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He pats my shoulder and waves me along. With little choice given, I follow his lead.
Bypassing the student center, where a couple tables are filled with students studying, I keep my head down, avoiding eye contact.
I hate this shit. Hate what happened. Hate what’s to come. I’ve royally fucked myself by getting involved in any of this shit with Cade. I should've just stayed away, then none of this would’ve happened.
A few minutes later, we’re on the other side of the building, walking into the boys’ locker room. Ridge goes straight for one locker in particular, and once again, I’m thinking he’s done this before. “Were you fucking stalking the guy?”
“Fuck off. I was doing your job, watching those shithead frat boys, while you were having panic attacks over your dad’s constant texts.”
I still haven’t told Ridge about my dad and how he suspected Riley killed those guys who used to work for the governor. At one point I planned to, then the next day, we found out it was Cade who did all that shit to Riley and I figured it didn’t matter anymore since we knew the truth.
“Got it,” Ridge beams, holding up Cade’s phone. “It’s dead, but after a quick charge, we will know all that rotten fucker’s dirty secrets.” He fishes a charging cord out of Cade’s drawstring bag and rushes over to a nearby outlet on the wall. Once it's inserted into the slots, he sets the phone on a bench and we both watch impatiently as the phone gets a charge.
The screen lights up and Ridge immediately snatches it off the bench, still leaving the cord attached.
I hover over him, watching every tap and swipe. He taps on his Instagram and I scoff. “Seriously? His social media?” I snatch the phone from his hand and the charger is forced out.
“Instagram has important shit. What if he had messages in there?”
“From who? His fucking nonexistent fans?” I roll my eyes as I tap into his actual text messages.
I scroll down, saying the names out loud as I see all the unread messages, “Mom. Dad. Mel. Katie. Ashton. Lori. Sara. Amanda. Gail. Jesus, how many fucking girls does this guy talk to?” The next one has me stopping. I look at Ridge before saying, “Doc Eds.”
“Doc Eds? Who the hell is Doc Eds?”
“Edmonds,” I exclaim. “I bet you fucking anything it’s that dirty doctor. Remember how you found his card in Cade’s wallet?”
“Well, read the damn thing,” he says as he leans into me to get a better view.
I tap into it and begin with the message that was received one hour ago…
Doc Eds: Your dad has been trying to reach you. I’m in town for a meeting with Lev today. We need to talk about his odd behavior lately. Call me or your dad as soon as you can so we can meet up and discuss this. Delete this message once it’s been read.
“That’s it,” I tell him. “That's the only one. What the fuck does that even mean?”
“Something’s going on between Cade, his dad, and Lev. That’s what it fucking means. Go to the texts from his dad.”
I scroll down and tap, then read the messages out loud…
Dad: I’m not sure what happened to you, but you need to call me ASAP.
Dad: This is very important, Cade. Call me.
Dad: Where the hell are you?
Dad: This is important. Respond or call me. Eugene said if Lev completely weans himself off his meds, he will revert back to feeling normal and all of this will be for nothing. We need you to intervene.
“Who is Eugene?” I ask Ridge, hoping he knows.
“I bet it’s that damn doctor’s name. Makes sense. But why are they discussing Lev’s meds?”
I clear my throat and continue…
Dad: Eugene said something is up with Lev. He’s got the feeling he’s cut back on his meds. Possibly self-weaning. Said the numbness is wearing off. His temper is decreasing slowly. He’s more rational. More levelheaded. Also noted that shouldn’t happen with such a heavy dose of Arcadulan. He wants to know if we want his dose increased, but I need to know what the hell is going on out there. Call me, dammit.
Dad: We need to talk about your cousin.
I stop there for a minute, giving myself time to process this fuckery.
