Compounding Traumas (Artemis University #6) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,105

that is where we are.” She tapped her fingers on the desk. “The Kincaids will be trickier. They want to become elite and be council lapdogs if needed. They were willing to sell their daughter already.”

“And sell me out,” I drawled. “Excited to. The one brother still idiotically boasts I sobbed in the corner and cried for the guards, which even the dumbest doesn’t believe after the Power Playoffs. It makes them look like idiots, so really, they’ve done a lot to themselves.”

“Of course, but they won’t protect Izzy as the Higgins, and others, will their daughters. They will hand her over and do anything they can to get you and what they want.”

I nodded. “Her phone is changed and bounced around like all of ours. We’ve scanned everything she got out of there with Claudia’s help for runes and human electronics. I can’t see how they can get an in without abducting her off and trying to crack her mind like they did Calloway. She’s got the tat too, but she would be easier than Katrina.”

“Undoubtedly,” she agreed.

“What would you suggest? No matter how much I wouldn’t like it—where is your head?”

“Make a better alliance with the wolves. It will take the Kincaids a bit to realize they will truly have to resort to having their daughter dragged into the council to use her. That gives Geiger time to set up what he needs to. You might not be with a wolf, but you are mated to a bear.”

Horror filled me when she said that so easily. “You—no one else can know that!”

She did a double take and pity filled his eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ve had a few drinks, and for a moment, I forgot what a monster the head of our school board is. Yes, no one can learn of that. Well, there are other ways.”

“There are, yes.” I agreed, chilling out and letting her advice settle. “If you have someone in particular we would want to befriend, and maybe has some dirt on their hands, but isn’t dirty, I’d love to hear it.”

“I’ll speak with Alpha Geoff. He’ll know best. You have the best in with the hobgoblins and I suggest you use it. Everyone loves to be around them, and they could use some more security now that you’re rescuing them all. People will react to them being ‘stolen,’ and soon.”

It was my turn to smirk. “Fuck, I hope they do. My dogs need to be fed after all.”

My good deed for the day was making her laugh when she was so heartbroken.

22

“What’s going on, agra?” Darby asked me as I led him through the portal to home.

“A secret.” It was, but honestly we needed a break. It had been another week of too much drama and shit, and I wasn’t sure which of our heads were going to pop first.

We had called it right with Izzy’s parents, and they had shown up at school, demanding Izzy stop throwing fits and tearing into her right in the middle of everyone who would love the show. My heart had hurt when I saw my friend want to die of embarrassment right there and then.

I had stormed right over and called them an embarrassment of parents before wrapping them in a barrier and calling security. Everyone was appalled by my behavior—especially Instructor McGrath, from his thoughts—but I reminded them that they didn’t pay for Izzy’s education. She had cut ties with them. They weren’t alums of the school.

So in what world were they just allowed on campus to verbally accost a student? They had to come to campus because she’d changed her number and moved to where they couldn’t get her. Yeah, that screamed she wanted to see them. Artemis wasn’t an open campus.

I was doing my civic duty by tossing out the trash, and I said that loudly for the Kincaids to hear.

The supe news had gotten a “tip” that the council had raided Calloway’s houses in retaliation for her going against their orders and telling everyone what they did. So they were handling that mess for the moment.

And there was still the mess of the hobgoblins being stolen.

Basically, there were a fuck ton of issues, and I was at the center of most of them—my fault or not—I was.

So my boyfriend was as well. We needed a night off, and I’d asked Irma for some help with that. The hobgoblins were back at campus now, and we had the whole house to ourselves, a fully stocked