Page 53 of Bones

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CHAPTER13

Elsie

Ihad no idea why Cotton and the others were so interested in Ben, but it clearly wasn’t good. I could literally feel the rage radiating off of them, and I couldn’t understand why. I wasn’t interested in him, but he seemed like a decent enough guy. He certainly didn’t seem like the type to get on the Satan’s Fury radar. I was tempted to ask why they were so interested in him, but I knew better. They were already on edge, and I had no interest in rousing them any further.

“What did you tell him?”

“I said rumors were just rumors, and this was one that didn’t deem repeating. After that, I got up and left.”

“Have you seen or talked to him since?”

“Actually, I saw him today.” My eyes skirted over to Wyatt as I added, “I was about to go into class when he came over to me and apologized for the things he’d said.”

“And that was it?”

“Pretty much.” I shrugged. “He reminded me about a Spanish test we were having today and offered to meet up with me at the coffee shop to study.”

“Did you go?”

“Yes, but I didn’t stay.” I glanced over at Wyatt, checking to see if he looked upset, but he was looking at his phone and didn’t even seem to be listening to me. “I just went there to tell him that I had some things I had to take care of and would just study on my own.”

“Did he seem bothered that you weren’t staying?”

“I don’t think he was all that happy about it, but I didn’t really give him a chance to say anything. When Cass called to tell me about the lockdown, I walked out.”

I glanced back over at Wyatt, checking once again to see if he seemed bothered, but like before, he wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to my conversation with Cotton and Stitch. Instead, he was over in the corner working on his laptop. I couldn’t help but feel a little hurt by the fact that he didn’t even care about Ben. Cotton, on the other hand, seemed pissed about it.

His brows furrowed as he asked, “And that was it?”

“He followed me out to the car.”

“Did he say anything?”

“No. I pulled away before he got a chance.”

“Good.” Cotton thought for a moment, then asked, “Is there anything else you...”

“Hey, Prez,” Wyatt interrupted. “You need to see this.”

“What is it?”

Cotton and Stitch stepped over to Wyatt’s desk, and the second they looked at the screen, I knew something was terribly wrong. Cotton sounded positively livid as he snarled, “Fuck... Is this shit from him?”

“Yes, sir.” Wyatt grabbed his phone and held it up. “Got this message when you were talking to Elsie.”

As soon as he said my name, Stitch whipped around and ordered, “We’re done here. You can go back to your room now.”

I nodded nervously, then darted out of the room in a panic.

I’d seen Cotton angry many times before, but this time was different. This time he wasn’t just upset over the fact that things hadn’t gone the way he expected or someone had mistreated his girls or ol’ lady. This time he was angry in a way I’d never seen before. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve said he was scared, and I’d never seen him scared before.

And that terrified me.

My heart was pounding as I made my way down the hall and back to my room. It was obvious that something bad was going down. Something that included Ben—which made no sense at all. He was just a college student and a psych major at that. It was hard to believe that he was the one who had Cotton and the others so wound up. However, our last encounter was a bit strained, and it had me wondering why he seemed so intent on us spending time together.

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