Logan could get expelled for the mere fact that he’d swung first, but the real agenda was to discredit him so that he looked like the only guilty perpetrator. They didn’t want to suspend Sebastian.

“Is your dad coming today?”

I looked up from fixing my tie. Sam was on the edge of our bed, watching me in the mirror.

Since Logan’s attack, she’d been different. The fight left her. Her cheeks were gaunt. She seemed more fragile. I knew she hadn’t been eating, and her runs had been back up to two hours, sometimes more. I’d started driving around, looking for her, and so many times, I’d find her limping back. She always climbed into the vehicle, and I would bring her home. I’d tended to her while Malinda came and tended to Logan until our mother got in from Italy. That’d been two days ago. Malinda hadn’t wanted to leave, but we’d return to Fallen Crest within a few days anyway.

Finals were done.

Football was done. We hadn’t gotten to the championship game, even though Drew won The Heisman.

The only thing I had to deal with was this meeting…and Park Sebastian.

“Mason,” Sam said again, tucking her hands under her legs.

She’d been doing that a lot lately, always hiding her hands. My mouth twisted, and a jolt of anger started in me. She was still rattled from the fight. She would shake at night, tossing and turning. Some nights, she’d wake up, screaming. I hadn’t been there, and I’d have to live with that for the rest of my life.

She leaned forward, still searching my face in the mirror.

I cleared my throat, finishing the tie, before I turned around. “I hope so. I think so. Helen said she got ahold of him.”

She relaxed visibly, her shoulders softening. “Oh, good.”

Sam and I hadn’t resolved what happened in the library when I found out she knew Summer was Sebastian’s sister. I didn’t care who Summer was, but I cared if she hurt Sam or not. I also cared that Sam hadn’t told me, but even that…I understood that, too. She and my brother both protected me this year. It was still their mission. Sam and I needed to smooth things over, but I didn’t think either of us had the energy to approach that conversation yet.

I sighed and reached out for her hand. “Come on. Let’s go deal with these board dickheads.”

Sam’s cheeks grew pink, and she linked her fingers through mine, squeezing my hand. She walked beside me out the door and remained by my side the entire drive to campus and into the building.

When we got inside, everyone was ready. My dad wasn’t there, but he was coming. I hoped. There weren’t a lot of times when I needed him, but I did for these moments. My jaw hardened, thinking about needing my father. I hated it, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

“Mr. Kade.” A woman in a business skirt opened the boardroom doors.

I recognized her from the last time I’d been called in there. That meeting was eerily similar. It was after Sebastian and his buddies jumped me, but instead of questioning if only one of us should be expelled, they decided to suspend both of us.

Some anger grew in me, but I nodded, my entire body tense.

Sam squeezed my hand once more, and I skimmed a soft kiss to her forehead, hugging her to my side. As we stood there, the lady went back inside. Right before the door closed behind her, I got a glimpse of Sebastian. He was sitting at the same table as before, wearing a business suit, with two others beside him. He’d brought a lawyer.

I growled, “This isn’t supposed to be a trial.”

“Mason?”

Sam hadn’t seen him, and I didn’t want her to.

My hand found her hip, and I gently moved her back. “I’ll be back. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

I heard a small wonder in her voice as she said those two words, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I turned abruptly and went inside. She sensed my anger, and I knew she wanted to help, but she couldn’t.

This was my mess to clean up. The first step to do that was going into the boardroom and sitting at the table.

“Thank you for coming in, Mason.”

There were six board members. All of them sat across from me with their stern asshole faces. It’d been the same after my fight with Sebastian and his buddies. I hadn’t struck first with my altercation. Logan had. That was a big difference in their eyes, but they were stuck-up pricks. They weren’t taking the common factor into account—the dick sitting at the table on my right, Park Sebastian. His crew, his fault.

“Mason,” the spokeswoman prompted me again.

I scowled. “Am I going to be able to have my say in here?”

Surprise flitted across her face. Her lips mashed together. Her eyes blinked a few times, and her head moved back an inch. She cleared her throat. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“Because you’ve deemed my brother guilty already.”

“Well.” She looked up and down her table.

The other members all gave varying motions of support. One nodded. Another moved his head down. A third gave her a slight grin. The fourth lifted his finger in the air.

She was reassured and said further, “Guilt goes to the first aggressor. In your situation, it was Mr. Sebastian and his friends. In your brother’s case, it was your brother. He struck first. We have witness testimonies and a video clip that speaks to that.”

I snorted, cursing. “The video clip didn’t show my brother hitting Sebastian first. The clip showed him on the ground while Sebastian and four of his friends ganged up on him. The rest of the clip is where my girlfriend and her friend waded in to save him. And why did you bring up the video clip? You threw it out, said it wasn’t helpful.”