by Eden O'Neill
Me: Good. On my way home.
Haley: Did you fuck him?
Keisha: Oh, my God you can’t ask if she fucked him… did you?
Sophie: Yeah, tell us.
I hadn’t… fucked him and the night couldn’t have gone worse.
Knight noticed my thumbs hovered over my text message, his eyes darkening before returning to the road. “Friends of yours?”
“Roommates.”
He nodded. “Well, I hope you told them you had a good time whatever the fuck you were doing tonight.”
My throat closing up, that’s exactly what I did, shoving my phone back in my purse right away. Knight ran his hand over his steering wheel, that ring on his finger glistening before he stared my way. “Where do you live? That’s where you’re going next.”
A command, not a request and one I didn’t disagree with.
I told him Thurston Hall, silent the rest of the drive. I wasn’t really very talkative after being shoved on a bed, then forced to shower a guy’s blood off my body, but I had a feeling Knight rather enjoyed that. He actually turned on music, heavy rock, and threw his beefy arm out the window. He alternated between that and hip hop, his tastes diverse and varied. We pulled up to Thurston Hall in the back, which was okay because I had a key to the back entry, all residents did. This was a freshman only hall so it was pretty quiet tonight, most people in bed before Monday’s classes. Knight turned off the car, and I didn’t move right away, fearing a change in the air might goad the madman inside. He stayed silent, running that ring across his steering wheel again.
“Promise tonight won’t be a problem for you,” he said, and for the first time, I heard something in his voice. It wasn’t as hard, as he swung his dark eyes on me. He frowned. “Because if it will be that’s something I need to know now.”
I was to say nothing about what happened tonight. I was to keep quiet, a certainty obviously needed from him.
“Promise what will be a problem?” I asked, and it was obviously the right answer. Not only did Knight face the road again, he unlocked the door.
I opened, basically falling out, his ride was so high. I closed the door, and he didn’t even watch before peeling away from the street. I headed up to the entry doors, but hadn’t even opened them before my phone buzzed.
The text message floated across my screen.
Unknown: Remember to be a good little dove.
This man had my phone number, had probably gotten it when I’d been showering. This man had his shadow over life…
And this man wanted me to know it.
Chapter Four
Knight
My grandpa was already at the frat house by the time Royal and I pulled up to it. And how did I know? Because the whole house was quiet. Seriously, there was only one fucking squad car there in the street, the officer tipping his hat at Royal and me before getting back into his car. Grandfather had taken care of everything, clearly.
Royal tapped a hand against my chest, and we headed inside, my buddy coming along with me for this second ride of the night. I hadn’t needed him, but after explaining everything to him at the motel, he’d said he wanted to come along. He’d wanted to drop December off at her apartment first, and since I’d had Greer, we met up after we had clear cars. December had fought him, but gratefully Greer hadn’t fought me. The little dove knew her place in all this, but I’d definitely be following up with her and keeping her mouth quiet.
Especially since Gramps looked pissed.
He chatted with a few of the frat brothers. Though not many. Serious to shit, there was like nobody here, the party completely ended and nothing but the usuals moseying about. One would think a dead body hadn’t been upstairs tonight, and upon seeing Royal and me, Grandfather touched the shoulder of one of my fraternity brothers. He knew the guy well, also Court with the gorilla ring on his finger. Back home, we called it the King, the mascot of my high school, but it meant a hell of a lot more than that. That gorilla’s bite meant power, influence, and something I clearly had here.
“I’m sorry for the loss of your fraternity brother, son,” Grandfather said, frowning. “I know it’s been an eventful night, but do try to get some sleep. I’ve taken care of everything, and you don’t have to worry.”
My frat brother shook his head. “I just had no idea Bryce was so troubled. Fucking crazy.” The guy’s head sagged before shaking Grandfather’s hand. “Thank you for being here, Mr. Reed, and taking care of all this.”
“Of course, and say hello to your father for me.”
Nothing more than that before my frat bother passed me, pounding both Royal’s fist and mine before leaving the room. Like I said, we all knew each other well being from the same town, and obviously, Grandfather really had taken care of everything. I’d called him after I’d dropped off Greer, explained everything to him, and he’d told me to meet up with him at the house after I’d gotten done with Royal. I’d used my buddy as an alibi tonight, saying after Bryce shot himself in front of me, I’d headed over to his place to change. Royal wasn’t a part of the fraternity, and frankly, he’d had enough of any type of brotherhood after we left Maywood Heights. I honest to God hadn’t blamed him. Because of that town and the corruption, his own dad was in prison. A long story but it was true. Royal lost a lot growing up in Maywood Heights. We all had.
A thought for another day, I headed over to my grandpa.
“Grandfather,” I said, the man touching my shoulder as he hugged me. He played it off that he wasn’t pissed to fucking hell about having to come here in the middle of the night and cover up a suicide, but even in his navy evening jacket, he was simmering. I knew because this man, for all intents and purposes, was my dad. I’d lost my own father early, my mom basically not close behind, and Grandfather had been there to pick up the pieces. His expression was stern when he pulled away.
“A Coventry? Really, boy?” he said to me, but did nod at Royal when he pulled away. Grandfather braced Royal’s hand. “I take it you haven’t been able to keep my grandson out of trouble with your arrival this term?”
Royal liked my grandpa. We all did. He seemed like the one sane one out of all Court fathers and grandfathers despite being so stern. With a short but genuine smile, Grandfather pulled Royal in as well, his hug firm.
“When have I ever been able to control him?” Royal stated, and truth, I said nothing beside him. I did what the fuck I wanted to do, end of story, but I hadn’t wanted this tonight. Royal frowned. “The first I’d heard of what happened was shortly before you.”
“Mmm.” Grandfather tapped a cane, only partially needing it. The other was just to intimidate on the days his arthritis wasn’t bothering him at all. A hand and he led Royal and me through my own house, our destination the lower balcony out back to talk candidly. No one was really around, and though I wasn’t surprised, still my grandpa’s capabilities astounded me.
“I take it everything has been handled?” I asked, leaning against the wooden railing. Scenic, the frat house looked over a valley of trees and wilderness, a winding hill on the way down to Pembroke U’s campus. The quad could actually be seen a little bit from here, at least the steeple of the administration building.
Grandfather eased himself into a lounge chair, and barely a minute out there, another one of my frat brother’s joined us. He had a cup of something hot in his hand, steaming in the night, and he handed it off to my grandpa, basically fucking bowing after.
“Good to see you, Mr. Reed,” he said. “And thank you again for tonight. Keeping all this quiet? My father would have handed it to me if I’d had to call him.”
I was sure of a lot of them would, none of our dads, uncles, or grandpas down for scandal.
Another previous Court member, my brother bumped a fist against mine, Royal’s second, before excusing himself.
“I take it that answers your question?” Grandfather stirred what was no doubt black tea, his favorite. His sip slow, he stared out into the abyss of trees and stars, something
he most likely did around my age as well. This college and this frat were legacy, the ivy league closest to our hometown. A lot of power ebbed and flowed from within these four walls. Grandfather’s lips pursed tight. “Though not without a significant amount of labor on my part. I owe the county police department new uniforms and gear for all their officers.” He frowned. “Then there’s the Coventry boy’s family.”
Both Royal and I cringed. My shoulder lifted. “Will it be an issue or…”
“Of course not.” His spoon stopped in his tea. “The boy’s father is a close business partner of mine and any thoughts of an attempt at retribution was easily swayed with a few calls and nice settlement in the man’s favor. He also gets to keep all his businesses so, of course, he was very reasonable about it.”
Of course. Gotta love blackmail.
Grandfather sighed. “But none of this should have been an issue. What happened tonight shouldn’t have happened, and I shouldn’t have had to be here to clean it up.”
“How was I supposed to know the guy was crazy? That he’d kill himself?” I scrubbed my hand through my hair. “We were just talking, and shit escalated.”
Bryce Coventry offed himself in the end because of pure guilt, only. Sure, it’d been guilt I’d accidentally gotten him to admit to but that hadn’t been on me. I’d just wanted him to stay his sick ass away from Greer. When it came to looking just at those facts, I’d been in the right and had no regrets. Bryce Coventry’s blood was on his own hands, and as far as I was concerned, I was good.
Grandfather’s lips worked after taking a sip. “And that’s all? A heated discussion and self-admittance? At least, that’s what you told me. That he admitted to something… disturbing, and when he thought you knew, well, you know happened next.”
As far as what my grandpa needed to know to clean this up, then put the matter to bed? Yes, that was all that went down. “That’s all.”
Grandfather leaned back. His lips pursed again. “And it was just you two boys upstairs in the room? I have to say, Knight. It wasn’t easy getting people out of here, making sure no one actually saw anything. Knew about anything but the need to know in our circle.” Grandfather tsked below his mustache. “Gratefully, it seems to have only been you and the Coventry boy to actually be privy to what went on in that room. No one even heard the gunshot.”
That was what I figured since no one came. I eased hands inside my pockets.
“So there’s no one else I need to worry about?” he asked me again, straightforward. “Because I really don’t want to have to come down here and clean up more mess.”
I felt Royal’s gaze on me, well in the know that someone else was around. I told my buddy everything, but not only did he stay quiet, I did too. I shook my head. “No, sir. No one else.”
Grandfather faced Royal as if needing confirmation. He knew that I told him everything, and when Royal said nothing, my grandpa went back to his tea. Royal and I stayed there, silent as we watched one of the oldest members of Court enjoy his tea. As far as my grandpa was concerned, no one else beside Bryce and me were in that bedroom tonight. Because the alternative would be very, very bad. My grandpa didn’t just cover something up when he wanted something gone, he erased it.
Greer and her mom had been lucky to escape the first time.
A Few Days Later
Chapter Five
Greer
A nervous fucking wreck, my new MO when one of my roommates, Haley, popped her head into my bedroom. I literally jumped a foot full off the bed, sleeping when I heard the door open. I pulled the sheets down, and Hales was pouting.
“You all right, boo?” she asked, folding herself in. “You haven’t left this room like all week. The girls and I are starting to worry? Thinking about calling your mom?”
God fuck would that be a bad idea, even worse if my mom roped in my stepdad Ben. He was a cop, campus police actually.
I scrubbed into my hair, my demeanor cool, calm, and collected when I raised my legs under the sheets. At least, I tried to appear that way. I forced a grin. “I’m good. Just been stressed.”
“Stressed?”
Yeah, the epitome of, but since my experience the other night with a devil heir who was basically sex on legs was on the need to know, I forced my grin again. “I’m good. Don’t worry. Like I said, just stress. This whole college thing is new.”
Hales definitely got that. Premed, her coursework was insane and our other roommates, Keisha and Sophie weren’t much better off. They were pre-law if one could believe that, making me basically the laziest fuck in our entire living situation. I was undecided like most freshman, but with so many girls already preparing for their futures constantly swirling around me, I looked scatterbrained and unawares when it came to what I wanted to do with my life. That was made worse as of recently, the paranoia and not wanting to leave my room. Like Hales said, I basically hadn’t gone to classes all week.
Smiling at me, she bounced in with her little blond ponytail, dyed unlike mine. She kept asking about my stylist, but my pale colored locks just kind of came out that way, too lazy to do anything else. She hugged me. “Well, good. And my God, have you been secretive lately. Really, what happened with Bryce?”
Had she paid attention to anything but her books she might know Bryce Coventry, the guy I left that night at the club was dead. I knew the college knew because it was all over the Internet the next day. “Troubled Coventry heir kills himself. Are the burdens of college stress too much?”
They were for me, the fact I was in my bedroom and not on the way to my psych class apparent. I had that one first thing this morning.
I touched Hales’s hand. “Didn’t work out. Don’t think I’ll be dating for a while.”
“Ah, shame.” She pouted, putting her chin on my shoulder. “I really thought you’d get that one. He was pretty much sex on legs.”
I knew sex on legs. I knew dark brown eyes so captivating they were almost pretty. But there was nothing “pretty” about Knight Reed. Knight Reed was a bully. Knight Reed was a tool, and he also had a complete God complex. How else did he think pushing me around and telling me what I could or could not talk about that night would come across? He was also a snob and a half with his ritzy parties and the only reason I hadn’t said anything about that night was the same reason I was in here. He might be out there, watching me. After all, he had my phone number.
“Remember to be a good little dove.”
Those words haunted me, the text message gone but their meaning still lingering in my racing heart. He’d threatened me. Basically told me to shut up and keep my head down. I’d been doing that all week, and it would no doubt ultimately be the reason I squandered away the free tuition both Mom and Ben were getting me. They’d pulled a lot of strings to let me go to this expensive school and, in Mom’s case, even taken a crappy job. She was a janitor when she was way more qualified with her office work background. She could be working as an administrative assistant somewhere and only came here because Ben, her new husband, had gotten a job here as campus police. Even his work hadn’t been able to cover my schooling, so Mom too made the sacrifice to work here, for me.
Yeah, you gotta get your ass up today.
Deciding on that, I squeezed Hales’s arm, assuring her once again everything was fine and I actually was going to class today. This of course sent her through the roof, so driven like our other roommates. None of them really wanted to see me get behind, and we had gotten rather close despite being placed to live with each other. Living in the dorms at all instead of with Ben and Mom in town was another reason I was getting my shit together and going to class. I managed to get the grades enough for a partial housing stipend, but they were still filling in the gaps. I was definitely taking advantage of the situation and most assuredly letting Knight Reed win. I could go to class. Him and all his threats wouldn’t scare me.
After showering, I put on a pair of shortalls and a tank, that top and shorts from the other night long buried in the t
rash the night I got home. My roommates actually ended up fishing them out of it, telling me they were designer, and I’d lost my mind. I let them have them because I just wanted to get rid of them in the end.
I settled for my comfort of casual clothing and tennis shoes, grabbing my bag before sprinting across the street toward campus. The buildings were all close enough that cutting through the quad got you to most classes and the rest, the transit authority. The buses ran every ten minutes in the rural Midwestern town, even more here on campus. I’d lived a lot of places over the years with my mom before she married Ben, seen a lot of things, and nothing was as nice and easy as being in a small town. The only thing that came close to Pembroke U had been when we lived in Maywood Heights, about a two hour or so drive from here. That was probably how Knight Reed and his lot ended up here, a Richie Rich school for the Richie Rich snobs.
I made it to my psych class with moments to spare, the class size about two hundred or so in the wide auditorium. Immediately, I scaled the stairs toward my normal seat in the back, and so goal-oriented, I literally made it up to the top level before I saw him.
“Remember to be a good little dove.”
Those words froze me stiff, those brown-black eyes staring back at me from the top row of class. Knight had his arm draped lazily over one of the stadium seats, a black boot up on the chair in front. He literally look like a god on a throne, the rest of his freshman minions rustling around and trying to find a seat in front of him. I mean, this wasn’t a freshman class, but it was a 110 elective and the basic level.
His arm dropped as I stared, and making eye contact with me, he jerked just two fingers to come his way. Plenty of seats around, I definitely had more options, but something told me if I took one, he might chase me, but not just that. Him chasing me meant he’d have to get up to do that, and something really told me that inconvenience might be a mistake.
