Page 5 of The Ruthless Note

His lips curl down. Annoyance skitters through his eyes. “Is that what all the fuss is about?” He scowls. “You’re threatening my daughter’s future for petty high school revenge?”

I take out my phone, spin it between my fingers and say casually, “I wonder what fraud charges would look like on top of attempted murder charges?”

His eyes bug.

“Christa, Dutch and his brothers changed my grades to get me kicked out of Redwood Prep and you, dear Chairman of the Board, you were their accomplice.” My stare hardens. “Does this still sound like petty high school revenge to you?”

Miller tugs at his collar. His Adam’s apple bounces up and down. “I can’t touch Dutch.”

“Why the hell not?” I hiss. Is that monster really a god? Not even the head of the board at Redwood Prep wants to take him down.

“Why do you think you could just come waltzing back to school after being kicked out?” Miller spits.

My eyelashes flutter. “Jarod Cross.”

“EvenIdon’t have the kind of power to take Cross on yet.”

“Hm.” I tap my fingers on the cell phone. “Then I guess I’ll have to send this video of Christa to the local news. And who knows how widely it’ll spread? People love to see the mighty falling off their pedestals. They’ll make this bigger and bigger until your daughter won’t be able to lift her head in public again.”

“Wait. Wait.” He holds out a hand and stares pleadingly. “I can’t touch the Cross boys, but I can do something else. Anything else. Name it.”

My heart beating fast, I contemplate the offer. “Fine. Put my grades back to where they were before.”

“W-what?”

“I’ll send you a snapshot of all my test papers. You can consult with my teachers to verify. I want it done in a day—”

“A day?”

“—And if, in the next twenty-four hours, my grades aren’t returned to what they were,” I step close to him and smile tauntingly, “the police aren’t the only ones I’ll be visiting. You can look forward to seeing your daughter’s mug shot everywhere.”

He trembles. “I really don’t know if I can make it happen in a day.”

“Well,” I smooth out his collar, “we’ll see how much time your daughter has then.”

Miller gulps.

I take a step away and then I stop. Turn around. Stare coolly at him. “Oh, and Miller, from now on, keep your daughter in check. If she comes at me again, I won’t let her off easy.”

He nods desperately.

I glide past him, my head held high. The moment I turn the bend, I crash against the lockers and struggle to catch my breath.

I feel like I’m on a slippery slope with rabid sharks beneath me. But what other choice do I have? Now that Dutch didn’t get his way and Christa’s been publicly humiliated, they’ll both be on the war path. I’ll need to become something new, something stronger, if I’m going to survive in Redwood.

My fingers dig into the locker.

I close my eyes and count backwards from ten.

My throat is closing up.

It hurts to breathe.

In. Out. In. Out.

When I no longer feel like throwing up, I straighten and find an empty classroom to hide out from the police. I have a feeling that Miller won’t waste any time holding up his end of the deal.

And when that happens, it’ll be my turn to make all this go away.