31. Chapter 30 #2
If he wasn’t going to have the decency to give me a heads up, I wasn’t going to give him the courtesy of finishing.
Of course, I didn’t want them to hear me coming so I made sure to quiet my steps and go into stealth mode when I approached.
I planned to snap a couple pics, maybe get a video, so I could blackmail Potter the next time he pissed me off.
Which would probably be within an hour. That guy really knew how to push people's buttons.
The strategy completely changed, though, when I heard the voices before I saw what was going on.
“You’ve completely ruined my life!” Bradley’s voice wasn’t loud enough to draw attention to himself, but the forcefulness of it had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.
I looked around the corner and saw Potter pinned to the wall, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, one eye already swelling, and a knife at his throat.
All the Givenchy boys knew how to fight, and though Potter’s strengths definitely lie more in the digital realm, I was surprised to see that Bradley had done so much damage. How the fuck had that happened?
That was a question that could be answered later. Now, I needed to get the psycho with the knife away from my family.
“You’re going to come clean to everyone. Tell them that I don’t have any infections and get them to stop with the bullshit. You’re also going to get that bitch of a cousin of yours to drop Jack and get back together with me.”
“How do you expect me to do that when you have me pinned against a wall?” Potter raised an eyebrow, acting totally unaffected by the situation, but I could read him better than most and he was freaking the fuck out.
Thankfully, Crestwood Prep didn’t have metal detectors, perks of being a prep school in what was considered the safest city in America. Quietly, I sat my belongings on the ground after pulling my weapon from my purse.
Right before I’d moved to Crestwood, Sandro had gotten me a Ruger LCP Max in rose gold and I carried her everywhere with me. On silent feet, I made my way towards the guys. I was pretty sure that Potter noticed my approach, but he didn’t shift his attention away from Bradley.
I pressed the barrel of the gun against Bradley’s temple. While I didn’t plan to pull the trigger, if push came to shove, I would protect my family, and I didn’t want the bullet to pass through the air in his head and hurt Pott.
“I’m going to need you to remove the knife from the throat of my husband’s second.” While everyone knew the Givenchy’s and how their hierarchy would work, sometimes reminding people of your place in the world, or in this case, Potter’s, helped bring more clarity to the situation.
I’d seen it first hand growing up when people would give Marco shit and Sandro would remind them he was his second.
Bradley chuckled. “What are you gonna do? Shoot me?”
I released the safety and cocked the gun.
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, Blackwood.” He didn’t move the knife, but also didn’t make any moves to test me.
“You’ve always known me as part of the Givenchy clan, but don’t forget who I really am.
I am, and always will be, Arianna Vitale, mafia princess.
“Think long and hard about that. You picked an area of the campus with no cameras so no one would see what you were up to. That means, if I have to pull this trigger, the only two people that will know what really happened are me and Potter. You know we’ll both take that secret to our graves.
I have no moral compass and a strong stomach, so if the bullet isn't through and through, I have no issue digging a finger into your skull to retrieve it.
“With Potter’s tech genius, before your body is even discovered, the cameras showing either of us being in this area will be wiped and looped, and all of the city cams will show us heading back to my house twenty minutes ago.
Pretty sure he can have our cell phone GPS aligning with that story before cops arrive on the scene. ”
Potter’s cocky grin appeared on his face.
“My tech genius could also hack into your devices, posting a suicide note on your phone while I falsify a video and plant it on the school's cameras that show Alex walking away with a gun in his hand. How much trouble do you think your bestie would get into if the cops suspected he helped you try to turn your suicide into a frame job?”
As all of this sank in with Bradley, the knife was moved away from Potter’s neck.
Relief coursed through me. While I wouldn’t have hesitated to pull the trigger if push came to shove, I didn’t want to. My upbringing had me confident I could get away with murder, but I really didn’t want to have to test that theory today.
I mean, it was the first day of senior year for fucks sake. I should at least be out of high school before burying bodies, right?
I pushed the gun a little more firmly into his skull as I leaned in and whispered. “If you threaten my family again, I won’t be so kind as to give you another warning. I’ll kill you so fast that you won’t even know it’s coming. Do you understand?”
He gave a small nod and I pulled the gun away, flicking the safety back on so even though there was a bullet in the chamber, it wouldn’t fire without my command.
Potter headed to where my belongings were, and I walked with him, keeping an eye on Bradley and my gun at the ready in case he got a wild hair and decided it would be a good idea to attack.
Once we’d rounded the corner and it was obvious he wasn’t going to try anything, I tucked my gun back into my purse and Potter and I headed to my house.
It was a good thing that Tucker would be waiting for his second there. We needed to come up with a plan to get rid of Bradley once and for all.