Page 95

CHAPTER

SEVENTY

CORTLAND

Maya stops walking, staring up at me as the color drains from her face.

I slide my phone into my pocket. The one she keeps blowing up. And I step toward her, crowding her against the brick wall outside of Remi’s dorm, at the bottom of the stairwell.

She’s going to have to use that printer in her room to reprint what I ruined, so it might take her a minute to come out yelling at me.

Maya happened to be walking by, she said when she spotted me out here. Yeah, bitch, I bet you were.

She chews her bottom lip, staring up at me with big blue eyes.

I think about how she tried to blackmail me at Grim.

The messages she’s been sending me, begging me to take her back. Telling me she never had any photos, which I figured as much since she’s done nothing with them. Warning me that Chase is unhinged, and freaking her out, and his mom is going to die.

As if any of that is my fucking problem.

I think about her dropping Remi as she rakes her eyes over my body now, arching a brow, like she’s trying to tease me or some shit.

But most of all, I think about the dorm fire Chase all but admitted he started.

I run my tongue over my lip ring as I stare at her, and say, “Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you, Maya, but I’ve been a little busy.”

She glances at the dorm building at my back, narrowing her eyes. “Yeah,” she says, “with that bitch.”

I smile at that, tilting my head as I look over her tight sweater and high-waisted jeans. She has her hands by her sides, and I notice she presses her palms to the wall, arching her a back a little so her tits are closer to me.

“Yeah, that bitch,” I say softly, repeating her words as my eyes find hers again.

She shakes her head. “I don’t get it, Cort, but I know you’ll get tired of her eventually. I know you feel bad and?—”

“You don’t know shit about what I feel, Maya,” I interrupt her, keeping my voice pleasant.

She furrows her brows, standing up a little straighter. Starting to look uncomfortable for the first time. But I don’t move my hands, planted on either side of her head.

“But there are some things I don’t know about you, either,” I tell her quietly, stepping even closer.

She presses back against the wall, biting her lip. “Like what?” she asks, her voice soft. Her hair is cut to her shoulders now, and Mom informed me she had to block her number because she wouldn’t stop blowing up her phone.

Saying something that my mom felt the need to tell me that. Considering she’s a cunt, too.

I run my tongue over my lip ring and watch as Maya’s eyes track the movement. “I don’t know,” I tell her, leaning down close, my face inches from hers. “Something that’s really been bothering me lately.”

I look down between us as she shakes her head. “Well what is it, Cort?” she asks. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

I smile at that, flicking my gaze back up to hers. “I like that about you, Maya. Always so willing to run your goddamn mouth.”

She flinches, as if I touched her.

“But what I want to know is how the fuck Chase McGowan knew which dorm was Remi’s?” I glance at the building at her back as her face goes pale.

She lives in an apartment within walking distance. But the only way she’d know where Remi lived before that fire is if she’d followed her. Because I know Remi. And I know she wouldn’t tell just anyone where she lived. I know Maya knows where that is. Because she’s the one who told me.

And I see it.

The lie she’s trying to form. The way she blinks, furrowing her brow.

I step closer to Maya, until my chest is nearly brushing hers. “Answer the question, Maya,” I say softly. “How did Chase know?”

Maya shakes her head. “I don’t?—”

“He asked me for permission, you know,” I interrupt her bullshit. I swallow, trying to breathe evenly. Like Dr. Ravi taught me. “He asked me for permission for you to suck his fucking dick.”

Maya’s cheeks turn red as I stare at her.

“You tell him where she lived when you were fucking him?” I demand.

She shakes her head and opens her mouth.

“And how did you know, huh, Maya?”

I can feel my blood pressure rise as I stare at her, waiting for the truth.

Seconds pass.

Maya says nothing.

A few students walk past us, eyeing us curiously, but I don’t move.

I lower my voice as I ask her again. “How did you know where Remi’s dorm was, and how. The fuck. Did Chase. Fucking. McGowan. Know?”

Maya is shaking now between my hands planted on either side of her, and I’m glad.

It feels good to watch her go through what Remi went through. I know that makes me fucked in the head, but for Remi, I was always that.

“I didn’t know what he was gonna do, Cortland,” she whispers, her words coming out in a rush as she crosses her arms over her chest.

I want to fucking kill her.

Just like I wanted to kill Chase in that bathroom.

Looks like all the wolves at West River High might die.

“I didn’t know he was going to burn it down and I-I just… I saw her walk there… with S-Sloane. I wasn’t watching her, I just?—”

I slam my hands against the brick beside her head and watch her flinch. “You come near her again, you even fucking think about her again, Maya…” I lean in close enough that she can feel my breath on her face. “I’ll fucking bury you.”