Chapter 130: Let Them Try

NORA’S POV

The wooden stairs creaked beneath our sneakers as Knox and I walked back down to the first floor. The hallway was quiet, but the kitchen at the end of the hall was bathed in harsh fluorescent light.

Bear stood by the refrigerator with his arms folded across his chest, staring at the floor with a jaw so rigid it looked carved from granite. Jake was leaning against the butcher-block island, his laptop open in front of him.

Milo paced back and forth along the tiles with a half-empty glass of water. Priya was perched on one of the high barstools, her phone resting on her knee and her sharp gaze tracking us the second we rounded the corner.

"Well?" Priya asked. "Was it there?"

"Right where I left it," Knox said quietly.

He walked over to the island and laid the creased square of lined paper flat against the butcher block.

"Folded into fourths," Knox continued. "Tucked under the velvet lining beneath my grandfather’s watch case in the bottom drawer, exactly how I put it away two months ago."

Milo stopped pacing and stared at the paper on the counter. "So whoever took that photo went into your bedroom, pulled open your nightstand drawer, and lifted the watch case."

"And put it right back," Knox said. "They made sure everything looked untouched so I wouldn’t have a clue."

A cold knot tightened in the pit of my stomach.

I looked down at Knox’s paper on the counter. Then I remembered Slide Two of the post on Briar Buzz.

Nora’s Terms.

"Nora?" Priya asked, noticing my expression. "What is it?"

"My copy," I whispered.

The room fell into silence.

Bear’s eyes snapped to mine. Jake straightened up from the counter, his fingers pausing over his keyboard.

"Where is your copyl?" Priya asked, stepping down from the barstool.

"My bag," I whispered in response. "I keep it in the back pocket of my economics binder, where it’s been since day one."

My canvas tote bag was resting on the kitchen chair near the back door, right where I had dropped it when we entered.

With trembling knees and a racing heart, I walked over to the chair.

Knox followed a half-step behind me, his hand resting gently against the small of my back. His touch was the only thing keeping my legs from buckling.

I unzipped the tote bag. Inside were my highlighters, calculator, draft of my econometric capstone paper, and the thick navy binder I carried to every tutoring session.

I pulled out the binder and set it on the dining table.

With shaking hands, I opened the front cover and flipped all the way to the clear plastic sleeve inside the back cover.

Tucked neatly inside was a single sheet of lined paper, folded lengthwise.

I didn’t breathe.

I slid my fingers into the pocket, pulled the paper out and unfolded it on the wooden tabletop.

There it was.

The hundred-dollar hourly rate, the twice-a-week mandatory study schedule in the library basement, and the five-thousand-dollar upfront penalty for non-academic distractions.

And at the very bottom, scrawled in thick black ink, was Knox’s signature right next to mine.

"It’s here," I choked out, staring down at the ink. "It was right inside my binder pocket."

Bear let out a low, venomous curse.

Priya pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes darting between the paper on the table and Knox’s sheet on the kitchen island.

"They didn’t steal either of them," Priya said in disbelief. "They didn’t take them for leverage or hide them away."

"They opened your binder, photographed it just like Knox’s," Priya continued, pacing toward me. "Then they slipped yours right back into your bag."

"And put mine back under the watch case," Knox added, his jaw set like iron.

"That’s sick," Milo breathed, dragging both hands through his unruly blond hair. "That means whoever did this spent real time in this house."

"They knew Nora carried that binder," Milo added. "And they knew Knox kept his copy in his bedroom."

"Who was up there, Knox?" Bear demanded, his deep voice vibrating through the quiet kitchen. "Think back to every kickback, every team party, and every weekend we had people over."

"Dozens of people have been through the first floor," Knox replied, shaking his head. "We’ve had parties with thirty people crammed into the living room."

"Anyone could have slipped up the back stairs while we were in the kitchen or out on the patio," Knox said, his gray eyes darkening with quiet fury. "Nobody was supposed to be up there."

"We can’t figure that out tonight," I said, looking down at my phone as the screen buzzed with another flood of direct messages. "Briar Buzz already has over two thousand comments."

"My inbox is filling up with messages from people asking if the post is real," I whispered.

I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, trying to stop the spinning in my head.

"I need to go back to the dorm," I said quietly, reaching for my tote bag. "If I’m not in my dorm when morning comes, it’s going to look like I’m hiding and make us look guilty."

"No," Jake said firmly.

I looked up at him.

Jake closed his laptop with a click and stepped around the island.

"You are not going back to North Hall tonight, Nora," Jake said with certainty. "Tension out there is through the roof."

"I checked the front blinds ten minutes ago," Jake continued, pointing toward the dark street. "There were two cars crawling down the road with their headlights off, trying to see who was parked in our driveway."

"Jake is right," Bear agreed. "The campus is buzzing like a hornet’s nest. If you walk in right now, you might be walking straight into an ambush. The lobby is going to be packed with gawkers, gossips, and every campus reporter with a phone camera."

"You stay here tonight," Jake insisted, looking directly at me.

"Nora, I think they are right," Priya said, placing a warm hand on my arm. "Stay here with Knox. Tomorrow morning is going to be a war, and you need to be together when it hits."

I looked at Knox.

He was watching me with a guarded expression, but his eyes held a steady, quiet gravity that anchored me in place.

"Stay," Knox said softly. "Please."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and slowly let go of the tote bag strap. "Okay."

"Priya, couch is yours whenever you want it," Jake said as he grabbed a bottle of water.

"I’m staying awake," Priya replied. "I’m monitoring the comment threads and saving screenshots of every account sharing the photos."

Knox reached out and closed his fingers around mine. "Come on."

He gathered both sheets of notebook paper from the counters, folded them together, and slid them into his pocket. Then he led me back through the hallway and up the stairs to his bedroom.

Upstairs, it was quiet.

Knox closed the bedroom door behind us, turning the brass lock until it clicked into place.

He didn’t turn on the overhead lights. The only illumination came from the green desk lamp in the corner, casting long, amber shadows across the dark hardwood floor.

I stood in the center of the room, hugging my arms around myself as a sudden chill swept through me.

"Nora," Knox murmured.

He stepped behind me, placing his hands gently on my shoulders to turn me around to face him.

"Hey," he whispered, lifting a hand to cup the side of my face. His thumb brushed softly across my cheekbone. "Look at me."

I tilted my chin up, meeting his steady gaze.

"Everything we worked for," I whispered. "My honors fellowship, your captaincy, the draft scouts, the team... someone took a piece of paper from September and used it to set fire to our entire lives."

A tear finally escaped my lashes and slipped down my cheek.

"They tried," Knox said, his voice dropping into a low, fierce rasp. "They tried to tear us apart with a contract from two months ago, but they don’t know who we are now."

He pulled me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me tight against him.

I buried my face in the crook of his neck, breathing in the familiar, clean warmth of his skin. My hands gripped the fabric of his jacket, clinging to him like an anchor in the middle of a storm.

"We didn’t know each other when we signed those papers," Knox murmured against my hair. "I was an arrogant jerk trying to pass a class, and you were a stubborn tutor trying to save her family."

"None of that is fake anymore, Nora," Knox whispered. "Nothing between us is fake."

"They’re going to tear us apart in public tomorrow, Knox," I whispered against his collarbone. "Coach Brennan, the athletic board, Hastings... the whole school."

"Let them try," Knox said, his arms tightening around me. "We face them together, every single step."

"I’m not leaving your side," Knox added, his chin resting against the crown of my head. "And I’m not letting anyone take your fellowship away."

We didn’t check our phones again.

Neither of us changed out of our clothes. Knox kicked off his boots, and I slipped out of my flats.

We lay down together on top of the dark navy comforter, our bodies pressed close in the quiet room. Knox pulled a wool blanket over both of us, tucking his arm beneath my head and holding my hand against his chest.

I closed my eyes, listening to the steady beat of his heart until exhaustion finally dragged me under.

—

A sharp buzzing woke me up.

Morning light was already pouring in through the blinds.

Next to me, Knox sat right up. He reached for his phone on the nightstand before it fell off the table.

I sat up, pushing my hair out of my face, and looked over his arm at the screen.

Flashing in bold white letters was the caller ID: COACH BRENNAN