Declan’s used to getting everything he wants because his mommy has all the money in the world. He’s never had to watch a man get cut up or beaten because they crossed somebody.
He’s never had somebody so much as threaten him.
I smirk at him. “Why are you so scared now, Declan?”
“I’m not,” Declan mumbles. “It’s… I mean, who even cares? It was just some chick.”
I slam my fist against the wall next to him, and he inhales sharply.
“Icarebecause that chick is crying about it and threatening to take it all to the authorities.”
“We can make that go away,” Declan says, but he’s less sure now.
“Ican make it go away,” I agree. “But it’s more fucking trouble than I want to go through for some loser who can’t figure out how to be fucking discreet. This looks bad for the frat, it looks bad for the university, and it looks really fucking bad for you, Declan.”
“Why… Why do you think I did it?” Declan asks, and he doesn’t back away, but I can smell his fear now.
“Because out of all the guys here, you’re the one who didn’t want to look at me.” I stroke his jaw, and that fear on him almost hides the small hint of disgust.
Yeah, he doesn’t like being touched like he’s the roofied chick.
I grip his jaw and squeeze hard. Declan cries out and struggles against me, but I knee him in the stomach, and his next breath is a sobbing wheeze.
“How many fingers should I break?” I whisper against his ears. “You think you can keep playing basketball with only one good hand?”
“None!” Declan pushes against my chest, but I slap them down.
I wrap my hand around his throat, and Declan’s mouth opens wide in an attempt to scream.
Nobody in the room does anything.
“You’re fucking lucky,” I say to Declan, “that publicly ousting you would be an admission of guilt from the frat. So you can keep your fingers—for now. But when I tell you to do something, you’ll do it. And if you doanythingthat could make us look bad again, I’m not breaking fingers. I’m cutting them off. Got it?”
Tears roll down Declan’s cheeks, and he nods.
I wait another few seconds, until his face is going from red to purple, before I release him.
Declan gasps and falls forward, coughing and clutching at his throat.
I turn around and turn to the others. “That counts for all of you fuckers too.”
Everybody nods quickly.
Soft.
Weak.
They don’t understand what the real world is like.
The world that supports their rich parents and provides them with riches and comfort.
The world that I’m going to inherit, once my father has deemed me worthy.
“Only the strong matter. Everybody else gets crushed. Are you strong, Blaze? Or are you going to be crushed like the weak and the stupid?”
Yeah. I’ll prove to him that I can do everything necessary to run our sordid business.
“Then finish cleaning here and you can pretend none of this ever happened,” I say. I turn around and head toward the stairs, but I catch Zayden waiting for me.
