His Revenge by Charlene Raquel

Chapter Seventeen

 

 

Bring him into the fold, who says that? Drew wondered.

Parker motioned to Eric with his head. Eric leaned his forearms on the table. “This group you see here is the next generation of the Scorpio Society. The next leaders. We have our own agenda and a different philosophy and selection process than the current regime. Not everyone in this room is a member yet. Some may never be. They need to prove their loyalty and earn their place with us.”

Adrian glanced at Parker. “We haven’t ruled on your acceptance yet.” He looked to Parker again. “There are certain… factors… that need to be remedied.”

Drew raised an eyebrow. “And they are?”

Eric smirked. “Not so fast.”

Drew blew out a breath. “Cut the shit. Lay it all out on the table.”

Greg’s face took on a sinister smile. “We require the addition of certain targeted individuals who would provide mutual benefits for all. You would have to assist with that task. Also, your friends are not suitable for our purpose. We would have to approve any close associations outside of our group.”

Drew could tell they were holding something back. “And?”

Eric sneered. “And that includes your companionship. Clarissa’s father owns a very profitable tech company. Keeping her satisfied and supervised would benefit our needs.”

Drew’s heart began to pound, and he was ready to lose his shit. Rip’s voice in his head was not doing anything to calm him. “Relax, buddy. Just agree for now. You don’t know what they are capable of, and you have no back up. We can’t get to you in time if they decide to take you out. Be cool.”

Drew locked himself down. “Is that all?” He did his best to sound bored, but he thought Parker might have seen through it. The guy was watching him too closely.

Adrian smiled in a calculating way. “For now. Are we in agreement?”

“I haven’t heard your cause or agenda yet.” Drew did a sweeping look at the crowd. “I don’t know what I’m agreeing to.”

Eric glanced at Parker and then Greg. “You play along for a few weeks and don’t dick us around, we’ll bring you inside.”

Drew’s fury was trying to break through his control. He needed to get out of there. “I don’t follow along unless there is something in it for me.”

Greg laughed. “Trust us. There’ll be something in it for you. We’ll compromise. If everything is the way it's supposed to be by the president’s party, we’ll know you’re serious.”

“You can play along for a week, Drew. We’ll get the guys and form a plan. Don’t fuck this up.” Drew could hear the worry in Rip’s voice. The man knew Drew was close to beating the hell out of the assholes in front of him.

Adrian stood. “Do we have a deal?”

Drew nodded and moved to rise from his seat. “I’ll play nice until one of you tries to fuck with me.” He got a couple of feet from the table when Eric joined him.

“We’re going to escort the ladies home. They shouldn’t be walking around campus alone.” Eric raised his hand and motioned for Brittney and Clarissa over.

Shit! Drew needed to escape but he was going to be held under a microscope. “Let’s go.”

“It’s just a walk home, buddy. Not a date.”

Clarissa clung to his arm so tightly he would have to use a pry bar to get her off. “Yeah, right,” he said that to Rip out loud.

Clarissa leaned into him. “What did you say, Andy?”

He stopped walking and turned to her. “Don’t ever call me that again.”

Eric raised his eyebrow in challenge.

Drew continued walking. “It’s Drew or Andrew. Not Andy. Ever.”

Clarissa hung onto his arm and laid her head against him. “Whatever you want.”

Drew had to pretend to listen to what Clarissa and Brittany were gabbing about, but his head was on the woman in his bed who would flip her lid if she knew he was walking someone else home. He prayed Brittany lived in a different building than Clarissa. If they were roommates, he was screwed.

“Calm down, Drew. Your answers are too clipped.” Rip reminded over the com.

When Eric and Brittany turned off toward Brittany’s on campus dorm room, Drew wanted to fist bump. He would drop off the clingy, whiny bitch on his arm at her door and leave as quickly as he could. During the few minutes they were walking, she trash-talked every female at the party and several he didn’t know. He could hardly take being in her presence.

“So, you’ll come?”

“What?” He hadn’t been paying any attention to her.

“She invited you to watch her play.” Rip added.

“You’ll come watch me play sometime?” Clarissa batted her eyes at him.

“Yeah, maybe.”

She jumped up and down. “Yay! I can’t wait for you to see me beat that bitch, Gwen. She thinks she’s such hot shit on the court. She’s only there because the athletic director owed her father something, otherwise she would be out on her ass.”

“Drew. Drew!” Rip yelled in his ear. “Don’t say anything, man. You need to keep yourself together. Do not screw everything up. You’ve gotten this far.”

Drew’s vision turned red, and his body vibrated with fury. He would never raise his hand against a woman and didn’t believe or condone any sort of physical altercation between men and women, but this horribly ugly creature next to him made him almost lose his temper enough to shake her until she learned some sense. How could someone be so vicious and cruel, and thrive on hurting others?

She didn’t seem to notice his anger or the fact that he didn’t answer her.

“Ask her what the athletic director owed Gwen’s father.” Rip was shadowing Drew and Clarissa and could step in if necessary.

Drew had to unclench his jaw. “What did Ted owe her father?” Ted Hall was the weaselly, smarmy, athletic director who wanted everyone to call him, Coach, even though he didn’t coach anything and probably never had. Drew couldn’t stand the guy.

“What?” She had already moved on to other topics.

“Ted, the athletic director, what did he owe her father?” Drew tried to sound nonchalant, but he didn’t know if it worked.

“Ohhh. You didn’t hear? Mr. Mason helped Coach Hall out of a very embarrassing situation.” She was going to tell Drew the story, but she wanted him to ask her.

“I’m going to look into Hall.” Rip assured him.

“I hadn’t heard the gossip yet.”

She bounced again. “It’s soo good. Coach Hall was caught in his office with two girls, and he was going to be fired, but somehow Mr. Mason was able to hush everything up. I heard the two girls were being paid well to keep the coach happy, if you know what I mean.”

Rip growled. “Please tell me those girls were over eighteen.”

“Were they students?” Drew asked carefully.

“Yeah, sophomores. They were working their way through college. I guess they had to do something like that since they didn’t have successful parents like ours. How else would they get that kind of money? Can you imagine not being able to pay for college? They shouldn’t be able to attend here at all. There’s state schools for that.”

Drew was a second away from giving her the tongue lashing of the century when she announced they arrived at her house.

“We’re here. Do you want to come inside?”

“Not tonight.” He watched her huff and didn’t attempt to hide her anger. “It’s late and I have soccer practice early.” He needed to do something, so he brushed her bleached hair over her shoulder. He didn’t want to touch her at all. “The anticipation of seeing me again will make things so much better.”

She surprised him by leaning up and kissing him in a sneak attack. He moved back quickly but fisted her hair to keep her away from him. “You haven’t earned that yet.”

Her eyes flared in excitement.

Drew dropped his hand and moved back out of her reach. “Good night, Clarissa.”

“Night, baby.” She blew him a kiss.

He couldn’t escape fast enough, but as soon as he was around the corner of her building, Parker stepped in front of him.

Drew had seen Rip duck behind some bushes. Obviously, Rip hadn’t seen him either.

“What do you want now, Parker?”

“Just wanted to make sure you got Clarissa home safely.”

“As you can see, she’s arrived at her apartment.”

“Did she taste as good as she looks?”

Drew wasn’t going to give Parker anything else.

“She’s much better for you than your current piece. It would be such a shame if you broke Clarissa’s heart and slummed it with someone unsuitable.” Parker sighed dramatically. “We’ve had to help those in our ranks let go of some of the things that were bad for them. I hope that isn’t the case for you.”

Drew pulled his fist back to hit Parker, when a gunshot rang out close by, disturbing the quiet neighborhood.

Both men turned toward the noise and Drew realized it was probably Rip, creating a distraction so Drew didn’t kill Parker.

Sirens were coming closer. “We have to get out of here.” Parker jogged off, disappearing in the darkness.

“Did you shoot that gun?”

Rip shrugged. “Had to do something.”

Drew began to jog and then run. He increased his speed in hopes of outrunning his rage. Parker just threatened his woman. Drew stopped, bending over with his hands on his knees. He needed to find Parker and beat the hell out of him. He turned to do just that when a hand flattened against his chest.

“Get off me!” Drew screamed into the night.

“Stand down. We’re not going to let anything happen to her. Be smart, man. We learned a lot of important information tonight. We’re on the right track to stop all of this. Just a little bit longer. You can’t do anything right now.”

Drew’s breath was coming out in bursts. “Would you stand down if it was your woman that was threatened? Huh? They threatened to kill her, Rip!”

“It would fuck me up, but I would not risk her life going after someone when we don’t have all of the information. You go after Parker and someone else could step in and hurt her. We don’t know all the players or how they’re all connected. You got us closer tonight. You got us important intel that will change everything.”

Drew ran his hands through his hair, pulling on the ends. “I want to take her and run.”

Rip nodded. “I know you do, and I would probably want to do the same thing, but Drew, you know that wouldn’t last. It would follow after you. Trouble always does. We need to end it.”

They walked back in silence, with Rip stealing glances every few minutes to check on Drew. His car was at the athletic complex, but Drew needed to walk off some of his anger.

A block away from the house, Drew stopped and turned to Rip. “I’m going to end things with her until we make her safe. You can’t tell her. She’ll want to take the risk and face them together. I can’t let her do that. It’s going to crush her, and she’ll likely not talk to any of us, but I need to keep her safe. They will hurt her or kill her. I need to keep her safe. And that’s away from me.”

“Shit.” Rip rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ll keep her safe without her knowing it. She probably won’t allow us to put a security system in her place, but we’ll deal with that later.”

Drew dropped his head, barely acknowledging Rip. “Yeah.”

“When are you going to tell her?”

“Tomorrow. I need one more night with her before I crush both of our hearts and make her hate me.”