Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
LET THE MAESTRA-MIND WORK
“Where were you, dude?”
Callan yawns. “Wanted to do some research on the man of the hour. Fell asleep at my desk. Sorry, Denny. How did the party go?”
I make a face. “It went.”
Zach frowns when Wynter, Victoria, and Shay drop into the booth around us. Now Callan’s sitting opposite us and with Lex flittering back and forth because she’s on shift, add in the others and the whole gang’s in Dopie’s.
The only people here are a couple of upper classmen who don’t give a fuck about sophomores and their woes.
“We need to exchange numbers. Now that we’re friends. You know?” Wynter blushes. “Sorry, didn’t mean to blurt that out.”
“Who actually are you?” Pecan studies her in bewilderment. “Who are any of you?”
“They’re the cavalry.” I hide a smile. “Don’t be offended. I swear Pecan has that face blindness thing.”
“I know someone with the exact opposite.”
“Huh?”
Wynter reaches for a packet of sweetener that she pours into her coffee once Lex places it on the table. “She remembers every face she’s ever seen.”
Pecan gapes at her. “No way.”
“Yup. Every. Face. Anyway, sorry, didn’t mean to derail the conversation.”
With Pecan distracted—Wynter deserves a gold medal for that alone—I clear my throat. “You’re sure about helping me, right?”
Victoria frowns. “Of course!”
Shay simply nods.
Wynter chortles, “I still think we should go to the dean.”
“Wynter!” Callan goads.
Zach squeezes my knee again. “100%, D.”
“Sure thing!” Lex calls out from the counter where she’s squeezing whipped cream into Victoria’s hot chocolate.
“You know it,” Pecan agrees then groans. “But do we really have to talk about this tonight?”
“I needed some time to concoct a plan and as much as I’m sorry about Hailey, we’re all heading home for the holidays soon. We need to get organized.”
“Fine,” he grouses.
“I told Lex to dose your pancakes with extra everything, Peeks,” Zach inserts.
“You did?”
“Yup. Asked for maple bacon too.”
“Fiiine,” Pecan whines. “What’s your wicked brain come up with, D?”
This is my time to shine… “I hate Dyers. He’s a dick. He needs to go down. But, I want to kill two birds with one stone.”
“Murder?” Lex squeaks.
“Proverbially speaking.”
That Wynter, Victoria, and Shay didn’t jump to the same conclusion has me arching a brow. Especially when I take in their calm demeanors…
Right.
Okay.
Moving on.
“I want to fix the scourge on campus.”
“Hear, hear,” Lex heckles.
“I want him to be as embarrassed as I felt at that damn party.” I tip up my chin and, relieved when one of the patrons calls Lex over, continue in a rush, “And I want to ruin him like the administration should have after he hurt Lex.”
Wynter frowns. “He didn’t hurt Lex. He hurt Tegan. Her twin sister.”
“Her twin sister?” Zach demands.
“Yeah. Him and that other guy who was expelled last year, Ben Sanders, raped her.”
I think back to her reaction after the Dyers’s showdown and… it makes sense. There was a degree of separation to her response. Like it didn’t happen to her but to someone close.
God, I want to be sick.
“She left, didn’t she?” Pecan fiddles with his coffee cup. “I remember Gregg being all kinds of upset about it.”
“She transferred to Wisconsin,” Wynter answers. “Most people think she just couldn’t hack being at an Ivy League school, but that’s BS. Tegan’s so clever it’s a joke.”
“That’s fucking sad.” Shay strokes a hand through his hair. “I can’t blame her for leaving. Not when the dean let one of her attackers stay on campus.”
“Screw that,” Victoria howls. “They belong in a jail cell! She shouldn’t have had to leave!”
“I know,” he chides. “I know, all right? I’m just saying it’s an extra level of messed up.”
Zach straightens in his seat. “They were punished for misconduct, right?”
“What a measly charge,” I deride.
“Why the hell would you think the dean’d do anything about Denny’s situation when the administration literally covered up sexual assault, Wynter?” Callan growls, his voice deeper than I’ve ever heard it.
The other woman bemoans, “My dad says I’m too naive to be trusted away from home. Unluckily for him, I’m way past the age of majority.”
Callan shakes his head. “I have to say I agree with him.”
“Hey!”
“And I’m fresh off a ranch in Saskatchewan, Wynter.”
She pouts. “We have to trust authority figures at some point—”
Victoria snorts. “You know that’s not true.”
When they share a look, Wynter sags. “Yeah. I guess I do.”
“I don’t. I trust authority figures,” Pecan chimes in.
“Yeah, because they’ve never fucked things up before for us. We’re rich, white kids, Pecan. That’s our privilege talking,” Zach counters.
Callan cackles. “Because Victoria, Shay, Wynter, and I aren’t rich, white kids too? Ha!”
With my comrades disillusioned, I confess, “Well, my idea just nose-dived.”
Shay rests an elbow on the table. “I’m still listening…”
I glance at Callan then Shay and Victoria. “You really know people who can get into places they shouldn’t be sniffing around?”
Callan cracks his knuckles. “I broke into the CSIS last year and no one knew. I got you, D.”
“What’s the CSIS?”
Zach slaps Pecan upside the head. “Our CIA, dumbass.”
“You’re that good with…”
“Hacking? Yep!”
Of course, he’s preening.
Why do I feel as if I just rolled back another layer on Callan Korhonen’s onion-like personality?
“And my uncle can get into places where Callan can’t,” Shay assures me, his voice pitched low.
Callan glances at him. “You have a handle for him?”
Victoria and Shay share a look, but she’s the one who murmurs, “acOOOOOOig.”
When Callan’s hand goes to his throat like he’s clutching at pearls, my lips quirk. “I take it that’s good?”
Callan squeaks.
Yet more confirmation.
Zach snorts. “Lex is coming over, Callan. I’d get your voice back. Stat.”
He gulps. Then breathes, “The acOOOOOOig?”
“Yup.” Shay shrugs. “So, Denver, what’s the plan?”
I stare at his cool expression, take in the curiosity gleaming in Victoria’s eyes, and I begin: “Well, first, we…”