Bex was a constant reminder of the night Shax’s henchmen tried to capture me in Lillian's home, and the subsequent months I spent without Jared. Every time Bex was around, each time someone mentioned his name, the sound of Harry Crenshaw's vertebrae snapping resonated in my mind. Bex killing anyone seemed so impossible, but I knew better than anyone that impossible didn’t exist.

The ride to Brown was long. Each passing minute of each class was an eternity. Even lunch seemed to drag on. The clock demanded my attention within minutes of the last time I had looked at it. Normally the irritation surrounding me would be unbearable, but catching up on lost sleep seemed to help.

“Is that a no?” Beth asked, nudging me.

“Huh? I said, realizing I had missed a large chunk of the table conversation. We sat in our usual spot at the Ratty, with one chair remaining empty in honor of Ryan’s absence. It was then I noticed a second chair was also empty.

“I said have you heard from Kim? She wasn’t in American Public’s class. She’s not here. I tried her cell, but got her voice mail.”

“No, I haven’t,” I said, glancing around the Ratty. “Not since this morning.”

Beth frowned, leaning against Chad, as she always did when she was unsettled. “She never misses class.”

Our lunch table was relatively quiet after that, making the minutes pass even more slowly, if that were possible.

The afternoon seemed like an eternity, and by the time Bex dropped me off at the front entrance of Titan, I was crawling out of my skin.

Sasha seemed the likely target to vent my frustration, but she wasn’t in. Annoyed, I rode the elevator to the third floor, settling on Grant as a second choice.

“Afternoon, Peanut,” Grant called from his office.

“Piss off.”

Instantly, I felt better.

“If you didn’t own the company, I would fire you for insubordination,” he said with an amused grin.

“Insubordination requires disregard of a command. I simply responded to your greeting,” I said, stopping abruptly at my office door.

“Is that what you had in mind?” Grant asked, shoving his hands in his pockets, oozing with pride.

“I….” I stumbled over the words, reading the letters once more.

Nina Grey

Acting CEO

Jack Grey

CEO

“It’s barely dry,” Grant said, teetering back and forth.

I looked out the closest window, and anywhere else in the room other than the door to hide my expression.

“It’s fine,” I said, pushing past him, and shutting the door before he could speak again.

Taking a deep breath, I let my body melt into the door. The office still smelled of mahogany, wood polish and the slightest hint of tobacco. It was as if the room had frozen in time the second he died. I could almost hear him talking loud and authoritative on the telephone.