Cowgirl Education: a Camden Ranch Novel

by Jillian Neal

  “Really?”

  “Yup.”

  “Have I ever told you how much I love you? If I wasn’t going to marry Dec, I swear I’d marry you.”

  “We would make a kick-ass couple, but you lack all the right equipment for keeping my horny meter down.”

  Holly laughed. It was a strange sensation given what they were dealing with. Somehow knowing she could keep Dec in the country at the very least eased the terror in her gut. “That still requires getting Dec to marry me, which would probably freak him out right now. And I would still get kicked out of school and he would lose his job. None of that is okay.”

  “Dr. Singleton didn’t get fir. . .holy cheeseballs, Holly, that’s it!”

  “What’s it?”

  “Dr. Singleton had an affair two years ago with Emma Barrett and he didn’t get fired.”

  “So? He has an affair every semester and never gets fired.”

  “But I’m still good friends with Emma. She started going to school at Northeast. I help her out sometimes. Keep her in the loop with what’s going on here. She owes me.”

  “Yeah, but she had her affair with him on purpose. She threw herself at Dr. Singleton for the drama and scandal. She wanted them to get caught. She was trying to get him kicked out. She freaking uploaded their sex tape online.”

  “Exactly. She was furious when she got kicked out but he didn’t get fired. Furious enough to want to get back at the whole family.” Beth retrieved her phone. A minute later, she was talking to none other than Emma Barrett.

  Holly’s phone buzzed on the coffee table. She sent another call from Grant to her voicemail. What the hell was going on in the Glen that night? Whatever it was she had more important things to worry about.

  When another call from Cheyenne came in immediately, Holly’s curiosity got the better of her. “What?” she demanded.

  “Why are you yelling at me?” Cheyenne pouted.

  “Not yelling at you. Just kind of having a major crisis here.”

  “Holl, Grant’s dating Ashley Stender. I just saw them in town.”

  If Holly had rolled her eyes any harder, they would have lodged in her skull. “Cheyenne, Grant never dates anyone for any length of time. He just wants to sleep with her. Please, please, please get over my brother. He’s just not into you, and he’s the dumbass that doesn’t see what a great girl you are. You deserve better.”

  “You could talk to him.”

  “No, I can’t. I have to go,” Holly insisted.

  Beth gave Holly a thumbs up that brought a round of relief to her nerves.

  “No, that would be amazing. You’re the best.” Beth nodded. “Get off the phone,” she mouthed to Holly.

  “I’ll talk to you later Cheyenne. Beth needs me,” Holly ended the call.

  “Well, maybe, kind of. I’m picturing more of a blackmail scenario here, just email them to me.” Beth reached in her bag and flipped open her laptop. “Yep, just came through. Thank you a million times over from me and Holly. I’ll let you know what happens.”

  “Who are we blackmailing?” Holly demanded as soon as Beth ended the call.

  “Trevor, obviously, although Emma really wants us to take down Dr. Singleton, too, but I’m not sure we can make anything stick to him. We just have to convince Trevor we can.”

  “How are we supposed to blackmail Trevor?”

  “We tell him what we have, hope to the horses above that it’s enough to get him to give up any info he has on you and to keep his mouth shut about you and Dr. St. James.”

  “But what do we have?”

  “We have every single email, screenshots of texts, and even a few naughty pictures shared between Dr. Singleton and Emma. Apparently there’s even a dick pic in here, but Emma advises us not to look at it. She says it’s sad old man dick. She just got him to send it in her quest to get him fired.”

  “Are you serious? She just sent all of this?” Holly yanked the laptop out of Beth’s lap.

  “I told you, she was furious she got kicked out and he got another building named after him. It’s her second chance to ruin him, even if it is vicariously through us.”

  Holly scanned down the file of dozens upon dozens of emails. “This is good stuff.”

  “You know it.” Beth waggled her eyebrows.

  “Seriously, I don’t know what I would do without you. Thank you.”

  “Now that you have all of this, you won’t have to find out. When do you want to show this to Trevor?”

  “He was spying on the pizza guy or on Dec’s house just a couple of hours ago. He must think he needs more on us before he goes to Newsome.”

  “If he has anything at all. We still don’t know for sure.”

  “Yeah, but the best defense is a good offense in this case. I’ll corner him at school tomorrow. I just need to calm down before I go back to Dec’s. I have to act like nothing’s wrong.”

  “That and we have to copy this onto something so we have more than one copy.”

  “You know way too much about how to do this, Beth.”

  “Please, girl, don’t you watch Bachelor in Paradise? Do you have a spare thumb drive?”

  “Yeah, hang on.” Holly dug in her bag until she located a drive she’d used the year before. “All the rest of mine are at Dec’s.”

  “Okay, copy them onto your laptop and make another copy when you get back there. It’s going to be okay, Holl. Just promise I get to be your maid of honor.”

  “For this, I’ll boot my sister out of the spot.”

  The quick knock on the door had both of the women gasping.

  “Maybe it’s Dec. He has to drive by here to go to his house. My truck’s right out front.” Holly panicked.

  “It can’t be Dec. It’s barely 10:00. They’re just warming up at Duffy’s, don’t you think?” Beth insisted even though she slammed the laptop shut. Holly shoved the thumb drive in her pocket, just in case.

  Hating her super for never installing peepholes in the doors, Holly called, “Who is it?”

  “It’s Trevor.”

  “Holy shit!” Holly gasped.

  “Open it. You have the upper hand. Just keep it together.” Beth swung the door open when Holly continued to stand there motionless.

  “What are you doing here?” Trevor huffed.

  “I live here,” Holly spat. Rage and vengeance jerked her out of her shocked stupor. Singleton was going down.

  “Not you. Her.” Trevor jabbed a finger at Beth.

  “Why do you give a shit where I am, Trevor? You scared of girls in packs?”

  “I’m not scared of anything, Kinders. I’m here to talk with Holly. I saw you run out in his front yard. I know you’re living there. I know everything. You really stupid enough to think if you ran back over here I’d believe this is your house?”

  “You know nothing, Singleton. Newsome told me I could stay there. Why do you even care where I live?”

  “Right, Newsome said you could live with our professor. You hit your head when you went running out of his mansion or something?”

  “What do you want, Trevor?” Holly channeled her own inner-bitch and tried to remember that she wanted him to show his cards first.

  “What do I want? To make you drop off the face of this planet, but that brings up all kinds of police investigations, so I have something far less complicated.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  “Well,” Trevor dug in his pocket for his phone. “Dad told me St. James had the audacity to record a private conversation between the two of them at the beginning of the semester. Pissed me off at first, but then I saw the brilliance of it.”

  Holly narrowed her eyes as Trevor played a recording on his phone. She could just make out her own voice talking to Luke at the symposium. ‘I’m in love with him. I swear to you I’d walk away from everything for him.’ Beth’s eyes goggled. Holly chased her breath. Think Holly. You still have the emails.

  “That still true, Holly? You still willing to walk away
from everything for Professor Sex?” Trevor taunted.

  “Maybe,” Holly choked.

  “Wrong answer. Correct answer is, yes, Trevor, I’ll do anything to keep his ass from getting shipped back to wherever the hell he came from.”

  Holly ground her teeth.

  “Here’s what happens to whores who offer BJ’s for A’s.”

  Something inside Holly unhinged. She existed in pure reaction. Her backhand flew across Trevor’s smug face.

  His eyes flashed dangerously. “Bitch, you do not want to go there with me.” He rubbed the glowing outline of her fingers on his cheek. “Here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna fail every single one of your final exams. I’m going to be named Newsome’s protégé. My parents will chill, and you can repeat the entire semester. And if you don’t, I’ll let the entire department hear this recording I have.”

  Adrenaline scalded Holly’s blood. It cleared her thoughts. “That’s why you wanted my picture. That’s why you hired Michael or whatever his name was to photograph me. I never say his name on the recording and you can’t hear half of it. It’s not enough proof. You need a picture that you don’t have.”

  “Oh, I’ve got more. That’s just the icing on the cake. I was there that night at Duffy’s before school started when he was licking your spit, grabbing your skanky ass, and jumping off the stage to get to you. Made me sick to watch and that was before he was a professor. But I knew he was a therapist at Lifespan and I intended to keep you from getting an internship there. I have pictures from that night as well. I’ve been following you two all semester. I have a long list of indiscretions, including pictures of you packing your truck to go to his house. Do you recall the night you snuck up to his office and then went running out? Yeah, when he took off after you he almost ran me down with his bike. I got a pic of the plate, and shots of your truck in his garage. I’ve got you in my cage, Holly.”

  “Oh, Trevy, you don’t.” Holly yanked the thumbdrive out of her pocket. “Know what this is? I’ll be nice and tell you. It’s every single email, text, and photograph shared between your daddy and Emma Barrett. You remember her, right? I mean, she almost became your step-mommy. That would have been awkward, having a stepmom younger than you.” Holly tsked. “What’s the saying, you show them yours I’ll show them mine? Bet Daddy would love that.”

  Trevor reached for the drive, but Holly was quicker. She had it back in her pocket before he could get his grimy hands near her. “My God, you really aren’t the brightest bulb on the tree are ya, Trev? This ain’t my only copy.”

  “Where did you get that?”

  “From Emma herself,” Beth sneered. “She was a little put out that she got kicked out of school while your father got away scot free, rightfully so.”

  “What’s it going to be Trev? I’m up for a truce if you are,” Holly baited.

  “Do not show those to anyone, Camden, or you’ll be sorry.”

  “Right back at’cha Singleton.” She gestured to his phone.

  With that he slithered back to his car and Holly slammed the door.

  “How creepy is it that he’s been following you all semester?” Beth gagged.

  “It’s sad, really. If he’d put all of that effort into learning something, he wouldn’t need to fuck with me.”

  “Did you see him, though? He was shaking in his boots. He’ll keep his mouth shut. Mark my words.”

  “He sure as hell better.” Holly pulled back the window shades and watched Trevor drive away.

  “I think he was lying. If he really has all of the pictures he says he does, why did he get pizza-delivery boy to take more pictures? Why did he chase after him at Dec’s tonight?” Beth asked.

  “He needs one of Dec and me together. None of what he has will ride. It’s all circumstantial. The pictures of us kissing were before Dec started working at UN. Pictures of me loading my truck. That’s easy for me to get out of. Even my truck in his garage. Dr. Newsome told me I could stay there. Michael fucked it up and only got a picture of his own thumb and my toe. Betcha he’d been told to get a picture of me and Dec together in the house.”

  “Devious little ass-weasel. I wish we could broadcast the info Emma gave us all over campus anyway.”

  “NO. We keep our word and hold him to his.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Dec watched Holly glare hatefully at a rather defeated looking Trevor Singleton as they took their seats. He wanted to believe this was typical behavior for Trevor being such an ass, but it was unlike Holly, and she’d been acting a little off. Something was wrong. Whatever it was, he would deal with it in. . .he checked his phone. . .two hours and seventeen minutes. The exact moment he would be able to breathe again. The exact moment she would turn in her final exam and no longer be his student.

  Impatience swirled through his musculature. The sooner they got this exam over with the sooner he could move her into his house permanently, put the massive ring he’d purchased on her delicate finger, let the entire world know she was taken, and actually live a life worth having.

  He tapped the test booklets on his desk, hoping to prod time along. At 2:00 PM on the dot, their assigned exam time, he stood. Holly was performing some kind of deep breathing routine. As he began handing out the booklets, he tried to discern if tests always made her this nervous or if he should panic. She’d had her Analysis and Functions exam that morning. Maybe it was too much in one day.

  When she gnawed on her thumbnail he assumed that was it. She was going to ace both tests. She had no reason to worry. He’d done his best that morning to reassure her, but apparently his assurances hadn’t lasted long. Her nerves were getting to him. A low level of dread ran through him constantly. His cravings were amped by the bizarre feeling of impending doom. They needed to get this over with so they could both relax.

  Promising himself that he’d spend the entire afternoon making her forget all about her exams, he returned to his desk and pulled out a piece of blank sheet music. Another song had been playing on repeat in his mind. Another song she’d inspired. He intended to put it on paper while she worked and play it for her later that day.

  “You may begin.” The test pamphlets opened in an orchestrated contagion around the room and everyone settled in.

  A half hour into the exam, a knock sounded on the door, ripping everyone from their intent focus.

  His heart careened downward when he opened the door. His blood ran oddly cold. Nausea turned his stomach. Oh fuck were the only words he could access. Dr. Newsome was front and center, flanked by Singleton and two women Dec had never seen before.

  Stepping back as they advanced, he tried to breathe. “Dr. St. James, it is imperative that we see both you and Ms. Holly Camden in the Psychology Sciences office building immediately.”

  Terror rocked through Holly. Her entire body vibrated in dread. Barely managing to stand, she took a single breath that brought oxygen back to her brain. Turning to glare at Trevor, she stopped short of screeching at him.

  He shook his head frantically. “I didn’t. I swear.”

  Bile singed her throat as she fought tears. Dear God, what had she done? What was going to happen? A single moronic brain cell offered some ridiculous hope that this had nothing to do with her and Dec’s relationship, but she’d been a disaster all morning. She’d felt this coming.

  All of the blood housed in Dec’s body appeared to have left his ashen face. Holly eased forward, concentrating on nothing more than putting one foot in front of the other.

  The world tilted and roared. She drowned in a mass of hysteria and confusion.

  “Let’s go, Miss Camden. Now,” Dr. Singleton sneered.

  Somehow Holly made it to the corridor. She tried to see Dec’s face, but couldn’t make out much of anything in front of her. This was entirely her fault. She’d just lost him his job and quite possibly his citizenship. You can marry him. She tried to hear Beth’s reassurances through the roar, but somehow knew it just wasn’t going to be that simple.
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br />   “Holly,” shouted from somewhere behind her. She spun back and stumbled. It was Dec who kept her from falling forward. His capable hands steadied her. The scent of his cologne cleared her head.

  “Dad, wait.” Suddenly Trevor was before her. “Listen to me, I didn’t do this. I swear to you. I don’t know who did, but it wasn’t me. You have to believe me. You can’t give them those emails. Please. Don’t do this to my mom. Just please. She’s sick, Holly. Don’t put her through this.”

  Trevor continued to plead, and for some unfathomable reason Holly believed him. He hadn’t done this, but who had?

  “Trevor, return to your test.” His father’s vicious tone took another blow at her psyche. The next thing she understood was that she and Dec were being separated. He was being led into Dr. Newsome’s office and she was escorted into Dr. Sinclair’s along with two women she’d never seen before.

  “Dec,” her voice was distanced and tunneled. No real noise accompanied her plea.

  “Shh, just blame me,” was the last thing he said to her before Dr. Newsome’s door shut.

  “Ms. Camden, I’m Rebecca Forester, a counselor from the student health center. This is Dr. Anderson, the head of student mental health and abuse awareness here at the University.”

  Mental health? Abuse awareness? What the actual fuck was happening here? “I’m fine,” Holly insisted. “Why am I in here?”

  The women in the room shared a concerned glance.

  “Answer me,” she demanded.

  “We received a phone call last evening explaining to us that you and Dr. St. James have been involved in a sexual relationship while he was your teacher. I’m certain you understand that this is a very serious accusation. The caller had a great deal of information about your relationship. It seems highly unlikely that she was lying. Our main concern is that you understand that if Dr. St. James pressured you to become involved with him, we need you to tell us that. Mental abuse can make everything feel very confusing,” Dr. Anderson’s placating tone made Holly want to vomit.

  She measured her words carefully, tasting them before she spit them out. Confirm nothing. “Dr. St. James would never ever be abusive to anyone, and he certainly has never tried to pressure me to do anything at all.”