Page 91 of Thorns of Malice

"I'm sorry, but I don't have any information for you on the culprit."

He sits back and drinks his bourbon. He swallows and states, "Okay. Assuming you didn't do it, did you see it? All of it?"

"No, I couldn't get past the first few seconds. Once Avery appeared, I turned it off," I lie.

"It's horrible," he whines. He scrubs his face and then finishes the liquor.

I sit back and cross my ankle over my knee.

He glares at me and points again. "You have to clean this up."

I grunt. "How am I supposed to clean it up?"

"You always clean things up. I know how it works around here."

"You're misinformed."

"Bullshit!"

I let a few tense moments pass, then claim, "I don't have the ability to make this go away. If I could, I would."

"The board could get rid of me for this. It can destroy the university. It's already..." He glances at his watch. "It's been up for over five hours. Do you know how much damage that can do in five hours?"

I casually say, "Since it was sent to everyone's email, I'm sure it'll be viral worldwide within no time. It's already hit the national news."

He scoots the chair back and rises. His belly jiggles when he starts pacing. "This isn't one of your games, Dax."

"Dean, you're starting to sound like a broken record. And I'll remind you again that you better have some proof before you accuse me of things," I warn.

He turns the computer screen toward me and clicks on the video, stating, "Your sister's in it."

"Yes, we've already discussed that," I remind him.

He fast-forwards the video and then pauses it. He points out, "That's Avery."

I don't have to pretend when I shake my head in disgust. "Yeah, it is."

"Look." He pushes the pause button.

Avery's sniffing lines of coke off some coed's ass. Then, the camera changes to her with another coed. She has a badly implemented butterfly tattoo on her stomach meant to cover a large birthmark.

"She sniffs coke off that girl's—" He cuts off his whine.

I arch my eyebrow. To taunt him further, I ask, "Off her what?"

He keeps his mouth shut and hits pause so Avery's nose is right on the girl's clit.

I don't say anything or give any outward reaction.

Bramwell continues to stare at me, distraught.

I offer, "I think the word you're looking for is pussy."

"Jesus, Dax. I'm going to lose my job," he cries.

"Calm down. You're not going to lose your job. The board's not going to do shit unless I approve it, and you know it," I remind him.

"This will destroy the university."

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