Schooled in Revenge

Schooled in Revenge by Jesse Lasky Page B

Book: Schooled in Revenge by Jesse Lasky Read Free Book Online
Authors: Jesse Lasky
Tags: Fiction / Media Tie-In
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it makes sense. He’s a big-money investor who uses questionable tactics to get what he wants. It’s made him a very wealthy man, and according to Takeda’s files, he and Senator Wells were roommates at Brown. Plus, Reinhardt’s been rumored to have associations with Cain, using him and his men to intimidate, and sometimes worse, to get what he wants.”
    “And to get his friends what they want,” Reena said angrily. “Even if it was murdering my mother.”
Reena storms into a seedy motel room, bare and grimy, made up of two wiry twin beds and a termite-infested desk. Cruz follows Reena inside, shutting the door and locking it behind her.
    “The media won’t give us two seconds together. Won’t give me two seconds to myself,” Cruz says, pacing the tiny room.
    “This place is disgusting,” Reena says, looking around.
    “Yeah, well, at least they won’t find us here.”
    “I wouldn’t even be able to find us here,” Reena says.
    Cruz crosses his muscular arms across his chest. “Funny. I haven’t been able to find you for the last six months.”
    Reena looked down, guilt crowding out her happiness at seeing Cruz. The shooting of Reena’s mother and Simon’s subsequent arrest had sent both their lives into a tailspin. At first, they had banded together, finding solace in each other’s company, and eventually, each other’s arms. But then Simon’s trial had begun, and Reena’s life had turned into a media feeding frenzy. Overwhelmed and distraught, Reena had done the only thing she could at the time. She’d run.
    Reena grabs Cruz’s hand and pulls him next to her on the edge of one of the beds. “I’m sorry. I’m going to explain, I promise. But first, tell me about Simon. How is he holding up?”
    Cruz stares at her a minute, as if trying to determine if he can really trust her to come clean.
    Finally, he shakes his head. “He’s hanging in there, but I think he’s starting to crack. We used to think we could get him out on appeal, but the lawyers say that’s probably not going to happen unless we can introduce some kind of new evidence. I just…”
    Reena tips her head, forcing him to look at her. “What?”
    “I just feel so fucking helpless.”
    “I’m sorry,” she says softly, wrapping her arms around him. She knows that the brothers hadn’t had an easy childhood. But they had each other, and that had gotten them through the hard times. It must be killing Cruz not to be able to help Simon.
    “Is the press still speculating that you were in on it?” Reena had been shocked and horrified when the media hadgone after Cruz, insinuating that, as an aide to Reena’s mother, he had fed Simon information that allowed him to get close enough to take the shot that had killed her.
    He waved off the question. “I’m done in politics. Ruined. But I don’t even care anymore. I just need to clear Simon.”
    “Have you found out anything new?” Reena asks. “Anything that might help?”
    He shakes his head. “I’ve hit so many brick walls, my head is bleeding. I’m at a dead end.”
    She hesitates. He’s as stubborn as she is. Once she tells him her plan, there will be no going back. For either of them.
    “I think I might be able to help,” she finally says.
    “Have you found something? Some kind of new evidence?”
    She takes a deep breath. “I found someone,” she says. “Someone who can help us clear Simon’s name. Someone who can help us find my mother’s killer. Who can teach us how to avenge them both.”
    “Avenge?” Cruz shakes his head. “What are you talking about?”
    Reena stands up. There’s only one way to make Cruz understand. Only one way to make him see.
    She walks calmly over to the bedside table, smashing her fist into the lamp on its surface. Shards of ceramic fly through the air before falling to the dilapidated carpet at their feet.
    Cruz stands, a look of shock on his face. “What the fuck was that?”
    Reena picks up a piece of the demolished lamp.

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