My Personal Hell, D. Richardson [ebook reader browser txt] 📗

Chris and Jen had to field the questions for me, and I stopped checking my email. Then things got serious.

“Ailith,” Chris ran up to me, breathless as though she had had to run the ten miles from her house. But she had a manila folder that she waved in my face. “I finally got to my dad’s computer.” I pulled her into what was now my office. Which was actually just a balcony directly above the stage. It was where we were controlling the lights and the stage lifts. We thought it would be better if a small group of people could control it all from one spot.

The electrical equipment sat against the small wall, and a desk had mysteriously made it’s way to the other wall. A couple of filing cabinets sat next to it, holding every receipt, weekly rehearsal schedule, along with every financial report that the math club has come up with. Turned out organization was really important to the student council. I wasn’t complaining.

When we walked in everyone vacated the room, as they often did when I entered the balcony. They spent their time testing the equipment and running it for the rehearsals. If we weren’t rehearsing I was in the balcony and they didn’t see any reason to be there. Chris dropped the folder onto the desk with a satisfying snap. I had honestly forgotten that I had asked her to find out who was buying the school.

“Okay, so I know it took a long time. But in my defense, he had changed his password and it took some time for me to hack into it. His new firewall was impressive.” I stared at her for a minute.

“You hacked into his computer?” She shrugged, feeling uncomfortable.

“I want to be a programmer, it was good practice.” I just nodded and started looking through all of the papers that she had printed out.

The school was being bought by some man named Dragger, Collin Dragger. He was paying a sum of five hundred thousand dollars for the building and surrounding land. I had to reread that three times before it finally sank in. Who would want to pay five hundred thousand for a building that was worth less than two? A night club wouldn’t bring in that much in a year. Not in this town with so many smaller less crowded bars. When I brought this up Jake was there. I hadn’t even realized he was in the room.

“That’s ridiculous,” he huffed. “we’re right in the middle of the bible belt. Even if they got people to come from all over the state it still wouldn’t bring in that kind of business.” I couldn’t disagree with him.

“Then why would the city council agree to it?” Chris asked.

“Because, all they can see are dollar signs,” I muttered. “Imagine how much they could do with that kind of money? How many houses they could build, that would give jobs to the construction workers. They could put in new businesses, there’s some more jobs to give. Not to mention it would leave plenty left over to guarantee your dad’s reelection.” On paper it did look good for the economy as a whole.

But something was bugging me. It was the name, Collin Dragger. I had a feeling like I had seen it somewhere before. Which really wasn’t all that probably. Before we started the benefit I was focused on work, school, and my lessons. Then with the benefit I haven’t had any time to just look around. And I certainly didn’t have the chance to when I lived with the Others. Then it hit me. Where I had seen it. My stomach clenched and I felt like I was going to vomit.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jake asked, cutting off whatever Chris had been saying. I shook my head, not entirely sure if I was.

“I think I know who this is. But it doesn’t make any sense. I have to go look something up,” I stood and grabbed my coat before running out of the building.

It took me five minutes less than usual to get home. No one was around, everyone busy with their own weekly things. So I went into Drake’s office to hunt around. I finally found the books I was looking for and settled down in one of the chairs to read.

Three hours later Jen walked in, startling me. She saw me sitting on the floor with all of the books open and scattered in a half circle. I had just slammed one of them closed. I hadn’t been able to find anything that would give me the information I was looking for.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m trying to look up something about the packs, but I can’t find what I’m looking for,” I told her, thumbing through another book from the pile.

“Oh, well these are all pretty recent. There are some older ones in the attic,” she said, sounding like she was doing her best to be helpful. I looked up at her.

“Really?” She shrugged.

“Yeah, I found them one day while I was up there sewing.” I stood up and almost kissed her.

“Thank you so much,” I gasped and she gave me a funny smile. I started to stack up my mess but she told me to go ahead and go, that she would clean up. I didn’t make her tell me twice.

I found the books she was talking about in a far corner out of the way. There was just one box, but it looked like half of them were journals. Instead of sitting in the dust and grime I took them down to my room.

It was almost midnight when I found what I was looking for. I hadn’t touched the journals yet, but I slid them under my bed for later. I found the information in all of the ones I had read to be fascinating. And fell asleep thinking about what to do with the knowledge I had.

The next day Jake and Chris cornered me while I was putting my bag under the desk. They closed the door and locked it. Making me feel like I was about to get jumped.

“So, what did you find out?” Chris asked, Jake was nodding his head as though silently asking the exact same thing. I was exhausted and slumped back in my chair.

“What makes you think I know anything? I’m just one person you know.”

“Because you have this uncanny ability to figure things out. And if it doesn’t work the way you want it too I’ve seen you find a way around it. Now enough stalling, what do you know?” Jake asked, leaning against the desk. I didn’t bother mentioning that the only times I ever got to work around something, there was always someone there to point me in the right direction. Instead I just sighed and leaned forward.

“Collin Dragger is an alias that belongs to Van, the future alpha of the crudelus pack.” That was enough to send them both into shock. I patiently waited for them to snap out of it.

“Why would anyone in the Crudelus pack want to buy property in this territory? They’d never even be able to come look at it,” Chris asked. It was a very good point. And a question I was waiting for her to ask.

“Because, according to the old pack laws, if a wolf owns property on a different territory, they have the right to challenge the ruling alpha for the territory itself. With or without a mate.”

“But those are the old laws, they don’t apply anymore…do they?” Jake asked, unsure of his own words. I shook my head.

“No, the new laws were added as civilization grew. But they never abolished the old ones. It still applies.”

“So there’s nothing that can be done about it?”

“Sure there is, I can warn Drake about what he’s doing. Which I was going to do right after talking to you two.”

“But if Drake can stop the sale then we won’t need the benefit right?” Jack asked, hope showing in his tone.

“Maybe, but I think we should keep it going, just in case. We still need the money to fix the school,” I didn’t bother mentioning my other worries. They had enough to deal with at the moment.

Instead, I left for home. Drake was usually home on Friday afternoons. But instead of rushing, I took my time. It wasn’t bound to be a good conversation. Not with the sale closing in seven weeks. And the school was a sore subject for most of the town. Especially those responsible for the deal itself.

There were three extra cars in the driveway when I pulled up. I had a difficult time finding a place to park where I wouldn’t be blocking anyone in. I walked into the house through the garage door like usual, but I stopped in my tracks.

The kitchen table was crowded with several males. Only half of them I knew. All of Drake’s main enforcers were there, including Sadler, Bastion, and Asher. Sadler wouldn’t look me in the eyes, and Asher was still sore towards me. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with him either, though I had no idea what I had done to offend Sadler.

Jaeger was seated next to an older version of himself at the end of the table closest to me. Their backs were guarded by eight of their own men. The tension was so thick that I could almost see it. It didn’t take a genius to know that they didn’t exactly get along. I picked a hell of time to interrupt. Though now that I was here I couldn’t very well leave.

Chapter 24

Stephan

 

 

 

The negotiation was not going well. Drake refused to give up even another acre, and I wanted fifty. My son sat there as though this were a very entertaining game. It was difficult in the best of times to get him to take anything seriously. Sadler stood at the opposite end. Supporting another alpha as if he were born to be an enforcer instead of ruling his own pack. I had cut ties with his father for exiling him as a boy, though he didn’t seem any worse for wear. Even if he was preoccupied.

Asher, insolent as always, hadn’t said a word, other than to snarl at Jaeger. Who merely grinned back. Judging by the way he had taken to the lone female at the ball, I had the feeling that it was more personal than I knew.

Though I was aware of him asking for the right to date the girl. Drake had turned him down, stating that he was giving her some time to get over her break up. From the way she had worked the room that night I didn’t find his words to be entirely truthful.

An hour after the meeting began the girl in question breezed in, only to pause and blink at all of us. Several males in the room perked up at her appearance, all of them but Asher and Drake as a matter of fact. Though only Sadler gave a significant response. He stood up straighter, but wouldn’t meet her eyes. The rest however, seemed happy to see her, as though she were a long time friend. Even Bastion, and from the time that I