Chapter 13 - A Way Out

In the dark bed room, Rory bȧrėly started typing before her eyebrows lifted in surprise.

On the front page of [Knox Mikhalson] search laid an article that Rory would of never expected. In fact, it was unbelievable.

Clicking on the first webpage, Rory read the letters in bold over the article, [Knox Mikhalson, CEO of Cloud, is accused of r*pe from movie star Keira Banks].

'R*pe?'

Rory thought of how the man practically flinched out of his bones from a simple touch of the lips. R*pe was really a far stretch.

However, it had nothing to do with her.

Rory closed the ŀȧptop and placed it back in her bag before getting up.

Her lips turned up wickedly as she thought of the perfect plan to get out of her current situation.

Even if she had to take advantage of someone's weakness, she had too many things planned to let someone ruin it.

Walking into the kitchen, Rory opened the fridge and drawers and started shifting through the items, the previous Rory left from her stay here. Over all, she had absolutely nothing.

Rory eyes scrunched up, however she still reached into to drawers and pulled out a half used bag of pancake mix.

It was customary to do negotiations over a meal as people were normally more open in those situations. But, somehow she doubted that Knox would be bought over by 'Just add water pancakes.'

'He can just take it as a show of my sincerity.'

It was fortunate that she had the high ground in this situation. Taking the mix, Rory skillfully brought out a clear bowl and mixed up the two ingredients.

In the end she produced the best 'Just add water pancakes' money could buy.

Rory picked up the pancakes and headed back to the hallway.

When she saw the man nȧkėd, tied up, and knocked out on the ground, the twitch in her eye came back.

'Why the hell did he have to just get out of the shower right when I entered the dorm.'

Rory dismissed the thought as she kneeled down, placing the plate next to him and untying his hands. She then took off her school's outfit jacket and laid it over Knox's ċhėst.

His large frame made the jacket look pitiful in comparison as it couldn't even over his entire ċhėst area. However, Rory still felt better not having to have serious discussions with a nȧkėd man.

Once she finished her preparations, Rory sat down on the ground next to him and leaned her head against the wall.

Her eyes closed as she recounted what she discovered about him.

The news article she read gave her an open target to go after as she connected it to what he said earlier when he tried to take her phone.

Clearly Knox was trying to stay out of the public eye by coming to Sovereignty college. In fact, it was possible that no one outside of the college knew he was here yet.

Also, it seemed that while he was a Mikhalson, he didn't have the best connections with his family. If he did, the article would of never saw the light of day and the actress would of been fully paid off.

The only possible answer that Rory could come up with for this type of scandal going out of hand against a man like this was that it was his own family attacking him.

The reason why? She had absolutely no idea!

However, with a threat like that over him, he should be cautious about civil disputes.

A situation like this still needed to be handled carefully, therefore she felt it was best for her to be there when he woke up.

A few hours passed before Knox showed signs of waking up. His long eyelashes trembled slightly before striking blue eyes showed from beneath his eye lids.

Rory gave him a look and clicked out of the tab on her ŀȧptop before setting it aside.

"Morning Mr. Mikhalson."

As soon as her voice sounded, Knox's eyes turned dark and a penetrating glare focused in on her.

"You looked through my stuff... well that's just rude now isn't it?"

"I can get worse."

The nonchalant tone of voice made Knox think of what happened before he was knocked out. The glare in his eyes got even stronger.

"You definitely can."

Rory could feel what he was hinting about, but tried to keep her face as straight as possible. Maybe she went a little over board, but she wasn't willing to admit it.

Therefore, she responded with a thin smile. "I can see you can as well. To try to fight someone as soon as they enter the door, what are you karate kid?"

Knox's face turned black.

"Haha I'm only joking. No need to take it so seriously." Rory laughed it off while waving her hand.

Unfortunately, Knox's icy glare didn't cool down a bit.

"It seems you are done playing dumb. What do you have something over me and you want to try to extort money?" His voice was full of ridicule as his eyes demeaningly looked at the boy in front of him.

While the guy looked like someone harmless, with a complete lack of body structure and a face that could make a girl jealous, Knox could feel he was anything but harmless. Therefore, he decided to play the field cautiously for now.

"Hmm extorting money? I never thought of it, but if you are offering I'm always opened to suggestions. However, before we go into that talk, I want you to look at these two student cards."

Rory reached over to her side and picked up two student cards; one was her's and the other one was Knox's. She then reached out to hand them to Knox.

Knox took the cards in her hand before sitting up and with a clearly disgusted face tossed the jacket covering him off.

The disrespect in the action, made Rory's face darken a little, but she only cussed his pompous ȧss out in her heart.