“Hey, how come there hasn’t been any blow back from the school admin about ... last week?” I asked Beck and Dylan after school while we waited for the other guys, and Eddy, to join us.

I hugged my arms around myself and shivered. I wasn’t really ready to discuss and dissect it but it had been playing on my mind that the whole school was acting like nothing had happened. I mean, Beck almost killed at least one student. There was no way the faculty didn’t know about it. It also made me wonder just where the hell all those teachers were during my attack.

“We had it handled,” Dylan replied, cryptic as fuck.

I scowled. “What happened to no more secrets?”

He nodded and sighed as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Okay, Delta made some threats, then softened it with a sizable donation to the school. In about a month, they’ll be breaking ground on a brand new Olympic grade polo stadium.”

My jaw dropped. “It’s that easy? Katelyn pays some guys to try and gang rape me in a classroom, then Beck puts them all in the hospital, and it’s all swept under the rug with money?”

Beck tilted his head to the side as he watched me. His back was against the side of his car and he looked totally relaxed, despite the content of our conversation. “Did you want to file criminal charges against them, Butterfly? We probably should have asked you instead of just assuming.”

“What?” I shook my head, frowning. “That’s not what I meant. And no, I don’t want to file charges and do the whole court hearing bullshit. Pretty sure they got what was coming to them anyway. Is that revolting cretin still alive, by the way?” By that, I meant Todd who’d clearly been the one leading the attack. I had a small hope that he’d eventually died from his injuries.

“For now,” Dylan murmured. “Oh look, here’s Eddy.”

I huffed, but let the subject drop seeing as I knew they wouldn’t discuss Delta around Eddy. Not that she didn’t already know way more than they realized. But whatever. Appearances.

“What’s the plan tonight?” she asked, bouncing up to us with Jasper and Evan not far behind her. “Movies and Indian food?”

My belly growled, but Beck shook his head. “Not for me, I’ve been called in for a Delta meeting.” He looked as happy about that as I imagined.

Just then, my phone buzzed with a message, and I swiped the screen to check it.

Richard: Riley, would you be able to stop by the house this evening? Catherine is away in New York. I promise you won’t see her.

“Apparently I’m popping by the Delta compound for dinner with Richard,” I told everyone.

“I’ll drop you over,” Evan offered, “I need to go check on my mom anyway.”

We all split up into our respective vehicles and headed out of the academy parking lot. I wasn’t super chatty with Evan, but there was a lot weighing on my mind. What Delta was calling Beck in for, and even stronger, what Richard wanted to discuss that couldn’t be done with Catherine home. Whatever it was, surely couldn’t be good or he would have just called.

25

Walking back into the Deboise mansion felt ... weird. I’d only had my apartment for a week and a half and it was already a million times homier than this soulless estate.

“Hello?” I called out, hesitating in the foyer. I was still a stranger in this house, blood ties or not. “Richard? It’s Riley.”

I didn’t know why I announced myself like that. As if any other teen girl would be wandering into the Deboise manor uninvited.

My biological father—who I honestly knew about as well as Stewart, the butler—came through from another room and smiled broadly when he saw me.

“Riley,” he greeted me, “It’s so good to see you. I heard about the unpleasantness last week. Are you doing okay?”

His casual mention of my gang rape attempt had me taken back, and I stumbled over some kind of neutral response without really hearing what I was saying. But what the fuck? Richard knew about that and never reached out to me? Obviously he was my father by DNA only but still...

Then again, just because Catherine held his seat by proxy now, didn’t mean Richard wasn’t the true Delta member. Maybe I’d been giving him too much credit as a nice person.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, leading me through to the dining room, “Of course you are, you’re a teenager. I remember what Oscar was like at eighteen, he never seemed to be full.” He started to smile at the fond memory, then his face crumpled with grief.

Awkwardly, I sat down at the seat he indicated and cleared my throat. “I, um, went to see him the other day,” I said softly, not wanting to upset him any further. “I hope that’s okay. I just wanted to...” I shrugged “... I don’t really know. It just felt right to visit.”

Richard nodded. “He would have liked that. He would have liked you. I’m so sorry you never got the chance to know him.”

His words got me a bit choked up, and I needed to swallow the lump in my throat before I could respond. “Me too,” I whispered.

As if by unspoken agreement, we both rushed to change the subject to more neutral topics.

Throughout dinner, which Stew served, we remained on safe conversation. School assignments, sports teams, movies. It wasn’t until Stew had cleared our dessert bowls that Richard got to the point of why he’d asked me over.

“Riley, I know I’m not currently an acting member on Delta’s council,” Richard began, handing me a crystal cut glass of whiskey as we relocated to the sitting room. “But that’s by my own choice. After Oscar’s death, I didn’t feel like I was of a sound enough mind to handle the decisions and votes which are required of a Delta sitting council member.”

I snorted quietly with contempt. “But Catherine is?”

Richard’s lips tightened. “Catherine ...” He sighed heavily. “Catherine is a very smart, very calculating woman. When she sets her mind to something...” he trailed off again, then shook his head like he was saying too much. “Anyway, what I was saying, is that although I’ve allowed Catherine to proxy my position, I am still aware of everything going on. I was kept well informed of your mission with the other successors on the weekend, and given a full report on your success. I wanted to tell you how proud I was of you.”