Page 73 of Keeping Score

“Seriously?” Corvin snaps as he makes his way toward the other sofa with the rest of the crew following him. Cody drops down beside him while Saint, Crue and Katie take the bean bags. Leah looks to me. I take pity on my girl and lean over toward her to whisper.

“You were screaming my name loud enough for the neighbors to hear.” I expect her to blush, cover her face or run from the room but what I don’t expect is for her to laugh and point at her brother.

“Payback, fucker,” she says through her laughter, which just causes everyone but Corvin to laugh along with her.

“Next ball I throw is aimed right at your dick, asshole,” he spits at me, causing us all to laugh harder. Fuck, this feels good to be able to laugh with him and have no secrets between us. We all settle into comfortable silence as we watch the stupid show the girls all seem to enjoy. Beck comes ambling into the room halfway through the first episode. Leah sits up and pats the spot beside her. He drops down, smiling at her. She switches around so her feet are on his lap and her head rests on mine.

Good call, baby, I think to myself. If her head had of been on his lap, I would have smacked her ass right here in front of everyone. By the time the third episode rolls around, Leah is fast asleep and Cody is crashed out, snuggled into Corvin’s side. I look down at the three on the floor and see Katie sleeping in Saint’s arms while holding Crue’s hand.

“I kind of feel bad,” Corvin says to no one in particular.

“About what?” Crue asks.

“Beck’s the only one not getting any action.” I snort out a laugh and try to mask it by coughing. “I mean, Nathan is asleep upstairs,” Corvin tacks on, earning a dry stare from Beck.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m still sated from my recent action with Darius and a certain someone.” The smile drops straight off Corvin’s face, I’ll admit I have to fight to keep from laughing because Beck just bummed Corvin right the fuck out.

“Dick move, asshole,” Corv mutters. Saint grabs the remote and switches the channel. The rest of us mutter our thanks. The only reason I watch that shit is because of Leah. Saint pauses his channel surfing when we spot a picture of Garrett being displayed on the news.

“Turn it up,” Beck orders.

‘Local homicide case has now been closed. Police have arrested the culprit who will be remanded in custody awaiting trial early next week. Garrett Jones family have said they don’t understand how this could have happened, their son was loved and adored amongst his peers.’All of us mutter about how full of shit they are. Garrett wasn’t liked by anyone.‘It’s shocked the entire community to find out–’The reporter stops speaking and presses on the earpiece in her ear, her eyes widen a second before she faces the camera again.‘I’ve just been notified of the identity of the alleged suspect.’ My eyes pop open so wide that they begin to water when a picture of Victor is plastered on the screen. ‘Business mogul, Victor Hayes is now in police custody. Casey is live outside the station, over to you Casey.’

Another woman appears on camera out in front of the local police station where we can see Victor in handcuffs being led inside by four officers.‘Yes, Maddie. I’m here as officers lead Victor Hayes inside to process him. We have been informed that an eyewitness came forward with video evidence of Mr. Hayes at the site where Garrett Jones’s remains were located. Police also found other evidence linking Mr. Hayes to the murder–’

Saint puts the TV on mute, cutting off whatever else the reporter had to say. I sit here staring at the TV but not really seeing anything as my mind reels with what I just learned. Victor is going to jail for Garrett’s murder. Victor was nowhere near that frat house last week.

“Darius!” I shake my head and turn to Corvin who looks slightly concerned. “You good?” I don’t know how the hell I’m supposed to answer that. Do I care that he’s in jail? I think about that for a second… No, I don’t care what happens to that piece of shit but how the hell did he get convicted?

“Say something,” Saint urges me.

“I don’t know what to say,” I utter quietly. I can feel all their gazes on me and something inside me says there is one person responsible for this. Slowly I turn to face Beckett, who has a blank stare plastered on his face. “How?”

“This would be the part where I tell you that you have plausible deniability and would recommend that you are better off not knowing the details. All you need to know is he won’t be getting out, nothing leads back to us and we’re all in the clear to carry on living our lives.” I see Beckett in a whole new light. We may not know everything about him or his past but he’s proven time and time again that he’s got all our backs. I nod before turning back to Corvin. I know the truth but I just need to hear him say it.

“He wasn’t dead when you got back there, was he?” Corv cuts a glance to Saint and Crue before looking back to me.

“It makes no difference. Leah’s safe and we have nothing to worry about, like Beck said. We never mention it again or ever speak about it. We leave it in the past and move on.”

Leah

Three weeks later…

It’s the last day of school before Christmas break. I’m so ready to get the hell out of here and spend the next two weeks at the cabin with myboyfriend–I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of saying that word. Corv and the others are coming too, even Nathan and my girls. I managed to convince Val and Dawson to come along as well. We met up the day I started back to school and stopped doing online classes. She is fucking awesome and so is her son. Dawson is the sweetest little boy you will ever meet. When I went over to their apartment that’s off campus, my heart broke. It’s a tiny one-bedroom apartment, not in the best area but she wasn’t granted a twin suite in the dorm and couldn’t afford to pay to live on campus whilst being a mom and student. I girl tutors and cleans just to make enough money to cover their livingexpenses. When I found out they would be alone for Christmas, I practically forced her to come with us. Her and Dawson are riding up with me, Cody and Katie.

“Ready, bitches?” Cody shouts as I finish packing the last of my stuff. I zip up my duffle and shoot her a toothy grin as I nod.

“Let’s go!” I squeal as I make my way out of mine and Darius’s room. Yeah, so, he got his way and I moved in here with him. The girls moved back into our old dorm room. Corvin had paid for my dorm for the year, so Katie jumped at the chance to share with Cody instead of going back to her old room. Honestly, I’m happy for them because I love coming home every day and getting to cuddle up with myboyfriend. Fuck, it’s only been like six hours and I miss him already.

“Come on, bitches,” Katie shouts the moment we come out the front door. I lock it before running over to Cody’s car. I dump my bag in the trunk before calling shotgun and slipping in next to Cody, forcing Katie to sit in the back. I rattle off the directions to Val’s place and Cody plugs it into her GPS. Fifteen minutes later we pull up out the front of Val’s place. She’s standing on the sidewalk with Dawson beside her. Cody parks and I jump out to help load her bags as she straps Dawson’s car seat into the car. She makes it look easy as hell putting that thing in. She buckles Dawson into his seat, then she rounds the car and hops in the middle seat.

“Let’s roll!” I shout excitedly, it’s an eight hour drive to the cabin so we won’t get there until late tonight but none of us care, we all just want to get the hell out of here. My phone rings, the girls groan knowing who it is since he decided to change his ringtone tooursong. I pull it out of my pocket and hit answer.

“Hey, you.” I ignore Cody fake gagging beside me.

“Hey, baby, have you left yet?” God just the sound of his voice has me practically panting.

“Yeah, we’re just hitting the interstate now.” The guys left last night to get everything set up and to do the food shopping for us. The girls and I couldn’t leave until today because the three of us and even Val had papers due and we couldn’t miss it.

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