I couldn’t believe how bad he was at telling the lie, until I remembered that his mask was off. I blinked and put it back in place. He had a mild grin on his lips and was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to buy into what he’d just said.
“Cool.” I forced a broad smile, glancing back at Cameron who was shooting Tyson a molten glare.
Tyson quaked under the scientist’s gaze and took his leave. “I’ll see you guys later.”
I turned back to Cameron. We were now alone and my apprehension was spiking big time. “So...” I swung my arms and bit the edge of my lip. “A cabin, huh. You know, I like skiing, too.” I dropped my eyes to the ground, hoping it’d come across as flirty, but in truth I was trying to hide my anxiety.
Cameron tittered, standing from his spot and moving toward me. It took every ounce of willpower to stand my ground, but I forced my feet to remain planted as he stepped into my space and gently placed his hands on my hips.
“Maybe I could take you away sometime.”
I forced out a sound of pleasure. I was still too nervous to look at him; what if he read my disgust? His hands were on me...and they felt so wrong.
With gentle fingers, he nudged my chin up so he could look me in the eye.
“Would you like that, Caity? A little private getaway with me?”
“Uh-huh.” My lips trembled as I pulled them into a smile.
The hand that remained on my hip gave a gentle squeeze and was about to pull me up against him when the door creaked open again. Cameron jumped away from me, but gave me a look that promised we’d continue later. I smiled and lowered my gaze, shuffling to a chair on the other side of the room as a few more people filed in.
I glanced at faces, taking in the friendly smiles as Cameron introduced me to the group, but they started to drop away as I peeled off masks. I was soon sitting in a room full of nervous, guilt-ridden, fearful students and as much as I wanted to run, I had to stay.
It wasn’t just Piper who was being abused by the Professor Hoffman/Cameron Darby duo, and I couldn’t let it go.
At least I had a starting point. There was a cabin, which held something important inside it. Tyson said delivery, which I had to assume meant that something was being made or packaged up in the cabin.
It had to be the drugs, right?
That was the most logical answer.
If Cameron drugged Piper with his ginseng tea concoction then it wasn’t a huge leap to assume he was also responsible for drugging the basketball players. Tyson was linked to Coach Bleekman and Cameron—who was linked to the professor.
A small smile touched my lips as I connected the dots.
More answers had to be in that cabin or Cameron wouldn’t have been sending Tyson there for a delivery.
The drugs had to be transported somehow. If the players didn’t know they were being drugged, they must be inadvertently consuming them. Maybe I’d find boxes of vitamins that looked legit, but were packed full of substances that made the players totally high.
I had to go and check it out. If I could find some decent evidence then I could expose the whole operation. Hopefully there’d be a trickle-down effect and as that was unveiled, it would peel back layers on what Prof. H was doing to his students.
I needed to figure out who this Chris guy was, too.
What was Coach Bleekman’s first name?
I pulled out a pen as Cameron started off the study group session, asking people how their week had been. Opening up my diary, I scribbled down Coach Bleekman’s name while all eyes were on the jittery girl with the wide brown eyes and flawless olive skin. She was forcing out a chirpy laugh as she recounted her week, but I could see right through it. She was petrified, the poor thing.
Cabin.
I wrote the word and circled it, gazing at my blue pen lines and wondering how I was going to get the co-ordinates off Tyson’s phone.
21
Eric
It took me thirty minutes to get to my car and then find the party. I texted Connor a few times as I ran to my jeep, but didn’t hear back from him once. I also texted Caity when I was stopped at the lights to let her know that I really wanted to see her, but I had to go help Connor first.
Mind if I come over later tonight?
I ended the text with my question, but didn’t have time to send it before the light went green. I punched it toward Omega Sigma Tau and as soon as I pulled up to the curb, I sent the message to my girl, then looked up at the house.
My muscles were strung tight as I got out of the car. The party was blasting, people spilling out onto the lawn. Giggling girls and drunken guys were making out on the grass. The strong tang of alcohol wafted in the air.
Wrinkling my nose, I made my way up the path.
A tall guy, walking backward, stumbled into me. I grabbed him before he fell. “Where’s Connor Penway?”
The guy replied with a dopey smile.
“Oh, forget it.” I let him go and made my way into the fray.
I understood that a win could make a team pretty pumped and euphoric...especially an away game, but the party was a little over the top. Most of these guys were serious about making basketball a career. It was a mid-week game—they all had classes the next day—and I was guessing that if they weren’t cutting it academically, they wouldn’t be playing on the team for much longer. It just felt a little insane.
Shouldering my way through the main entrance, I hollered out to the people around me, asking where Connor was.
“Upstairs, man,” someone finally called.
I took the stairs two at a time, wrenching out my phone and dialing his number. He probably wouldn’t even be able to hear his phone with the blaring racket, but I had to try. I reached the top of the stairs in time to hear Connor’s voice message. I swore and dialed again, checking out different rooms as I went down the hallway.
I disturbed one moaning couple who barely noticed me, and I walked in on another group who smelled like they were smoking weed. I grimaced and backed out of the room. The next door looked like a bathroom and I was hesitant to barge my way in there, but something made me pause.
Pressing Connor’s number again, I heard a faint ring on the other side.
I didn’t hesitate.
Shouldering the door open, I stumbled across my stepbrother. His long body was splayed out on the floor, his messy curls smooshed against the base of the toilet and one foot resting on the edge of the bathtub. He was pale, his eyes glassy.
Images of Harvey flashed through my mind and I nearly froze up.
“Connor,” I choked out, lurching into the room and crouching down beside him. I pushed two fingers into his neck to check his pulse. It was racing.
There was puke on the floor beside him, which I nearly stepped in. His skin felt like it was on fire.
“I gotta get you out of here, man.” With a grunt, I hauled him off the floor and threw his arm over my shoulder.
“Eric, what’s wrong with me?” he whispered, his head drooping slightly as I walked him down the corridor.
Whispers rose as we made our way out of the house, but I was pretty sure most people wouldn’t be able to remember the night anyway.
It was an effort to get the tall guy down to my jeep; his limbs were weak and shaking and I practically had to carry him down the path. I buckled him into the passenger seat before racing around the car and jumping behind the wheel.
“Where are we going?” he slurred.
“To the hospital.” I checked the street and pulled out onto the road.
“I just—I need to go to sleep. I think I need sleep. Take me to my dorm.”
“No way. I don’t care if you’ve taken drugs, okay? We’ll deal with that later. All that matters now is making sure you’re okay.”
“I didn’t take drugs. I don’t do drugs,” he slurred.
“You’ve taken something.” I accelerated through the intersection just before the light turned red, my jeep bumping as we shot across the road.
“No, I swear, I haven’t. This is just the flu or something.”
The next light turned red. I punched the brake and turned to look at my adamant passenger as he shook his head. His eyes were bugging out as he stared back at me.
“I don’t take drugs,” he said again. “I don’t want to do drugs. I’m not a drug addict!” His words were punchy, his expression wild. I’d never seen him that way before.
“I’m not calling you an addict.” I tried to keep my voice calm and steady.
“I don’t do drugs.” His head twitched, his finger tapping on his bobbing knee.
Flashes of my fight with Caity bounced through my brain.
I don’t think Connor knows he’s being drugged.
What if she was right? But how the hell were the drugs getting into his body?
The light turned green. I pressed the accelerator and kept heading for the hospital, hating myself that I hadn’t taken the time to listen. I was too busy fighting with her to hear her out. Like I could protect her from this by being an asshole! I should have been helping her.
I muttered a string of curses as I wove my way to the hospital.
“I’m sorry, man. I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Connor mumbled. His jitters started to fade again, replaced with the lethargy I faced upon first finding him.
I scoffed. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, either.”
Swerving into the parking lot, I screeched to a halt and raced around to help Connor out of the car. He leaned against me as we shuffled to the emergency room.
The nurse behind the counter took one look at him and raised her eyebrow. “Is he wasted?”
“I’m not sure, ma’am.”
She gave me a deadpan expression that told me she was anything but impressed. “Fill this out.”
She slid a clipboard with some paperwork attached over the counter. I grabbed it and helped Connor into a seat before clicking on the pen.
“Tell me what happened.” I began scribbling on the paperwork as Connor shuffled in his seat.
“I don’t really know. We got on the bus after the game and I was so thirsty. I drank some water and then when we stopped at the gas station, I jumped out and bought a couple of energy drinks...and then I found some spare bottles of Vita-Lite on the back of the bus.”
“What’s Vita-Lite?”
“It’s just flavored water.”
“How many did you have?”
“I don’t know, man. For the rest of the bus ride I was buzzing, like I felt pumped and then it just...turned to shit. I don’t know how long we’d been at the party, but I felt sick, so I went up to the bathroom and puked and then...” He leaned forward in his seat as if he felt nauseous again. “I think I have the flu or something,” he mumbled. “Everything’s moving sideways, and I feel like my head is detached from my body.”
“So, that’s all you’ve had? Water and energy drinks?”
Connor nodded, looking confused, like a four-year-old kid who’d lost his mom.
My pen paused over the paper, sympathy crashing through me.
Why hadn’t I acted on this earlier?
His skin was turning a pale shade of green.
“Do you need to puke again?” I touched his back.
“I just need to lie down,” he groaned, lurching out of his seat and curling onto the floor.
Curious glances fired our way from every corner of the waiting room. The nurse stood from her station, concern marring her features. She bustled over to us and crouched down beside him, feeling his forehead and checking his pulse.
“Hmmm.” She frowned and stood. “I need a gurney over here, please,” she called to an orderly.
I helped her pick Connor off the floor and get him onto the bed. The look of relief washing over his face as his head touched the pillow was unnerving. He closed his eyes, ready to drift into oblivion.
“Is he going to be okay?” My voice hitched.
The nurse turned to me, her expression softening at the edges. “He’ll be fine.”
She wheeled the gurney to the edge of the corridor, shunting him to the front of the line of waiting patients while ordering an immediate IV drip.
I stood next to Connor, shakily filling in the rest of the paperwork, my thoughts switching between the blank look of death on Harvey’s face and the myriad of unanswered questions.
Flavored water and energy drinks? That was it?
There was no way. He had to have taken something else. Maybe whatever he took shouldn’t have been mixed with energy drinks?
Images of those Adderall pills Jonah handed out made me shudder. I knew first hand that mixing substances was a dangerous business. Had Connor done it by mistake, because he didn’t know he was being drugged?
Hot anger simmered in my belly. I had to figure out what the hell was going on. No one hurt the people I cared about and got away with it. Caity was on to something, and I had to help her find out what it was.
22
Caitlyn
The rest of study group went smoothly and I got back to my room un-drugged and unharmed...although I was buzzing.
I had a mission.
Operation Find That Cabin was already underway in my head. My first plan of attack was to get those co-ordinates. Getting Cameron to take me there was way too dangerous, and I didn’t actually think he would do it anyway. No, my best bet was getting the location off Tyson’s phone. But how the hell would I do that?
I opened the door to my room.
“Oh, sorry!” I turned away from Scott and Piper as they finished pulling their clothes back on.
“It’s okay, Caity. We were getting dressed anyway.” Piper sounded much lighter as I inched my way back into the room. I kept my back turned until she cleared her throat.
Awkward!
Pressing my lips together, I edged my body around to face them and forced a smile.
A blush was still scorching Scott’s cheeks as he took a seat on Piper’s mussed-up bed. Her green eyes were glowing as she gazed at her boyfriend, and I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy.
Shuffling to my desk, I leaned against the back of my chair. “So...” I bore Piper with a questioning look, not wanting to say anything that would get me in trouble.
“So...” Piper licked her bottom lip. “Scott popped over and...” She blinked, tears lining her lashes.
Scott slid his hand into hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. “She told me everything.”
His jaw clenched tight, anger washing over his expression in a torrent of emotion. I didn’t have to peel back his mask to see anything. Scott was an open book. I loved that about him.
I shot him a look of empathy, which I think he really appreciated. He half-smiled then turned back to Piper, pulling his sniffling girlfriend onto his lap and kissing the side of her head.
“We can’t let this happen,” he growled. “I won’t let him do it to her.”
“Scott, no.” Piper sniffed, running her finger down his jawline. “We’ve been through this. It’s fine. I’ll just flunk.”
His freckled face washed with agony. “How do you even know that’s all he’s going to do? What if he tries something else?”
“I just won’t go to class anymore,” she mumbled nestling her head on his shoulder.
“There’s no way we are letting those assholes scare you out of school. It’s not right.”
“I agree with Scott. We can’t let this slide.”
A tear slid down Piper’s cheek. “But I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” She slashed it away. “Except those two dickheads. I’d be quite happy to castrate them both.”
Scott grinned and rubbed his girlfriend’s thigh.
“You know, it might be bigger than just those two,” I said cautiously.
Their heads jerked up in unison.
I gripped the back of my chair and sighed. “I’m worried about Eric’s stepbrother, Connor. I think he might be getting served ‘ginseng tea’ as well, if you know what I mean.”
<
br /> “Who’s Connor?” Piper gazed at me.
“He plays for the Bruins.” I shrugged. “I just...we know Cameron drugged you at study group, and I’m pretty sure Connor was drugged at one of his games. What if they’re slipping something to the players, and other study group members, forcing a certain behavior out of people?”
“But why?” Piper’s perfect nose wrinkled.
“Well, so Cameron and Prof H could threaten you and so the Bruins could win their games.”
I frowned. That didn’t explain why the opposing team was drugged at the other game.
Rubbing my forehead, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to think.
“It almost doesn’t matter why they’re doing it.” Scott shook his head. “What matters is proving that they are and then stopping them.”
The room fell into a tense silence as we all got lost in the problem, trying to figure out our own solutions. I needed to get to that cabin. That was my solution.
My eyes wandered to the couple on the bed and a flash of memory pushed to the front of my brain.
“You used to be a thief.” I clicked my fingers and pointed at Scott.
His eyes narrowed at the corners. “Excuse me?”
“I remember you telling me you got busted for breaking and entering, right?” I stood tall.
A deep shame washed over his expression, but he swallowed and looked me straight in the eye. “What has that got to do with anything?”
I walked over to them, perching on my own bed. “I heard something today at study group. Tyson and Cameron were whispering about a cabin and he put the co-ordinates into Tyson’s phone.”
“Who’s Tyson?” Piper asked.
“From study group. Was he not there last time?”
“I don’t know any Tyson.” She shook her head.
“He’s in one of my classes and he’s involved in this somehow. I’ve seen him talking to both Cameron and Coach Bleekman. I think he might be their drug courier or something.” I chewed my lip. “Cameron is sending him up to the cabin for a delivery this weekend, because Chris wants it by Monday.”
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