12. Daire

TWELVE

daire

“HEY, MR. I’M too Good to Sit with the Rest of Us.” Donovan stepped out in front of me on the way to my next class, blocking my path. “Where were you this morning?”

For fuck’s sake.An interrogation was the last thing I needed, not after the last few hours and no sleep.

“You keeping tabs on me too?” I rolled my eyes and pushed past him, only for East to move in front of me.

“Too?” he asked, arching a brow. “Who else has a death wish?”

“Move, you nosy shit.” I brushed by him, but Donovan and East flanked me like escorts.

“You’re an even lovelier shade of surly than usual today,” East mused. “Why is that? Gavin piss in your Cheerios?”

At the mention of Gavin’s name, I clenched my molars. He was the exact source of my mood this morning, and I’d gone out of my way to avoid him by leaving our apartment before he woke up. I didn’t trust what I’d do or say if I saw him, not after he’d put himself in danger and we had it out in the alley.

God, he drove me crazy. All those claims of concern and giving a damn when he was just snooping around and spying on me. I had no doubt I’d get another inquisition from him at some point, unless I’d finally managed to scare the shit out of him. My knuckles hurt like hell from the way I’d lost my mind trying to get to him last night, and since he wasn’t blind, that should’ve been enough to warn him away from me for good.

But this morning, I just hadn’t been willing to take my chances.

“Looks like you hit the nail on the head with that, man.” Donovan shook his head, and when his blond hair fell into his face, he ran his fingers through it, pushing it back. “Regretting letting my brother move in with you already? It hasn’t been that long.”

“Long enough,” I muttered, and the two of them exchanged a look.

“Okay, seriously, if things are getting worse between you two, he can always come back. It wasn’t my decision for him to leave⁠—”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, cutting Donovan off. I was an asshole, but I wasn’t going to force Gavin to leave unless it was on his terms. I’d gotten used to his noisy ass now. It’d probably be too quiet if he left.

“Um. Excuse me.” The timid voice to my left was one I’d usually ignore, until I saw who it belonged to.

Harry the Hacker, as we called the underclassman we used to get ourselves out of some tricky online situations, pushed his thick glasses up his nose and shifted his weight nervously. Usually we approached him, not the other way around.

“I don’t recall your being on our payroll today,” East said, giving Harry a look that told him in no uncertain terms to get lost.

The fact that he didn’t go scampering down the hall away from us told me there was something more important than his pride here.

“East, give it a rest,” Donovan said before turning toward Harry. “Everything good?”

“Actually…” Harry tightened his fingers around the straps of his backpack. “I saw something on my way to class.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Donovan gestured for him to go on.

“I-I wasn’t sure if you knew, but…there were a few guys harassing Gavin.”

My head shot up, and East and Donovan went still.

Donovan was the first to speak. “What do you mean, harassing?”

“Be specific,” East added. “And we want names.”

Harry nodded, looking a little less anxious now but still awkward as ever. “That guy he dated, Joey and a couple of his friends. I think their names are Carl and, um. I think Dan? I’m not sure⁠—”

“Doug,” I said, my voice clipped. “Keep talking.”

Harry’s eyes widened, and he swallowed. “They were outside his class saying things like was Gavin ignoring them or threatening them. It just seemed like they were trying to get a reaction out of him, and he kept ignoring them until one of them shoved him⁠—”

“They what?” I said at the same time Donovan demanded, “Who?”

“Doug. But then Joey grabbed Gavin by the shirt, and they were surrounding him like they were going to hurt him…”

The buzzing in my ears grew louder, blocking out the rest of what Harry said as pure fury filled my veins.

They’d touched him? Fucking bullied him? After I’d done Gavin a favor by not sending Joey to an early grave, that piece of shit was still messing with him?

Shit. Or were they messing with him now because of what I’d done?

“Where are they?” My tone was barely human, but somehow I managed to get those three words out. My desire to go pulverize Joey and the fuckwads he hung out with was building in me like a raging inferno.

“Daire, I think that⁠—”

“What?” I rounded on Donovan. “We should stand here holding our dicks? Your brother is⁠—”

“Exactly that.” Donovan glared up at me. “My brother. You think I’m happy about this?”

“I think you’re so fucking wrapped up in your little love story, you don’t know shit about what’s happening with Gavin.”

Donovan’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, and I suppose you do?”

“I know more than you.”

“If that’s the case, then you’re doing a shit job of looking out for him.”

My hands balled into fists at my sides, and even the shooting pain in my knuckles wasn’t enough to make me unclench them.

“All right, you two.” East moved between me and Donovan, his hands up as though that could stop me if I wanted to land a quick jab to Donovan’s pretty face.

Iwas doing a shit job looking out for Gavin? Fuck that. I’d saved his ass twice in the past few months. Donovan could take his bullshit accusation and shove it up his ass.

“This,you two fighting each other, is not going to help anyone. Especially not Gavin.”

I never thought East would be the voice of reason, but when tempers were fired up and blood was boiling, the ability to think and rationalize had a tendency to up and vanish. Something mine and Donovan’s brains seemed to have done in this moment.

“What we need to be doing,” East said as he turned back to face Harry, “is gathering as much information as possible on these three miscreants.”

“Fuck that,” I said. “I’m not about to stand around and do research while these assholes mess with Gavin.”

“He’s fine right now.” Harry’s voice shook.

“What do you mean?” Donovan said. “How do you know that?”

“He has class. I mean, I saw him go into the lecture hall, and they left.”

“So they waited for him.” I shook my head and began to pace, twisting one of my fists in the palm of my other hand. “They fucking ambushed him.”

Harry nodded. “That’d be my guess.”

“Motherfuckers,” I spat, my mind spinning as I tried to remember whether Gavin had ever said anything about being hassled. If he’d acted upset or sad, scared about going to school. But I was coming up blank. There was nothing, no indication that any of this had been happening, and I knew why—because of me.

He’d trusted me once with his secret, and I’d “betrayed” him. At least, that was how he’d seen it. So why would he come to me with this now?

“I need to go find him.” I was about to storm off when a firm hand grabbed my arm and I whirled around to see East arching one of his haughty eyebrows. “What?”

“Why don’t we approach this a little differently this time?” When I glared down at his hand, he was smart enough to remove it and slip it into his pocket. “Fists are a good first approach, I agree. I rather enjoyed seeing Joey’s face in shimmering shades of purple. But it’s clear that even a swift punch to his face wasn’t enough to deter him.”

“So what’s left—murder?” I was only half joking, but if that was where he was going, I was happy to get on board. I was pretty sure East would have the connections to not only help us bury a body, but to get away with it.

“Oh no.” East’s grin turned cunning. “That’d be too quick, too final. We want Joey to suffer. We want him and his friends to rue the day they messed with one of the Park Avenue Princes.”

I looked at Donovan, waiting for him to nix the idea, but the vengeance swirling in his eyes matched every feeling I was having. He was just as pissed, just as fired up as I was over this.

“Gavin can’t know.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, and Donovan nodded.

“I agree. If he thinks we’re going after Joey, or that we found out what’s been happening, he’ll be humiliated. Wait.” Donovan looked at me. “Is this why he’s been so surly the last few months?”

“I’m sure it hasn’t helped.”

“What happened with him and Joey?” Donovan searched my face as though it held the answer to his question, but he was shit out of luck. It wasn’t my story to tell. “Why did you go after him?”

“Does it matter?” I countered. “He’s a piece of shit. I should’ve ended him when I had the chance.”

“Yes, well, there’s more than one way to end someone.” East looked back to Harry and crooked his finger. “Looks like you’re going to be on the payroll today after all. We have a plan to put together.”

Then he grinned at me and Donovan. “A revenge plan, that is.”