Page 144 of The Protégé

Be strong.

Plucking up my courage, I step onto the wooden planks and keep my face forward.

“Let’s have some fun!” JR2 grips the rope and starts shaking it.

I almost fall but hold on tight.Fear spikes in me as my body losescontrol of itself ...

I didn’t have to finish the sentence. Orion understood what I meant. I told him the rest of the story and how terror had seeped into my bones that day. And how Elliot had arrived with the director, who didn’t punish the boys at all.

“I’m going to fucking kill him.” Hisjaw twitched with murder in his eyes.

“It’s in the past, Orion. He’s not worth your time. I don’t want to cause any more trouble for you. You have so much on your plate already.” I leaned into him. “Plus, I’m not afraid of heights anymore. What came from the horrific event today is that Jasper—that old trauma—doesn’t control me anymore. I’ve overcome the fear.”

He released a stressed sigh. I knew he was trying his best to calm the rage in him. It was weird how I could sense his emotions.

“You’ve helped me find my stability again. I don’t think the fear of heights was the issue. It was that event that triggered the trauma and the fear. I don’t feel it anymore. At least not to that crippling extent.”

He nodded and kept me in his arms for the rest of the night.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

ORION

There was so muchat play that my brain was going to explode. My desire to kill Jasper had never been so prominent. I knew the fucker had issues, but I didn’t know it ran this deep. The people who let him get away with those crimes at the camp were just as responsible.

Elena didn’t want me to waste my energy on him. But my love was wrong. It wasn’t a waste of my time to punish those who had hurt her. I couldn’t let this go.

“Can you help me with that?” I asked the boys on the screen. I’d called an urgent conference call as soon as Elena went to bed.

She went through hell today, and I would make sure Jasper experienced hell too.

“You got it,” Remi said. “We’ll deal with them, catch them unexpectedly.”

“Is Elena okay?” Arrow asked.

“She’s doing better than I thought. Sleeping now.”

I’d hacked into the fucker’s phone and extracted his video. The fear on her face—and the shame they’d made her feel—mademe want to kill him a thousand times over. Still, thatwouldn’t be enough. I needed Jasper, Connor, the director, and whoever else was in the room that day to pay for Elena’s trauma.

I briefed the boys on the information and didn’t tell them about her personal experience with Jasper at camp. They knew Jasper had assaulted her, and that was enough. I gave the boys the list of names and some recordings of Jasper and his friends harassing other girls at the camp. Those recordings would be sent to the media and to the camp organization.

Then there was Jasper’s admission about Kate’s pills that required a separate investigation, which I would carry out myself. What the hell did he do to her?

After I’d finalized the plan with the boys, I hung up and dug into Jasper’s past.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

ELENA

A weeklater we went back to Providence. On the flight, Orion told me Carlos had killed my father—his own brother—because he wouldn’t use my mom’s savings to pay for his debt. A series of emotions ranging from anger to sadness and betrayal warred within me. But I supposed karma had gotten Carlos.

I prayed to God that this would be the last horrible news I’d hear about this year. There was only so much a person could endure.

For the next few days, I threw myself into work, and Orion did too. Something was happening behind the scenes, but Orion shared nothing with me. I could feel the tension pulsing off of him.

I’d been working harder than usual. Most nights he’d stay at my house. Other nights he’d stay in his apartment. I couldn’t shake off this horrible feeling that something awful was going to happen.

My article regarding the financial scam would release soon. I showed Orion what I’d written and made the changes he’d suggested. I’d also written the column for Madame Sarcasm, butI didn’t show that to him yet. He was so busy that I only wanted to show him the important things first. He could read about Madame Sarcasm later.

---