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Chapter 37
Drew
I knocked on Xavier’s door, turning the handle without waiting for him to give me the go ahead. He never seemed to bother to lock it, even when he was out, and yet nothing had ever gone missing from his room. Occupying what was effectively the penthouse suite of the dorm, he was the undisputed king of the castle, and nobody dared to fuck with him in any way. Well, nobody except Rocky, but she was definitely the exception that broke the rule. In fact, much like her friend, Kik, Rocky broke all the rules.
“What the fuck, man? I didn’t say you could come in. I could have been in here jerking off, or screwing Rocky.”
I shrugged nonchalantly, looking at him unblinkingly. I generally let him get away with this kind of shit with me, without putting up too much of a fight—life was too short, and Xavier’s head was too hard, and will too strong. I mostly didn’t have the energy for the drama that would be likely to ensue if I pushed back. It was far easier to shit slide than to take on the God of War if I didn’t need to. I preferred to pick my battles in order to win the wars. But today I was ready and willing to fight, and I came out the gate swinging.
“I’ve seen you jerk off a billion times, and it never gets less gross, but it’s hardly big news. As for seeing you fuck Rocky, I’d have been looking for popcorn and a large soda. That shit would be hot. Not you, of course, but your girl is smoking.” I smirked to myself. I shouldn’t poke the bear, but sometimes it was fun to fuck with Xavier just for the sake of it.
Xavier looked like his head was about to explode, so I was fully prepared to dodge the hail of verbal bullets when he lost his shit. I waited and was surprised when, apart from the telltale tick in his jaw, he remained calm.
“What’s going on with you, man?”
“Nothing.”
“Try again. The tension is leaking from every pore, not to mention the fact that you look like a washed-up cage fighter.” He was referring to my injuries from the fight. “What’s eating you, and who’s beating you?”
It was funny, I’d known him practically my whole life, and had spent a large proportion of that time watching out for him, reading his moods, and acting accordingly. It had never really occurred to me that he might be doing the same with me.
I sat down and sighed heavily, weighing my words before I said them.
“I need the details of that data guy.”
Xavier frowned. “Data guy? You mean Dillon, Zed’s contact?” I nodded. Zed was Xavier’s kind of self-appointed adoptive father, on account of the fact that Xavier’s actual father was as much of a piece of shit as mine, though in a completely different way. Dillon was one of those cool guys who could make shit happen digitally. Cooler than a geek, but definitely smart enough to qualify as one. And then some.
“Yeah, him. Please.”
“What do you need?” I could see his brain doing overtime to try to work out my angle.
“I’d rather not say.”
“Oh really? Well then, I’d rather not give you Dillon’s number, so I guess we have a problem.”
He folded his arms, and leaned back on the couch. He was anything but relaxed, but the move was designed to give me a false sense of security. He needn’t have bothered. That shit had stopped working on me years ago—if it even ever had. I easily knew when he was serious, versus when he was just trying to out-staunch someone to show them who was boss. I mimicked the action, and stared him in the eye.
“As your friend, I’d like to think you’d want me to know when something was going on with you, especially when you want or need my help.” It was weird how uncharacteristically reasonable he was being. It was freaking me out.
“Fuck. It’s a long and complicated story, but suffice to say that it I need to access some company records, which is why I need Dillon’s help.”
“So when you say ‘access’, you mean hack, right?” Well, obviously. I nodded, keeping the sarcasm to myself. “Which company?”
“What? My dad’s company. Which other would you think I’d need to hack? I mean ‘access.’”
“Right now it’s hard to tell, what with everything that’s going on with you and Kik.” Everything? What did he mean by that?
“Well, yeah, it’s Cavanagh Corp.”
I figured he wasn’t going to budge until he knew what I needed, and why, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and tell him what was going on, as that also explained the situation with Kik.
When I’d finished, he was open-mouthed, which I kind of liked. It wasn’t often that I got to be the one shocking him. That was normally his domain. All the stunts he’d pulled, and more to the point, dragged Cygnus into—especially recently with Rocky—had left me not only in shock, but also wanting to take him outa few times along the way. His behavior was bad enough alone, but the shit he’d had the rest of us pull to meet his own ends had been too much.
I felt slightly hypocritical at my moral outrage, only to now find myself in a very similar situation with Kik, and not hesitating to do whatever it took to get what I needed done. Totally different circumstances than Xavier’s but it made me understand his motivations way more than I had at the time. Still I felt that I could take the moral high ground in the fact that I hadn’t dragged Cygnus, into my shit.
“Okay, so that explains why you’re walking around looking like a two-bit brawler—which, can I just say actually suits you a lot more than that straight-up preppy look. The way you’re built is way more mafioso than trust-fund baby, anyway. I guess that’s your dad’s Ridgewood upbringing, and Baltic genes. But, what it doesn’t explain is your thing with Kik. I mean what’s the deal there?”
“I just told you exactly what the deal is. What else is there to know?”
