The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy #2) - Tijan by Tijan

Today is Peter Francis day! Are you excited?

A second buzz.

I mean, you probably aren’t since he’s your dad and all, but we’re excited. I can already feel the group buzzing. That’s how it always is whenever someone from Phoenix Tech comes in. Oh hey. You want me to grab you coffee? I was going to stop at Bucks since it’s a treat day for us.

Today was Peter Francis Day.

Jesus. Shit.

I raked a hand over my face.

I wasn’t ready for this day, but I typed back.

Me: Whatever that has the most espresso. I don’t care. Just load it up.

Melissa: On it! I know exactly what to get you. See you at school!



The!! All the!! So many!!

I was already hoping this day was done and I hadn’t gotten into the shower yet.



* * *



When I got to school, I got a surprise. I was invisible.

I loved it.

People did not give one crap about me.

Melissa hadn’t exaggerated, which was also a nice surprise.

They were buzzing. There was extra energy in almost everyone, professors, even Busich and Goa, as I spotted both in the hallways. Like everyone else, they didn’t blink an eye at me. Not once. There was extra security in the hallways. I recognized some from the Chesapeake Estate, but a few had on Hawking University apparel, so I was assuming the university had kicked in with its own security, too.

When I walked into the computer lab, Melissa shrieked. She almost flew across the room to me, my coffee in hand. “Here,” she breathed, pushing the cup to me. “Have you seen him yet?”

My phone had buzzed a few more times this morning.

Kash checking in, like he usually did.

Another call from my mom.

There were two texts from Peter.

I’m going to your class today. Did you want to ride together?

And

I’d like to speak with you before your class. Wait for me outside.

That’d been it.

I hadn’t replied to the first one because I didn’t get it until I was halfway to the university. And the other … I murmured something to Melissa. I didn’t know what it was, but it appeased her and she went back to her computer.

I sought out our instructor, told him Peter’s request, and he nodded. “Yes. Yes, indeed. Go and wait. We’re going over a few items before he comes in, but I’m sure you’ve already read them, so you won’t miss a thing.”

Like my advisor, my instructors were quick to realize I was ahead in the class. I knew word got around among the professors about my photographic memory, and after the first week of watching, making sure I didn’t take that gift for granted and that I read ahead, and read ahead a lot, all of them eased up on me. Not that I’d been worried. But there was a stereotype of gifted people purposefully pissing away their talent.

I wasn’t going to do that. Ever.

I’d lived on the other side, with a single mom who worked double shifts four out of seven nights a week. She worked. She suffered. She sacrificed.

Setting my things down at my normal computer, I took my coffee and phone and went to the hallway to wait.

Hoda was coming in as I was leaving.

We both stopped.

“Oh.” Hoda’s surprise closed down, her eyelids shuttering. “Sorry.” Liam was coming in right after her.

He stopped, stared at me, a slow blink. “Sorry about being an ass Friday night.”

“You weren’t an ass to me.”

“It was your man’s place. Your brother I was mouthing off to.” He crossed his arms over his chest and gazed down to the floor. His jaw clenched. “I’d be massively stupid to piss off the Francis family. A guy like me, I don’t look like a computer person. I look like a jock. I was a jock. I was supposed to go pro, until I blew my knee out in a basketball injury. Thank fuck it happened early in my undergrad so I was able to process and get smart. Computers are the only other thing I’m good at, so I don’t want to fuck up my future a second time.” That tic again from his jawline. “I’m sorry. Can you relay that to your man and your brother?”

“Kash didn’t pay attention to you on Friday. He knows you exist. He knows everyone in the room behind us. But what you did Friday night didn’t even filter in with him. He’s got bigger opponents to demolish. I’m not saying that to be a dick. Just reality.”

Liam grinned at the word demolish.

“And as for Matt … He liked you.”

His grin vanished. “You serious?”

I nodded, sighing a little. “Matt’s got a warped idea of fun. You made that night fun for him.”

“He’s got his eye on Melissa.”

“He does.” It was what it was. “I tell him to back off and he’ll take it as a challenge. It’s gotta run its course. All I can say.”

He nodded, his eyes thoughtful. “I get that.” He squinted at me, his head cocked to the side. “That mean we’re going to see more of your brother?”

“Yeah.” I grinned.

He grinned, too. “Then I better figure out how to handle a future billionaire playboy.”

My stomach shrank a little at that phrase, but it was true.

It was something that’d been on my mind, but I hadn’t been really giving it much attention. Money. Matt, Seraphina, Cyclone, They all had trust funds set in place. I knew Matt was already getting money from one of his. Peter had money. He had a lot of money. But there’d been no mention of any of that money coming to me.