Chapter 3 #2
“Yes. Now keep your mouth shut, and you’re off the hook.” I hustled him out of the office.
We parted in the hallway. The deal was done; there was no need to linger.
I rushed out to my car. There was no time to gloat because I’d only beat Ben home by minutes… if I was lucky.
I smiled.
My cutting it close was worth it because I had accomplished two very important things.
Lucas Rowen’s punishment had been put into play. And I’d gained a new tool to use when I needed him. Ethan would find out that once I had leverage, I never let it go.
Now I had to cover my ass over that stupid bio exam. Getting rid of Lucas’s threat was only the first part of my plan.
If Ben had allowed me to breathe, I might have had time to study. All of this would have been unnecessary. However, that wouldn't happen as long as he felt the need to keep preparing me for a situation that would most likely never come true.
I took a deep breath.
I hadn’t cheated because I was lazy.
That was the part people like Lucas Rowen never understood.
Ben expected me to keep my grades up, along with everything else.
He believed in pressure. In filling every hour with something that made you sharper, faster, harder to break.
If I wasn’t in school or practice, I was running drills, inventorying supplies, and learning how to patch a wound with whatever was on hand.
Prepping wasn’t merely a hobby for Ben.
It was doctrine.
I pictured the storage room at home—shelves lined with canned food, water filters, and medical kits sorted by expiration date. Ammo boxes stacked like furniture. A whiteboard on the wall with lists I had memorized.
Rotation schedule.
Contingencies.
Fallback plans.
My mother had died in childbirth, and then he’d lost my stepmother, Diane, in a senseless robbery when she stopped on the way home from work to pick up dinner.
He hadn’t been soft before, but now he’d become a cold man who expected things to go wrong and refused to be unprepared again.
Ben said the world only seemed stable if you didn’t know where to look.
So, when biology assignments piled up on top of everything else, labs, exams, group work—I did what I always did.
I adapted.
The copy machine in the faculty workroom jammed if you opened it too quickly. The lock on the filing cabinet became stuck if you lifted instead of pulling it. The bio teacher left her key card in the same place every day.
Patterns were everywhere if you bothered to notice.
I hadn’t taken the exam because I wanted an A. I’d taken it because Ben would have noticed the drop. Because one slip was enough to get me punished, and I had enough on my plate as it was.
I drummed my fingers against the steering wheel, jaw tightening.
Lucas saw the result.
Not the cause.
No one ever did.
The drive home gave me time to think.
I kept the windows cracked despite the heat, the late-day Texas air rushing in, carrying the smell of pine and asphalt. My hands stayed steady on the wheel. Ben hated jittery movements. He said it could get you killed. I’d learned to present a calm front even if I wasn’t feeling it.
The road stretched out ahead of me, familiar and empty.
Ashford fell away quickly—schools, fields, and houses giving way to pastures and forests.
My phone buzzed once on the passenger seat.
I didn’t look at it. If it were Madison or Brooke, it could wait.
If it were Lila, she’d text again. Sometimes that girl was like a dog with a bone.
I took another calming breath.
The academic mess would resolve itself.
I already knew who would carry that weight.
Beck Maddox.
The name settled into my chest like a stone.
Beck's violence was contained just enough to pass as human, which is why I was hesitant to involve him. I had some doubts about whether I could handle him as easily as I did everyone else. But Beck owed me. Even if he wasn’t aware of it. Even if I wished I could forget it.
I tightened my grip on the wheel as the memory stirred—not fully formed, just fragments pressing at the edges.
A run assigned by Ben.
Too late and too isolated.
A road that was usually empty at that time of night.
I swallowed and pushed it down.
Not yet.
I had to be cautious with Beck. He wasn’t like Ethan or Aaron; he wouldn’t bend easily. He would only bend if he were forced. Luckily, I had seen something that he would do just about anything to keep buried. Of that, I had no doubt.
It would make him dangerous.
But useful.
I turned onto the dirt road leading home, dust pluming behind the car.
Ben would be home soon.
Tonight, I’d inventory the supplies. Then I’d listen to another lecture on readiness and weakness and on how the world doesn’t care if you’re tired.
Later—after I survived that—I’d decide how to approach Beck.
It had to be tonight because the hearing was tomorrow.
I’d have to handle him carefully. Make him understand that it was in his best interest to cooperate.
If all went well, I’d have someone in my clutches that would be infinitely useful.
Insert my evil villain laugh.