42. The Party
The Party
Caden
After we drop everyone off at Jason’s for the party, Luke and I drive to the school.
“We should look for a camera too.” Luke rubs a hand down his face. It’s still early in the night since the game got called before halftime. Though the police station took longer than any of us wanted it to. We probably won’t get to my place until early morning.
“If we’d done this, we would have had a clean-up crew sweep the locker room as soon as everyone was gone.” I’m not confident we’re going to find anything, but it’s better to check.
“We wouldn’t have done something like this. Hopefully, Zach isn’t as smart as us.” Luke looks out the window. “Or his guys are inept.”
As we approach the school, all the lights are out, giving it an eerie feeling.
A little too much like those zombie shows Harper likes to watch. I pull around the backside of the building, out of sight. We walk to the door we came through earlier, but it’s locked now. Not surprising.
It’s not our only option though. Luke pulls out his keys and we walk to the door near the art room. It isn’t lost on me that all these years Harper was right there in that classroom just waiting for us to find her.
We wouldn’t have been ready for her though. She definitely wouldn’t have been ready for us. I knew that the first time I locked eyes with her, and the next moment she was gone.
I haven’t forgotten that I promised to share my art with her. But it seems like something always comes up. We’ve been running in survival mode for too long. It’s time to go on the offensive and take back what’s ours.
“We need to strike back,” I say as Luke unlocks the door.
After we walk in, he locks the door behind us.
The hallways are dark. The emergency lights have already gone out. We both have flashlights, but haven’t turned them on. No cars were in the parking lot, but we need to keep our voices down because there could be someone else in the school with us.
“How?” Luke asks quietly as we make our way to the girls’ locker room.
“Hit him where it hurts. We need to find his vulnerability.” It’s been frustrating that nothing has come up in all the shit we have to go through.
Luke shakes his head. “He doesn’t have anything we can go after. We don’t want Sidney. Fuck, he doesn’t even want Sidney. Our best way to get to him is to catch him with the drugs and get him arrested.”
“He’d probably sell out everyone to get off or receive a reduced charge.” It’s not a bad idea, but hard to implement. But if he sells out the upper people, he’ll have a target on his back. They may take him out before we have a chance to.
We wait for a second before rounding the corner.
As if in agreement, we don’t talk once we’re in this hallway, close to the locker rooms. Everything is dark, but we know this school like the back of our hands.
If we turn on our lights and someone is here, they’ll be able to escape before we even realize it.
So we’re in stealth mode. We’ll use the flashlights in the locker room where there’s absolutely no light. We’ll see if we can find Harper’s phone and the camera Zach must have planted. But there’s no guarantee we’re the first ones here.
The girls agreed to hang out with Nico and Harper while Eli and Jack worked the party. Eli also promised to set up some fights for later tonight. We don’t do it often, but fuck, I need to let off some steam that tackling some fuckwits during the game would have accomplished.
I don’t need to traumatize my girl with the aggression I’m feeling. Though fucking her helps.
We wait outside the girls’ locker room door and listen. No sounds come through. I open the door a little, but still no sound.
A small shaft of moonlight shines through the windows on the doors at the end of the hallway, giving off just enough light that I can see Luke’s shadow. He nods and we slip into the locker room.
Still nothing. No lights shining. No footsteps.
Disappointment floods me. I kind of hoped to have someone to chase, to punch, to get information out of. I close the door and lock it. If someone shows up, they can’t get the jump on us.
Luke turns on his flashlight and steps forward. I do the same. We break apart and walk down the outside aisles of the lockers. Our lights sweep the area, searching for anything that might stand out.
When we get to the office Harper was trapped in, Luke studies the area while I continue on. I go into the shower room and search for anything obvious before turning on my bug scanner.
If they were smart, they would have used a live feed so they wouldn’t have to come back and get their shit. But they’d need to remove it before Monday, or they could get in a lot of trouble.
My job is to see if they had a camera. If there is one, I’m tempted to leave it and have one of the girls “find” it and tell the principal. I’d love for Zach to have more issues to deal with.
I turn on the bug scanner and find the fucker.
I make sure to not look directly at it, but take a picture of it from behind.
It’s still recording. I send a message to Jack that won’t go through until we’re out of here but leave it in place so they don’t cut off the recording before Jack can trace it.
I move back to the main lockers and look around where Harper said she had her stuff, following the path she must have taken to the office. When I get there, Luke holds up Harper’s phone.
The screen is cracked and the whole thing is black.
“No charge.” Luke looks it over.
“Face up or face down?” I narrow my eyes on it, because if the light was on, they would have found it. Someone would have noticed it before leaving. Maybe even one of the cops.
“It was under the towel hamper.” Luke slides it in his pocket. “She’ll need a new one.”
“Doesn’t she use a case?” I try to think over Harper’s phone, but I usually see it in her hand and that’s not my focus when I’m around her.
Luke shrugs.
“I’ll give her one of mine.” I have a few extra phones at home. When we get there, it won’t take Jack much to download the data onto a new one and make sure it’s connected.
Luke nods and looks around. “Anything?”
“Small camera. Most likely on a feed. I’ll have a sophomore show it to the girls’ coach on Monday.”
“Why the fuck is this locked?” a guy says.
We both turn at the muffled voice and shut off our flashlights.
“Did you get the key?” another voice says.
“No. Fuck this. Let’s just say we didn’t find it. He won’t know.” The first voice sounds a little more distant. “I want to get laid, and that’s not happening if I’m here with you.”
“Fuck, man. I don’t want to get in trouble.” The other guy sounds like he’s at the door and rattles it against the lock a few times. “We were supposed to be here an hour ago.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have wasted time fucking Becca.”
“Fuck you.” The voice retreats. “You can tell him why you didn’t find his phone for him. He wanted that camera too. I’m blaming this one on you if he asks.”
“Hell, maybe he’ll like that we left the camera. Free boob show.” The laughter trails away.
Luke nudges me. Looks like we’re going to wait here for a little while. We have another phone to find. This time, Harper’s.
Jack
“How’s it going, Mike?” I ask as Emma and I come up beside him.
Emma blushes, and Mike grins at her, ducking his head.
“Hey, Jack,” Mike says but his full attention is on Emma. “Are you okay?”
He tucks her hair behind her ear.
“What’s the rumor mill saying?” I look around the party. We’re outside, not close to anyone in particular. The guys that he was talking to walked away a moment ago, leaving an opening for us.
Mike glances at me. “That there was a panty raid on the girls’ locker room.”
I nod. That’s one way to spin it. I take a sip of my beer while Mike looks Emma over.
“You were in the locker room? Did they hurt you?”
She smiles and shakes her head. “No, but I throat punched one of them.”
He chuckles. “That’s my little spitfire.”
I shake my head at the nickname, but it’s not like I’ve done much better for Harper. Maybe I should shake it up. When I look at the two of them, it’s almost like they’re throwing heart eyes at each other. I’m happy Emma’s found someone who can make her happy like that.
I almost hate to interrupt their time together. Almost.
“Did you figure out where Tanner was during the whole thing?” I wait for Mike to lift his eyes to me.
He wraps his arm around Emma’s shoulders and draws her in against his side. She puts her hand on his stomach and looks up at him like he hung the moon. Thank fuck she never looked at me that way.
“I had a guy on the JV team follow after him. Tanner didn’t even come to the game. He had dinner at the diner alone and then headed home. He’s been there the rest of the night.” Mike smiles down at Emma.
Fuck, they’re cute together. The diner where Rebecca works. I’ll have to see if she was working tonight. That could be a connection we never considered. “Anything else?”
“Nah, man. Thanks for going in and saving my Homecoming date.” He squeezes her against him. “I didn’t know what was happening or I would have followed you off the field. It was like mass confusion when you guys left.”
“Anyone hurt?” We need to reestablish the fact that we’re not just dicks, but leaders and people who can help.
“They were able to help people out of the stadium using everyone’s phone lights and once some people got to their cars, the headlights.” Mike lifts his beer to me. “Are we partying tonight then?”
I smirk and tap my beer against his. “Of course.”
Harper
The party rages on around us. We found a place out of the way where Nico can sit and not get his leg injured. Eli and Jack went out to mingle while Luke and Caden went back to the school.
Nico rests his head against the back of the couch next to me. Kenz sits beside me, and Penny sits on the other side of Nico.
“I’m ready to go to bed,” Nico says softly against my ear. His lips tickle me. The music is so loud no one else can likely hear him, but I blush thinking about tonight. I touch my forehead to his and look into his dark eyes.
“You need sleep.”
He grins. “Can we sleep how you slept with Luke when he was hurt?”
Heat floods my face, remembering Luke stayed buried inside me all night long.
Nico chuckles. “It’s only fair, sunshine.”
It would also be amazing to feel him all through the night inside me. If I wasn’t worried about setting back his recovery, I’d be one hundred percent on board with his plan. As it is, I’m excited to spend the night with him and the others tonight.
“I think your injury is a little different.” I shake my head but can’t wipe the smile off my face.
“Is that a no?” Nico brushes his thumb along my jaw, igniting sparks.
“How about maybe?” I meet his gaze, and he smirks. “You also have a head injury, and everyone needs to rest up tonight.”
“Maybe.” He skims his finger down my neck, and a shiver runs through me.
I shake my head, but I can’t help smiling. This feels nice and simple without having to worry if Zach will try something or the Cheermonsters will come over to snark at me again.
This isn’t over. Zach will get out. So will Sidney. But now this weekend is mine and my guys’. We get to go to the Homecoming dance together and spend the night dancing and being just teenagers for once. Zach and Sidney won’t be allowed into the dance.
He shot his shot and failed.
My chest loosens as I draw in a breath.
We haven’t figured out our fathers’ drama yet, but we’ve got our friend looking into it.
But if Zach and Tanner are the reason for all the issues so far, then we’re almost there.
Maybe they have a few loyalists who won’t get swept up if Zach gets in trouble, but hopefully those guys won’t have the same power.
“Do you think Sidney will get kicked off the cheer team?” Kenz asks. “I mean, is there even a team without her?”
I look out over the crowd and see Ashley and Hannah with some of the other cheerleaders. They seem content to just dance. Ashley saved me tonight. If Zach had gotten ahold of me before the guys could get there, I don’t know that I could have fought him and his buddies off.
A shiver goes through me. The guys mentioned a potential camera in the shower room. Is that where he planned to rape me? Or did they always want to try to get one of my guys in trouble for fighting?
Ashley isn’t suddenly my friend, but I definitely appreciate her now. She also knows when she has a losing hand. She’s not coming for Eli. Unlike Sidney, who’s still after Luke. I don’t know what we can do to get it through her head.
But this “prank” that they pulled will have consequences. It wasn’t just a few random students. They shut off the lights during the Homecoming game for the whole school and fair. If there’s one thing this school respects, it is its football. And the fair brings in a lot of money for the school.
“I don’t know how they’ll punish her.” I turn to meet Kenz’s eyes and smile. “But she’s not winning Homecoming Queen at least.”
Kenz laughs. “No, she won’t even be there. Fuck, Harper, we can actually have a good time.”
Kenz shakes my arm, and I laugh. When she smiles, I follow her gaze to Brandon making his way over to us with drinks. They seem in a good place again.
I glance toward the door. The only things missing from this party are Luke and Caden. I hope they didn’t run into trouble.