My Ex’s Roommates: Chapter 50

“Are you sure you don’t want to come to the bar? The guys are making a big deal about us not staying so we’re going to stay for another beer. If you come, I’ll be sure to sneak you away to a dark corner to do filthy things to you.” Silas’ voice dropped to the quiet, dark tone he used when whispering dirty things to me. “Really, really filthy things.”

I giggled and turned away from where Casey was sitting next to me on the couch. “I’m with Casey. Y’all have fun and don’t do what Casey and I did. I don’t think I’d be able to get you to bed if you pass out on me.”

“Oh, princess, you could always get me to bed.” Swearing and then saying something to someone in the background, Silas lost the flirty tone and groaned. “Is it pathetic to admit that I miss you and would rather come home and cuddle with you?”

My heart thudded harder. “No. Not to me.”

Casey groaned. “It is to me! I can hear all of this on Harper’s old ass phone speaker and I’m going to vomit!”

Silas swore again. “On that note, we’ll be home as soon as we can get out of here.”

I hung up laughing and swatted Casey. “I’m pretty sure you embarrassed him.”

“Good. That was so mushy. Jesus. Is that how it is now?” She studied me. “Have y’all already gone from hot, kinky sex to cuddling and watching Hallmark movies?”

I snorted. “I’m pretty sure they think cuddling means something it doesn’t because every time I think we’re spooning, I end up getting forked.”

Cackling, Casey shoved a handful of chips into her mouth and spoke around them. “I’m so single! I need to find my own hunky man, or men, to powerdrive my-”

“Casey!” Laughing, I flopped back on the couch and then sighed happily. “This is the life. Celebrating after an amazing win with junk food and wine is great. I’m glad you wanted to come over. Although I’m a little confused about why you didn’t want to go celebrate.”

“Meh. Who would I have more fun with? You or one of the vapid people who hang around me in hopes of getting closer to an internship at Daddy’s company?” She looked sad as she dusted her fingers off and grabbed her laptop. “Whatever. Moving past that. I have to tell you something I’ve been doing.”

“I feel like we should talk more about what you just said but okay. Moving on for now. What have you been doing?”

“You know how I’m good with computers?” She hesitated and then winced. “I might have looked into your brothers’ prison records a little more. I think I can-”

I sat up. “What? Are you saying you hacked into a prison’s record system? Casey!”

She shushed me. “Maybe don’t scream that? Okay, listen. Besides the fact that your brothers are insanely hot and you never mentioned that little tidbit, I looked over their records and they’ve been model prisoners. There’s not a single mark on them in all the time they’ve been in. I did some more digging around and I found this old case that sort of resembles theirs.”

“Where is this going, Casey? I don’t know how-”

“Just hang on and let me finish. They’ve served over half of their sentences and with their clean record, I think the right lawyer could push for them to be released early. I found a guy in Birmingham who I think would be perfect. He’s expensive but I’d cover the cost.”

I stood up and moved to the other side of the room, needing space from her. “Casey… This isn’t okay. I know that you’re trying to help in your own way but I’ve struggled for years to accept my brothers being away. Their entire trial I spent having blind, stupid hope that justice would prevail and they wouldn’t be sent away. I can’t afford hope. I have to accept that they’re gone for now and focus on that.”

“There’s a real chance here, Harper. You didn’t have the right resources the first time around. You do now. I’ll help. Carter would help.” Both of our phones went off at the same time with a notification. “I can see that you’re not ready to talk about it, though. I’m sorry, Harper. I just want to help.”

I paced in front of the couch with my heart in my throat. I hadn’t expected to be talking about my brothers or their release and it was a shock to the system. Of course, I wanted them out faster, but having hope that it could happen and then losing that hope would kill me. I didn’t-

“Holy shit. Holy shit! Jesus Christ!” Casey’s sudden shouting brought my attention back to her and I saw that she’d gone pale while staring at her phone. Her eyes slowly moved to me and I knew something was wrong. She opened her mouth and then snapped it closed a few times before finally speaking. “Harper, I think you should sit down.”

“What are you talking about? What happened? Is it my brothers?!” I rushed over and grabbed her phone. What I saw made my blood run cold. Tendrils of panic stretched out from my brain and wrapped around every part of me until they pulled tight and I wasn’t sure I could breathe. “H-how?”

“Who all had the picture? I can try to-”

“Was this sent to everyone? The cc list is… Oh, my god. It just keeps going.” The selfie I’d taken with the guys was right there on Casey’s phone, staring back at me with a sinister haze around it. What had been cute and meaningful for me transformed into something dirty and gross right before my eyes as I felt more and more people looking.

“It’s okay, Harper. It’s not vulgar. It’s just a selfie.” Casey clearly didn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. “I’m just going to see who sent this and maybe murder them.”

My stomach dropped painfully hard and fast. “We were the only ones with the picture. The four of us.”

Casey sucked in a sharp breath. “Don’t go there. Not yet. This email links back to…”

“What? Who does it link to?”

“Jake.”

Scrolling up on the email so I didn’t have to stare at the picture for a second longer, I saw that there was a block of text below. As I read it tears slowly flowed down my cheeks. “Did you read it?”

Casey took the phone and frowned as she scanned it. “That’s… Jesus.”

Right there, in black and white, was all of my information, including my cell number and degree. It read like an ad, an ad for me. I couldn’t help mumbling the words out loud. “Want to stick it to your ex-quarterback and take a ride on this pig just like we did?”

“Stop. Don’t read that, Harper.” She took the phone from me but I didn’t need to hold it to have the words still burned into my brain.

She’s not as tight as she once was but she’s still fun for a quick suck. You can fuck her face and Jake Callahan over all at the same time! What better way to celebrate our win over USC?!

“I’ll hack that fucker to hell and back. I’m going to ruin his life and make his mother sorry she spread her legs to his dad. I swear to god, Harper, I won’t rest until I make Jake Callahan wish he’d never been born.” Casey slammed her laptop shut and stood up. “I need to get to my apartment. I can do more with my system there.”

“I’m coming.”