Mercy (Somerset University #3) - Ruby Vincent Page 0,7
Sawyer. They were both taken—for all that they deny it. They’re the ones we need to pay attention to. Find out where they’ve truly been.” I rubbed her back. “Stick close to Teagan. If she’s being threatened to keep quiet, she may eventually open up to a friend. To you.”
Val hummed. “That’s code for sit back, hang out, and do nothing.”
“See how well you know me.”
A breathy laugh escaped her. “I do have to remember Sawyer and Teagan are the victims in all of this. That file alone proves Aiden, or they, collect plenty of ammo to keep people in line. Aiden forced Ezra to keep quiet about the Sams. Teagan could be under the same pressure.”
“We will figure out what the hell is going on and put a stop to it. I promise.”
She squeezed me tight. “I know we will.”
VALENTINA
“All this stuff is making my head spin. I don’t know what to think anymore.” Sofia stopped in front of a stable. A long muzzle and tawny head poked over the door, sniffing out the treats in her pocket. Sofia murmured to the horse as she passed over the last of her apple slices.
I moved to the other side, gently running my fingers through her mane. The weekend brought a trip to the Richards Estate and a visit with Adam’s horse. He and Madeline were in the stall a few doors down. He wasn’t old enough to ride her yet, but Madeline was happy to start teaching him how to care for her.
I wished I could enjoy a lazy day with my son and best friend, but the conversation inevitably returned to the Sallys.
“Teagan came back like nothing happened,” Sofia went on. “If she went through a traumatic experience, she’s hiding it better than I’ve ever seen. Could we have been wrong? Is it possible she was home coping with her mother’s death and cut everyone off to deal?”
“I want to believe that, and I would if not for what Ezra overheard in the basement. One of the guys was freaking out over pretending Teagan didn’t exist. Why would you have to pretend a girl grieving for her late mother didn’t exist?”
“That’s true,” she said under her breath. “Plus, there’s no good explanation for tossing a guy in the back of a van and speeding off into the night. Did you and Maverick find anything that could help on Aiden’s laptop?”
Sofia knew about our digging. I was keeping her up to date on everything.
“We went through the file twice, found out more than I ever wanted to know about the Sams of Nu Alpha, and none of it proved a thing other than Aiden’s a dirt-digging creep. That much we knew already.”
Sofia dusted off her hands, dropped a kiss on Peaches’s nose, and linked arms with me, strolling through the stable. “Was the dirt in Sawyer’s file bad enough that he’d keep his mouth shut about what really happened?”
I stiffened.
Aiden was meticulous in all things. Sawyer’s file included the names of the adult films his father made in college, along with the locations of the VHS copies. The details of his teacher mother accepting bribes to change her students’ grades were exact down to the parents who were able to meet her price. And that Sawyer broke down and cheated himself, buying a term paper in his freshman year.
If they did threaten him, swearing that he’d be kicked out of college, his mother would never work in another school, and the world would find out his father went bottoms up in a backyard gang bang, then that was decent incentive.
“That bad, huh?” Sofia asked softly.
“Bad enough.” It wasn’t the most shocking of the secrets I’d read, but that didn’t mean he wanted it to get out. “I just wish I knew the truth. Why is Aiden keeping those notes? Is he doing it on someone else’s orders? How do we find out the truth if Teagan won’t talk to us?” I shook my head. “It’s awful walking into the Sally house and wondering who will be next to disappear.”
“That’s not going to happen. Not with you and me around.”
I threw her a skeptical look.
“I’m not just saying that to make you feel better,” she said. We stepped out into the sun, soaking in the warmth as our shoes skimmed the grass, collecting dew on our soles. “They’ve gotten away with it for so long because no one noticed there was something off. Now we know.
“Ezra knows. Maverick, Jaxson, Ryder, and