Page 60 of Wicked Little Secret
“Good girl, Peaches,” I say. “You didn’t tell your mother about me. Next time, I’ll bring youtwocans of sardines.”
She purrs her approval.
Nyssa’s not the only one running late this morning.
As I finally leave her apartment, there’s forty-two minutes until my first class of the day begins. I rush to my BMW several blocks down, trying my damnedest to ignore my phone when it rings. Dean Rothenberg flashes onto the screen.
I clench my jaw and begrudgingly answer. “Yes?”
“Theron,” he says, “I’m glad I was able to reach you.”
“Is there some reason you’d think you wouldn’t be able to?”
“Well… it’s just you’re usually at the school by now.”
“I’m missing your point, August.”
“You’ve heard about what happened on Halloween, haven’t you?” he asks, his tone grimmer than usual. “You know, the student that was attacked?”
“Right. I did hear something about that…”
“Samson Wicker. He was bludgeoned over the head. He barely survived, but he’s awake now.”
Tension fills me like lead, my body stiff. “Does he remember what happened?”
“Unfortunately, not yet. So far, no witnesses either.”
Excellent.
“It’s terrible what happened,” I say. “But I’m not sure why you’ve called me, August.”
“I’ve been spreading word to most of the faculty. We’re trying to get ahead of the story before the media publishes it and it hits the public.”
“What exactly are you talking about?”
Dean Rothenberg sighs. “The perpetrator. We think it was another attempt by him, except he failed to finish the job. The Valentine Killer—he’s officially back.”
14
NYSSA
MY KINK IS KARMA - CHAPPELL ROAN
Samson doesn’t regainconsciousness for three and a half days. I’m en route to tort when I receive a call from Katelyn telling me he’s awake.
“He’s in bad shape, Nyssie,” she sobs. “Oh gosh, why does this happen to good people?”
I bite my tongue before pointing out that Samson Wicker is anything but good. While he was technically ‘attacked’ and put into a short-term coma, he was far from innocent. If Professor Adler hadn’t shown up out of nowhere, he would’ve forced me to have sex with him.
He would’verapedme…
All because I refused to accept his cheating ways. Because I called him out on sleeping with my best frenemy.
That’s beside the fact that Samson Wicker is an all-around terrible human being. He’s as insufferable as the rest of the vultures in Castlebury.
The past overtakes the present as I ditch tort and catch a rideshare to the hospital.
It was Samson Wicker who stepped forward to deal the final blow—his arms thrust out to give me a rough shove into thedirt.