“Nothing. Nothing,” she repeated at my look. “He brought me here and left a letter saying he was proud of me for killing Axel Verlice. He must’ve learned differently after that.”
Rainey led me into the truck and took up work cleaning and changing my bandage. I paid it no mind under my racing thoughts.
This bastard took such a risk grabbing her in the middle of a crowd. Was it just to pat her on the head, or to prove he could get to her anytime, anywhere?
“How’d he know that was the time to do it?” I cast a glance back at the copse. “Is he always watching you? Home, school, here. The fight broke out and he saw a chance.”
“That’s the only thing that makes sense, but it doesn’t change that he came prepared. Something pricked my neck and I was out in seconds. Was he waiting for his opportunity and the perfect one just fell into his lap?”
I shook my head. “That’s too convenient. As convenient as another shady piece of garbage jumping on that chance to kill Roan.”
Rainey finished with my shoulder, so I started the car, taking off before Dad saw us. I was due another trip to the doc anyway.
“Why would someone want Roan dead? Other than the obvious reasons,” she muttered. “He gets off on riling people up, but who did he upset so much they rolled up on him with a knife?”
“Roan goes with me on collection runs. Like you said, he makes a tense situation worse. He also has access to the university’s database and security systems. We’ve used the records he’s dug up and the things he’s seen on the cameras to our advantage many times. Knowledge prevails where threats fail, Rain. Every time.”
“In other words, your enemies are too many to count and literally anyone in Bedlam could want to kill Roan for blackmailing and extorting them.”
“Basically,” I said mildly. I wasn’t about to say it another way. This didn’t bother me as much as my father and psych degree said it should. “But it still comes back to how oddly convenient it was you and Roan were presenting as easy targets the same day you were picked out for a knife and knockout juice.”
“You think they knew there was going to be a fight?”
“I think they knew there was going to be a crowd.”
Rain gasped, clamping down on my thigh. “Quinn and the New Boys. They were all geared up to ambush you on the deck, but when we didn’t show up, they and all their buddies took the showdown to the Green. Jeremy gathered those people beforehand. Told them it was time to take down the Bedlam Boys.”
“So Roan’s guy and yours suited up. We’d be outnumbered. Bodies and fists flying everywhere, you wouldn’t see it coming,” I said. “And you didn’t.”
“But it’s not like Jeremy hung a sign-up sheet in the quad,” Rain cried. “They had to keep that quiet so you guys wouldn’t find out.”
I turned off the road for the farm and drove down Marigold, heading straight to the clinic. “I also doubt the cowards invited Holly, the soccer mom, and Billy, the cafeteria worker, to the party.”
“That means—”
“—if this letter guy and Roan’s attempted assassin got the signal to show up, they’re both students.”
I didn’t need to see Rainey’s face to know she was gaping at me.
“Or teaching assistants,” I offered. “Possibly grad students. Either way, they’re connected to Bedlam University in some way.”
“You’re right,” Rain whispered.
I shot her a look. “Still think I shouldn’t be involved?”
“All right, sheriff’s son, I admit your deductive reasoning was helpful in this instance, but you being involved isn’t up to me. H-he—” Her voice cracked. “The Letter Man said people I love would get hurt if I defied him, and I can’t pretend that’s a threat he won’t carry out. Not after last night.”
She gestured between us. “We can do this. Talk. You can steer your father in the right direction and let me know if he finds anything, but you can’t get in the middle of me and the Letter Man, Cairo. Not you, Roan, Legend, Jacques, or Arsenio. I couldn’t live with myself if another person died because of me.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say she didn’t make the rules.
I held it back.
Rainey had proven she didn’t bluff either. I walked in on her once, trying to kill herself. I wouldn’t let the fucking thought enter her head a second time that everyone would be safer if she took herself out of the equation.
“I’ve done this for a long time, Rain. No one is going to know anything that we don’t want them to know. This letter guy included.”
She eased her grip on me, turning her attention to stroking my thigh. In spite of the serious conversation and the threats that went with them, my trouser snake reared its head, heeding her call. I didn’t waste time with feelings like shame, so none of that accompanied his insatiable need. I did bite back a wave of anger at the fact I wouldn’t be able to give the junkie another hit.