Page 83 of In Prey We Trust

“For the last time… I was in class during the day. I met up with Professor Khan, who gallantly offered to walk me to the dorm so I could give him a paper for the other Professor Khan. We went to my dorm and when we turned on the lights, there was someone in my fucking bed like Goldilocks. I went over to wake them up and get them the hell out of my bed, and that’s when I knew she was dead. Professor Khan called for a crew and Headmistress Shirdal. The. End.”

The huge polar bear glares at me through his ridiculously huge mutton chop beard, his eyes dark with anger. I’ve never met him before and kind of hoped I never would. He hasn’t been on campus since I arrived and I suppose flighty fucking Henrietta called him back after she dealt with Kinsley’s parents. Headmaster Bathalzar Slechtsrijven obviously prefers not to be on campus and, based on his behavior, I can see why. I came here willingly and I’ve made my statement, but they keep hammering at me.

Why? What are they aiming at?

“I find it very suspicious that a girl so heavily involved in every negative incident at Apex last year is innocent when the trouble follows her to a new school,” he booms as he advances on me. His enormous frame doesn’t intimidate me—hello, I fucked a dragon—but I don’t know his motives, so I definitely don’t trust him. The past year has taught me to be smarter than that. Even people who should have your best interest at heart will sell you out for a dime.

The door busts open, splinters flying as the intruder decimates the locks with sheer brute force. I whip my head around to see Renard with a badger who looks like he could give Aubrey a run for his money in the ring. My gargoyle is smirking as he strolls in, half-shifted and menacing, but the badger looks like he’s going to massacre everyone in the room and ask questions later. Headmaster Balthazar huffs, puffing up his chest to compete with the bigger shifters, but it doesn’t work.

“Who the devil are you chaps? This is a private office and a private meeting.” He looks at the grizzlies. “Security will escort you out and off our campus immediately.”

Rennie drops into a big chair lazily, clearly unruffled. The badger, however, cracks his knuckles loud enough to sound like he broke his fingers and advances into the Headmaster’s space. I swallow hard as the massive shifter growls into Balthazar’s face. “My name is Goliath McCoy. I am a representative of Miss Drew’s attorney, Farley McCoy. You will cease interrogating her immediately by his demand.”

Holy shit, it’s a Postman!

“I don’t know what you’ve been told or how you got on campus, but you have no right to demand anything. Every student signs an agreement to comply with all Capital Prep regulations and Council laws—”

“I don’t believe you heard me.” Goliath gets in the bear’s face, so close they could kiss. “I said you will cease questioning my client. Under the Shifter Constitution of 1791 and the knuckles on my hands, you will comply or I will force the issue.”

“Fucking epic,” Rennie mutters as he drapes his legs over the arm of the chair, his tail swishing back and forth in glee. “I’m going to buy the gangster a new basket of toys for his triplets.”

So many images flit through my head that I almost short circuits and I hiss at him, “Stop that!”

“And I asked how you got onto my property, young man!”

The badger rolls his eyes, cracking his neck just as loudly as he holds up an envelope. “I am legally obligated to deliver this notice from the courts. It is for a Carina Rockland and the court order granted me permission to enter. However, once here, I received a call from my employer to prevent an illegal interrogation. I promise I will do anything necessary to accomplish my directive, including summoning my brother from the car to assist.”

The polar bear pales this time, moving away to stand behind his desk. “I’m calling out legal counsel. You can’t just—”

“Feel free, but you’ll find this is legally binding. Until now, our quibble was not with the school, but Farley will be happy to amend that. He believes you’ve breached your contract regarding standard of care, discrimination, and unlawful detention. However, he’s also researching other charges to levy as we speak.”

“Miss Drew is not being detained,” Henrietta says with a terrified squawk. “We merely asked her to give her account because the security team found a blond hair matching her description on the body, but she claimed not to have touched the body.”

Who the fuck is trying to goddamn frame me? This is out of control. At least at Apex, I knew who the fucking enemies were—mostly.

Goliath gives her a toothy grin, clearly pleased with himself. He pulls out a cellular phone, hitting a button, then putting it on speaker. “Boss, they called her in because they found a blond hair on the corpse.”

“Pray tell, Goalie, what color is our lovely, innocent client sporting at the moment?” The voice sounds eerily like Rufus, inflection and all, but has a soft twang to it.

“Uh, like a rainbow sherbet looking thing, Boss.”

The laugh that echoes out of the phone is much darker than my BFF. “So blond hair means absolutely dogshit in a spittoon. Is that all they have?”

“Excuse me, but I—”

“If I have to fly up there to handle this, I’m going to knock your teeth so far down your throat you’ll spit them out one by one, you pompous prat.” Farley pauses and I watch Balthazar swallow hard. “Put your listening ears on and keep it sharp because I won’t say this again: Delores Drew did not kill this student. She is innocent and if I have not made it crystal clear, she invoked.”

“But…” Henrietta starts and a dangerous snarl comes out of the phone.

“I said listen, which means mouths shut. In the spirit of cooperation, I will have forensic reports sent to your office to prove our claim and identify the true killer. Will that suffice?” The smugness coming over the line is damn near oozing, but my eyes cut to Rennie in panic.

We don’t have that evidence… Do we? We definitely can’t fake evidence!

“We can’t just accept third party, non-official evidence because you say so, Mr. McCoy.”

Farley sighs in annoyance, clearly ready to strangle the shitty bear from thousands of miles away. “Of course not, you boob. Our evidence was obtained by Professor Khan, documented by your clean-up team, and sent to the Head of Forensic Sciences at the Smithsonian. Chain of custody was maintained and she will testify in legal proceedings if necessary. No one can claim bias because, as you know, Dr. Bones is human and has no idea who we are.”

Mother of Zeus, what the hell did Aubrey do? And why didn’t they tell me this shit yet?

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