Safe to come in?”
With a grin, I spread my arms in welcome as I pushed the chair back from the desk. “What’s up?”
“Just spoke to Ava.” Ash sat down on my couch as I looked at him with surprise. “She was outside, literally hopping from foot to foot about approaching the door.”
“She’s here?” I was on my feet, anger pulsing through me.
“No.” Ash watched me carefully as I crossed to the window, leaning out to see if I could see her. “I told her to go.”
Spinning back to him, I tilted my head in question. “Why?”
“Because look at you,” Ash spoke quietly. “You look ready to kill her.”
“She spiked my drink and then fucked me.” At his sharp inhale at my bluntness, I stalked toward my cousin. “Both literally and figuratively.”
“I know.” Ash nodded.
My eyes narrowed. “Then why do I think you’re helping her?”
“Because I’ve thought about it. I met her on Monday, she’s . . . completely unassuming.” Ash stretched his legs out as he seemed to think about it. “Look, you’re right to be pissed. I’m pissed. But . . .” He trailed off as he looked past me to the other side of the room.
“But?”
As his eyes came back to mine, he grimaced slightly. “I think there’s more to this story.” He held my look and didn’t shy away from it.
“You think she’s innocent?” I asked him in disbelief. “Or tell me, is it because you saw her naked ass as much as I did on Saturday morning? You want a turn at her, that it?”
Ash wagged his head as he stood. “No, and don’t be a fucking asshole.
” His shoulder bump as he passed me made me grit my teeth.
“I sat beside her Monday. She does absolutely nothing to draw attention to herself, and earlier today, that fucktard Leitch ripped her to pieces. I mean, it was fucking brutal. Someone should report the fucker. She should report him!” Ash sighed.
“You don’t sit through that . . . that .
. . humiliation without a word spoken, not if you’re the kind of person who drugs others. ”
“So? Maybe she’s only tough when she’s victimizing someone.”
Ash’s laugh was loud in my room, echoing off my walls. “Dude! You? You’re never a victim. The whole house heard you fuck her. They all heard her screams, and apparently you weren’t quiet either. Do you know how many guys in this house jerked off to the sound of you fucking her?”
“I don’t care,” I snapped. “What’s your point?”
“Exactly. You don’t care,” Ash bit back at me. “And my point? My point is that you may have been drugged, but have you read about Versed? It’s used as an anesthetic.”
“So?”
“So, you stupid fuck, it makes you fucking sleep! You fucked her what, three, four times? Does that sound like someone who is almost fucking passed out?”
My next words died on my tongue. I hadn’t thought of that. “So? Maybe I had a different reaction.”
“Dude, all I’m saying is, if her intent had been to drug you and take advantage, you wouldn’t be an active participant. Understand?” His furious look made me pause, but I was a Santo, and we were stubborn.
“And?”
“And . . . I don’t think she drugged you. I think something happened in between the two events.” Ash sat back down again. “We’re missing something.”
“Yes, it’s called my memories.”
“Stop being a diva,” Ash muttered as he leaned forward, his elbow on his knee, his head dropping into his palm as he stared at my wall. “We’re missing something. Something vital.”
“And the person who may be able to help, you just turned her away,” I reminded him.
“I did.” Ash sat back as he looked at me. “Look at you, you’re ready to rip her head off. Gray already told me you were going to wring her neck earlier. She’s not safe around you at the moment.”
“Again, I would like to say that she drugged me.”
“Again, I would like to say I don’t think she did,” Ash mimicked me.
I started to pace the room as I thought about it. No. She knew she had done something wrong; why else would she run? You don’t run if you’re innocent. Do you? Christ knows she was mouthy; she would have had no qualms about telling me exactly where to shove it if she were innocent.
No, I’d been fooled by her before. She knew more than she was telling, and I wanted to know it all.
“You haven’t listened to a word I’ve said, have you?” Ash asked me with a rueful look.
“I did. I listened.”
“But you don’t care?”
“No. I really don’t. She’s not as innocent as she looks.”
“I know, I heard about her from Friday,” Ash deadpanned.
The door swung open, and Gray pulled up short when he saw the two of us, reading the room in a heartbeat. “What’s happened now?” he asked as he closed the door.
“You sound more like mom every day,” I said to him, causing both of them to give a light laugh. I saw the tension leave my cousin’s shoulders as he relaxed when Gray dropped down beside him.
“Seriously, what is it?” Gray asked. I gestured for Ash to fill him in, and in truth, I wasn’t happy when my brother started nodding alongside him.
“It kind of fits,” he mused. “I mean, when Ben knocked her over with the ball, she was more conscious of people staring at her than she was of who I was.” Gray flicked his eyes over to me.
“Even when she spoke to you after it, she was more . . . pissed than anything.”
“Incensed,” I mumbled as I crossed once more to the window.
“Yeah,” Gray nodded thoughtfully.
“Have we learned anything else?” I asked as I turned to both of them.
“Yeah, the guy Wade, the band’s his.” Ash handed me his phone. “That’s his long-term girlfriend — your fuck buddy isn’t her. His band’s been playing some of the campus bars here and in Cardinal. They sometimes go further out but not often.”
Gray scanned Ash’s phone before showing him his. “Got this off Facebook: blondie draws and designs his band’s posters.” Gray grinned at me. “She gets paid for it.”
“Does she indeed?” My twin always knew what to say to me to make me feel better. “Declared?”
“Nope.” Gray sat back and closed his eyes. “I’d say she’s in violation of her scholarship.”
“Earning an income while receiving a full ticket, tsk tsk.” I sat back down at my desk with a satisfied grin. “That’s just unacceptable behavior for a student of Cardinal Saints. What will the dean say?”
As I started to laugh, Gray grinned, and after a resigned groan, Ash joined in.
I’d hang the little bitch out to dry. I didn’t give a fuck if she was the one responsible for giving me the water with the drug in it. Ava Bryant was responsible by default, and therefore, she was not innocent. Which made her guilty, and that meant she would pay.
Gray broke me out of my inner thoughts as he leaned forward intently. “We know more about the thing we found?”
Ash also sobered as he leaned back into the couch, his body stiffening. “I think I have an idea of who the girl is. The men in the video, no.”
“We keep going?” Gray asked as he looked between us.
“We do,” I told him as I looked toward my closet, where the memory stick was before I turned to Ash. “You took it?”
“How else am I supposed to do anything with it?” he asked me with a roll of his eyes.
“Should I care that you know the code already?” I asked him dryly as I walked over to the closet.
“It was pathetically easy,” Ash boasted as Gray high-fived him.
I snorted as I stared at the floorboards. “I’m changing it again.”
“Why?” Gray asked me good-naturedly. “Should we have secrets?”
Good point. “No.” I closed the doors and turned back to them. “You’re right.” Leaning against my desk, I considered them both. “Do you agree about her?” I asked Gray.
“Fuck buddy from Friday?” he guessed, knowing me better than anyone.
“Yeah.”
Gray tilted his head to the side as he looked at me, and with a brief once-over, he turned to look at Ash. “She fucked with a Devil. I don’t give a fuck who or what drugged him, she fucked him when he didn’t know better. She pays. We’ll figure out who else it was, and they will pay after.”
“We get her kicked out of school?” Ash asked, trying hard not to frown. “Even though he would probably have fucked her anyway?”
“She pays,” Gray repeated firmly.
“But . . .” Ash once again leaned forward, his hands rubbing across his hair as he thought about it. “I dunno, from what we heard, I don’t think you came off too shabbily.” He lifted his head to look at me. “If anything, she put you more on the fucking map.”
I saw Gray smirk, and he caught me looking. “Jamie did kick up a fuss about it. Even though the bastard’s jealous, it still interfered with his sleep . . . before a game.”
“Humiliate her.” Gray and I both looked at Ash in surprise.
“We don’t know how involved she is. I think and truly do believe this, she was tricked as much as you were.
Whether that be someone told her you were into her and she fell for it, I dunno.
You’ve spoken to her, does she really seem like this is what she gets her kicks from? ”
“No.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I looked at them both, my thoughts recalling easily how tense she was. “Fuck! No . . . she doesn’t. I would actually encourage her to get laid, she’s so fucking uptight.”
“See?” Ash looked at me with something akin to hope. “I think you should be willing to listen to what she has to say, and if you don’t like it, then make her life hell.”
I gave a bitter laugh. “You were the one who chased her off,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, because I needed a chance to talk to you.”
All three of us turned to my door when we heard the light tap on it. “Yeah?” I called.
Derrick opened the door, and seeing the three of us, he hesitated. “Hey.”
“What?” Gray growled from his seat. He wasn’t a fan of our corner. Derrick paid too much attention to Quinn, and Gray was protective.
“Um, Jett?”
“Um, what?” I asked as I took my seat at my desk.
“So, I, uh . . .”
“Oh for the love of fuck, spit it out,” Ash snapped.