Chapter Twenty-Two #3
“His funeral is Wednesday but his wake is tomorrow and I really need you to come with us.”
I bring my hand up and point from one shoulder to the other. Us?
I hear my door open and Jonas comes bearing a large quantity of food that he places on my coffee table. “Hey baby, I’m back. I thought I told you to be in bed. You need your rest.”
I most certainly do not. As a matter of fact, I’m ready for more. Something about fucking the cum that’s been leaking out into my panties back into me. I can’t help biting my lip.
He saunters over, “I missed you,” he says and kisses my temple then sees Axel’s face. “Oh hey.”
“Hey, Jonas. I was telling Raven she needs to come with us to Tyler’s wake tomorrow.”
Jonas’ smile drops into a frown. “Wow. That fast?”
“Our parents are flying in from the Maldives to attend and Raven needs to be there.”
Oh. So that’s where they’ve been. Not that I get updates or anything anymore.
“She absolutely does not need to be there.” Jonas replies, eyes narrowed and dark at the screen. At my brother.
“Jonas…”
The sudden change in Jonas has me staring at him. “Riordan attacked Raven today on the fucking quad while we were in line getting our coffee.” He goes into a tangent, telling him everything that happened, including Riordan being suspended but leaving out Damon.
“Christ. ”
“He has it in his mind that Raven had something to do with Chase’s death.”
Axel’s stare bounces between me and Jonas and for some reason, this feeling, deep down inside me makes me feel as though Jonas should not have told him that. My brother. My best friend. My rock. “That’s fucking impossible.”
“Raven went down there to play her cello and found him belly up in the pond like a bloated fish. She ran to me, from the pond all the way to my dorm, dragged me out of bed and had me call 911. He’d already been dead for a while. His eyes…" Jonas shakes his head.
Riordan thinks I had something to do with Chase because Chase was stalking me and I think Riordan knows he was.
I’m glad Axel doesn’t react to my signing an entire sentence but reacts to what I told him. “What the fuck, Raven? Why didn’t you go to the cops? Do you have proof?”
“I really have to get better with my ASL.” Jonas groans.
I nod at them, both answering Axel’s question and telling Jonas he absolutely should learn ASL.
Plus, the school should have footage of him sneaking into my dorm room while I was sleeping.
“Ray… no… please don’t tell me he…”
He didn’t get that far, I sign quickly. I’d wake up to find him sitting on my desk chair staring at me or he’d be in bed with me… touching me.
“He touched you?”
“HE DID WHAT ?” Jonas growls. His breath sharpens and he looks like he was punched in the gut. “Please fucking interpret or I’m going to hire a full-time interpreter and none of these conversations are going to be private.”
“Ray, why didn’t you tell anyone?”
Who was I going to tell, little brother? Everyone here thinks I’m faking this, even my professor bullies me.
“Why didn’t you tell Jonas?”
We were broken up. I thought he wouldn’t have cared. And if I told you, you’d tell mom and dad and they’d make me drop out.
“That’s why you were sick wasn’t it? You broke up and had an… episode? ”
I’m ashamed of it but yeah. Plus, toward the end, Chase kept mumbling really weird things while he was touching me. Sometimes he was touching me in his sleep, so I don’t think he was fully conscious the entire time. I was able to push him off me when he would.
“But you said you have proof. What do you mean by that?”
I don’t why I don’t tell Axel about the security cameras outside of the lake house, I just sign, The school’s cameras would show him coming in my room. I just don’t know how he got in here. He was using a key.
Jonas groans and pinches the bridge of his nose. “That’s… that’s my fault. I made a few copies of her room key while we were together. I don’t know how he got one.”
He what? Christ he’s as bad as Damon.
“Jonas…” Axel says his name like he’s thinking Jonas is a sick son of a bitch and I should be wary.
I gave him the key . I lie.
“Sis, regardless of everything, I… I need you to be there with me. I… Tyler and I were close. You don’t have to go to the funeral. Just the wake. I need you there for me. Okay? I don’t think I can…”
My heart hurts for him but it leaves me feeling even more confused.
Back then, Tyler was just his football captain.
We were sophomores. Tyler was a senior. Always hazing him during his initiation to Sigma Delta Chi our entire freshman year.
Is Axel gay? Bi? Were they in a secret relationship?
Did they love each other or did he know about Tyler and seduced him to ruin him and exact revenge for me?
Now that I know the initiation from the Syndicate is completely different from the SDC fraternity, did Axel ever complete his initiation to enter the Syndicate?
I nod at my brother while Jonas is texting furiously beside me. I’ll go. For you. But only to the wake.
“Thank you. I’ll pick you up. Jonas, do you want to ride with us?”
Jonas nods. “Yeah.”
Damon’s name pops up on my screen. I have to go, Dr. Archer is calling me. By the way, I like your hair like that.
Axel grins that wolfish grin but then says, “I’ve been trying to make an appointment with that man for weeks. ”
I lift a shoulder and let it drop, hanging up on him and answering Damon’s call while Jonas goes to the boxes of food he brought and brings me one that has a gourmet burger and sweet potato fries.
“Put the camera back, little bird.”
“Camera?” Jonas asks and I almost laugh at the surprise on his face. “Did you watch us fuck in here?”
“No comment,” Damon grunts.
I shake my head, making the best unbothered face that I can. I don’t have the energy to tell them that they’re equally deranged. I grab a knife and fork from my desk and cut the burger into fours.
“Oh baby, that’s smart. Less mess.” He says and my heart somehow melts even more for my demigod.
Since my attack, after being gagged, I developed a sensory issue to feeling anything on the corners of my mouth for longer than a few seconds.
(Except dick, apparently.) Cutting up food into smaller portions helps a lot with that.
Damon was the one that helped me get through a lot of the aversions I developed.
I can even handle slight touches to my wrists now.
“What’s this about Jonas saying Axel needs you at Tyler’s wake?”
I tell him everything to which he gets Jonas’ attention. “Will you be going?”
“I have to. My father already called me. There’s a… a legacy has died. Which means a more thorough autopsy. There is always a meeting after the burial to discuss findings and determine whether or not it was a hit.”
“Axel is part of the Syndicate?”
Jonas exhales. “Tyler… I think Tyler paid Axel’s initiate fee. Tyler was Axel’s witness.”
I’m suddenly not hungry whatsoever anymore. It feels like the closer I get to finding out who the group of people were that attacked me for their initiation are, it’s like starting at square one all over again. I keep taking a step forward and thrown four steps back.
This is exhausting.