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For the first time in days, I laughed. Hard. “No! That’s awful.”
“AriPhoe?” She snickered. “Porana. Get it? Parana?”
Our laughter filled the room and I held my sides as Teagan continued to fire off possible portmanteau nicknames for me. “I love you. Thanks for making me laugh.”
“Bitch, I love you too. Don’t ever forget that I’ve got your back. Ever.” She laughed. “Porana.”
I smacked her with the pillow I held, laughing. Too bad the fun couldn’t last forever.
Teagan blew out a heavy sigh before she focused on me. “Okay. Until we figure something else out, you’re not to be alone. If you’re in classes then find a big, strong guy to become friends with. Otherwise, I’ll be around. I have pepper spray on my keychain, and we need to get you one as well. Tell Theo you need an Apple Watch. The new ones call 9-1-1 if they detect that you fall. If we’re keeping this secret, that’s the best I’ve got for us.”
“I need to upgrade my watch anyway. If I’d been thinking about it, I would have told him I needed a new one when we got my phone. I’ll call Dad and let him know I tripped down the stairs at the library and broke mine.” I smirked. “It will sound more plausible.”
Teagan laughed. “That will work. He won’t question anything if you mention the word library.”
ChapterSixteen
Jagger
Ilowered the pliers closer to his balls, itching to put Peter and me out of our misery.
“Tell me what I want to know and you walk away a free man.”
Peter blinked at me before he licked his lips and began.
“Her name is Ariana Ellison. She changed her name before she enrolled at the academy.”
Son of a bitch. Nausea rolled in my stomach. The truth barreled into me like a linebacker that weighed three-hundred pounds, stealing the air from my lungs. I was right. She was alive and well, not to mention attending Whitmore University. It was one thing to contemplate the possibility, an entirely different ball game to hear the information from someone else’s mouth. Peter’s words punctured my skin like a thousand jellyfish stings. What the actual fuck? All these years, I thought she was dead. Why didn’t she tell me? My jaw clenched, then I gritted out, “Why?”
“Her father, Theo Ellison, never gave her an answer other than to keep her safe.”
“From?”
“It took her a while to confide in me, but I could tell she was troubled. She was full of life with everyone except me. When I asked her if she was adjusting to the academy, Ari broke down sobbing. She said she couldn’t tell me what had happened, but it was bad.” Sweat dripped into Peter’s eyes, and he blinked repeatedly.
“Keep going if you want to keep your fingernails intact. I’ve got time and you have nine more left.” I quirked a brow at him.
“Eventually, I was able to coax it out of her. One thing about Ari, she was a wounded little bird. Stroke her just right and she’d do anything I wanted her to.”
Without any warning, I grabbed his finger and ripped off another nail. His screams echoed through the room, bouncing off the cement walls. I should have thought ahead and brought my earplugs.
His shrieks finally died down into a whimper.
“What did she tell you?” I demanded, my tone sharp.
A crazy laugh escaped Peter. The pain was getting to him. Good.
“You mean the confession that slipped from her beautiful lips as she rode my cock?”
It took every ounce of restraint not to knock this stupid asshole out. He was clearly delirious, which meant I had to hold off on the torture until I had what I needed.
“Yup. What did she say?”
To my surprise, Peter’s shoulders shook as he sobbed. “If I tell you, you’ll kill me. I rather be tortured than die.”
“Peter, Peter, Peter.” I tapped the pliers against the side of the table he was lying on. “One way or the other, I will get the truth out of you. I certainly didn’t waste my time knocking you out and throwing you in the back of your trunk. It took me a minute, but I found your keys and drove us where no one would ever look for you. You see, my uncle is the prez of an MC. One that won’t even blink twice when I ask them to dispose of your body. Nothing really phases them. For that matter, me either. You won’t be the first person I’ve killed.” I shrugged as though taking a life meant nothing to me. In his case, it didn’t.
“Talk!” I raised the pliers a few inches above his balls.
