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Brady raises a mocking eyebrow. “What happened to who?”
“Olivia Pratt,” Cole answers slowly, obviously confused.
“Who?” Brady repeats, voice deadpan.
“Oh…,” Cole drawls. “Damn, man. That’s cold.”
“Cold as ice. Speaking of, somebody top me up.”
Brady holds out his glass, and Nolan automatically grabs for it. He surveys us with a bored expression, but some other emotion glitters in his eyes. “Asking a lot of questions is probably a bad idea, all things considered. You’ve managed to come out on top and that’s really all that should matter to you, especially with the Initiation coming up.”
Cole glances at me. “You really don’t think Olivia will cause any more problems?”
I don’t want to be talking about this, not when I’m unsure that I can keep my emotional reaction under control. The look on Evangeline’s face when that video started to play is imprinted on my mind. It’s something that I won’t ever forget, no matter how hard I try to do just that.
I’m not going to let anyone, or anything, hurt her like that again.
Anger is only a natural reaction, both at myself and every person who got us to this point. I might still wring Vaughn’s neck before he gets the chance to explain himself. My hands clench around the glass as I force myself not to hurl it across the room.
Nolan returns before I can decide how to respond.
“Nobody comes back from something like that. Olivia Pratt is gone for good,” he says.
My gaze immediately moves to Nolan’s face, something in his tone catching my attention. Or maybe I’m just being paranoid.
“You sound certain,” I comment.
“Aren’t you?” he scoffs. “Her sextape got played for the entire school to see. No girl in their right mind would ever show their face back here.”
“Assuming that chick is in her right mind might be a leap,” Cole says, almost making it sound like a compliment.
“What sextape?” Brady asks. Something in tone has changed, as if he is paying attention to the conversation in a way that he wasn’t before.
“Some video that must have been made at a Havoc party last year, or something,” Nolan responds carelessly. “All the guys in it were wearing our masks.”
Brady taps his knuckles on the mantlepiece. “I’m surprised a sextape did the trick. That kind of thing has made people famous.”
“Maybe if it was just with one guy,” Nolan laughs. “Six or more and it’s just embarrassing.”
“Nice.” Brady bares his teeth in a rough approximation of a smile. “Where’d you get it?”
Nolan shrugs. “You’ll have to ask Vaughn, assuming he ever starts talking sense again. It was just a clip, maybe like five minutes long. I think somebody sent it to him.”
“One of his brothers?” Brady asks.
“No idea, man. You’ll have to ask him.”
“I just might, assume he ever shows up. Attendance is mandatory whenever I’m here, by the way. Somebody needs to get a hold of him.” Brady drains his glass and sets it down. He pushes off of wall and flicks an imaginary piece of lint off his suit. “Keep up the good work, boys. I can’t sleep on sheets under a thousand thread count, so I’m going back to my hotel. I’ll be back tomorrow and we can get down to business with planning your Initiation.”
Nolan leaps up like a trained Labrador and chases after him. “I’ll walk you out.”
Cole watches them go with a strange expression on his face. “I’m not the only one who thinks something about this is weird, right?”
“This is Havoc House. Strange is our middle name.” I glance up to find him staring at me. “Brady was a dick before he graduated and he’s still a dick now.”
“Yeah, the kind of dick who ends up on Forbes’ lists or running for national office. I guess we could do worse by following in his footsteps,” Cole points out, his tone sardonic. “He’s just acting weird as hell and I can’t figure out why. Everything has been weird since classes started this year.”
“Since Olivia came back, you mean. They wanted us to get rid of her and we did. What’s there left to be weird about.” My stomach turns even as I force myself to say the words. The only way this works is if I pretend that everything is good, that this Initiation and Havoc House are the only things I care about.
