Dick: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance

“So now what, you’re just here to make amends?” I asked as Becky held herself behind me. “You say sorry and hope that everything’s forgiven?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head almost violently. “I don’t think I even deserve that… but I can help you do what you asked me to do. I can help you get your pictures back.”

“How?” I asked, frowning.

“It’s not exactly legal,” he said, a grimace on his face. “And it’ll require you to do something that I doubt you’re going to be comfortable with.”

Chapter 18

Dick

The last two days had been more than a little hectic.

With Greg’s refusal to help us get the pictures out of Michael’s possession, we had no way out when it came to our predicament. Either we found a way to delete those pictures or Michael would hold them over our heads. Even if we could nail him to the wall for what happened to Becky, our lives would be ruined.

I’d tried my best to go about the day like normal, though wherever I went I saw members of AEO, watching. I knew Michael didn’t have much power among the upperclassmen in the fraternity, but the amount of influence he’d apparently gathered among his fellow pledges was more than a little unnerving. People like Michael always knew just how to get other to do what they wanted, sometimes even eagerly; they brought out the worst in people.

Jessica and I hadn’t seen one another since the confrontation with Greg, and I was beginning to wonder if she’d given up on what we’d begun together. The thought of that alone was enough to make me feel like my heart was being stabbed out.

The fact that I was so powerless to stop what was happening was what killed me the most. I’d always been strong, fast, capable, even smart. But faced up against an obstacle like Michael, there didn’t seem like there was any way to really beat him. Sure, I could hurt him, kick his ass from here to Oregon, but the fact remained that once I was done he’d just send every single one of those pictures to the entire campus. No matter what I did, Michael still had the upper hand and Jessica would suffer for it.

I sat on my bed, my head in my hands for most of the morning. There were only a few more days until the game, and for once the coach thought that maybe getting a little rest might do us some good. My entire body was sore now that it had a chance to recover from its weeks-long torture before the first game of the season. Sleep would have been more than welcome, but the thought of that bastard holding those pictures over Jess and I kept me tossing and turning through the night. It would be one thing if I was disgraced, I could probably find another college to take me, especially with my prowess on the field, but the shame it would put on Jessica if we were outed like that wasn’t something I was ready to put her through. Sure, some day we’d need to own up to our parents, but I wanted that to happen on my terms, not thanks to some filthy pictures being sent by mail… I had to keep her safe.

It was late in the evening, and after previous night of restlessness I was more than ready for some sleep. I’d been regrettably lax in giving commands to Jessica, but with the situation with Michael I felt like now wasn’t the time for our intimate games and with Michael on our heels I thought it best no one catch us with our pants down—literally.

I’d just begun to doze off, my thoughts at least somewhat free of Michael and his scheme to have me and Jessica under his thumb throughout our academic lives, when I was pulled back from the edge of slumber by the obnoxious chirping of my phone. I opened my eyes, turning over and grabbing the phone off of its charge.

It was Jessica.

“Hello?” I answered, blinking my eyes in the darkness of my dorm. Why was she calling so late? Had something gone wrong?

“Hey,” she said, her voice almost tremulous with what I thought might be excitement or nervousness—I couldn’t tell which.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, sitting up a bit more in bed. In the background I could hear Becky’s voice along with a much deeper, though somewhat familiar one. “Who’s there with you?”

“Becky,” she said, though there was some hesitation in her voice. “And Greg.”

“What is Greg doing there?” I asked, suddenly on edge, sitting forward. “I thought he didn’t want anything to do with this.”

“I think he had a change of heart,” she replied, “and he had an idea about how we can get those pictures from Michael.”

I frowned, flexing my fingers slowly. I wasn’t sure if it was just my own paranoia or if any of my suspicions were based on anything at all, but Greg’s sudden change of heart made me nervous.

“How do we know that we can trust him, Jess?” I asked. “I mean, he already said that he wouldn’t help us once. What’s to say he won’t make a break for it if things get too tough? What if he’s still working for Michael? He’s already told us that he was desperate for cash before and now he wants to help out of the goodness of his heart? I don’t like it.”

“Like it or not, it’s all we’ve got,” she said, her voice soft. “He found a way to do something to Michael’s phone—clone it, he said—we don’t even have to touch it. He can get into all of Michael’s files and delete every single picture he has of us, even the ones he had up in the Cloud.”

I couldn’t help it, a smile broke out on my face. Maybe, just maybe, we could get through this on the winning side.

“That’s awesome!” I said, laying back down on my bed, arms up under my head.

“There’s just one problem, though,” she said, and all at once my hope of victory felt like it was slipping away.

“What’s that?” I asked, swallowing hard to keep the disappointment out of my voice. I felt like we were so close to getting Michael’s shadow from around us that it should have felt too good to be true.

“For this cloning thing to work with Michael’s phone I’m going to have to get close to him,” she said. She sounded none-too-pleased by the idea, though that hardly stopped me from getting upset. “I’m going to have to distract

“Absolutely not,” I said, sitting up once again in bed. “I don’t want that bastard anywhere near you, Jessica. I told you that I’d keep you safe.”

“It’s the only way that this will work, Richard,” she said, defiance creeping into her voice. “Michael won’t be able to resist coming in close—close enough for the machine in my bag to do what it has to do. Greg said that it just needs some time in order to make the right connection and download Michael’s entire phone onto a blank that is going to be hooked up in my bag. After I get the word from Greg that everything is done, then I can get the hell out of there.”

“But what if he doesn’t let you leave, Jessica?” I asked, my voice rising in frustration. “He’s already proven what he’s willing to do to a girl to get what he wants—what’s to say he won’t use this to get you thrown in a bedroom and tied up so that he can get what he never got from you in high school?”

“I’ll be fine, Richard,” she said, trying to wave off my concerns. “I can run a lot faster than you think I can.”

“It’s not about how fast you can run, Jessica,” I said, “you’re going to be in a room full of his friends. Who knows whether one of them is going to grab you while you’re trying to get away? AEO is one of the worst frats in the entire school—they’ve had more investigations for this kind of thing than anyone else in the country! And do you know why they haven’t been shut down?”

“I just thought that they’d—”

“They have their former brothers in practically every part of the school administration,” I interrupted, almost yelling into my phone. “Even the some of the campus police are theirs. If something happens to you, Jessica, then they’re going to get away with it!”

There was a long moment of silence between the two of us as Jessica tried to find words to come back at mine. I hoped that I’d talked some sense into her. If only that had been true.

“That’s going to be a risk I’ll have to take,” she said after she worked up the nerve to defy me yet again. ?

??If it means stopping Michael from using those pictures against us then I’m going to do whatever it takes. You’re not going to lose your scholarship just because of me.”

“I don’t care about the scholarship, Jessica!” I said, entwining my fingers through my hair. I closed my eyes, leaning forward onto my elbows as I tried to figure out a way to save her from what I knew would only be trouble.

“I have to do this, Richard,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “This is one of the only chances we’re going to have to keep ourselves safe from him. This has got to be done, and I have to be the one to do it.”

“I’ll come with you,” I tried to bargain, hoping that with me there she’ll at least have some chance at getting out of there unaccosted. “I can step in if things get too bad.”

“We can’t risk him seeing you,” she said. “If he spots you, he’ll know that something is happening and he’ll run. Michael’s not a dumb guy, but he won’t expect something like this from me of all people. He thinks I’d never do anything like this.”

“Jessica,” I said, trying to appeal to her, “I don’t think this is going to be a good idea. If he hurts you then I don’t know what I’m going to do… Or if I can stop myself from hurting him. I’ll make good on the promise I made him and make sure he rolls across that stage in a wheelchair—unless I put him in a body bag first.”

“I know, and that’s why I can’t have you there—you might jeopardize everything if Michael catches sight of you. I need you to stay away until everything is done. Can you do that for me?”

I stared around at my darkened dormitory, looking at the way the moonlight played against the white walls, casting dark shadows that could have swallowed up the sun.

“I don’t know if I can, not if you’re in danger,” I replied, my fist clenched.

“Then you need to promise me, Richard,” she said. “I need you to promise that you’ll let me do this on my own, for both our sakes. If he sees you then those pictures are as good as on the internet already. Do you understand?”

I put my head in my hands, fretting over what might happen if I left her go off on her own like that. How could she expect me not to come after her? To be there to keep her safe after what we’d built together? I wasn’t sure if I could make that kind of promise, to just let her walk right into the lion’s den with only a cellphone for protection and the hope that nothing swallows her whole. How could she expect me to just stand by?