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But I don’t tell Rory that. Instead, in a venomous voice, I spit, “I trust I completed your brief satisfactorily?”
A brief. Because that’s all blackmail is to these people. Business.
It seems to take Rory a moment to realize what I’m talking about, but then he gives me a jerky nod. “I won’t share the video,” he confirms, looking as though it’s already far from his mind. He looks at me, his mouth pursing. “You dance well.” It’s as though the compliment pains him. It’s as though my entire existence right in front of him pains him in some way.
“Baxter’s said I’m done for. So congrats – you got what you wanted,” I sneer. “Another girl down.”
The pain on Rory’s face doesn’t lessen. “What?”
“She’s sending me home. Says I’m not Lochkelvin material – whatever that is. Insanity? Am I not crazy enough like the rest of you?”
Distracted, Rory shakes his head. “You’re going nowhere. I’ll deal with her.”
I narrow my eyes at him, wondering how exactly.
But if, by some miracle, I’ve warped Rory enough that he’s now batting for my existence at his school… then I’m not done. Not by a long shot. I’m not going to stop when the head chief, the ruler of this cursed school, is weak in front of me like this.
I’m going to bargain again and again to get everything I want.
“In which case, since I’ve satisfied your…brief,” I begin in a hesitant tone, “I have other requests.Oneother request.”
He gives me a look like he might regret this. “Go on.”
“I want you and your minions to stop terrorizing the girls.”
He blinks back at me.
“I don’t want there to be any more pranks. I don’t want any more idiocy. I don’t want the girls to be discriminated against just for being girls, just because they happen to exist in your precious backward castle.”
If Rory’s insulted by this, he doesn’t show it.
“The girls?” he says skeptically, testing it out. “Not just you?”
“They don’t deserve it any more than I do.”
“You do know the girls have been way worse than us?”
“Yes. Blackmail is so passé, right?”
He scowls at me.
“You use us,” I continue. “You’re probably even using Li.”
“I don’t useyou,” he says in a haughty voice, and then leans his face into mine, the heat of his breath against my skin making me shiver, “because you have nothing to offer me.”
I’m so close to him, I swear his skin is brushing my cheek. It takes effort to stop my eyes from fluttering shut, from submitting to him. “Leave them alone.” My voice is stronger than I expect — stronger, too, than I think Rory expects.
“You have nothing to offer me,” Rory repeats again, more philosophical than downright vicious, and then he slides to his knees.
I blink at him, startled.
I watch in a kind of numb shock as his fingers approach my lower leg.
There’s only one thought going through my head, and it’s notI need to get the fuck out of this situation.
No.
It’s that he looks good on his knees before me.
