Page 21 of Wicked Little Darling

I opened my mouth and racked my brain to tack something complimentary on about his son when he said, “Wonderful. There’s something I need to ask of you, and I’m certain it won’t be too much of a bother. It’s a very small thing, and you won’t have to go out of your way at all. Do you think you can help me, Mr. Walker?”

Dean Voss smiled at me, and it was all teeth.

He wasn’t asking me at all, but telling me that Iwoulddo this ‘thing’ for him.

I folded my hands in my lap and smiled back while my heart did a somersault.

There was only one correct response here.

“Of course, I’d be happy to help.”

“Excellent. I knew I could count on you.” For the first time, Dean Voss broke eye contact and set his gaze to somewhere out the window. “Dakota is a…special boy, and hasn’t had an easy go of things. There was an incident last spring that we do not want a repeat of. We missed the warning signs and Dakota’s involvement was unfortunate.”

What in the hell was he talking about? He was being so vague, but none of it sounded good. At all.

He brought his attention back to me. “I think you might understand better than anyone the value of a second chance. Of letting people learn from their mistakes and giving them an opportunity to grow.”

My stomach dropped, and I felt like I was free-falling now.

Here it was.

He was going to tell me that he’d reviewed the incident and decided I wasn’t a good fit for such a prestigious academy.

I gripped the arms of the chair hard, digging my nails into the wood.

Except he kept talking about Dakota. “There may be some difficulties, and he may require a little extra help. And by that, I mean he needs to be watched closely and carefully.” Dean Voss’s eyes cut to mine so quickly that my heart jolted in my chest. I squeezed my hands, trying not to squirm in my seat. “I need you to keep an eye on my boy and report back to me if you see anything at all out of the ordinary. In fact, I was thinking we could hold meetings every few weeks or so to discuss his progress. That wouldn’t be too much of a bother, would it, Mr. Walker?” He smiled again, though it was devoid of any warmth.

Alarm bells were going off in my head, a blaring cacophony of warning tones that told me something was very, very wrong here, and I wasn’t sure who I needed to watch out for more—Dean Voss or Dakota.

He wanted me to…spyon Dakota? He wanted another student to keep tabs on his son? What the hell? And what the fuck counted as ‘out of the ordinary’? I didn’t even know what wasordinaryfor Dakota, and somehow I was supposed to suss out what wasn’t? Was he just a dad who was worried about his son? Or was there something else at play here?

What happened last spring? What did Dakota do?

Why in the ever-loving fuck did this have to fall onmyplate?

The smile on my face became brittle, and holding it was painful. I was pretty sure my being Dakota’s roommate wasn’t something that had justcome to his attention, and now I understood the purpose of this meeting. Maybe even of my being here at Ashbrook, period. I’d thought it was strange that they’d so quickly admitted someone who was being transferred for fighting. In the back of my mind, I wondered what kind of deal had been made behind closed doors.

What the actual fuck.

“It’s no bother at all,” I managed to get out.

“Perfect. Let’s do a bi-weekly lunch on Fridays, how does that sound? Right here.”

That sounded fucking terrible.

“That sounds great, Dean Voss. I look forward to it.”

“As do I. Well, lovely meeting you, Mr. Walker, and if you ever need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask.”

I ignored how my hands shook against the mahogany arms of the chair and stood up, shoving them into my pockets.

Too soon, it seemed, because Dean Voss held his huge hand out to me over his desk. After half a second of hesitation, I slipped my own into his, and he squeezed.

Hard.

“Anything that sets off those warning bells, Mr. Walker. Anything at all,” he said, still holding my hand. “We love our scholarship students here, but sometimes funding gets stuck behind all that red tape. We wouldn’t want that, now, would we?”

The air in the room became unbearably thin, and I wanted to run out of here and never return.