CHAPTER FIVE - COOPER

 

 

I seethe down at her. “What did you tell him?”

“Nothing!”

“You lying little bitch! You told him!”

“I did not!”

“Then why was he all over you like that?”

“I don’t know! He called me in for a meeting and… there was tea, and talk of North Dakota, and then…” She throws up her hands. “He invited me to live with you guys!”

“Why?”

“He didn’t say!”

“Jesus fucking—” I turn around and scrub my hands down my face. Can this day get any worse?

“He gave me a job. That’s it. A job, and a scholarship at the end.”

“No.” I’m shaking my head as I turn back to face her. “This is not happening.” Calm down, Cooper. You don’t have any of the facts yet. Let’s get the facts. “What job?” I growl.

“Some… lake house. Glass place?”

“Fuck.”

“What?”

“What did your mother know?”

“Nothing!”

I lean down into her face and hiss, “Liar. You’re such a little fucking liar! You told her, didn’t you?”

“Cooper.” She grits her teeth and sneers at me. “I did not. Tell her. Trust me. The last thing my mother would’ve wanted to know was that I got a secret abortion when I was fifteen! It would’ve devastated her. I did it for you.”

I hate Cadee Hunter. “I wish I’d never fucking met you.”

She slaps me. Hard. I reach for her, but she ducks under my arm and starts running for the door.

I chase her. But she pushes through the doors and by the time I’m outside, she’s already down the stairs, sliding into a crowd.

“Over here!” Lars calls from off to the left.

“Grab her!” I call, pointing at Cadee, not even caring that there are dozens of people around. They are all busy with their own move-out day problems, anyway. They pay no attention to me, or the fleeing Cadee Hunter, who now finds herself running straight towards Lars and Ax.

She either doesn’t believe that they will grab her for me or she didn’t hear me. Because she practically walks right into their waiting grips.

“What the hell!” She whirls on them, like a ferocious little rat.

God, I hate this girl. She almost ruined everything three years ago. It took me weeks to convince her to shut her fucking mouth and do what I said.

“Let go of me!”

But they don’t let go. Lars grips both her arms behind her back and Ax gets that gleam in his eye that means he’s found a target. Someone to unload on. He leans into her ear as I come up behind them and says, “Be a good little girl now, Cadee. Or I’ll put a leash on you and walk you through the gardens like a bitch.”

She recoils from him.

“All right,” I say, knocking him off her. “That’s enough.” But then I take Cadee’s hand and squeeze it. Hard. As I drag her into the gardens with me.

She tugs, and resists, and digs her feet into the gravel. “Let go of me! Let go!”

I jerk her towards me so hard, she does a little twirl and her back crashes into my chest. I hug her. Tight. Almost bear-hug her from behind. So that we almost look like a couple who stopped in the garden to gaze at the roses.

But I hiss my words into her ear. “You will calm the fuck down and be rational, do you understand me? There’s a lot more at stake here than you can possibly realize.”

She growls back. “Let me go. Right now. Or I will scream so loud—”

I let her go. But I push her away from me. Just in case she goes through with her threat anyway. The last thing I need is stupid Cadee Hunter fucking my day up even worse.

She whirls around to glare at me. “I’m going home.”

And then she turns in place a few times, like she’s confused as to where she is. Which might actually be the case, because we’re on the college side of campus and she must not come over here much. That’s why I haven’t had to look at her stupid face for three years.

But she figures it out and starts heading back towards the Prep side of things where the Alumni Inn is located. And her tiny attic apartment.

“Great,” I say, throwing up my arms and looking at Lars.

“What the hell is going on?” he asks.

“My father. That’s what.” Then I glare at Ax. “Great idea, by the way. Telling me to go back up there.”

“What happened?” Ax asks.

“He…” But I don’t actually know how to explain it. “She… she’s supposed to move in to the mansion. And I was ordered to get her settled.”

Lars bellows a laugh. “Holy shit. That’s funny. Crazy Cadee is moving in with your father?”

“No,” I scoff.

But then… maybe? Maybe that’s what that was? He did like… kiss her hand. In front of me. That’s fucking weird.

But I do have to admit that it would still be better than him finding out I talked Cadee into getting a secret abortion three years ago.

My phone dings a text in my pocket and when I pull it out and look at the screen, it’s from my father: I want a picture of Cadee settled into her suite in thirty minutes.

I turn around and look up at his office window. Find him standing there looking at me. Then I whirl around and start walking towards the gate that leads to the Prep side of campus.

“Where are you going?” Lars jogs to catch up with me and Ax comes up on the other side.

“To get her.”

I can sense that Lars and Ax are as confused as I am. But they don’t say anything else.

I start jogging and they keep pace. And when we finally make it over to the other side of campus where the inn is located, we spot Cadee opening the back door of the old brick building and disappearing inside.

When we get to the door, I put a hand up and stop Lars and Ax. “Wait here. I’ll get her.”

“Should I find a leash?” Ax asks. “Just in case.”

I almost laugh. “Maybe?”

This makes Ax smile. Which is good. He’s having a bad day too. We’re all having a bad day. And Cadee seems to be doing her best to make it worse.

“I’ll be right back.” And then I go after Cadee Hunter.

The back door leads to a stairwell and I go up three steps at a time until I reach the landing of the fourth floor. Then push through into the hallway and travel down to the end where the door to her apartment is wide open.

When I reach it, I listen for noise. But it’s completely quiet.

Just great. If she’s not here—if she went out the front instead of coming upstairs—I’m fucked. And there’s no way to tell if she will keep her mouth shut about everything that happened three years ago or not.

I don’t know what’s going on with her and my father. Hell, maybe he is infatuated with her? Maybe that’s all this is? Some dirty old man who wants a sweet young thing?

Jesus. That makes me want to barf.

“Cadee!” I call up the stairs.

No answer.

I go up. Find her standing in the middle of the living room. Not an empty living room, but… it’s definitely been emptied of her things. The way my cottage was this morning.

Is there a connection?

But before I can try to convince myself there isn’t, Cadee whispers, “It’s gone. It’s all gone. He wasn’t lying.”

“Look,” I say, sighing. “I don’t know what’s going on. But—”

“My stuff is gone! All our stuff is gone! He put it on a truck to North Dakota!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“This was not my mother’s idea! We had no plans to move!”

I think she might be getting hysterical. And the last thing I need today is Cadee Hunter getting hysterical. Not after what happened last night. I can only take so much.

“Cadee,” I hiss, “I have a fucking hangover. My head is pounding. I got no sleep last night, I’m not on my way to New Zealand for the summer, I got kicked out of my cottage, and I have to move home. I really… like really do not have space inside my brain for your petty little problems.”

She turns to me with a look of complete disgust. “Fuck. You.”

“That’s it.” I look around, find a piece of orange baling twine discarded on the floor, and pick it up.

She smirks at me. “What do you think you’re gonna do with that?”

I don’t answer her. I attack. Grab her by the shoulders, push her down on the couch, pin her in place with my knee on her ass, and tie her fucking hands together.

She screams and wiggles the entire time, but I don’t care. I’m done. I pull her up on her feet, take my shirt off, and then stick it in her mouth like a gag.

Her eyes are wide and her feet kicking. Which is not a smart move on her part, because she falls to the floor. And then, finally, she stops being a problem. Because she gives up and starts crying.

I need a minute, so I go back down the stairs, pull the door closed behind me, lean my back against it, and sink down to the floor so I can text Lars.

He and Ax appear through the doorway at the other end of the hall a minute later. “What’s going on?”

“She’s being a bitch,” I say. “So I tied her up.”

Ax laughs, then holds up another discarded string of baling twine. “Great minds,” he jokes. “I was ready.”

“Can one of you just…” I massage my temples with my fingers, trying to will this hangover headache into submission. “Just… go talk some fucking sense into her? Please. She needs to do what she was told. We all just need to do what we were told.”

Ax’s smile falls, his jokes gone. “Fuck. I’ll do it.”

He’s probably not the right choice. But I’m not going back up there. And Lars doesn’t volunteer.

I move aside so Ax can get through the door.

“What the fuck happened to your shirt?”

I look down at the Valcourt lions rampant tattoo that spans my entire chest and briefly wish I could go back to that day and never have it done. But wishing doesn’t change anything, so I just look up at Lars. “I gagged her with it.”

We both laugh. We can’t help it. It is kinda funny.

He slumps down next to me, sighs. “Are we fucked? Or what do you think is happening?”

I side-eye him. “Did you really think it was going to be that easy to get out of here?”

He shrugs. “I was kinda hoping, ya know?”

“We should’ve seen this coming. There’s no way you’re getting out. You’re an only child.”

“Am I?” he huffs.

“And Dane. I think he’s the one behind this.”

“What do you think he knows?”

“No clue.” It’s only half true, of course. My father might know about Cadee’s abortion. I don’t know how. But that’s the only way this day makes sense.

We sit in silence and then quickly get to our feet when we hear Ax stomping down the stairs. A few seconds later the door swings open and Cadee steps out. She looks like she’s been crying and her hands are still tied behind her back.

I put a hand up to my mouth to hide my smile when I see the second length of baling twine has been tied into a slip knot and is now around her neck. My t-shirt is still stuffed in her mouth.

“OK, then,” Ax says, kinda puffing out his chest with pride. “We’re good.”

“What the hell is this?” Lars laughs. “She can’t walk through campus like that!”

“Oh, she can. And she will.” Ax growls these words into Cadee’s ear and she furrows her brows and shrugs her shoulders to make him back away from her neck. “I warned her. If she needs a leash, I can provide.”

She starts protesting through the gag.

I reach over and pull it out of her mouth.

“This is kidnapping! I’m pressing charges!”

“Good luck with that.” Ax laughs. “The fucking sheriff works for my father, Cadee. They only send us to jail when they want to teach us a lesson. You’re not part of today’s lesson. You’re just a task to check off our list. You’re going over to the Chairman’s house. How you get there is up to you. I thought I explained this upstairs?”

“You’re a bunch of animals!”

“Listen.” I sigh. “We can do it the easy way. Unbind your wrists, take off the leash. Or we can do it this way. You’ll be just another move-out day prank, Cadee. No one will care.”

Lars is nodding his head. “Yup. That’s pretty much it right there. So decide. Easy way? Hard way? We don’t really give a fuck.”

She huffs.

“Is that acceptance I hear?” I cup my hand to my ear to be an extra-special dick about this whole thing.

“Fine.”

“Oh, no, that’s not good enough,” Lars says. “We’re kinda pissed off at this point. Hell, who am I kidding? We’re definitely pissed off. We’re having a bad day, Cadee. And you’re very much a part of that. So get on your fucking knees and apologize for making things worse.”

Cadee looks at me, her eyes begging me to take pity on her. But I shake my head. Because I like this idea. Humiliating Cadee Hunter might not fix anything, but that old saying—‘misery loves company’—is so very, very true.

I narrow my eyes at her. “Knees. Now. Someone has to teach you a lesson.”