Page 41 of Crave You

“Yes, fucking Matthew has her,” he says, an amused tone in his voice. “But I haven’t hurt her. And I won’t. If you do something for me.”

“What’s that?” I ask.

“Disband Valens. Do whatever you have to get that house wiped off the college’s list of societies. You have twenty-four hours to make that group disappear, if you want Leona’s pretty little face to stay that way.” He cuts the call off.

For a moment the room is silent as well stare at each other in horror. Then, we are all talking at once. I don’t listen to what the others are saying. I have already decided that I will do whatever I need to do to ensure Leona’s safety. I will burn Valens to the ground myself. Hell, I will watch the whole fucking world burn if it means saving my girl. And when the fire is over, I will pluck Leona from its ashes, and then I will kill Matthew. Slowly and painfully. I will make him cry for his mamma and I won’t stop when he does.

The noise around me dies down and soon only Shawn is still speaking. “OK guys, let’s start making some calls. Lucien, find out where the hell Matthew is keeping Leona. The rest of us will call the Valens members and let them know the group is shutting down temporarily,” he says.

“Wait, you’d actually agree to shutting Valens down for Leona?” I say.

“For you,” Shawn says, looking decidedly uncomfortable. “Leona is your girl that makes her part of the family.”

I go to him and put my arm around his shoulder. “I’m sorry about earlier,” I say.

“Me too, man. Now let’s find Matthew and get Leona back,” Shawn says.

“I can help with that.” A new voice that I know interrupts us. I spin around and see that it’s fucking Tilly.

I start towards her, but Damien grabs a hold of me again.

“I’m not going to punch her,” I say. “I’m just going to march her back out of the door.”

“Listen to her Zan, before you do something you can’t undo. She said she can help us.”

“Why the fuck would I believe that?” I demand.

It’s Tilly who responds, not Damien. “Look. All of this me and you shit, Zan, it was never about me liking you. It was about what you could do for me. You have the sort of contacts I need for my career. I wanted to get close to you so I could get to meet the right people. Promise me you’ll hook me up and I’ll tell you everything you need to know to get Leona back.”

“Wait. Why would you help us, even if Zan does as you ask?” Erin says. “And how is it that you might know where Matthew could be?”

“It’s no secret that I’m not a huge fan of Leona,” Tilly says. “But I know Matthew. Push him and he will go too far. I don’t dislike the girl enough to want her dead. And I don’t want to see my brother serving a life sentence because of her, either. I think that answers both of your questions.”

Everyone looks at each other, waiting for me to decide.

“I’ll introduce you to anyone you want to know,” I say. “If whatever you tell us is true and we get Leona back unhurt.”

Tilly smiles grimly. “You know the storage unit place on Sixth Street?” she says. I don’t, but Lucien is nodding his head. “Matthew has a unit there which he uses for . . . well for shit like this. It’s number one seventy-three.”

With that she turns and leaves, but the rest of us burst into action.

“Do you know where this place is Lucien?” I ask.

He says he does.

“Right, you drive,” I say.

The four of us start to head out, followed by Erin and Laurel.

“No,” I say turning back to them. “You two wait here.”

“No way,” Erin says. “Leona’s one of our best friends. We’re coming with you. You don’t have to worry about us getting into a fight. We just want to be there if Leona needs someone.”

“If she needs someone, I’ll be there,” I say.

“Erin, drop it. You’re not coming,” Shawn says. “Just wait here. Every moment we stay here arguing about this is a moment when Tilly might decide to screw us over and tell Matthew we’re on our way.”

Erin makes a frustrated sound, but the girls stay where they are. We get in the car and Lucien floors it.

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