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“Goddamn them.”
“It's not as bad as all that. I'll do work-study or I'll get a job.”
“Yeah, and what happens when they work their dark magic and get your scholarship revoked? My dad's on the board of trustees for Columbia.”
I hadn't known that, and I kind of wished I didn't know it now, because that was the retribution I had been secretly fearing from his parents. The grant would have been nice, but it wasn't necessary. The same could not be said of my scholarship. Without it, there was no way I could attend Columbia. I knew he knew what I was thinking when his expression turned even darker.
“They're screwing with you to get to me.”
“So what are you going to do? Walk away from me and give them exactly what they want?”
He pulled his hand through his hair, which was out of character.
“Even if they took my scholarship away, I could always take out student loans or I could ask the Wrights or my uncle for a loan. There are ways around it. Even holding off going to school for a year. But if you left me, how do I find my way around that?”
He enveloped me in a warm hug. “I hate that they're coming at you to get to me.”
“They only have power if we give it to them.”
He responded to that by kissing me, but I had a terrible premonition that things were going to get a lot worse before they got better.
***
Over the next week and a half things most definitely got worse. I lost my job at Alfonso's. Mr. Alfonso claimed it was because he had to cut back due to the economy, but I knew the Rosses owned the building he leased and were putting pressure on him to get rid of me. And with the money and the influence that the Rosses had, a small family-run business didn't need trouble like that. He tried to slip me money under the table, but I wouldn't take it; I felt like shit that he was put in that position because of me.
As I suspected, the Rosses were doing what they were because they didn't like that Bastian and I were living together; they no doubt felt threatened that I was pulling him farther away from them, or more to the point, further from their plans for him. But whatever their motive, they were making enough of a point of just how far their reach went.
Bastian had been asking me to come with him to the garage all the time now and I knew it was because he wanted to spend as much time with me as possible. Though we had never said the words out loud, we both knew that time was not on our side.
On one such visit, Caden came over and took a seat next to me. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” He asked.
“Sure.”
“What's going on with Bastian? He hasn’t been himself.”
“Have you asked him?”
“I try and he just bites my head off.”
It should be Bastian who told Caden, but I shared anyway.
“His parents are up to no good. Pushing their influence to sway Bastian's behavior.”
Something dark flashed across Caden's expression, “They're coming at you?”
“Me originally, but now they're branching out.”
“Bastards.”
Fear tightened my throat. “Something's got to give.”
“What do you mean?”
What could I say? Based on the determination of the Ross family, there was only one way for this to end: Bastian and me splitting up. Thinking about that was hard, living through it was going to be impossible.
I was saved from having to answer when a loud crash sounded. Caden and I looked over to see Bastian hurl something at the wall before he stormed out of the garage. I followed Bastian outside.
“What's happened?” Apprehension filled me because I knew the corner we had been being pushed into by his parents, was now firmly at our backs.
