Page 140 of Wicked Games

A week ago I wanted to personally destroy her. Now I’m so done with her that I never want to see her again. Letting my dad handle this is exactly what I need.

“And William?” I ask. “What are we going to do about him?”

Dad smiles coldly. “I had his pending membership terminated after I read Jace’s report, so that will be a delightful surprise for him when he comes back after the break. I also directed my IT team to do some digging into his father’s records and look into his pharmaceutical company after our last chat about him.”

I can’t stop my smile. My dad is diabolical when it comes to getting revenge on people, and he’s known for not only going after the person who wronged him but also their family, friends, and businesses. Only children are off limits to him, and it’s one of the main reasons no one fucks with us.

“It seems his R&D team is very close to developing an mRNA vaccine that targets cancer.”

“Really? That sounds profitable.”

“Very profitable,” he agrees. “They just put in the paperwork to start human trials next year.” His grin deepens. “It’s a shame there was a security breach in their system a few hours ago and all their research was leaked to their competitors. He’s out billions in funding and future revenue, and his investors are pulling out in droves. I’d say he has maybe three months before the company goes bankrupt.”

“Looks like poor William just cost himself his inheritance—and his meal ticket.”

“What’s that saying you boys always use? Fuck around and find out? I believe this is what you mean by the find out stage.”

“He’s definitely in the find out stage,” I say with a laugh.

Dad’s smile fades, and my good mood dissolves.

“We’ll discuss what happened this afternoon in more detail once we finish our investigation,” he says. “But our preliminary findings aren’t promising.”

“What did you find?”

“It’s what we didn’t find that’s the problem. There’s no smoking gun. Nothing that ties all three attempts to one person. We had our best go over the footage Jace has been working on, and the hack job that was done on Felix’s phone, but none of our guys were able to gain any additional insights. In fact, Jace’s tracking is miles ahead of theirs, so I’m not hopeful they’ll find anything that Jace hasn’t. The shooter is different. We were able to ID him.”

“Yeah?”

Dad nods. “He’s a nobody. Just a low-level thug who sometimes contracts out hits. His financials are clear, and we haven’t been able to find any correspondence between him and whoever hired him. He also has no connections to the school, to Felix, or to us. Whoever set this up covered their tracks, but it’s the use of these amateurs that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah. We can’t figure that out either. The pool and the car were weird choices if you’re not wanting to leave evidence, and they weren’t very well executed. The shooter was more organized, and the hit was better planned, but it was sloppy. As much as I hate to say it, Felix shouldn’t be alive right now. He had a clear shot, and the only reason Jace and Felix are still here is because he hesitated. And he was worm food as soon as he gave away his position. No pro would do that.”

“No, they wouldn’t,” he agrees. “It’s baffling. You’d think that someone who has the resources to arrange three hits ona college student would have the money, and the sense, to use professionals and not discount thugs and student hackers to get the job done.”

“Thank fuck this asshole is either cheap or an idiot.”

“Two things can be true,” Dad says with a smile. “We’ll keep digging on our end and see what we can uncover. You boys keep doing what you’ve been doing, but I think we can agree that Felix should stay on the grounds for the rest of his break, and he shouldn’t be left alone for even a second if he does leave. We’ll figure out a way to make things safer for him at school, but we’re not taking any chances while he’s here.”

“Yeah, I totally agree.”

“Good.” He stands and does up the buttons on his blazer. “I’ll let you get back to your evening. We’ll talk more about everything tomorrow.”

“Okay. Sounds good.”

“And son?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t mention anything about Jasmine. Not even to Felix. I’ll deal with her when the time is right.”

I don’t like the idea of hiding this from him, but I nod in agreement.

“I’ll see you later,” he says and pulls out his phone, effectively dismissing me.

“Later,” I echo and quickly leave the room.

I’m not sure how I feel about everything I learned, but I feel more settled as I head back to the kitchen.

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