Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112449 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112449 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
To cool things down, Dean Banks removed the Bedlam Boys and the Crows from campus and allowed classes to resume for everyone else. I asked Roan why the guys were going along with this suspension, and he said, “You do not argue with Josephine Banks. Even I know the limit.”
The Crows seemed to have gotten that message too, since I didn’t see or hear a whisper of them.
The last few days at Bedlam University were the most uneventful since I started. Everyone pegged me as their captive, not their accomplice, so they didn’t bother me now that I was set free.
That is everyone except for Quinn. She caught me and Paris rolling into school the day before, and had a lot to say to our backs as we walked away. Otherwise, it was life as my new normal.
Legend saw no reason to tuck the true side of himself back in the cage. If anything, over the last few days, the savagery our circumstances brought out in him, focused the man into a paddle-wielding beast.
The words slut, bitch, and slave were becoming permanent tattoos on my backside. Legend added whore the day before, so now I had it smack across both cheeks.
He was nothing like Jacques who waited till I gave him a reason. According to Legend, I’ve already given him plenty.
Sitting down was a constant challenge, even though after Legend tucked me in bed, I’d wake sometime in the night to find him smearing aloe on my cheeks. He’d let me stay in bed the next morning, air cooling my sticky butt, and watching TV while I waited for someone to bring me breakfast and Cairo to shower with me before school.
I cut through campus the back way, walking past Douglas Herbert’s memorial. My thoughts turned to the Letter Man as they always did at some point, within every minute, during every hour.
Paris and I had different schedules. We came to school in time for whoever had their first class, and left after the last. Paris had evening classes every day of the week, which left me time to run off campus, ride with Frankie to the farm, and see if I had a new letter.
A time and date of our first meeting he promised me. So far, my letterbox was empty.
I stepped onto the sidewalk, taking it around to the square where I’d cut through to reach the bus station. Paris’s classes didn’t let out until five. It was one in the afternoon. I had plenty of time.
A horn blared.
“Hey, de Souza. Wait up.”
Twisting around, I slowed as a Lexus pulled up to the curb next to me.
“Get in,” Jeremy said. He rode alone. No brother or cronies in sight. “We’re going to my place.”
“Uh, no, thank you, stranger danger. Keep driving or I’ll scream.”
I set off, listening to Jeremy crack up. He inched along beside me.
“Don’t be like that,” he said. “I apologize for calling you a bitch. I was a bit upset over my brother going missing. I can be forgiven for that, can’t I?”
“Sure,” I replied. “It’s siccing your new girlfriend on me that’s putting you on my punch-him-in-the-face-next-time-I-see-him list. She ripped half the hair out of my head.”
“That wasn’t on me. The fight got out of hand. Besides, Quinn hates you because of the Bedlam Boys, not me. They threw her over like trash. Exactly how they treat you. If anything, you should be thanking me for knocking them off their pedestals, and doing it hard.”
“Thanking you?”
He gestured to me. “You’re leash-free. At least for now. I bought you a few days rid of the Bedlam Boys.”
Not exactly.
“Come on,” he pressed. “Get in.”
“What do you want, Jeremy?”
“You told me to put our deal in writing. I did.”
I stopped dead on the pavement. I couldn’t have heard that right.
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve got the contract for the farm buy back at my place. Don’t tell me you’re not interested anymore?”
I leaned on the car, sticking my head through the window. “Your father agreed to write up a contract stating he’ll purchase and transfer ownership of my farm to me... if I spy on a couple college boys?”
“That’s what I just said, isn’t it?” He popped the lock. “Getting in or what?”
“What are the new terms?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You asked me to spy and tell you what they’re planning,” I said. “But you’ve taken them down. What’s left for me to do?”
“Ah, de Souza. You’ve got your looks going for you. That’ll get you far.”
“What the fuck did you just say?”
“Don’t get mad, darling. You don’t have a head for these things.” He leaned across the seat, oozing a charming smile though his words didn’t match. “We won a battle, not the war. The Bedlam Boys will be holed up somewhere, planning how to stop us winning anymore.
“Get back in with them, and tell me everything they say. Even the shit they mumble in their sleep. Tell me when they leave the house. Follow them when they do. Get close to their families. Find out what they know about their sons and what they do.”