Page 140 of A University of Betrayal

“Did I give you permission to address me so informally?”

The director was at the limits of his composure.

“That’s exactly what I mean!” he said, addressing the mayor. “She thinks she’s something special.”

“Unlikeyou,Professor Copeland, Iam,”the co-director laughed, reaching for this year’s student file – which had not yet been digitalized – before turning on her heel. “And you’ll soon see how much better this institution will function undermymanagement.” She paused at the door and looked directly at the director for the first time. “Keep your...” She made a circular finger motion.“Cave.”Then she opened the door. “The office in the west wing tower is theonlycompromise I’lleveraccept.”

She left the door open and disappeared. Fortunately for her. One more off-the-wall comment and he would have hit the ceiling.

“You have to do something,” he pressed out and walked around his desk, toward the huge window that gave him the second-best view of the campus.

“My power is limited,” the mayor said behind him. “I’m not even supposed to be here.”

Just in that moment, it crossed his mind that he didn’t even know why she was here. He hadn’t asked her to come to him, had tried to handle the Harlow problem himself. So far without success.

But he would not let this madwoman abolish the elections and rob the university of the democracy it needed to bring together whatbelongedtogether.

“Why did you come?” he asked the mayor. “Did you miss this place?” He made a sweeping gesture with both hands without turning to face her. “Did you need something to remind you of her?”

He hadn’t asked this last question to the mayor but to Amara.

“Don’t do that,” he heard her fragile voice.

He knew he was right.

“You know me,” he sighed, watching one of the DeLoughreys park his matte gray sports car next to his niece’s car far too quickly, as if he wanted Nash’s guys, or even his niece herself, to go for his throat. “I won’t shut up.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s just like it was back then. Go ahead and look around.”

His gaze wandered over the meadow, the old oaks, the Midnights, and in the distance, rising up behind the thicket, he could even make out the town’s abandoned funfair with its Ferris wheel and curling rollercoaster rails.

These were not the places he meant. He meant this office. And the secret he had been hiding here for years.

He turned to Amara, but didn’t see anyone in his office. She was gone.

If Harlow hadn’t noticed the mayor, he would have wondered if he was still sane.

She had probably left because she couldn’t bear the thought of her dead sister.

Alice wasn’t the only old friend on his mind. NowTaniawas back, threatening to dig up old memories. And the painful realization that both women still occupied two incomparable places in his heart made him desperate.

He had to put them out of his mind, had to concentrate. On one specific person. The person with whom he would raise this place from the ashes or burn it completely into the ground.

Chapter 27

Quentin

Fire n My Head

Two Feet

I downed the smoky whiskey in one gulp and let the burn rush down my throat, hoping it would numb me inside, at least temporarily. Then I put the glass back before propping both elbows on the Midnight’s bar counter and cracking my knuckles.

The dimmed light from the vintage lamps, the quiet conversations around me andTwo Feetplaying on the jukebox gave me the deceptive feeling that I wasn’t quite so lonely.

But nothing could replace what J had given me whenever we had texted. No one had her intelligent humor, her thoughtful nature, her smart thoughts, anddamn,sex with her had been a whole other level, yet I hadn’t done nearly everything I planned to do with her.

I would be lying if I said that I had only had friendship on my mind until our first meeting. I knew from the first rush of messages that she was special and that I never wanted to let her go again because she gave me something I never had dared to dream of finding in this destructive world.

Inner peace.

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