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And that was why he’d brought in the beast. Kala knew shitno one else knew. She kept track of the people around her, the ones who couldpotentially hurt her. Dennis had been running around talking about the freeride he was getting to LSU, but that would go away in a heartbeat if he wascaught cheating.
Dennis’s jaw tightened. “I didn’t cheat.”
Kala smiled, a predatory expression. “Ya did, and I haveproof. You paid a hacker you found on the Internet to hack Mr. Fender’s systemand copy the exam. You were smart enough to not score a hundred, but you did notearn that 93.”
Lou had scored a hundred, naturally. She’d been helpingDennis study. It was how they’d met.
“You can’t possibly know that,” Dennis replied.
“Who do you think the hacker was, asshole?” Kala asked.
Dennis had been a moron. He’d actually asked some people howhe could get his hands on the exam, and TJ had caught wind of it. He hadn’tliked how Dennis was sniffing around Lou, and so he’d put out the word thatthere was a way. Not that he told Dennis himself. Getting word out throughmutual friends had done the trick, and now they had his ass in checkmate.
The key had been to let him actually get the grade so therewas nowhere for him to go.
“And I’ll send it to the school anonymously,” Kalacontinued. “You could talk and try to get me in trouble, but I’ll turneverything over and no one will believe you. I’ve cleaned my tracks up. As faras the Internet trail goes, you sent two hundred bucks to a dude in Turkey tohandle the problem for you.”
“Fuck.” Dennis’s eyes closed, and when he opened them againthere was resignation there. “Fine. I’ll break it off with her. I should haveknown better than to try to hang with anyone in your group. You’re all toxic.Good luck to all you fuckers. May I never see any of you again after wegraduate.”
He stormed off.
TJ really wished he’d gotten to punch the man.
“I’m not toxic,” Kala said, her lip pouting out.
Cooper frowned down at her. “Seriously? You’re hackingteachers?”
One shoulder shrugged. “He was getting close to Lou. TJ andI might have baited him a little. We wanted something on him in case I neededto get rid of him, and sure enough I did. You know I’ve got something on mostof the assholes here. Information is far more effective than TJ’s fists.”
She was going to be a ruthless spy.
And that was why his ass was going into the Army and Kalawould be in the elite circles of intelligence.
Story of his life. The women around him were all smarter,more ambitious, better than him.
Cooper was looking at Kala like he was going to eat her up.For all his Superman morals, he got truly wound up when Kala did something smartand slightly shady. She was Cooper’s own personal kryptonite.
“I’m going to go to class.” Anything to get away from theteen lust that was suddenly filling the hallway. “You two… Bye.”
He turned a corner and practically ran into Lou. She barelymanaged to keep her books in hand.
“Hey.” It felt like the whole world softened when she wasaround. “Sorry, sweetheart. I was trying to get away from whatever Kala andCoop are doing and not paying attention. You okay?”
She smiled up at him, tucking a piece of golden-brown hairbehind her ear. “What did she do now? I thought they were mad at each other.”
“I don’t think that would stop them.” TJ fell into stepbeside her. This was pretty much where he always wanted to be.
He wanted it so much he couldn’t ever risk not having it.Despite her big brain, she was so young. Barely sixteen and already graduatingas the valedictorian of the class. He would be almost nineteen when hegraduated because his parents had been advised to hold him back from startingkindergarten. Yup. He’d been too dumb to start school with everyone else.
“And you have to stop calling me sweetheart,” she said witha curl to her lips. “Dennis isn’t exactly my boyfriend, but I don’t want him toget the wrong idea about us.”
Guilt flashed through him, but he shoved it back. It wasbetter for her to be a little hurt now than utterly be humiliated. Even ifDennis had been honest that he truly liked Lou, it would have gotten out ifshe’d gone to prom with him.
If she’d slept with him…
“Will do,” he promised. “No more sweethearts. Only LouLous.”
Her nose wrinkled into the cutest expression. “Weirdo. I’mgoing to be late. See you at lunch.”
