CHAPTER THREE - COOPER

 

 

I have feelings for Cadee Hunter right now.

Hateful ones.

Jesus Christ. I haven’t been face to face with that girl since I was a senior at Prep three years ago and she was the last person I wanted to see coming out of my father’s office this morning.

Forget it. Put her out of your mind. Because, Cooper, you have bigger things to deal with.

Like the fucking truck parked on the front lawn of my small three-room red-brick cottage and the half a dozen huge men who are currently removing my furniture.

I start running through the woods, yelling. “Hey! What the hell?” I stop right in front of the biggest one, a huge dude with cannons for arms who is currently holding up his end of my fucking couch. “Put it back! Right now!”

“Cooper?”

I whirl around and find Sheriff Woods walking up to me. He’s a short, middle-aged man with a bushy handlebar mustache you mostly find on throw-back cowboys. And he’s mostly a nice guy, but he’s also one of the High Court cronies—i.e. he works for my father. “Make them stop.”

“Your father called me this morning—”

“I don’t care. This is my stuff. Not his.”

“Do you have receipts?”

“Receipts? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Look, son.” Woods places a hand on my chest and I’m immediately reminded of how Mona pushed me in front of the admin building.

I look down at his hand. Take a breath. And then slowly track my eyes back up to his.

He removes his hand from my chest. Wise choice, asshole. Because I’m not in the mood.

“You’ve been kicked out. I have the eviction notice right here.”

I snatch the piece of paper from his hand and scan it, then crumple it up and toss it aside. “Eviction notice? Tell me, Sheriff, how does one go about getting an emergency eviction notice for student housing without the occupant even being served?”

I’m gonna lose my shit. I can feel the anger inside me ready to explode.

Woods, to his credit, looks ashamed. Because we both know this so-called eviction notice might have the Judge’s signature on it, but it was obtained in secret, during the early morning hours, probably in the Judge’s fucking kitchen, without due process, and in exchange for either a healthy sum of money or the promise of a future favor.

“I thought you were better than this.” I figure it doesn’t hurt to shame the sheriff. He did take an oath to protect and serve.

“Son,” Woods says calmly. “It’s done. He wants you out.”

“He wants me to move home. You know that’s what this is about.”

Sheriff Woods looks out across Monrovian Lake. Right at the Valcourt family mansion on the opposite shore. It’s an imposing home, even from this distance, which is a good half a mile away. Then he looks back at me. “Cooper, if you’re this pissed off because your father is going out of his way to make you move back in the family mansion, then—”

“You don’t understand—”

“Shut up.” He pauses so his sharp words can sink in. “Just go home. Your personal things are already there. This is just… stuff. And it’s going into storage. I’m sure you’ll be back at the end of the summer.” But then he stops and shrugs. “Or not. I don’t really give a shit if you’re coming or going. But you need to get the hell out of my face or you will be spending the day in lockup.”

My own words to Cadee Hunter thrown back at me. And it feels like karma. I run my fingers through my hair and turn away. “Fuck this shit.”

I’m just about back to the central gardens when I spy Ax coming towards me. His mouth is moving long before I can hear his words. So when he’s finally in earshot, I get the middle of his monologue—

“… and you know the worst part? He took my fucking bank account! My bank account. With my name on it! Filled with money I earned! He can’t do that, Cooper!”

Ax is tall, broad, and tatted up from shoulder to wrist with images of demons. Lots of fangs, and horns, and hooves on his arms. His head would normally be covered in light brown hair, but he started shaving it back in ninth grade and never really stopped. Right now, it’s about a quarter-inch long. If the sun hits his green eyes at just the right angle, they turn yellow. He looks… evil. But he’s one of my best friends and we’ve been in this shit together for so long now, there’s no way to back out now.

I sigh, feeling pretty defeated. “To be fair, Ax, it was drug money.”

“Not the fucking point!” He yells this. “And what the hell is going on here?”

I look over my shoulder at the movers. Then turn back to Ax. “Apparently the Judge signed an eviction notice for my father while we were sobering up.”

“What?” He grabs his head with both hands. “But—”

“Hey!”

We both turn to find Lars, the other leg of our tight trio, jogging across the gardens towards us. Lars just looks like a Lars. He’s tall, and lean, and well… just think Alexander Skarsgård. That about sums him up. “What the hell is happening? I just made bail and the Mayor called saying we were kicked out or something and—” He stops mid-sentence. Presumably because he’s spied the movers.

I press my fingertips to my forehead, then cover my eyes with my whole hand. My head is pounding so hard. “They really have kicked us out.”

“What’s that?”

I remove my hand from my eyes and find Lars pointing at the folder in my other hand. “This?” I sigh. “This is my new job packet.”

“What job?” Ax says. “We’re on a fucking plane in three hours to goddamned New Zealand. Please tell me that’s a job in New Zealand, Coop. Or I’m gonna lose it.”

“Yeah. We’re not going anywhere. It seems our fathers have managed to ground the plane.”

“No.” Ax grabs his head again. “No. No. No. I’m not staying here.”

“We’re supposed to move home.”

“No.” Ax is turning in circles now. “No fucking way. I’m not going home. I don’t care anymore. I’m so done with this place.”

Lars puts a hand on his shoulder. “You can crash at my house.”

“You’re going home?” Ax is stunned. He looks at me. “You’re going home too?”

“What choice do we have? They took everything from us, Ax. We have to run the Fang and Feather rush to get our shit back. The Chairman wants me to choose the next crop of initiates.”

Lars bellows a laugh. “Oh, that’s funny.” He points at me. “That’s actually funny!”

“It’s not a joke. And you two are stuck with me. Guilty by association, I guess.”

“Cooper!” Ax puts a hand on my shoulder. “No. You need to go back and talk to him. Apologize.”

“For what? That girl was begging me last night. I wasn’t gonna tell her no. Fuck that, I’m not apologizing.”

“You have to.” Ax is pleading. “I’m not going home.”

“You can stay with me, dude,” Lars says. “It’s cool. The Mayor won’t mind. Hell, sometimes I think he likes you better than me.”

That’s probably truer than Lars would like to admit, but it’s not something we talk about.

“Cooper,” Ax says. “Dude. I don’t ask for much. You know that. I take my licks. I deal. I’m not complaining. But I am not going home. Ever. Can’t you at least… I don’t know, beg? If we have to run the rush, you need to beg for us to stay in one of the cottages. Because I’m done. I’m done taking it.”

And he is. I can see it all over his face.

Fuck.

I turn my back to him and rub both hands over my jaw. “Fine. I’ll ask.” I turn back to him. “But he’s gonna say no. And when that happens you will just go home with Lars, bite your fucking tongue, and play nice for the summer. You don’t even have to run the rush. I’ll cover for you, Ax. But you will show up at least and make them think you’re on board.”

I see the rebel in him. I see that fire inside that wants to tell me to go fuck myself.

But he knows I’m right.

“We have one more year,” Lars says. “Just one. More. Year. And then we’re out, Ax. It’ll be over.”

Ax looks at me and I give him a small nod.

But I don’t believe it any more than he does.

When your fathers are the Chairman, the Mayor, and the Judge—well… you don’t walk away from that.

There is no out.

My friends follow me back towards the admin building, keeping a few paces behind me, very quiet now. The time for protest over.

If I had known what the consequences of last night would be, would I have thought twice about what we did?

I crack a smile as I climb the steps to the admin building.

Nah.