The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy 2)

If this wasn’t my life, I’d find this whole thing just a little bit ridiculous.

But this was my life now.

It was at the main intersection of sidewalks. They all converged into one giant cement block where the food court building was located, and they’d been waiting. I recognized the girls from earlier. The same one who handed off a flyer was standing up, her gaze set on me and her mouth tightening. She was marching over to us. Most of her friends stayed where they were already sitting at a picnic table, but four or five of them were trailing behind.

“Hey! Bailey!” The girl raised her hand, and her voice matched. She was waving to me. “Hey! Over here!”

Liam let out a whistle and motioned to the girl. She heard. Everyone heard, and she faltered for a second. Her eyebrows pinched together, confused, and that one second of silence was all Liam needed. He called over his shoulders, “Block her.”

The guys in my class swarmed.

They literally swarmed, but they just didn’t swarm her. They circled where Melissa and I were, leaving us in the middle. Most of the guys were between me and that girl and her friends, but a few were holding firm on the side where Melissa was standing.

They were protecting me. They were shielding me.

Melissa dipped her head and whispered, “Those pictures went out to everybody. We knew who you were and that you’re here, but the general student population hadn’t. They know now, and you being you, it’s big news. There’s going to be groups coming out of the woodwork to try to use you, at least for a while. Don’t worry. We got your back. Hoda’s been put on a list. You don’t have to worry about her.”

I blinked a few times. “What?”

She moved even closer, her shoulder touching mine. “She’s on their hit list. Dax. Shyam. The guys. That’s what they call their list of people they want to take down or hurt. We know it was Hoda who gave that gossip blogger the emails for the university. Dax works IT for the campus and he found the IP address for the person who forwarded the list. A file that big, it gets red tagged. That’s what he does.”

“He red tags file sizes?”

“He’s on the computer staff to help maintain cyber security. Last year, we had to download an emergency app because they found a huge hole in the code for the campus internet. It was a whole to-do. Dax was the one who found the hole, and don’t tell anyone, but it’s because he likes to try his hand at hacking. That’s on the DL, of course.”

She was whispering and winking, and there was a whole “awe” element to her voice, too. Dax was a legend to Melissa.

I squeezed her hand back. “I really appreciate it.” And I did. Some of the need to annihilate Hoda lessened. I was almost more tempted to wait and see what Dax and the guys did, see what their skills were like.

Liam gave another short whistle and proceeded forward.

The guys moved alongside us, not falling back and not going ahead.

I was touched. A couple of the guys glanced over and I mouthed to them, “Thank you.” Their chests puffed up and they gave me a chin-down nod.

Liam led the way to where our group ate. It was away from the other students.

Thank God.

After everyone got their food, Erik sat down in front of me.

He glanced around our section, then leaned in. “They’re good guys. A bit weird, but good guys.” He looked over his shoulder at Melissa. “Your girl seems good, too. Solid.”

“She told me that they’re going to handle Hoda. They know she’s the one who leaked the email list.”

I was assuming she also had helped with the current pictures taken. They were from the hallway, when Kash was kissing me.

“Did Kash fire her yet?” I asked Erik.

“She has an official meeting with him at the end of the day.”

“I want to be there.”

He stilled, eyeing me. “Bailey…”

“I want to see his office anyways, and I want to tell him about Matt.”

His eyes narrowed. “What about Matt?”

Scott would’ve known that Matt was drunk in the limo, and I had caught Scott watching Matt more than once when he’d gotten drinks from the bar at the house, too. He didn’t know what else I knew about—about the guys picking him up, taking him for breakfast, hoping to deter him from continuing to drink all day.

I was about to say all of that, when Erik spoke up. “Your brother has guards on him at all hours, too.”

I frowned. “I know.”

“We still report to Mr. Colello, even though he’s only hands-on with you.”

Oh … Oh!

I sat up. “So Kash knows Matt was drinking all day yesterday?”

He nodded. “Mr. Colello knows all of it. He knows stuff you don’t know.”