Page 52 of Study Buddies

I marched him to his bedroom, shoving him inside. “Last time I’m going to ask nicely. Where’s the fucking necklace?”

He shook his head, and I couldn’t tell if he was being stubborn or just scared. Not that it mattered.

Lucas appeared at the door.

“You don’t want to be here for this, bro,” I told him.

He ignored that, holding up a black phone. “He dropped this back there. I want to check if he has any videos or pictures of her.”

Shit, I hadn’t thought of that. I dragged the dipshit over and held him steady while Lucas put the phone up to his face.

“Hey, that’s mine,” Todd complained. If he didn’t like Lucas messing with his phone, hereallywasn’t going to like what was coming next.

Lucas studied the screen. “Got it.”

“If you find anything?—”

“I know what to do.” He headed back down the hallway, but then he paused. “Don’t kill him, Kyle. He’s not worth it.”

No. But Tori was.

I stepped back into the bedroom and closed the door.

Ten minutes later,I stormed out into the living room. Tori was perched on the armrest of the sofa. Lucas stood next to her, his arm around her shoulders.

“Here.” I handed her the necklace. I’d scrubbed both it and my hands clean in that loser’s bathroom.

She clutched it like a lifeline, and there was no doubt that it was the real one. “Thank you,” she whispered, staring at it as if trying to memorize it.

“Did you find anything on his phone?” I asked Lucas.

He shook his head. “But I snapped the SIM Card, anyway.”

Good.

Tori finally tore her gaze away from the necklace. “Wait, SIM Cards aren’t used for storage.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “I know.”

I almost laughed. Was my stepbro finally growing a pair?

“Let’s get out of here,” Lucas said, holding out his hand to Tori.

She jumped up, but I stopped her. “Wait a minute.” I understood her desire to get the hell out of here, but she deserved to know the whole truth. “I found something else. These were in his dresser.” I handed her a cloth bag that I’d swiped from his closet.

Tentatively, she pulled the drawstring open and looked inside. Then she gasped. “He stole my panties?”

Lucas swore under his breath.

“He stole my fucking panties?” Tori repeated, louder this time. Some of the color came back to her face.

“Afraid so.” I didn’t point out what he’d likely been doing with them.

“That asshole!”

“He’s out cold on his bed,” I said. “You can kick him in the nuts. It’ll give him something else to think about when he comes to.”

For a second, she actually looked tempted, and it made me realize how much I liked this girl, but then she shook her head. “Let’s just get out of here.” But she didn’t move as she looked at the cloth bag. “Could one of you please get rid of these? I don’t want them anymore.”

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