11. Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
Hunter
T ai and I are deep in conversation when the doors to the courtyard fling open so fast and hard that the sound of them bouncing off the glass wall echoes through the entire quad, silencing everyone.
To my surprise, Rylan is storming through the crowd, steam practically billowing from his ears. He makes a beeline for us by the fountain, bowling his bag to the ground with a sickening thud.
"Fuck her!" he yells loudly.
My eyebrows shoot up, watching as he finally takes a seat, pressing his curled fists into his forehead.
"Hello to you too," I say, exchanging a quick look with Tai as we both wordlessly ask, "What the fuck?"
Rylan breathes heavily, shaking slightly with unbridled anger. Finally, he opens his eyes, a forced look of calm replacing his earlier rage.
"We need to take down Spencer," he exclaims. "Now. No more half-assed pranks. She goes down this fucking second."
I'm double surprised by his words because I'm yet to tell either of them about my own encounter with her yesterday. Just thinking of it threatens to send me into the same spiral of fury as Rylan. But given all the eyes on us currently, I ignore the impending explosion, lowering my voice.
"What happened?"
Rylan snaps his head up. "She stole my goddamn shorts and pants. I had to wear those stupid fucking gym shorts she's been parading around in."
My mouth pops open as I process his confession. Tai quickly covers a snort when Rylan glares at him.
Sighing, I look between them. "She superglued my ass to a desk yesterday."
This time, Tai can't hold it in, bursting out in a fit while Rylan splutters. "She, what ?"
I quickly fill them in about detention—how I organized to clear Smythson out of the room so I could have some fun tormenting her. But embarrassingly, she got the upper hand on me.
I'm so angry at myself for letting her do that. I should have seen it coming, but I got complacent—mistook the moment for a bout of weakness.
Since everyone had left for the day, I had no choice but to call Peyton for assistance. My dear cousin was just finishing a late cheer session and helped grab a pair of spare shorts from the admin office. The only way I was getting that thing off my ass was by shimmying out of my pants. But there was no way I was walking around in my boxer trunks with Dad lingering around.
It was on my to-do list to fill Rylan and Tai in about it this morning, but I never expected that Duchess would get to him first.
I think we may have underestimated her willingness to start shit on our turf. We're going to have to hit back hard, make her regret the day she stepped foot inside Willowbrook.
Rylan is still muttering curses when we all pull out our cells to check whether the little stunt has made its way onto social media. We need to do damage control as soon as possible.
But before any of us can check, both Tai and Rylan yell at the same time.
My eyes widen, switching between the two of them, wondering what I've suddenly missed.
"Why am I missing two-thousand dollars from my account?!"
"Why am I being sent dick pics ?!"
The two of them pause, staring at each other in complete silence. Sighing, I pluck Rylan's cell from his hand—because I don't want to see wrinkly balls—and check his screen.
"Tarven INC?" I read the newest transaction on his banking app. "Tai, search it up."
He nods in reply, quickly tapping his screen before his eyebrows disappear into his hairline, eyes snapping up to Rylan. "Oh, man..."
"What is it?" Rylan growls, ripping the device from his palm. He scans the screen, fingers clenching the sides tightly. "The fucking Conservation Mission for… Wildcats. "
Oh, Spencer. You're fucking dead.
Dead and then I'll resuscitate her just so I can end her a second time.
There's a small yell of disgust from Rylan as he flings the cell back to Tai. "You're getting dick pics one after the other. What the fuck?"
"She's obviously leaked my goddamn number," he grimaces, shoving his burner back into his bag. "That has to be it. There's been seventeen so far and they just only started at the end of first period."
That sneaky bitch.
Whispers behind me have us all whipping around, Rylan yelling at the gossiping girls to fuck off.
This is bad. Really bad.
"And there's pictures of you in the shorts," Tai mutters low. "It's popping up on social media. But it looks like it's coming from Willowbrook students."
Rylan massages his temples. "Right. We need a plan. Tai, can you get the picture wiped? If my dad sees it, I'll never hear the end of it."
Giggles ring out around the courtyard. "I think we might be a little late for that," I murmur darkly, watching as people gasp at their cells and send amused looks in our direction.
"I need to find the source of these text messages. But I can't do it until I'm off school grounds," Tai grunts.
"I need to get my damn credit card back," Rylan interjects. "Who knows what else she'll do with it. What's her schedule?"
I glance over at the courtyard doors, popping an eyebrow. "No need. She's right there. "
The other two look up, easily spotting what I'm already staring at.
Across the courtyard, Bexley is standing, eyes locked on us with a crowd of blue-wearing jerseys behind her. A dozen easily, they all stare at us with cunning smiles, and it makes my blood fucking boil.
Bexley's gaze falls onto me first, her pink lips twitching. She then does the same to Tai, before landing on Rylan, who powers up to his feet and takes off toward her.
Tai and I quickly follow, jogging to catch up as his heavy footsteps approach her.
I nearly expect some of them to retreat with how murderous he looks, but none of them flinch. Bexley actually takes a few steps forward, meeting Rylan face to face.
"You changed your shorts," she says softly to Rylan, body scanning him.
His fingers spasm by his sides, itching to reach out and strangle her. "My card, Spencer," he spits out with a threatening tone.
She smiles, not answering immediately as we flank his sides. "And here we have three little Musketeers," she tells the group behind her. "Pretending to be wolves."
Rylan finally snaps, hand shooting forward. But Bexley catches his wrist in her grasp, holding it tight. "Don't bother, Astor. All it will do is make me smile. And you know what they say about a woman if she smiles when your hands are around her neck…"
My eyes flick to the glass windows lining the courtyard, hissing quietly as I find people pressed up against it, watching our encounter and power struggle. Around the courtyard, everyone has stopped what they are doing, a silence lingering in the crisp air.
We're in trouble. We need to defuse the situation and take back control as quickly as possible. With all the eyes and ears on us, and things spreading fast on socials, damage control needs to happen now .
Sensing that it's still too raw for Rylan to chill, I step forward, taking over their exchange.
"Listen here, Duchess. You've made a grave mistake fucking with us. We were going easy on you out of pity, but if you want a fucking war, then that's what you'll get."
Her emerald irises flick to me with interest. "Is that right, Hunter? Out of curiosity, did you know that the classrooms have cameras?"
Of course, I did. It's not as if they are hidden from sight. But my bewilderment at her question diminishes instantly with realization, body shaking with growing fury. "Don't. You. Dare," I whisper darkly. "You'll regret it, Spencer."
Bexley turns to her side, to that little errand boy of hers. "Arch?"
He taps his cell, grinning with a nod. "Done."
As his hand drops, I catch a glimpse of the screen, and as expected, there it is… A video of me in Smythson's room with the desk affixed to my ass.
She turns back to me, offering a sickly-sweet smile. "I know how much you hate being kept out of the know. So, we posted it on Youtube for you and shared the link to the public Willowbrook forum. Hopefully, you can find it. Your father is a member of that group, right? Since it's full of alumni?"
Tai actually appears offended by the idea that someone has hacked into the cameras—like he's taking this one personally. But I don't have time to dwell on his feelings. Not when I need to get rid of that evidence.
I realize that Bexley is still holding Rylan's wrist, so I slap her hand down, forcing her to release him. I shoot a dirty glare at Rylan, wondering why he didn't bother to escape already when he could have easily done so.
People are still gawking in disbelief, and my stomach sinks when I spot a few people with their cells up, recording our standoff.
"Enough of this!" I snap, turning to the nearest Willowbrook student I can find. "Grab our bags and follow us."
I walk around the Cedar Heights group, silently demanding that Rylan and Tai follow.
Tai follows but Rylan stays put, again asking, "Card, Bexley."
"I don't have it," she shrugs lazily. "Maybe it fell out of your bag in the locker room."
The longer we stay and argue, the worse it makes us look. So, I snap at Rylan again to follow, which thankfully, he does this time.
Once we're back inside the main building, I head straight for Dad's office. Elizabeth will at least be able to delete the post from the Facebook group since she's an administrator. Then, we can use the staff credentials to delete that footage of me from the servers—not that it will do any good now that they have a copy. But it will make me feel a little more at ease.
After that, I'm going to beat the shit out of everyone who shared the picture of Rylan, even if they've already taken it down.
Tai might even be able to locate the source of his anonymous number spree and block it, so he doesn't have to wait until the end of day.
But even with all those plans, I try not to focus on the fact that the boulder is already rolling down the hill. We can't stop it. By now, screenshots and recordings have already been saved and exchanged hands. All we can do is stop it from getting worse, but deleting all the footage is near impossible—even with Tai's skills.
The only thing we can do is strike back immediately.
Hard. Fast.
Painfully.
Break her so that she remembers who she is dealing with. Make her regret what she's done.
End her miserable existence and send her packing.
Perhaps, Dad can suspend her. She's already on a warning from her altercation with Liv. But still, not having Bexley here is not the solution either.
The best thing we can do is force her to remain on Willowbrook turf, so she can't hide from us.
At the very least, she has detention this afternoon. I'll get her then.
Just hopefully I'll have Rylan and Tai there as well to make sure I don't actually murder her. Because that's a real possibility right now.