This Fearless Girl (St. Clary's University #2) - E. M. Moore Page 0,7
you, Dakota Wilder.”
I stiffen at his words, and he only chuckles. He relaxes into the cushions, and I swear he thinks this is a date or something with the way he’s casually asking questions to get to know me. This will never be that. He made me shoot someone. He killed Dickie.
“I get the feeling you don’t like me very much.”
“Am I supposed to?” I counter. I can’t imagine he’s gone into this thinking I would. “Dickie was my friend. He was a good one. Nice. Kind. You obviously have no value for human life.” My throat closes on the next words that threaten to spill out. He helped me. He fed me without making a big deal out of it. He knew all my secrets, and he was there without humiliating me for needing it. That’s a true friend.
“He was a lying cheat,” Cole growls, something like death flashing in his eyes.
I gasp, so taken aback by his words that I can’t form a true sentence. All I can do is blink at him until words come rushing out all at once. “You didn’t know anything about him.”
“He was a conniving bastard.”
My anger surges. “Shut up.”
He smirks at my anger and leans forward. “You know the one currency that’s most useful in this world, Dakota? It’s not money. It’s not popularity. There’s one specific thing, and if you hold all these chips, you’re in a much better position than anyone else in the room. If you don’t, you’ll always be less than those around you. Do you want to know what that one thing is?”
“No,” I tell him. I can’t stand his games. “What I want is to go back in time. Before you killed Dickie. Before you made everyone lie about what happened. His family thinks a car fucking fell on him. They don’t even know they should be scared of you. They don’t even know the real reason their father is dead, and that right there is an utter shame.”
“You’re only playing into the lesson I’m trying to teach you.” He digs his fingers into the worn cushion between us. “What we’re all playing with is information. You’re right about his kids. It’s not right that they don’t know the truth, but there’s no way I can get around that. It had to be done that way.”
I shake my head in disbelief. Is he even speaking English? Are there really people out there like this?
“Ask yourself who has the most information in this room. Who’s holding all the chips?”
I glare at him. This game is already fucked. He’s playing with a deck of cards I want nothing to do with.
“Come on, Dakota,” Cole urges. “Just say it.”
“You,” I force out.
“Exactly.” He smiles broadly. “You can count on one thing from this moment forward, I’ll always know more than everyone else in the room. Trust me when I say that Dickie had to be taken care of.”
“Taken care of? You beat him to death!”
“Technically, I didn’t beat him to death.”
I sit back, stunned. I didn’t expect him to talk about it so openly. I wish I knew how to use the damn phone Stone bought me, then I could’ve recorded what Cole said and got some justice for Dickie. I couldn’t help my friend when he was alive, but if I could get the truth out now, that would be something.
“I see that fearless determination in your eyes, Dakota.” He blinks, and when he opens his eyes, he almost looks normal. His fingers slide over mine. I try to withdraw, but he pins them in place until I stop struggling. Then, he brushes soft strokes over my hands freely while the rest of my body shakes. The fact that he can control the situation so easily strikes horror in me. “I have to tell you something that’s going to hurt you, but I hold the belief that if you don’t know everything, you’re lost in the dark. Even if some truths hurt, we should always want to know.”
Icy fear slides down my spine and goosebumps rise on my arms as he continues his caresses.
He takes my hand in his, holding it like we’re lovers. “Dickie was not your friend. He wasn’t your dad’s friend either. That information that I gathered? It tells me Dickie was selling secrets to the Jacobses.”
My mouth drops. It’s as if he’s sucker punched me in the stomach, knocking the breath right out of me. I pull in a deep gulp of air and