Page 104 of Forever Defiant
“Kind of?” Dante asked. Eyes on me, cool, appraising, not at all intimidating.Yeah, right.
“Yeah, she owed me a favor.”
Could I leave? Was that polite? Did I care if it wasn’t?
“She spilled all that for an owed favor?” Dustin scoffed. “What the hell did you do for her?” His tone wasplayful, and the others laughed, but somehow it just pissed me off even more. Savannah hadn’t laughed. She looked torn between saying something and saying nothing.
“She fucked my boyfriend behind my back, and then married him,” I said with more bite than necessary. “We done here? Can I go?”
The room went silent. Savannah’s eyes closed as she winced at my flat delivery.
Dustin cursed under his breath. “I . . .”
“Save it,” I said, waving him off. “They’re married, they’re happy, I really don’t care.” I smiled at them all. Flat. Lifeless. “Ifound what I needed. I just need the address, Savannah. You can get me that, right?” She looked at me. “For Tiffany?”
Dante squeezed her knee. I saw it, she felt it, she looked at me, and I rolled my eyes.
“Are you serious? A knee squeeze?” I snapped. “I’m not involving her,” I told QB10 forcefully. “Shegot in my car.Sheinvited herself on my trip.Shewalked into the house with me.”
“What else would you have her do?” Dante asked me.
“She could have sat in the car.” I gave them my no-bullshit voice. “Or just not got into it in the first place.”
“I’m still here,” Savannah told us both. “The knee squeeze is not Dante telling me what I can and cannot do. Dante doesn’t dictate my life to me. The knee squeeze is someone reminding me to take a breath before I jump in with both feet.” She squeezed his knee. “I don’t need to be reminded,” she said gently. “Not about that.” Her cool stare landed on me, and she looked disappointed again. “You’re talking like my involvement in this is over. I get you the address, and what? I’m done?”
I hesitated. “Um . . .”
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you serious?” She looked pissed.
“I... I just don’t know if you want to be any further involved,” I said lamely.
Her eyes were like slits. “I’m really sorry Mary was a shitty friend,” Savannah said bluntly. “I’m really sorry you think someone who stabs you in the back and sleeps with your boyfriend merely owes you afavorin return for that betrayal. And I’mreallysorry they skewed your perception ofdecentpeople.” She leaned forward. “I’m staying on this. This affectsmyboyfriend, andmyfriends. It may just be a story to you, Hadley. To me, it affects people I care about and their future. My dad is dean here for Christ’s sake, you think I’mnotinvested?”
“I’m not saying any of that,” I replied flatly. “But this really isn’t about your friends, or your dad’s school. This is about agirl who is missing, who was hurt here, and who wassilenced.That’smy story. That’s my focus. Everyone else in this room has a choice; I don’t think Tiffany did, and if her not having a choice is okay with any of you, then fuck you.”
“Let’s not lose our heads here,” Dustin spoke up for the first time. “It’s a sensitive subject, it’s multi-faceted. It’ll take care and consideration to work it out forallinvolved.” He held my gaze. “Yeah, that includes you, Hadley. Savvy got involved with you when she got in your car. You got involved with Savvy when you didn’t demand she leave it.”
Well . . . whatever.
Dante was watching me, and I refused to back down. He saw it too, and when he spoke, his voice was soft.
“What Sav was trying to say, and perhaps didn’t put across well, is that this is a scoop to you, Hadley. But whatever you find could directly affect three of the people in this room, and almost everyone in this building.”
“Almost everyone?”
“Well, I don’t think you give a fuck about the consequences as long as you get the story,” he said coldly. “So I excluded you.”
I stepped back at his brutal honesty.
“I care about the outcome.” I looked around at all of them. “I care that there’s a girl out there who this school silenced. I care that she’s been dealing with the consequences of that ever since. I care that there’s someone out there who hurt her and hasn’t been held accountable. I care that your program covered this up. So yeah, I care about the consequences, because thereneeds to be consequences.”
“You care about the fact that they took down your blog and put you on probation.” Dustin didn’t flinch from the glare I gave him. “This story about a cover-up? It justifies that youhada story to begin with. It reinforces the fact that you should have posted about it before.” He didn’t look away. “Do I believe youcare about Tiffnay? Yes, I do. Wealldo. But don’t stand there and be a hypocrite. You want this story for you, just as much as we want it for us. And—” he spoke over my protest — “we canallagree we want justice for Tiffany, but we are all entitled to ask ourselvesat what cost.”
I took a deep breath and knew I was glaring at them all. “This program is rotten. It’s a pile of steaming shit. Every single one of you should be fighting me totellthis storyyourselves, not be worried about what spin I put on it.” I shook my head. “You’re in your junior year. You could have all opted to declare for the Draft after the win, but you chose to stay.Youchose to stay here. If you’re so worried about howmystory affects you, transfer.”
I headed to the door, then turned back and looked at them, my anger clear.
“But don’t sit there and tell me to worry about consequences when you are only worried about yourselves and your careers. Who the fuck was thinking ofherlife when this happened? Or Mason’s, if he’s innocent?” I opened the door. “You want to come at me for being single-minded, look in the mirrors first.”
