Her Dangerous Revenge

CHAPTER 51

Cooper hurried over to Vincent, still slumped against a nearby locker. Beyond the

broken nose, he seemed fine. Cooper could have sang with relief.

A furious roar made them both look up. Gareth had broken free and now stood,

swaying on the spot. Ryan sat on the floor, panting and defeated, his forehead

glistening with sweat.

Gareth bent over, his face still contorted in fury. It took several moments for him to

regain his composure, his arms shaking with exhaustion. When he straightened, he

didn't so much as glance in Vincent's direction. He turned and walked away,

slamming into Ryan's shoulder just as the other boy found his footing.

Ryan stumbled back against the wall but let him go, watching him apprehensively.

Only once Gareth had disappeared did they dare relax.

Vincent finally broke the silence.

"You didn't have to do that," he muttered, his voice distorted from the broken nose.

"Yeah, well." Ryan sighed, pushing off from the wall and wincing as he stretched his

arms. "Guy's been hitting the gym, hasn't he?"

Vincent used his free hand to gesture to his bloody face. "Uh, yeah. I'd say so."

Ryan and Cooper stared at him and then began to laugh. Any remaining tension

evaporated. Even Vincent cracked a smile, which made him groan in pain. Cooper's

lower lip throbbed in sympathy. He winced, poking the injury with his finger.

Vincent slid to the floor, his back against the lockers. He tilted his head back and

closed his eyes, wincing as he attempted to survey the damage done to his face. He

opened one eye to look at Cooper. "How bad is it?"

"It's an improvement," he joked, ignoring his stinging lip. "Hold on."

The nearest bathroom was right around the corner, where Cooper quickly ripped out

a handful of paper towels from the dispenser. Walking back to where Vincent sat,

he tossed several in his lap, saving a couple for his own split lip.

Ryan trudged over to Vincent and took a seat next to him, sighing as he did so. "I'm

gonna be sore. I can already feel it."

"I owe you one," Cooper muttered around the wad of paper towels he held up to his

mouth.

"We both do," Vincent agreed, adjusting his grip to free up a hand. It was covered in

dried blood, but when he held it up to Ryan, the other boy didn't hesitate to accept

the fist bump.

"Sure. Gareth can be a real ass sometimes. Talk about going off the deep end."

"He had good reason," Vincent said darkly, staring down at his lap.

"Nah, man. He should've stopped after the broken nose."

"Him taking it too far doesn't make what I did right," Vincent argued, his frown

deepening.

"Doesn't make what he did right, either," Ryan countered.

Cooper gave Vincent a pointed look. "Gonna side with Ryan on this one, man."

"See?" Ryan clapped Vincent on the shoulder, who grunted—no doubt to cover a

groan of pain. "'Sides, someone had to check Gareth's ass. Guy's been going

downhill since...well."

He shrugged evasively. Cooper pretended to be interested in a spot on the floor,

but his heart leapt at the uncertainty in Ryan's voice. It sounded like he had more to

say on the subject. A lot more.

Vincent stretched out his legs with a wince. And then he asked the golden question:

"Since what? I mean, I'm not exactly in the know about the guy's life these days.

Been avoiding him for a while now."

Ryan blew out a deep breath. He ran a hand over his shaved head, a look of

reluctance turning down the corners of his mouth. "I'm really not supposed to say

anything about it. But I'm not the only one who knows, either."

"What?" Vincent asked impatiently, saving Cooper the trouble of asking.

Ryan sighed again. "Gareth. He's...on some shit."

Cooper processed the meaning before Vincent. And when Ryan caught his eye—

apprehensive, fearing that Cooper would put two and two together—he knew his

assumption was correct.

"Drugs," he confirmed aloud, saving Ryan the trouble. "Cocaine?"

He had nothing to say. Which said it all.

"No way." Vincent shook his head, adamant. "I don't see it."

Ryan glanced down the hall, but they were well and truly alone. Cooper wondered

how many students were still left in the building. Lunch had surely ended by now.

The half-day had ended.

"Gareth got booted from the team." Ryan kept his voice low. "Coach caught him

with blow in his system. It's...a recent thing."

"How recent is recent?" Cooper asked, unable to help himself.

He could hear Calla's voice in his head. The detectives asked me about a dealer at

the gala. It sounds like someone took over the business.

Had that special someone been Gareth Walker?

Ryan's eyes shuttered. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the opposite

wall. "Dunno. He and Astrid called it quits. He took it hard. He started—"

"When did they break up?" Vincent interrupted with a frown. "I thought that was,

like, today."

Ryan looked well and truly uncomfortable. He clearly wanted nothing to do with this

conversation, and Cooper thought he could understand why. "Heard some

cheerleaders saying something about the dance. Guess they've been broken up

since then."

Vincent looked flabbergasted. "Astrid never told me."

"Me either," Cooper said with a sigh, trying to ease the tension. Ryan gave him a

smirk, visibly relaxing.

"That's some bullshit." Vincent turned to Cooper. "Don't let me go crawling back to

her." He pointed at his face. Already the skin around his eyes and nose was

beginning to swell, turning a soft shade of purple. "Remind me of what will happen."

"Sure, sure," Cooper agreed, though his mind was a million miles away.

He tried to absorb the influx of information he'd received over the last ten minutes,

soaking it in like a sponge. After all, his life depended on it. The more pieces of the

puzzle he had, the quicker he could hunt down the killer and save his own skin.

But it was a lot to process. Astrid hadn't told Vincent about her breakup—which

meant she was either taking it really hard, or had other, more pressing things on her

mind than keeping up her side fling. And Gareth...the guy had some seriously

twisted coping mechanisms. That, or he'd taken his involvement a step further and

had started dealing on the side. Dealing and dabbling, apparently. Perhaps he and

Jacob had been partners.

Or, more likely, competitors.

Cooper fought back a wave of nausea. He kept imagining Gareth's face contorted

with fury, his pupils blown wide and mouth twitching as he wrapped his hands

around Rachel's throat. If he and Astrid had called it quits, maybe he'd blown a fuse.

Among other things.

What if Tracy's death sent him over the edge? He's obviously unstable.

He didn't know nearly enough about Gareth Walker to jump to any wild conclusions.

And now, after the events of the afternoon, he felt like he knew Stephanie Brighton

even less. She'd always had a knack for drawing out secrets. But spreading harmful

information within her own circle? That didn't seem in line with her character.

How much does she know, exactly? Cooper barely registered Vincent and Ryan's

conversation. Something about trying out the new update at Ryan's place. How

many secrets has she been keeping?

"You coming?"

Cooper started, looking up from the floor to see Vincent and Ryan staring at him,

wearing identical, quizzical expressions.

" Uh," he started, grasping for straws.

Vincent rolled his eyes, gingerly lowering the paper towels from his face to inspect

the damage. "Ryan's place. He said we can come over and check out the new

system."

Cooper felt a brief moment of panic. He'd been planning on stopping by the

yearbook lab to sift through Sahein's recent uploads. He doubted he'd find anything

worthwhile, but at the very least, he might find a few images proving Sahein's

innocence in the murders.

Vincent cleared his throat. "And if I'm being honest, I'm not really ready for my old

man to see this yet."

He held up the bloody mess in his hands. Cooper groaned, his indecision giving way

to fear. Blind, naked fear.

"Oh God." He ran a hand through his hair—once, twice, three times. "I'm a dead

man. My mom is going to kill me."

Amelia's wrath would be all-consuming. There would be no recovery.

"Naw. I'll tell her you backed me up." Vincent winced. "My dad, on the other hand..."

Cooper grimaced in sympathy. Ryan watched the exchange with distant curiosity,

swallowing whatever questions he may have had about Vincent and his home life.

"Let's get this show on the road, then," Ryan said eagerly, bolting to his feet.

Cooper stood, debating how best to back out gracefully. He really needed to get his

hands on those photographs. He feared Calla would throttle him in his sleep if he

didn't.

Not that it mattered. Once Amelia saw his face, he doubted he'd survive long

enough to feel Calla's fury.

His phone buzzed. He immediately dug it out of his front pocket, hoping for some

valid excuse that would get him out of going over to Ryan's.

A text from Calla. He stifled his surprise.

Movies this Friday at 7?

Out of the corner of his eye, Cooper saw Vincent stiffen. Realizing how it must have

looked, he shoved his phone back in his pocket. Too little, too late. Vincent had

seen the message—and misinterpreted it in the worst way possible.

Vincent sidestepped him without a word, following Ryan down the hall. He didn't

bother checking to see if Cooper would follow.

Cooper let out a long sigh. Pulling his phone back out, he typed a quick response:

Horrible timing. But whatever, okay.

He had no idea why he was blindly agreeing to go to the movies with Calla. But

knowing her, there had to be a good reason. He didn't picture her as the waste time

at the movies type.

Grumbling, Cooper started down the hall, following the retreating figures in front of

him. Vincent was pissed enough as it was. Cooper couldn't back out now. Not

unless he wanted to risk Vincent jumping to bold conclusions.

He would just have to sneak into the lab some other time. Some other, more

convenient time.

Later, he promised himself. I'll take care of it later.