Breaking Noah

Zara’s eyes well with tears, and before I can think about what I’m doing, my fingers curl into a fist, and with as much momentum as I can muster, my hand flies toward Derrick’s face, catching him in the jaw. He stumbles backward and I follow. I’m about to strike again when a small hand grabs my wrist.

“Don’t.” That’s all she says, and it’s all I need to take that moment I should have a few seconds ago. “He’s right,” she says, when she realizes I’m listening to her. “I messed up everything. He should be here calling me names and wanting answers. It’s not his fault. Don’t be upset with him. He’s right.”

Derrick rubs his jaw, looking again between Zara and myself when his lips turn upward. “Well, shit. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this little girl has you twisted, Bain.”

A tear falls from Zara’s eye and she gives Derrick a weak smile. “I hope so,” she whispers, giving him the answer he wants.

“Let’s get you two out of here and back to the land of the living. I’ll expect one of you to pay for my gas, though. And the damn tow truck to get my BMW home.”

Quickly Zara and I grab our stuff and head out the door into Derrick’s waiting SUV. Stuffing Zara in the backseat, I climb in front. The ride back to town is quiet, knowing we’re returning to the root of all evil. Campus.

On the bright side, though, when we’re back at my apartment, I can lay out the plan to make Dillon pay for hurting Karly and Zara. If all goes the way I want it to, he’ll be expelled before the week’s over and Zara and I can figure out how to make whatever this is work.

—

“You want to do what?” Zara asks, after I lay out the idea I had to get Dillon back.

“It’ll work perfectly. Those guys have no clue that I know anything, so it’s safe to assume Dillon won’t be stopping his extracurricular activities anytime soon. All we need is for him to get caught.”

“And how exactly do you think that’s going to happen?”

“That’s the tricky part, but I think we can do it. Are you in?” The dean is looking for any way to make this stop or something else to take the attention off of me. I’d have to agree with her on this. She’ll be open to just about anything at this point. It’s all about changing the headline and making the university look good rather than bad.

“Of course I’m in. That’s a stupid question. What do we do first?”

Over the next hour or so, Zara and I talk about everything under the sun in regard to Dillon. What his schedule is like, where he goes after classes, who he hangs out with, how he gets around. Everything is taken into account, and finally the plan is starting to seem more and more logical.

“You know that this isn’t going to clear your name, right?” Zara stares down at her lap. I’m sensing some guilt again, and I need her to stop.

“Listen to me,” I say, kneeling in front of her and meeting her eyes. “I’m not trying to save my reputation. It’s already tarnished. Even if we found some crazy way to make people think Dillon is the bad guy, they’re never going to see me as anything more than a professor who slept with a student. This, what we’re planning, is to get Dillon back. You started this mission in hopes of giving Karly some justice. He’s the person who hurt her, and I’m going to help you clear her name. Or at least give you the peace of mind you need.”

“But why are you doing this? After all that happened, Noah, there’s no way I can make it up to you.” She casts her gaze to the side, and I follow.

“Stop it. We’re both a little twisted and kind of deserve each other. It’s done, it’s over. We can’t go back and change anything, so let’s just work with what we have. You started all of this to get justice for Karly. Well, you’re doing just that and getting the closure you need to move forward. Maybe when he matures, he’ll see what he did in a new light—realize he was wrong.” She nods and I take her hand in mine. “You ready to go right a wrong?”

With a huge smile on her face, every tooth showing, she shakes her head. “Hell, yeah. For Karly.”

“For all of us.”

—

Even though it’s pissing me off to see Zara so comfortable with another man, especially one who wants her as bad as he does, we need Luke for this plan to work. There’s nothing I can do, and the same for Zara. Dillon would be too aware of us, even for a dumbass. So we have to use the only other person we think can get through to him.

It’s been known that Dillon is the man on campus to go to if the frat needs anything to party with. He’s not really into the hardcore drugs like coke and meth, but he’s got a pill for everything. GHB being his specialty. It also helps our case that for the last year, the number of date rapes has increased, each one being laced with the date-rape drug, but the supplier hasn’t been found. Dillon’s been questioned before by campus security and the local police, but with his father’s connections, he’s always been released. Hell, I would’ve turned him in before, citing the students who were talking about it, but they were never willing to come forward. With Luke’s help, we should be able to get him dead to rights and he’ll not only pay for what he did to Karly, Zara, and myself, but all the women he’s harmed over the years.

I didn’t tell Zara about the GHB, because, after all, it’s just a notion I have, but I do have confirmation that he sells speed, Vicodin, and Xanax, so that’s what she thinks we’re going after.

A few more moments go by with me keeping a watchful eye on Zara as she engages Luke, and then she’s sauntering back toward me. She has an uneasy look on her face and I’m finding it very hard to keep myself sane enough to not hurt Luke. He had to have said something to upset her again after I spent all that time making sure she was good.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, pulling her into my arms and rubbing her back softly.

“Is Dillon selling the date-rape drug?” I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that little bastard. Of course he would know and of course he would tell her. And I can’t lie to her. I just can’t.

“Yes,” I whisper, placing my lips on the top of her head.

“You should have told me.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Does Luke think he can help?”