Chapter Fourteen #3
It's suddenly too much to not touch her, to not feel her skin underneath the pads of my fingertips. She thrusts the soup at me and kicks me out of her room.
I fly past her, angry at her, angry at me, and mostly angry at Jonas for making me feed her not once, but twice.
Christ, when she passed out earlier today after upchucking the wrap, the only thing I could think was, ‘what a waste of fucking food,’ and now I almost just kissed her.
My brain has to be glitching.
I pass by Jonas who’s sitting in the common area waiting for me. “Did she eat?”
“Yup.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Where are you going, what happened?”
“Nothing, I have to go. It’s a long walk home.”
“I can take you.” He offers.
“No thanks.”
When I get to the Sigma Delta Chi house, or SDC, the Syndicate fraternity house, I bypass all of my brothers and head straight up to my room, only to find an annoying tiny blonde that never shuts the fuck up naked and in my bed.
Fuck, I love Jonas for rejecting her. True to my word, as soon as I slip on the condom, her thighs fall open.
Except she doesn’t smell right and her hair is all wrong and as soon as she opens her mouth and starts moaning, my hand flies up to her throat, “Shut the fuck up, Cecilia.”
It’s not her fault. I close my eyes and fuck her to thoughts of Raven bending over in those sweet little white cotton panties that aren’t even sexy until I cum deep inside the condom, groaning so loud it echoes. I get off of Cecilia. “Get the fuck out.”
______ _
I can’t sleep. I have class in five hours and I can’t fucking sleep. My door opens and Riordan slips into bed with me and turns to face me on his side. “What’s wrong little bother?”
“I can’t sleep. But it’s worse when you can’t either,” he replies.
Blame it on the twin telepathy, but he always knows. “She has to die.”
“I thought we were just taking her back to Uncle?”
“I, Ri. I was going to take her back to Uncle. Not we . I don’t want you doing any of this.”
He stays quiet for a few moments and I can feel his thoughts before he says them out loud. “I like her. She’s good for Jonas.”
Of course he likes her. He likes all things that are quiet.
Riordan is on the spectrum. Fortunately for our parents, he’s high functioning so he comes off as particular and quiet.
But his ethics and morals get in the way of a lot of things, which is why I had to take care of his initiation.
It was fine, ‘two birds, one stone’ type shit.
Plus, nobody else, other than Jonas, and our parents knows he’s neurodivergent.
I’ve taken care of all the things pertaining to Riordan since childhood.
I even get him laid – never with Cecilia, for sure.
“What’s your plan?” he asks.
“To seduce her.”
“I think she hates you.” He says with a yawn.
I laugh and mirror the yawn, my eyes finally growing heavy with my brother, my safety net, the calm in my storm beside me. “I hate her too, Ri.”
But then he says something that makes me lose sleep all over again.
“I don’t think you get it, though. You have to kill her with kindness, big brother.
Draw her out that way. If you keep being an asshole to her…
she’ll never trust you… she’ll kill you before you kill her…
” he mumbles. “Ravens are opportunistic predators and they’ll strike when provoked or feel threatened. ”
_______ _
Friday morning, I bust into her room again with Jonas’ key to check on her like I promised Jonas I would, because I’m a good fucking friend, but find her gone.
She’s not at the library. Not on the quad.
Not in the dining hall. I even go to Prof.
Harrington’s class and peek through the window but she’s not there.
Fuck this, we have our first home game tonight and I am not going to be distracted. I pull up my phone and check the tracker I tagged her Range Rover with for the first time in a week.
She’s twenty-five minutes away by the lake that separates our town from Salem. What the fuck is she doing there? Against my better judgement, I go back to the Sigma house, grab my own Range Rover keys, and put her location in on my GPS.
I park outside of the gated gothic lake house that says Casa de Cuervos above the Iron gate. I scoff and roll my eyes heavily. House of Ravens. Really inconspicuous, Raven. My phone chimes as I sit outside.
Twin: Did you find her?
Me: Yeah, just outside of Salem. You still friends with that one hacker guy?
Twin: He’s an “overrider.”
I roll my eyes again.
Me: Fine. Are you still friends with that “overrider” guy?
Twin: He’ll contact you.
I’m watching movement come from the upstairs bedroom window when my phone chimes twelve minutes later.
Unknown: Whatever you want will cost you $10K.
I groan loudly. I send a text out to Tyler and he wires me the money. I’d use my own but I don’t have access to my trust fund for another four years and I’m not explaining this to Father.
Me: Send me your info. I’ll send $5K now and $5K when you get me gate access to this address and access to the security system.
Unknown: deal. I’ll have the info by midnight .
I drive off and speed back to campus.
________
Fourteen minutes after half-time and we’re fucking losing.
Not on my fucking watch. But it’s Jonas.
Jonas is playing like fucking shit and he’s pissing me off.
His head isn’t in the game. It’s on that goddamn ghost of his.
I can see it. I can feel it. He hasn’t seen her at all today.
He’s worried and it’s causing him to slip.
We’re heading back in formation after a break from the huddle.
I spit out my mouth guard connected to my helmet. “Get your fucking head in the game or get the fuck off my field, you’re playing like shit.”
“Fuck you.”
“I swear to God, JoJo if you’re playing like this because of that lying slut-“
He lunges and tackles me to the ground; my helmet slips off, stadium lights blinding me and he strikes.
I barely have the time to move my head out of the way when his fist lands beside my head.
“Don’t ever fucking call her that again!
” His punch lands on my nose and I feel my blood rush out and into my ears when I strike back.
“But she is! Do you know what she was doing today? She was off campus at some lake house with someone. She’s already over you. She doesn’t love you!” I roar as he’s pulled off me.
“Fuck you! We’re done.”
I wipe the blood from my face with my sweaty forearm watching the small shiner I gave him already turning a dark pink.
“We’re done?” I scream and lunge at him and the noise surrounding me is all chaos as the crowd goes fucking wild.
“We’re done when I have her coming around my cock, miming my name. ” I laugh.
The glare he returns is murderous, when he gets a second wind and lunges at me, catching me by the collar of my jersey, snarling in my face but his voice is so low, it comes out a growl, sending a chill down my spine.
“Touch her and I will fucking maim you, Chase. I won’t kill you.
I’ll find a way to fuck you up so bad you’ll live the rest of your life a useless meat sack stuck in your own mind, listening to your family say they wish you had just died instead.
You’ll be nothing but a living, breathing, decomposing bed sore - unable to talk, walk, or even feed yourself. ” He sneers.
And I know he means it. I know he could do it. Because after all, we’re legacies. Made for this shit. My stomach churns but I don’t let him see the effect his words have on me, standing toe-to-toe with him. Him. Jonas. My best friend.
“Hey!” Fuck. Coach is on the field when they manage to break us apart again, Jonas’ eyes never waver from mine. “You big fucking bastards! I don’t know what this is about but Jonas go sit the fuck down. Tanner! Sub in! Chase, are you good?”
I spit the blood that poured into my mouth out, glaring at Jonas as I shove my helmet back on my head. “I’m fucking good, coach. Never better.”
We barely win.
_______
Unknown: RAVEN - 94732
I park a quarter mile from the entrance as I wire the rest of the money.
The sound of the TV in her bedroom is low, but it’s on the college football channel.
She watched the game. Most likely saw the fight.
I’m fucking exhausted. My face hurts, every muscle in body is sore, I’m sleepy and so fucking hungry.
The soft glow of the station is dimly lighting her form on the bed.
I take a seat on the purple accent chair in the corner and lean my head back.
There’s fucking glow-in-the-dark stars forming constellations all over the ceiling.
I stare at her form on the oversized bed. She looks so small on it. The rope in my hand feels heavier by the second. I could do it right now… strangle her.
But she starts thrashing. Fighting invisible demons, probably. Her hands ball up into fists, head moving side-to-side wildly. Even in her sleep, in the throes of the war raging inside her mind, she’s silent.
I get up and kneel by the bed next to her face. “They fucked you up good, huh, Spooks? ”
At the sound of my voice, all her thrashing stops. Her mouth opens in agony, parted in a silent scream. My heart slows to a stop. Her fear is beautiful. I run my fingers through her silky hair and shush her.
It would be so easy to kill her right now.
I’m so close to her and yet, the heaviness of this…
of everything is exhausting. I’m exhausted.
I know I’m an idiot for not handling this right now.
I’m an idiot when I take off my clothes.
I’m an idiot when I pull back the lilac and black comforter and bring her to my chest and she clings to me and I love the feel of her against me.
I’m an idiot when I pull my phone out and take a selfie of us just like this and send it to Jonas with the caption, ‘ Just keeping my promise. She’s good, buddy. ’ And then turn off my phone.