Page 45 of Duke
I glance toward the door. “I haven’t a fucking clue, but there are a couple of police officers on our front steps.”
Duke’s eyes capture mine, and I see in them an almost identical worry to my own. “Mase? Lennon?”
I give a sharp jerk of my head, catching the inside of my cheek with my teeth. I bite down hard.
Another knock.
“Come on,” Duke grits out. “Better to know than wait and wonder.”
We descend the stairs together, and Duke disarms the alarm, then pulls the door open. Two police officers in uniform give us a once over, one male, one female. The tall blond guy looks down to read something on a notepad. “This is Bainbridge Hall?”
Duke nods. “Yes, sir. What can we do for you?”
“We’re going to need to speak to a few of your um… what do you call them? Brothers?”
I step forward. “Yes. Can we ask why you’re here?” I stare down the cops before peering at Duke out of the corner of my eye. He doesn’t like this anymore than I do. His entire body is tense with concern for whatever the hell these cops are about to tell us.
“Hey, you’re Bear Pierce, right?” The dark-haired cop with the short hair cocks her head to the side and smiles. “You sure are as big as they say.”
Doing my damnedest to stall my eye roll, I grit out, “Yeah, that’s me.”
“Scary on the football field. Not so much now.” She squints up at me.
I stare right back at her, one of my thick, dark brows raised the smallest fraction. No one pushes us around. She should know better, actually, if she knows who we are, which I think she does. On most days, I don’tneedmy father’s money or the prestige that comes with being his son. Don’t want it, really. Nor do I need my football-god-in-a-small-town status. But I’ll be damned if I won’t use it to my advantage right now… especially when these cops seem to think we’ve done something wrong.
Duke clears his throat. “I’m Duke Valentine. Come on in.” We back up and grant them entrance, then Duke points towards the office—the same one where he and his father had words about the way he’d thrust Lennon on us. Feels like fucking ages ago.
Duke shoots me a look that saysStay on your toesthen shrugs. He doesn’t know what to make of this either. For all we know, these are dirty cops on our fathers’ payroll, so caution is definitely called for.
As I turn around, I note Quincy’s little fucking ass trying to get a look at what’s going on. Fucker.I ought to tie a knot in his dick for being too damn nosy. I snap the door shut with finality. They don’t get to know what’s going on unless we deem it necessary.
Offering the officers a seat, Duke and I perch on the edge of the big mahogany desk. Duke juts his chin toward them. “Sorry, could we get your names?”
The woman jerks her head in the affirmative. “Of course. This is Officer Ford and I’m Detective Simms. We’re looking for Lennon Bell, if she’s here.”
I grunt, rubbing at my chin with a few fingers. I haven’t shaved in several days and am halfway to a full beard. “She isn’t home. But she does live here.” A deep line forms down the middle of my forehead. “Is she in some kind of trouble?”
The detective eyes us warily. “Took us a bit to track her down. She’s not on any housing contract we could find with the university. We thought maybe she’d be at one of the sororities. Didn't have any luck with that. But then we thought to look at who paid her tuition.”
Duke bristles. “It’s not so odd. She’s my stepsister. And my father wanted her here so I could keep an eye on her.”
“I see.” Simms glances at Ford, and he shrugs. I have no idea what that silent communication means, but it’s obvious these two work together all the time.
Just then, there’s a commotion from beyond the office door. I rise from the desk just in time for it to fly open. Mason walks in, his eyes darting rapid fire around the room with Lennon right behind him. She appears to be about ten seconds from a panic attack until she lays eyes on us.
It’s the strangest thing. We all stare at each other for several awful, terrifying beats of my heart.What the ever-loving fuck is going on?
Mason is the first to speak. “Sorry. We saw the police car and freaked out.”
“We thought—” Lennon stops herself, shaking her head.
Whereas I stay where I am, staring down the police officers, Duke crosses to our friends, catching each of them by the back of the neck and dragging them close before he whispers something quietly. Whether he just wants to know if they’re okay or if he’s telling them to keep their mouths shut, I have no idea. But maybe that’s odd to think he’d tell them to keep a lid on things, as we have no clue what’s happening. Being Derek Pierce’s son has made me both wary and cautious.
He brings them over to the desk where Lennon flies into my arms. I put my nose in her hair and inhale deeply before mumbling, “You okay, Little Gazelle?”
She nods under my chin. “I’m fine. Just, ugh…” Looking up at me, I have a feeling she has a lot to say, but she’s reluctant to do it in front of these people we don’t know. She lowers her voice to the faintest whisper. “That day in the attic…” Wide, embarrassed eyes crash shut. I shake my head, not wanting her to worry, and cradle her against me. I’m unsure what else to do, because I feel the trouble coming at us like a hurricane about to make landfall.
Detective Simms purses her lips, cocking a brow as she looks from one of us to the other. Studying. Searching. “This is all very touching, but we need to know how these photocopied images found themselves all over campus today.”
