“Nah.” Ezio shakes his head. “Don’t remove them until they request it. You never know. Mr. Delgado might still hold Kappa Alpha in high regard. Don’t forget that it’s our connections that helped build his empire. He wouldn’t have gotten any of the funding he needed for his startup without us.”
“They’re not going to want to have anything to do with Kappa Alpha,” River insists. “Don’t torture them by even asking.”
“We don’t need to ask them right now,” Ezio says. “I just mean, he gets the same Christmas alum mailer as all the other brothers. Until he asks to be removed, we should assume he’s still a warm customer.”
River looks at me. “Can you talk some sense into him?” he growls. “Their sondied. You want to ask them for money? Now or ever? You’re lucky they aren’t suing the frat into the ground.”
I sigh loudly. “Ezio, come on. We’ve got enough people to tap. The Delgados?—”
“Owe a lot to us,” Ezio finishes sharply. He glares at me. “Weren’t youjustcomplaining about how much work all this is? Let me handle it, since you clearly don’t know how business works.”
Anger flares up inside me, and I glare back. “You don’t get to talk to me like that.”
Ezio laughs condescendingly. “Sure thing, Bouchard. But I’m the new frat manager. Your dad was clear on that. Seems he’s got a few trust issues when it comes to you.”
I clench my fists, and I hate how that comment gets under my skin. “It’s not about trust. He simply knows I need to focus on my studies.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Ezio goes back to typing. “Rivera?—”
“What?” River’s voice is harsh.
“The boxing matches. Maybe you can fundraise there. Or at least raise more awareness about us as a fraternity. I know some of the other boxers are Hellions, but that doesn’t mean we can’t draw more support for Kappa Alpha.”
“Everyone thinks of Kappa Alpha as a bunch of entitled, rich assholes,” River says. “They’re not going to want to donate to help rebuild when they know we have a bunch of alums who are more than capable of doing it.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. “We’re the entitled ones? Anyone who attends Dyschord is making bank, River.” I shake my head. “Nah, the problem is that Fenrir’s poisoned the entire team against us by now. I know he wanted to recruityou, too.”
“Who cares about the team?” Ezio snaps. “I’m talking about the audience, the trainers, the managers—hell, get some of the bookies involved if need be.”
“Yeah, okay,” River replies. “I’ll do what I can.”
I eye him. He gave in too easily after how much of a fight he put up against the idea at first.
“I can see about arranging a fundraiser match.” Ezio taps his jaw. “That would go over better than the Nyxie party, anyway, since it’ll be more than just college students in attendance.”
Back to the fucking party.
My tablet tells me it’s close to six p.m. I’ve got a new message, and I idly click over to see yet another message from Tate bitching about how I need to do damage control on the whole incident.
What the fuck am I supposed to do? I’m not the one who admitted to everybody that I enjoyed drinking piss.
His confession had made me want to gag when I’d heard it the first time, during our hazing. Asch and I had laughed about it in private later, when we’d survived the whole ordeal.
Then I’d kind of forgotten, because that entire night was something I wanted to forget.
What I do need to do is get the files back from Pandora. Whatever she has, it’s too dangerous in her hands.
Shit.
She’s got my secret in there too.
Asch’s secret.
The secret I’d been tempted to watch, so many times, and I only held myself back because I didn’t want to betray Asch’s trust.
“Let’s hope nobody hijacks the speakers this time,” River mutters darkly.
“What?” I turn my attention to him. “Who would… Who would hijack…”
