RICHARD (A BAD BOY ROMANCE) (15 page)

“You’re going to help us get those
pictures back, Greg,” I said, glaring down at him. “Jessica and I aren’t about
to let Michael get away with this, or with what he did to Becky.”

“You don’t understand,” he whimpered,
looking up at me in fear. “They’ll kill me. If they find out that I’m helping
you, then I’m a dead man! No, I won’t do it!”

Before I could move to grab him, Greg
was scrambling away between me and Jess, sprinting down the sidewalk at
breakneck speeds. I started to run after him, but the feeling of Jessica’s hand
on my chest kept me from giving chase.

“Let him go,” she whispered, her eyes
still downcast. “We’ll just have to find another way.”

_
SEVENTEEN
_

Jessica

“I don’t know what we’re
going to do, Becky.”

The two of us sat in our
dorm room, each occupying our respective beds. Both of us had at this point
resigned ourselves to skipping class that day, especially after the disastrous
encounter that Richard and I had had with Greg only a few days before. And
while my stepbrother had football practice to keep him occupied all I had was
time to myself to stew and think on how utterly screwed the two of us were.

“Can’t you talk to the
cops?” she asked, sitting cross legged across from me. “Michael’s blackmailing
you, and last time I checked, that was a crime.”

“All they’d have is our
word,” I sighed, “and besides, Greg said that almost half the campus police
force were brothers at AEΩ. Even if we did report it, word would just get back
to Michael and they’d cover everything up. I wouldn’t even put it past him to
set us up for something we didn’t even do just for revenge.”

“Isn’t that what the
pictures are supposed to be for?” she asked.

“No, I think he wants to
hold those over our heads, make us squirm until he needs something or just
wants to royally fuck with us.”

Becky shook her head,
almost as distressed about the situation as I was. It was bad enough what
Michael had done to her already, now he was ruining the lives of others as
well. It had been almost a week since Becky had gone to class, which, despite
everything, had still allowed her to do her coursework from the comfort of her
bed, safe from the stares and rumors of the other students—and there were
definitely
rumors flying when it came to
the events of that night at the party, spread in no small part by the brothers
of AEΩ.

“I still can’t believe that
Greg would have just run like that,” Becky said, leaning back on her elbows. “I
mean, he’s not the bravest guy on campus, but I’d think that maybe he’d try to
fix his mistakes.”

“Sometimes we really don’t
know people as well as we thought that we did,” I said. “Even people you might
think are nice and sweet can be cruel on the inside.”

“You’re starting to sound
like me now,” she remarked, a sad frown on her lips. “I’m sorry about all of
this, Jessica.”

I
wish sorry could fix it
,
I lamented, running my fingers through my hair.

“I don’t know what I did to
deserve all of this,” I said, my gaze drawn up toward the slowly revolving
ceiling fan. “Like, did I insult a gypsy? What does a person have to do to make
them deserve people like Michael inflicted on them?”

“I wish it were that
simple,” she sighed. “Sometimes I almost wish that it
had
been a punishment for something I’d done—at least then it would
seem like there was a reason. But that’s just it, there isn’t a reason that it
happened to us. There was no grand design that put all of this into place.
Sometimes bad things just happen, and whether we deserve it or not we have to
deal with them.”

I looked into Becky’s eyes,
at the tears welling up in them. I felt horrible spilling my problems out onto
her, especially after the awful experience she’d been through at the hands of
Michael. But in a way, what she’d been through at the hands of my own tormentor
somehow made her the perfect person who could understand what being the target
of someone so cruel was like.

I got up from my bed and
crawled over onto Becky’s, wrapping her up in my arms in a tight, warm hug as I
laid my head on her shoulder. She was my closest and dearest friend, the person
who I could rely on for anything. But even in my own time of crisis, I knew I
needed to be there for her too, even if it was just for a simple hug.

A soft knock broke me and
Becky from our embrace, both of our heads turning in curiosity at who would be
here in the middle of the day, right when classes were going on all across
campus. I glanced at Becky, meeting her eyes nervously as I got up and crossed
over to the door and peered through the peephole.

Standing on the other side,
to my shock, was probably the last person I’d have ever expected to see ever
again. Greg loitered nervously just outside of our dorm room, his hands in his
pockets as he rocked back and forward on the balls of his feet.

“It’s Greg,” I whispered,
turning my head back to look at Becky, my eyes raised.

“What? What the hell is he
doing here?” she asked standing up and coming to the door to look through the
door as well.

“I don’t know… should we
let him in?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” Becky said,
looking once again through the hole.

“We should at least find
out what he wants,” I said. “We don’t have to let him in, but I’ll talk to him
and if you want you can stay hidden behind the door.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding
and moving to the side to keep the door between herself and Greg as I undid the
lock.

Greg looked like crap, his
hair was a mess and underneath his eyes were dark bags that could only have
come from a desperate lack of sleep. His clothes were rumpled and he honestly
smelled like he’d failed to take care of himself since the last time I’d seen
him.

“What do you want?” I
asked, the door opened just enough for Greg to see my face.

“I need to talk to you… and
to Becky.”

“And what if neither of us
want to talk to you? You’re not exactly high on our list of people right now,
Greg.” I glared at him, watching his sad, simpering expression.

“It’s about Michael—about
what he did… and had me do.”

I stared at him for a
moment, unsure whether I even wanted to hear another word from his mouth. The
only thing that kept me from slamming the door in his face was Becky’s hand on
my shoulder, encouraging me to hear him out.

“All right,” I said. “What
did you want to say?”

“Could I come inside?” he
asked, glancing down the hallway in either direction. “It’s not exactly
something I want overheard.”

Another squeeze from
Becky’s hand told me that she was okay, and wanted to hear what he had to say.
I reluctantly nodded and moved aside, opening the door wider to allow Greg to
enter. Once he was inside I shut the door and locked it with both the bolt and
the chain lock.

Greg stood awkwardly in the
center of the room, his eyes downcast and his shoulder hunched. He looked
absolutely pathetic, like a scolded puppy dog that had been left out in the
rain all night.

“What did you have to tell
us?” I asked, keeping myself between him and Becky. “I want to make this quick.
Like I said, you’re not my favorite person right now.”

“I don’t really blame you,”
he began, “I did something stupid for cash, and instead I got people in a
really bad situation.”

“A bad ‘
situation’
?” Becky asked incredulously,
finally speaking up. “Is that what you’re calling what happened?”

“No! I didn’t mean—”

“Do you even understand
what he did to me?” she asked, her voice suddenly rising to levels I’d never
heard it go, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Of course you don’t, because I
can hardly even remember half of it! All I remember was waking up in the dirt
with my panties around my ankles!”

“Becky, I—” he stammered,
but she couldn’t stop herself, even his pleas for understanding were rolled
over by things she’d been holding inside since that night.

“He took me!” Becky cried.
“He did
awful
things to me. He
drugged
me! And after all of that, after
everything he did, you had the chance to do something when Richard and Jessica
found you… You
ran
!”

“I’m sorry!” he cried,
tears spilling from his eyes. “I was afraid! Afraid of what might happen if I
stood up to him and it failed. I didn’t know what he’d do if I helped them—if
he’d hurt you again, or hurt me… I didn’t know what else to do!”

“So now what, you’re just
here to make amends?” I asked as Becky held herself behind me. “You say sorry
and hope that everything’s forgiven?”

“No,” he said, shaking his
head almost violently. “I don’t think I even deserve that… but I can help you
do what you asked me to do. I can help you get your pictures back.”

“How?” I asked, frowning.

“It’s not exactly legal,”
he said, a grimace on his face. “And it’ll require you to do something that I
doubt you’re going to be comfortable with.”

_
EIGHTEEN
_

Dick

The last two days had been
more than a little hectic.

With Greg’s refusal to help
us get the pictures out of Michael’s possession, we had no way out when it came
to our predicament. Either we found a way to delete those pictures or Michael
would hold them over our heads. Even if we could nail him to the wall for what
happened to Becky, our lives would be ruined.

I’d tried my best to go
about the day like normal, though wherever I went I saw members of AEΩ,
watching. I knew Michael didn’t have much power among the upperclassmen in the
fraternity, but the amount of influence he’d apparently gathered among his fellow
pledges was more than a little unnerving. People like Michael always knew just
how to get others to do what they wanted, sometimes even eagerly; they brought
out the worst in people.

Jessica and I hadn’t seen
one another since the confrontation with Greg, and I was beginning to wonder if
she’d given up on what we’d begun together. The thought of that alone was
enough to make me feel like my heart was being stabbed out.

The fact that I was so
powerless to stop what was happening was what killed me the most. I’d always
been strong, fast, capable, even smart. But faced up against an obstacle like
Michael, there didn’t seem like there was any way to
really
beat him. Sure, I could hurt him, kick his ass from here to
Oregon, but the fact remained that once I was done he’d just send every single
one of those pictures to the entire campus. No matter what I did, Michael still
had the upper hand and Jessica would suffer for it.

I sat on my bed, my head in
my hands for most of the morning. There were only a few more days until the
game, and for once the coach thought that maybe getting a little rest might do
us some good. My entire body was sore now that it had a chance to recover from
its weeks-long torture before the first game of the season. Sleep would have
been more than welcome, but the thought of that bastard holding those pictures
over Jess and I kept me tossing and turning through the night. It would be one
thing if I was disgraced, I could probably find another college to take me,
especially with my prowess on the field, but the shame it would put on Jessica
if we were
outed
like that wasn’t something I was
ready to put her through. Sure, some day we’d need to own up to our parents,
but I wanted that to happen on my terms, not thanks to some filthy pictures being
sent by mail… I had to keep her safe.

It was late in the evening,
and after the previous night of restlessness I was more than ready for some
sleep. I’d been regrettably lax in giving commands to Jessica, but with the
situation with Michael I felt like now wasn’t the time for our intimate games
and with Michael on our heels I thought it best no one catch us with our pants
down—literally.

I’d just begun to doze off,
my thoughts at least somewhat free of Michael and his scheme to have me and
Jessica under his thumb throughout our academic lives, when I was pulled back
from the edge of slumber by the obnoxious chirping of my phone. I opened my
eyes, turning over and grabbing the phone off of its charge.

It was Jessica.

“Hello?” I answered,
blinking my eyes in the darkness of my dorm. Why was she calling so late? Had
something gone wrong?

“Hey,” she said, her voice
almost tremulous with what I thought might be excitement or nervousness—I
couldn’t tell which.

“Is everything okay?” I
asked, sitting up a bit more in bed. In the background I could hear Becky’s
voice along with a much deeper, though somewhat familiar one. “Who’s there with
you?”

“Becky,” she said, though
there was some hesitation in her voice. “And Greg.”

“What is Greg doing there?”
I asked, suddenly on edge, sitting forward. “I thought he didn’t want anything
to do with this.”

“I think he had a change of
heart,” she replied, “and he had an idea about how we can get those pictures
from Michael.”

I frowned, flexing my
fingers slowly. I wasn’t sure if it was just my own paranoia or if any of my
suspicions were based on anything at all, but Greg’s sudden change of heart
made me nervous.

“How do we know that we can
trust him, Jess?” I asked. “I mean, he already said that he wouldn’t help us once.
What’s to say he won’t make a break for it if things get too tough? What if
he’s still working for Michael? He’s already told us that he was desperate for
cash before and now he wants to help out of the goodness of his heart? I don’t
like it.”

“Like it or not, it’s all
we’ve got,” she said, her voice soft. “He found a way to do something to
Michael’s phone—clone it, he said—we don’t even have to touch it. He can get
into all of Michael’s files and delete every single picture he has of us, even
the ones he had up in the Cloud.”

I couldn’t help
it,
a smile broke out on my face. Maybe, just maybe, we
could get through this on the winning side.

“That’s awesome!” I said,
laying back down on my bed, arms up under my head.

“There’s just one problem,
though,” she said, and all at once my hope of victory felt like it was slipping
away.

“What’s that?” I asked,
swallowing hard to keep the disappointment out of my voice. I felt like we were
so close to getting Michael’s shadow from around us that it should have felt
too good to be true.

“For this cloning thing to
work with Michael’s phone I’m going to have to get close to him,” she said. She
sounded none-too-pleased by the idea, though that hardly stopped me from
getting upset. “I’m going to have to distract

“Absolutely not,” I said,
sitting up once again in bed. “I don’t want that bastard anywhere near you,
Jessica. I told you that I’d keep you safe.”

“It’s the only way that
this will work, Richard,” she said, defiance creeping into her voice. “Michael
won’t be able to resist coming in close—close enough for the machine in my bag
to do what it has to do. Greg said that it just needs some time in order to
make the right connection and download Michael’s entire phone onto a blank that
is going to be hooked up in my bag. After I get the word from Greg that
everything is done, then I can get the hell out of there.”

“But what if he doesn’t
let
you leave, Jessica?” I asked, my
voice rising in frustration. “He’s already proven what he’s willing to do to a
girl to get what he wants—what’s to say he won’t use this to get you thrown in
a bedroom and tied up so that he can get what he never got from you in high
school?”

“I’ll be fine, Richard,”
she said, trying to wave off my concerns. “I can run a lot faster than you think
I can.”

“It’s not about how fast
you can run, Jessica,” I said, “you’re going to be in a room full of his
friends. Who knows whether one of them is going to grab you while you’re trying
to get away? AEΩ is one of the worst frats in the entire school—they’ve had
more investigations for this kind of thing than anyone else in the country! And
do you know why they haven’t been shut down?”

“I just thought that
they’d—”

“They have their former
brothers in practically every part of the school administration,” I
interrupted, almost yelling into my phone. “Even some of the campus police are
theirs. If something happens to you, Jessica, then they’re
going
to get away with it!”

There was a long moment of
silence between the two of us as Jessica tried to find words to come back at
mine. I hoped that I’d talked some sense into her. If only that had been true.

“That’s going to be a risk
I’ll have to take,” she said after she worked up the nerve to defy me yet
again. “If it means stopping Michael from using those pictures against us then
I’m going to do whatever it takes. You’re not going to lose your scholarship
just because of me.”

“I don’t care about the
scholarship, Jessica!” I said, entwining my fingers through my hair. I closed
my eyes, leaning forward onto my elbows as I tried to figure out a way to save
her from what I knew would only be trouble.

“I have to do this, Richard,”
she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “This is one of the only chances
we’re going to have to keep ourselves safe from him. This has got to be done,
and I have to be the one to do it.”

“I’ll come with you,” I
tried to bargain, hoping that with me there she’ll at least have some chance at
getting out of there
unaccosted
. “I can step in if
things get too bad.”

“We can’t risk him seeing
you,” she said. “If he spots you, he’ll know that something is happening and
he’ll run. Michael’s not a dumb guy, but he won’t expect something like this
from
me
of all people. He thinks I’d
never do anything like this.”

“Jessica,” I said, trying
to appeal to her, “I don’t think this is going to be a good idea. If he
hurts
you then I don’t know what I’m going to do… Or if I
can stop myself from hurting him. I’ll make good on the promise I made him and
make sure he rolls across that stage in a wheelchair—unless I put him in a body
bag first.”

“I know, and that’s why I
can’t have you there—you might jeopardize everything if Michael catches sight
of you. I need you to stay away until everything is done. Can you do that for
me?”

I stared around at my
darkened dormitory, looking at the way the moonlight played against the white
walls, casting dark shadows that could have swallowed up the sun.

“I don’t know if I can, not
if you’re in danger,” I replied, my fist clenched.

“Then you need to promise
me, Richard,” she said. “I need you to promise that you’ll let me do this on my
own, for both our sakes. If he sees you then those pictures are as good as on
the internet already. Do you understand?”

I put my head in my hands,
fretting over what might happen if I left her go off on her own like that. How
could she expect me not to come after her? To be there to keep her safe after
what we’d built together? I wasn’t sure if I could make that kind of promise,
to just let her walk right into the lion’s den with only a cellphone for
protection and the hope that nothing swallows her whole. How could she expect
me to just stand by?

She’s
a big girl
, I
thought, though I hated myself for it.
I
can’t stop her from doing anything she wants, and I shouldn’t. I have to trust
her to take care of herself
.

But was it her that I didn’t
trust? Thoughts of Michael danced through my head, mocking me with images of
Jessica being pulled into the same back room that Becky had been raped in. She
could end up just like Becky, or worse. God knows how many college girls go
missing year after year, and if she turned into just another face on a milk
carton, I’d never forgive myself. But I didn’t really have much of a choice.

“What if you get hurt? What
if something bad happens, and I’m not there to protect you?” I asked. “How am I
supposed to just let you put yourself in danger?”

“I don’t know, Richard,”
she whispered into the phone. “But I need you to try for me. I need you to
trust me.”

I rubbed the bridge of my
nose in frustration. There was no getting around it.

“Fine,” I said at last. “I
can’t stop you… I just hate the idea of something happening to you, Jessica. I
hate what he might do to you if I’m not there to stop him. I don’t know if I
can live with myself.”

“I know,” she said gently,
“I’m scared too. But we have to do this if we want to be free of him.”

“Yeah, I know.”

I ran my fingers through my
short locks, shaking my head. I wasn’t sure how I’d stay sane, wondering if she
would be okay or if I’d be able to keep my promise.

“If anything goes wrong,
Greg will have 9-1-1 on speed-dial,” she said, trying to be reassuring. “He’ll
be listening to the whole thing. I won’t be alone. We’ll call in the real
police, not some on-campus assholes.”

“This is dangerous,” I
said.

“What’s life without a
little danger?” she asked, trying to sound playful. It didn’t help.