Page 20 of Payback

A tiny smile curved my lips. I hadn’t been worried about Henry succumbing to Charlotte’s dubious charms. Even someone as oblivious as Mr. Jenkins could tell that Henry had no interest in her. But Charlotte was capable of the most heinous acts, and I didn’t want her alone with anyone I cared about. I reached into my pocket.

Blake snickered. “Getting a gun?”

I pulled out my smartphone and pressed the voice recorder app. “I want to make sure we don’t miss anything useful in between her clumsy attempts at seduction.”

“Hobson’s fucking Edward and Blake” Charlotte pulled off her tie. “Did you know that?”

I ground my teeth. What business was it of hers, and how did she find out?

“Stop that,” said Henry. “What is this plan you have to get even with Rudolph Trommel?”

“Don’t you care that she spends her nights in Edward’s room with Blake, while you’re left all on your own?” She spread her legs.

“I’ll bet she’s not wearing any knickers,” Blake muttered into my ear.

“Right,” Henry snarled through clenched teeth. “Driver, stop the car, please.”

I folded my arms and nodded my approval. Charlotte was deluded if she thought Henry would show the slightest bit of interest in her. He hadn’t in all the years she had been pursuing him, and nothing had changed except that her actions had repulsed him even more. The car slowed to a stop outside the academy gates, and the sound of a car door opening filled the back of the limo.

“Wait!” she screeched. “I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

“Button up, pull your skirt down, and move right back to the other end.”

“Henry…” she crooned.

“Do it!” he hissed.

I jolted. The only time I had seen Henry lose his temper was the time Coates had put Blake in a wrist lock. Even then, he had just stepped forward and punched the other boy in the face. Even that time when boys threw slurs at the triumvirate, Henry hadn’t become as worked up as Blake or Edward.

“What do you want to know?” she asked with a pout in her voice.

“When did your relationship with Rudolph Trommel start?”

As the limo continued through the academy grounds and beyond, Charlotte told a long, rambling tale starting with how juicy Henry had looked in his fireman stripper costume at the Valentines Day party. She revealed that she had seen the four of us disappear into the hidden room and had tried to follow.

Blake leaned into me and muttered, “Thank fuck she didn’t work out how to use the secret lever.”

I shuddered. That would have made for a disastrous evening.

Charlotte explained that Philippe had approached her at the secret entrance and took her to another room for sex. After that, he had sent gifts to her at the academy in exchange for used panties.

“Do you think he gave them to Rudolph?” whispered Blake.

My lips curled. “I don’t want to think about it.”

On the weekend after she had discovered her father wouldn’t be able to pay her tuition fees, Philippe had invited her down to London, where she met Rudolph. I narrowed my eyes. When I visited the Sunday Correspondent office at the end of last term, one of the interns had mentioned that she’d seen a video of Charlotte confiding in someone that she wouldn’t return to the academy. The meeting must have happened then.

Loud sobbing filled the back of the limo. “I-I was so desperate. Father was scrambling around, selling assets to pay his criminal defense lawyers, and he didn’t care what happened to me. Rudolph offered me everything I thought I wanted.”

“What do you mean?” asked Henry.

She hiccuped. “R-Rudolph said he would pay off Peter’s casino debts and fund Father’s legal defense.”

“What did he want in return?”

“Girls.”

“What?” Henry choked out.