Page 40 of The Knight

So I lean forward, get up on my tip toes, and give Blake another taste of what he wants: me.

* * *

It's not until we're about to pull up to Coleridge that my mind leaves the lust-fueled nirvana I've been in and I hand the camera over to Blake, telling him to take a look at the photos and video I took.

"There should be enough to at least get a detective you guys trust to get a warrant and investigate further, but I'm not sure how much audio I got." Reaching the gate, I pull over to punch in the after hours code so I can park Cole's car in the lot, my mind racing as I think about how it'll feel to watch Hass get arrested. "Do you think he'll be doing the perp walk by noon tomorrow? God, I hope so. It would be the best belated Christmas present ever."

"Brenna..."

There's something strange and empty in Blake's voice, so I look over, wondering if he's going to tell me he regrets all that kissing. He keeps acting like he thinks it'll bother the other guys, but from what I can tell none of them felt more than a passing attraction towards me, even Lukas.

That isn't it, though. Blake is holding the camera between his hands, a stricken expression on his face, and the screen is black.

"The photos." My mind knows what he's going to say before he says it, and I white-knuckle the car steering wheel so tight that my fingertips go numb. "Brenna, they're gone. They're all gone."

Chapter 17

Iwalk towards Carthage Library in a stupor, Blake trailing behind me with the camera in his hands, muttering as he tries to figure out a way to recover it. There's a dim hope that the SD card will have the data on it once we pull it out, but it's such a long shot I don't dare to even consider it for more than a moment or two.

I know how this is going to end.

In my mind, I can already see Cole's angry face when I tell him that I'm the one who fucked up. I'll have to admit that I fell and dropped the camera, which was probably when the photos got fucked up.

Briefly, I wonder if Georgia is going to show up at my door demanding to know what happened. She had to have sheltered me from Hass for a reason, just like there's a reason why he "found" me in that trunk on the side of the road. I suspect Georgia has a better motivation than Hass, but even then I don't dare trust her as far as I can throw her—which would be, admittedly, not far at all, even though she's toothpick thin.

My mind is wandering. I don't want to think about what's going to happen when I tell the others how it's all gone wrong. Maybe they'll demand I leave Coleridge anyway, because their part of the bargain is up. They helped me, after all, even though Hass won't be arrested based on our ludicrous story about girls and a plane. No doubt if we go to the cops now, without any proof, he and his family will just sweep it under the rug, and it'll be like the girls never existed at all. Blake didn't even see most of it, and I doubt the word of an identity thief like me will sway the cops into getting a warrant for the house of foreign dignitaries, which Hass's parents are. I'd be laughed right out of the precinct in the middle of trying to make the report.

We have nothing, which means that girl will be trapped with Hass until he gets bored of her. No, I decide, as I take the steps to the library and grasp the heavy door handle. If I have to I'll break into Hass's vacation house and free her myself while he's out—she shouldn't have to suffer for my stupid, clumsy mistake.

"I'm sure we can do something with this," Blake says from behind me, holding up the scratched SD card and squinting at it. "Lukas knows way more about computers than you might think. Despite how much time he spends on his hair. He can probably reformat it or whatever they do with these things."

Blinking, I stare at him, mouth slightly agape. "Re...format it?" Blake stares back at me. "Do you knownothingabout computers?"

To my shock, he flushes at the collar, looking genuinely embarrassed. "It's not that I'm a technophile. It's just that the written word on paper is so much more...clean.Why would I rely on computers when pulp and lead have gotten it done for thousands of years?"

I shake my head at him, truly surprised to discover Blake Lee has a flaw—other than, of course, being a general asshole with a cold personality and the inability to smile, all of which I've been proven wrong about from just a simple kiss that electrified everything.

"Leave the computer stuff to Lukas," I tell Blake. "He's the expert on this kind of stuff."

"That was the plan," he says defensively. "I leave the tech stuff to DuPont, and he leaves the being-devilishly-handsome to me."

It's the first time I've ever heard Blake preen, much less watched him do it right next to me, and it's fascinating. He throws a rogue one-sided smile at me, practically tripping over his feet as we go up the stairs to Carthage's second floor, and my stomach does a little flip-flop at the sight of him becoming awkward because of me.

Unlike him, though, I don't think Lukas will be able to fix the SD card. It's clearly scratched and bent beyond repair; nothing will help us recover the photos if the physical card is lost. The only hope we have is that Lukas somehow managed to get into the encrypted partition on my brother's laptop, which he's had all day and been working on diligently, using the notes I took on possible passwords my brother may have used. If Hass is somehow connected to the men who took me, then the partition could very well hold information that will take him down—along with all the other men involved. Without gettingsomesort of evidence soon, I might just go crazy walking these halls with Hass day in and day out, knowing he should be in prison but unable to make it happen.

As we walk through the stacks upstairs, heading towards the wide-open study area where we're meeting the guys, I cross every finger and toe that something can be done about the SD card or the partition or, simply, any of it at all. If all else fails, Mariana could choose to release the video of Hass and testify against him, but I know I could never ask her.

It'll be up to the five of us in this room to take down Hass.

Looking from Lukas, to Tanner, and finally to Cole, I wonder if it'll be enough. So much privilege under one roof, combined with my burning need for revenge, and even then we might not be able to pull it off.

"Well?" Cole leans forward, an eager look on his face that reminds me uncomfortably of what it was like when he teased me last semester, pouring dirty water on my artwork and manipulating me like a pawn in his games. "What did you get? Is it enough, you think, to get a warrant?"

Blake answers by throwing the SD card down on the table. It slides towards Lukas, spinning as it goes, and he quickly reaches out to stop its movement before it can plummet off the edge of the table. He holds it up and immediately frowns when he sees the state it's in.

In a bored voice, Blake says, "We damaged the SD card. Hope you can fix it."

Glancing over at him, I wonder a little why he saidwe,but don't have much time to examine it. Lukas is pulling out his laptop and an SD card reader, along with a microfiber cloth from his bag. While he gets to work fiddling with the card reader and trying to get something off of it, I grab the seat next to Tanner, and Blake sits next to me—even going so far as to scoot his chair over so it's as close as it can plausibly get.

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