Page 6 of Cruel Legacy

He points to the seat across from him. I take it and wait. It’s all a game to him and I’ve learned no matter what I say, he’ll never start the inquisition any faster than he wants to. It’s not just me, he does this to. Making people wait in awkward silence is an effective tactic. One I’ve adopted. People spill their secrets to fill the silence.

“You did well las night.” He says, immediately putting me on edge. Dad’s done two things out of character. Spoken before the ten-minute mark, and paid me his version of a compliment. “Even with the delayed start, you and your team performed admirably.”

Of course, he knows we didn’t start at the same time as everyone else. It’s hard to keep secrets from him, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. “Thank you, sir.”

I’m ready for him to flip out and demand to know why we were late getting to the final starting point. Instead, he continues to act like he’s been body snatched. He smiles, pleased I haven’t left my manners at the bunker. I watch as he sips his drink, takes a tote of his cigar, and then sets the full weight of his stare on me. “It’s late, and I know you have a full day of classes tomorrow, but there’s been a development.”

“What kind of development?” It could be anything, but it’s probably someone complaining the teams are unevenly matched. There’s been talk about splitting me and my friends up, but so far nothing’s come of it. If tonight is the night they pull that card, this little visit’s gonna get real bad, real quick. I’m prepared to fight with everything I have to keep us together. Consequences be damned.

“In the next few days, you’ll be getting a new resident at Vale Tower.”

Not where I saw this going, but I prefer this to answering any other questions he might have.

“This guy. You want me to guide him towards Rho Beta Psi?” If dad’s interested, it’s the logical thing to do.

“It’s a female, and I want you to keep an eye on her. Report back everything she does and says. No matter how small or unimportant you think it is.”

A girl? He wants me to babysit and report back on a girl? “Who is she?” I ask, trying to get more information. At the same time, I’m thinking of who I can farm this job off to.

“We really don’t know yet. We were only just alerted she’s starting in a few days and they’ve put her on your floor.”

My eyebrows shoot up and he smirks at me. It’s the first hint of emotion I’ve shown. But he’s gotta cut me some slack. Vale Tower is a legacy building. Priority goes to descendants of the Legacy Twelve. The twelve families who initially donated money to have the school built. Your room and floor assignment depends on the amount of the initial donation, and how many generations of your family have attended Canyon Falls University since the beginning. We live like kings and queens in that building. It even has a small store on the first floor. Someone popping up out of the blue and getting luxury accommodations just doesn’t happen.

He continues, “It could be nothing. It probablyisnothing. Just a glitch in the dorm assignment, but I want you to handle this personally and provide me weekly status updates.”

“Understood, sir.”

He doesn’t have much more use for me. After an obligatory conversation about maintaining my GPA (which doesn’t really mean shit in our world, but it's just one more thing for him to brag about), he dismisses me.

I’m fuming on the drive back to campus. With everything else I have going on, the last thing I need to be doing is stalking some chick because some screw up put her on the wrong floor, in the wrong dorm.

Chapter3

Thea

I’ve lain in bed for as long as I can. I tossed and turned all night, unfamiliar with the sounds of this house. I hate that I can’t get a good night's sleep anywhere new, because foster care and group homes have conditioned me to always be on high alert at bed time. There’s always some idiot wanting to test the new girl in her sleep. More often than not, their attempts to surprise me gave them a personal introduction to Clint, the butterfly knife I’ve had since I was ten.

Some kid was flashing it around one day at the playground, bragging about all the cool knives his pop owned. I won it off of him in a race and never thought twice about him having to explain to his father where it went. If there was any fall out, I wasn’t around to hear about it, because I used the knife to defend myself against one of the bigger kids in the foster home, and got shipped off to a new location that same night.

I strain my ears, listening for sounds of other people. The house is just as quiet as it was last night. I roll out of bed and smooth the comforter down before heading to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth, then put on my change of clothes and retrace the path sourpuss and I walked last night. I get turned around a few times, but eventually find my way back to the foyer.

She mentioned off limit areas of the house, but all I care about is figuring out where my stuff is. I’m on a mission to find a garage. Do rich people even store their stuff in garages?

I walk outside and around the left side of the house. A set of stairs lead down to a pool, and then continue down to a beach with pristine white sand and the bluest water I’ve ever seen.

The map was misleading. It didn’t make it seem like the town was this close to the water. I’m itching to go down there and get in, but I’d have to swim in my clothes. Until I find my things, I need to treat my outfits like they’re made of the finest silk.

Continuing around the path to the other side of the house, I find the garage. I jiggle the handle on the door, and find it’s locked. There’s some type of key pad on it. Sourpuss didn’t give me any passwords or alarm codes, or keys to the house. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m pretty sure the front door had an electronic lock too. Great. I’ve locked myself out.

I don’t want to be rude and wake the house by ringing the doorbell, so I decide to wait it out. It’s a toss up between walking the beach and lounging by the pool. I settle on the latter and head back around the path, taking the stairs to the pool. I settle onto the chair closest to the middle of the patio because it gives me the best view of the beach. There are houses on both sides of us, but I can’t see over the gates or hedges.

Something’s moving along the shoreline. At first I think it’s the shadow from the sun creating a weird glare off of the water, but it’s getting closer. The blob is two yards out from the bottom of the stairs when I realize it’s a guy running on the beach, shirtless.

His body’s toned, with defined muscles. The guys from my old neighborhood are trim and athletic because they spend their free time playing basketball at the playground or flag football in the field behind one of the churches or schools. Some spend time at the boxing ring. They wouldn’t be caught deadrunning, unless it’s from a Rottweiler they’ve antagonized or the cops.

A noise behind me draws my attention away from the hottie on the beach. The glass door, which I hadn’t noticed next to a huge bay window, slides open. I jump to my feet and hurry towards the door, trying to make noise so I don’t spook the woman who just walked out. “Hello.”

She looks up from where she’s putting folded towels in the cabinet and says, “Miss LaReaux, Good Morning. I didn’t realize you were awake.” She finishes with the towels and closes the cabinet doors, heading back into the house.

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