Page 58 of Duke
I draw myself up, shaking my head. Well, not anymore. “Fuck you, old man. You want me tofighttomorrow? Then, I sure as fuck can’t play today. I know that pisses you off, but you can’t have it both ways. Coach said I’m on the injured list for the moment, so I take the bench until further notice. Period. Done.”
I swear, it looks like his eyeballs are going to pop out of his head. “Fine. But you fight tomorrow. In the ring, I’m your coach and sponsor.You answer to me and me alone.”His chest heaves as he hisses, “How the fuck is it that it’s our own sons who are the embarrassment of Bainbridge Hall?”
“How are we embarrassing you? Did you—”
But before I can ask whether he knows that Mason isn’t Murdock’s son, he spits, “Tell your little gay boyfriends that we’re watching them. All of you.”
Holy shit.Whether there are cameras somewhere or Quincy and Arik reported Duke’s and Mason’s relationship back to the OGs, I don’t know… but that’s definitely not going to help matters. Not at all. Tristan, Murdock, and my father are not the sort to put gay pride stickers on their bumpers. I press my lips together in an attempt to keep all those thoughts to myself, and because I don’t respond, my father gives me a cold eye roll and takes off, blustering his way down the hall.
Just then, from the other direction, Duke and Mason hurry toward me with a green-looking Lennon between them.
Duke catches my eye first, his tone dead serious. “Lennon’s sick. We think one of those asshats did something to her stash of lollipops before we caught them.”
* * *
Hours later,I’m more exhausted than if I’d played in the game. I’d gotten permission from Coach to leave, and we’d taken Lennon straight home where she’d continued to vomit for an hour straight. Once she’d emptied her stomach, she swore she felt better and didn’t need to go to hospital. I don’t know what she has against being seen by medical professionals, but none of us wanted to argue with her.
There’d been no way we could ignore the assholes in the attic any longer. Since we also hadn’t wanted to let Lennon out of our sight, she’s currently asleep in the back of one of the SUVs, curled up with a pillow and a blanket. I’d driven with Lennon and her puke bucket—just in case—and Duke and Mason had brought our sorry-ass grunts in the other SUV.
They need to understand what they’ve done has severe ramifications. They could have killed Lennon. Who the fuck knows what was on that lollipop. I still can’t believe they blindly followed the OG’s instructions. I let out a sigh. Except, maybe I can. People look at our fathers and they seem larger than life. Powerful. So, I guess they thought they were doing what was expected of them. They didn’t once let on that they were responsible for what was happening, nor did we suspect them. Fuckin’ impressive, honestly, but also—Lennon suffered on numerous occasions, and they were fine with that, so I don’t feel badly about what they’re about to endure. In fact, it’d been obvious that they’d reveled in every aspect of fucking with her. That was before they understood the magnitude of their fuckup with us. And the OGs? They’re going to pay, too.
“Last time we’re going to ask you,” Duke grits out, eyeing Quincy and Arik side by side as he whips the blindfolds from their heads, “what’d you do to Lennon’s lollipops? Or did you swap out the ones she had stashed in her bag with something that was given to you? Because, frankly, I doubt you’ve got the brains enough to doctor something like that.”
These bumbling fools stand there, wild-eyed, looking all around. We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere, surrounded by trees and Georgia swamp. We’re about thirty minutes from Bainbridge Hall by car. This area is all peat-filled wetland. If they move in the wrong direction, they could be in real trouble. They’ve chosen silence tonight, and if that’s how these two want to play the game, then we’ll make damn fucking sure they regret their decision. By not giving us any intel, they’re sealing their fate. “Seriously. You don’t have a single fucking thing to say?”
Arik gives Quincy a nasty look, and I’m certain he’s easy enough to read.Don’t you fucking dare.
Mason steps closer to them. He has three lengths of rope in his hands. “Clothes off. Toss them over here.”
“Wha-what?” Quincy blinks.
I growl. “Do it. Now.” They’re fucking lucky we didn’t take them further into the boggy swamp. They’re right on the edge, though still in the middle of the wilderness. And now they’re about to be clothes-less.
With shaking hands and a few curse words thrown in, they begin undressing. Once they’re standing buck naked and covering their junk with their hands, Duke picks up all the clothing, then tosses it into the back of the SUV. Arik and Quincy stare, their mouths wide open. If it were me, I’d have started running already to see if I could figure out how to get out of here. Follow the tracks of the vehicles, maybe, though it’d be difficult in the dark. But nope, these two stand stock-still while Mason ties Quincy’s left wrist to Arik’s right, then the same at the ankles. For the grand finale, he ties the third length of rope to Arik’s left wrist, strings it behind them and catches Quincy’s right. They’re going to do nothing more than fumble around for hours, unable to untie themselves. I pitch a pair of flashlights and a compass about ten feet from them.Good luck using those.
Arik blinks hard. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You can’t leave us out here. Not like this.”
I shake my head. “The fuck we can’t. You should have come to us. The OGs are not who you report directly to. So, the fact that you’d knowingly inflict mental and physical harm on Lennon by someone else’s order? We don’t need that in our brotherhood. I don’t care what you thought you were doing.”
Duke gestures a hand around to the surrounding trees and then down to the wetlands beyond. “Good luck with this. See you if you can manage to get yourselves out of this mess. If the gators don’t get you, the bugs might. Though, whether you think it’s a good idea to show up back at the house is your decision. I guarantee you won’t be welcomed. Maybe you should go beg for the OG Bastards mercy, instead. I can’t tell you whether they’ll be any kinder than we’ve been, but my guess is they’ll express their disappointment.”
“You should probably fuck right off. Beg your parents for on-campus housing. You know, if you make it out of here.” Mason gives them that deep, terrifying stare of his that beams from his eyes when he’s really fucking pissed.
I meet Duke and Mason’s gazes and jerk my head toward the waiting vehicles.
As we turn to leave, Quincy holds his hand (and thereby, one of Arik’s) in the air to stop us. “Wait! It was Hunter who gave us the photos of Lennon! He also gave us the tainted lollipops. She left her bag on the dining room table. We traded the ones in it for the lollipops that he supplied us with. Then we went upstairs where you caught us in Mason’s room.” He shakes hard, one violent tremor after another rolling through his naked body. “Please…”
“So, wait.” Mason’s voice is low and gritty, his chaotic anger simmering just below the surface. “Even after you got caught, you didn’t bother to tell us about the lollipops. What, did you think that would be funny if you got one last jab in?” His brows shoot up waiting for an answer that never comes. He shakes his head, his scowl slipping into dangerous territory. “You don’t know what was on them. You could have fuckingkilledher.”
Arik looks away, unwilling to answer. Is he ashamed of what they’ve done? Or does he simply not fucking care? Not so easy to tell with that one. But Quincy? His lip begins to tremble.Hard.
“What the fuck were you doing in Mason’s room?” My jaw tenses, and I wonder if one of the dumbasses will answer in hopes that we’ll take him home.
“Hunter told us to look in Lennon’s room for anything that we could use against her. We thought we heard her in the hallway, so we used the balcony to move into Mason’s room to hide. But—”
“Shut the fuck up, Q,” Arik shoots his beady eyes at his supposed buddy.
Too bad for both of them, we’re beyond caring. The time for bargaining with us has long passed. I side-eye Mason to see how he’s taking the fact that his half brother was directly responsible for a whole lot of shit, and as I watch, his eyes grow as hard as flint.
