Chapter 29
Nash
Heads turned in our direction as we marched to the elevator, where Liam stood waiting.
If Camden was serious about taking over and was a good fit, then there were a few things that needed to happen before the end of the year.
First…he needed to be seen with us, and not just today, but on a regular basis.
We were quiet as the elevator rose to the second floor. Then Camden led the way down the hall. When he stopped in front of Trent’s room, he seemed unsure what to do next and looked up at me.
I slammed my fist against the door, the sound loud enough to wake the dead.
“What the hell? Coming,” someone barked out.
The door flung open, and a pissed off guy stood there, glaring at Camden.
“What the fuck do you—”
He stopped when he saw the four of us.
Camden casually crossed his arms. “That’s Trent.”
Trent turned a sickly shade of white. I stepped into the room, and enjoyed how he stumbled back, looking around like he might find a magical wardrobe to another world. It honestly never got old.
Blake closed the door, locking the six of us inside together.
Trent didn’t even wait to see what we wanted before he ran for the washroom. Myles was on him before he made it halfway and drove him to the floor.
“Not a very smart idea there, Trent. Yer lookin’ mighty guilty,” Myles said as he stood and hauled Trent to his feet.
“My roommate will be back any minute,” he stammered.
“And?”
His eyes darted around, and you could almost smell the smoke of the wheel as the mice in his head ran full speed.
“We’re here to have a friendly conversation,” I said, sauntering over to Trent’s desk and parking myself on the edge. I really was slacking. At one point, I’d have known every person and who their family was in the school. But I didn’t have a clue who Trent was.
“You call this friendly?”
He glanced at Myles, who was holding him by the back of the neck and sweater.
“I haven’t crushed yer skull in, so aye, I’d call that friendly,” Myles growled, and Trent turned green. “But the night is young, so anythin’ is still possible.”
I pointed at the chair, and Myles pushed him over. Trent landed hard on the seat. Picking up the bag of closed candy on Trent’s desk, I tore the corner and poured some of the fruity, rainbow-colored pieces into my hand.
“So you don’t think we’re friendly…huh. Liam, am I being friendly,” I asked, as Myles gripped the back of Trent’s chair and he swallowed hard.
Liam smirked from where he stood by the door with Camden and Blake.
“He’s still breathing, so…yes, very.”
“There, see. This is us at our nicest, not everyone is so lucky.”
Popping a few of the candies into my mouth, I let the silence of the room and my hard stare act as a beating. Beads of sweat broke out on Trent’s forehead, and his nostrils flared.
“What…what do you want?” Trent finally got the balls up to ask.
“Trent, what is your family name?”
“Why?”
Myles grabbed Trent by the hair and yanked his head back, putting a knife to his throat. Trent closed his eyes and whimpered.
“Please don’t kill me.”
“You’d look real pretty with a joker smile,” Myles snarled in his ear as he slid the knife along Trent’s skin, the point sitting at the corner of his mouth.
I thought the guy was going to piss himself.
Myles winked at me, making me smirk. He was laying it on a little thick, but no harm in letting him have a little fun.
His fingers turned white as he held the arms of the chair in a death grip.
“Trent, something you should know about me…I don’t like repeating myself, and I really hate explaining anything to an ignorant freshman who thought he could sell drugs in my school.
So, you can either tell me who your family is, or I’ll find out by letting Myles do whatever he wants to you.
Then, when you tell me, and you will—I’ll make you watch as I slit your family’s throats in front of you. Which would you prefer?”
“You can’t do this. Wayward is protected ground,” Trent said, but his voice wavered, the fear bleeding through.
“Tell me something, Trent…do you know who I am?”
He swallowed before nodding ever so slightly.
“Then, do you honestly think I haven’t removed more than one student from the school who thought they were above the rules?”
I popped more of the candy into my mouth and locked eyes with him. He was the type who had gotten away with whatever he wanted for too long without consequence. That lack of discipline made him think he was invincible. The stupidity that bred, got you killed.
“Miller, my dad is Mark Miller,” Trent finally blurted out.
“Liam?”
“I know the name. He’s in real estate, but also diversifies with hedge fund opportunities. A real risk taker and investor in the robotics and AI community.”
“Great, someone who has never watched a sci-fi movie and seen the consequences of trusting machines to run the world,” I mumbled, rolling my eyes. “Trent, does your daddy know that you’re selling drugs?”
Myles let go of Trent’s head and moved the knife, but stayed close enough to jump into action should the need arise.
“No.”
“I assume you want to keep it that way?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Where are you getting the product? Trust me, it is far better to tell me than to protect whoever’s got you selling.”
Trent licked his lips and looked down.
“I’m not selling for anyone.”
My brow arched.
“What I mean is, I’ve been taking a little from the stash that my father’s friend has at one of our houses.” He lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “I figured he wouldn’t miss it and I could make a little extra cash for things that my father didn’t need to know about.”
“So, you’re skimming drugs to sell when your family has enough money for multiple homes and Wayward? You do see how odd that is, right? What is it? Are you an adrenaline junky? Do you like the danger of it, or do you want to feel like a badass?”
“Naw, my dad is stingy.”
Trent all but stopped breathing as I stood and grabbed the arms of the chair, along with his wrists.
“Well, Trent, we have a few problems. Drugs are not allowed to be sold on school grounds. That’s not just a Wayward rule.
That is my fucking rule. And a year ago, I would’ve cut your balls off and let you spend the rest of your pathetic life reliving your mistakes every time your dick failed to stand up. ”
Trent whimpered.
“But I’m older, wiser and it’s a lot of work to clean the blood up, so I won’t do that…at least, not yet.”
“Please…I swear I’ll never sell inside the school again.”
My smile was wicked, full of fake enthusiasm.
“That’s good to hear, and a wise life choice, but our next issue is that you’re in my territory. That means that even selling outside of the school is my fucking concern,” I growled, my hands tightening.
Trent tried to lean away as terror filled his eyes.
“Our third issue hits close to home for me and simply pisses me the fuck off. You go after easy marks, kids who had problems before coming here. That’s a dick move for anyone. I don’t know how you got that information, but it stops now. You feel me?”
He nodded furiously.
“I require a conversation with whoever is storing product with your family. As I said, this is my area. Mine. So, Trent, who the fuck is your father’s friend? And this is not the time to clam up.”
His bottom lip trembled. The false bravado vanished in a blink, showing his true character beneath the tough exterior. He wouldn’t last five minutes on the streets. If I handed him over to Snake and his boys to play with for twenty-four hours, there would be nothing left of his carcass.
“I don’t know but the pallet says Ivankov. All I know is that he looked pretty tight with my dad,” Trent said.
It was a good thing that I didn’t have my gun. Trent was close to getting a bullet between the eyes.
“Of course, it’s dat fuckin’ prick,” Myles snarled. “I’m gonna do to him what I did to me da when I get my hands on him.”
Trent had clearly seen the rage in my eyes and heard it in Myles’s voice as he shrank away, shaking like a leaf in a windstorm.
“Please…I swear that’s all I know. Don’t kill me.”
“Address?”
“432 Fairmont St,” he said.
Fucking, of course. It was a gated community with large mansions and pretty gardens.
The perfect place for a stash house. I should’ve known that Christov would have something to do with this.
He and my father were cut from the same cloth.
Fucking cockroaches. But we had managed to eradicate one of them, and Christov’s time was coming.
“I trust this conversation stays between us. Unless, of course, you want your daddy to find you with lead in your brain, buried six feet under.”
“No one, my lips are sealed.”
Pathetic.
“Repeat after me,” I snarled. “I will never sell drugs again, for any reason.”
“I will never sell drugs again, for any reason,” Trent copied.
“If I do, Nash will find me.”
“Nash will find me,” Trent said.
“And he will laugh as he guts me and then does the same to my family.”
He trembled but didn’t open his mouth.
“Say it!”
The words tumbled out of Trent like he was set on fast forward.
“And he will laugh as he guts me and then does the same to my family.”
I let him go and stepped back.
“Good.”
I dumped the rest of his candies into my mouth, taking my time to chew them as I stared into his eyes. Dropping the empty wrapper on his desk, I smiled wide.
“I’m so happy that we had this discussion and came to an understanding.”
I turned to leave and then stopped and looked over my shoulder at him.
“Oh, and Trent, one more thing. Don’t go near Sawyer again. If you even look at her in a way that Camden here doesn’t like…he’s going to tell me about it. I won’t be so friendly then, whether I still go to school here or not. Feel me?”
He nodded so fast that he was going to give himself whiplash.
“I knew you’d see things my way.”
Liam opened the door, and the five of us headed for the elevator. As soon as we were inside, Camden turned to me.
“I’m in. How do I become King?”