Page 62 of Raise 'Em Up

“No you fucking don’t! All you want is to control me,” I growl. “You know I don't take drugs. Drinking alcohol? Yeah, on occasion, but even that's stopped. This isn't about wanting to help me.” I lean in so only he can hear me. “You're pissed that I beat you at something, and now you want to destroy me.”

I look at the Dean, who seems confused, watching the show. “You're only enabling him. Giving him what he wants while ruining my future in the process. Anyone with eyes can see this man doesn’t fucking care about me,” I scoff, shaking my head.

I can't believe this is happening right now.

“I hope when you go to sleep tonight, your pillow feels like stone, and when you finally get to eat your favorite meal, it tastes like ash.”

The security guard grabs my arm and starts tugging me toward the door.

“Let me fucking go!” I roar, fighting to get free. “I’m going to arrest your ass!”

Mateo and Donny are running up the hill to get to me, but it's too late.

“Lennox!” Mateo shouts, his eyes wide, furious and confused. “What the fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know,” I snarl, thrashing in the guard’s hold.

“We will find you, Lennox. We won’t let them get away with this!” Donny shouts as I'm dragged toward the parking lot.

Mateo is fighting a few guards as he struggles to get to me. We lock eyes and I see true fear reflected in them. I’m yanked around until I’m in the parking lot, where there's a white van that has a rainbow painted on the side with a large X through it. What the fuck kind of van is this?

The vehicle is idling.

“No,” I gasp, shaking my head frantically, still trying to break away from the people holding me. “No, stop! Please, don't do this!” I yell and shout, looking over my shoulder at Mateo.

He's screaming at my father, while Colt and Donny are trying to restrain him.

I'm tossed into the van, and the door closes behind me. It's locked and I can't break free.

I start banging on the window, hoping someone, anyone, will help me. I’m being fucking kidnapped, and no one is fucking doing anything about it!

“This can't be happening,” I whisper to myself in disbelief. If this is what the side of that van looked like, I'm not being sent to rehab. This is a fucking conversion camp van.

When someone speaks from the front seat, my blood chills. “Welcome, Lennox Crane,” the voice purrs happily.

My head shoots to the side and my eyes widen in surprise, then narrow in anger.

“You,” I growl. She doesn't turn to look at me, but she begins to cackle like the witch she is.

Fucking hell. How is this happening right now? I'm so over all the damn dramatics with this crazy bitch. Can't we just catch a break?

“What the hell just happened?” I ask, panting.

I'm out of breath as I come to a stop. I look over and see a rainbow van disappearing from the parking lot. When we got the 911 text from Lennox, Donny and Mateo took off running. Colt was a little bit behind them, and I was trying to catch up. “What is going on?!”

“That fucking monster!” Donny growls, running an angry hand through his hair.

I look over to see that Mr. Crane has a nasty smirk on his face and pep in his step as he thanks the Dean, shakes her hand, then walks off to his car.

Once his vehicle is gone, the security guards let a murderous Mateo go. “You all fucking suck!” he roars. “Can’t even do your job. You should be arrested. You just let a student get kidnapped!”

“Wait, what?!” I shout, my eyes widening as I look back in the direction the van went. My stomach sinks in dread. “Please tell me that van didn’t have Lennox in it,”

“That fucking bastard did it,” Donny shouts, waving his hand in the air. “This is his fucking payback for being blackmailed a few months ago.”

Teo is shaking. He's quiet. His eyes are bright with murder. Whatever he’s silently plotting, it’s going to be vengeful and bloody.

And I'm not mad about it.

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