“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.