Days later
Underneath my desk, I stare at the picture I took days ago, completely enamored by the girl I know should be my enemy.
She’s the daughter of the man in charge of Spine Ridge and sister of that obnoxious asshole Felix. Just the thought of seeing his fucking face on this campus makes me want to crush this phone with my bare hands.
I should not be thirsting for a girl who’s related to him, yet … all I can think of is sinking my teeth into her skin and making her moan my name.
Suddenly, my phone buzzes and a text drops.
Kai: Stop staring at your phone.
Me: I’ll do whatever I damn well want to.
Kai: You want the professor to kick you out? What are you even looking at?
Me: Her.
Kai: I never asked you to take pictures of her.
Me: You don’t have to ask. I’ll do it for free.
I smirk. The thought of taking more photos of her in various compromising positions makes my cock twitch.
Kai: As long as I get to take a peek at them too.
Me: Whenever you want. Mi casa es su casa.
Kai: Good. Anyway … Are we still going tonight?
Me: Ofc. We need the money.
Kai: You. You need the money.
Me: But you’ll help.
Kai: If you ask nicely.
I roll my eyes. Always the one to make me beg. Milo couldn’t do it, but Kai … damn him.
Me: Please.
Kai: What is it that you told Milo again? Oh right … good boy.
Me: Do you enjoy this?
Kai: Very much.
Me: I’ll give you a test ride if you want.
Kai: Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer one day.
I smirk and look up from my phone down to where he’s sitting, and he briefly glances over his shoulder and winks at me. Maybe one day, he won’t be such a wuss and join Milo and me in the playroom.
Kai: Enough banter. We’ll talk later about our business for tonight. Put your phone away before someone sees.
Me: Got it, boss.
But I merely close the app and open the image right back up so it’s centered on my screen. I can’t fucking stop staring at her. No wonder he was so hung up on her the second he got ahold of her ribbon.
“Got yourself a new obsession, Nathan?”
I turn my gaze across my shoulder to the fucker who dared to sneak a glimpse at my phone, fuming with fire. A fucker from Tartarus, no less. A society we used to be allied with until they abandoned us when we needed them the most.
“Did I ask you something, Rhett?”
His eyes connect with someone sitting a few rows down, and I don’t need to see who he’s looking at to know who’s sitting there.
Kai.
Still, he shrugs. “Don’t need to. You make it obvious as fuck. Didn’t peg you to be the type to bring girls to their knees, though, but I dig it,” he says, winking. “Boys, girls, anything with a hole is good.”
“Get your fucking nose out of my business,” I growl. “Before I cut it off.”
He raises his hands. “Relax, I’m not. I didn’t see much except for some tied hands. I don’t give a fuck who you’re banging,” he says. “I’m just surprised any of them would do you.”
My eyes begin to twitch.
The foul smirk on his face makes me home in on him. “You know … need some fingers to pleasure a girl.”
He lifts his hand with one finger lowered.
The same finger missing from my hand.
And he wriggles it around like it’s all some big bad joke to him.
Within an instant, I jump out of my seat and grab him by the collar, punching his face with fist after fist until his nose turns bloody and his tooth falls out.
“Mr. Reed! Mr. Reed!” the professor yells from down below, but I ignore his pleas and continue hammering on my opponent.
“Stop, stop, it was just a joke,” Rhett splutters, but I don’t fucking care.
I don’t know when I’ll stop.
If I’ll ever stop.
My fists have been hungry for blood for so fucking long.
And this fucker just spewed the wrong fucking joke.
I’m halfway across his desk, punching like a madman. I don’t give a shit who sees. He messed with the wrong one.
“NATHAN!” Kai’s voice calls from down below.
I look up.
Too late.
A fist hits me right in the jaw.
“You don’t touch one of our own, you fucker!” It’s another one of those Tartarus guys coming to the rescue. Arlo.
“Stay out of this!” I scream back.
PUNCH!
Another hit right in my back has me arching, and I crawl off the desk to fight him instead.
The whole class has turned around to watch us fight, each punch drawing out a collective gasp, but I pay them no attention.
Kai jumps up from his seat, running up to me, but not fast enough before this fucker and I have exchanged more punches, taking one in the gut each. Suddenly, Rhett jumps up from behind me and puts me in a chokehold.
“Fucking calm down, you bitch,” he growls. “It was a fucking joke.”
“I’ll cut off your fucking head!” I yell, kicking the one in front of me in the nuts.
But he’s choking the life out of me, and I can feel myself slipping away.
SLICE!
Kai’s knife punctures Rhett’s arm, and he releases me.
“Fuck! Stay out of this!” Rhett hisses at him.
I scramble away and suck in some much-needed breaths.
“You invited me in the moment you attacked my friend,” Kai retorts.
“This isn’t about you. I made a fucking joke, and he couldn’t take it,” Rhett says.
“You piece of shit,” I growl, grasping him by the collar and dragging him over the desk until his face hits my knee.
“Hey!” Arlo growls, but he can’t throw his knife at me because Kai’s right up in his face, threatening him with his collection of knives.
“Don’t fucking move an inch, or I’ll gut you like a fish,” Kai growls, his knife pointing at Arlo’s stomach.
“You think you can hurt me?” Arlo licks his lips. “Don’t tempt me with a good fucking time, Torres.”
Suddenly, the fire alarm goes off, drawing our collective attention. The dean’s grim look as his hand hovers over the button while he stares me down from the slammed open door to the classroom has me swallowing the lump in my throat … because I’m immediately reminded of the promise I made to him last year.
No more fighting on campus.
Fuck.
Kai
“Was it worth it?”
The deadly stare the dean gives us makes me want to look away. I never fucking look away, but damn, this fucker’s got a threatening aura. I suppose it’s no wonder, considering the name he carries.
I make a tsk sound and turn away, folding my arms. “I did what I had to, to protect my fellow Phantom Society member.”
“And you?” Dean Rivera focuses on Nathan now. “Punching students in the middle of a class?”
Nathan lifts his four-fingered hand. “Rhett insulted me. I don’t take that lightly.”
The dean sighs, rubbing his forehead. “And you think punching and knifing down your fellow students will bring back your finger?”
“No. But they’ll think twice before those Tartarus boys talk about me,” Nathan says.
“Hey.” The dean’s eyes darken as they home in on us. “Don’t even think about starting more beef with another frat house.”
“If they can keep their mouths and hands to themselves, I won’t have to intervene,” I reply, leaning back in my chair.
“Until you lose another eye,” the dean warns.
Damn, that was a low blow.
He chucks his pen down onto the table. “Do I need to put you guys through more community service?” He tilts his head. “Maybe this time I’ll include cleaning all the restrooms on campus. Hmm?”
Nathan makes a disgusted face. “Gross.”
“No, gross would be months in jail,” he says sternly.
And it shuts us both up quickly.
The dean’s fists rest on the desk as he leans over it. “Do you think you run this place?”
I shake my head.
“Then tell me … who does?”
“You, sir,” I reply.
“And do you think I need you two boys to put some Tartarus dimwits in their place?”
Wow. Never thought I’d hear a dean speak about his own students like that, but I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise, considering the frat house his son belongs to. He’s obviously biased toward the Skull & Serpent Society.
“The answer is no,” he adds. There’s another pause. “You will clean up the yard outside Saturday.”
“What?” Nathan stands up from his chair.
“Sit. Down.”
Rivera’s harshness has him quickly seated again.
“Three hours.”
“But those fuckers hit me too!” Nathan growls.
“They will get their own punishment,” the dean interjects. “And you will not associate with them any second longer. Do you hear me?” When we don’t respond, he adds, “We’ve had enough drama surrounding this school in the past two years. I don’t need you two adding more fuel to the fire.”
“So Rhett gets to insult me, and I don’t get to defend myself?” Nathan scoffs, folding his arms.
“You turn the other cheek.”
“I did that,” Nathan says, his voice quaking with rage. “With your son.”
The dean stares at him for a moment.
“I know what my son took from you. And we have made ample reparations to your family.”
“My family is in jail,” Nathan growls.
“That is from no fault of ours,” the dean replies. “And we have done all we can to help you and your family after the feud between you and my son.”
“And those damn friends of his,” I add, my nostrils flaring.
Suddenly, the door behind us opens, and someone barges in. But by the time I’ve turned around, the familiar sound of those click-clacking heels, that wave of black hair moving past, along with that sweet succulent scent of prickly roses and passionfruit make me lose all my breath.
And the second our eyes connect, it feels as though all time stands still, and I’ve forgotten all the reasons to exist except … her.
Lana.
The mere sight of her in her tight black skirt and red sweater, buttons barely holding together those ample breasts, makes my mouth water.
She narrows her eyes at Nathan and me, who’s also lost all the words he was going to say the moment she walked in.
She cleaned up nicely after the messed-up state we left her in. It’s almost as if none of it ever happened, and she’s carried on with daily life.
I wonder if she listened to our conversation.
How much did she hear?
She leans in to press a kiss onto Rivera’s cheeks, her eyes still homed in on us.
“You called for me?”
Fuck.
That sentence and the way she said it makes me rock-hard. Because it’s exactly what I told her we’d do …
We call, you come.
“I’m in the middle of a meeting,” the dean says, grinding his teeth.
“Sorry, I assumed you meant immediately when you said now,” she muses, smiling like nothing’s going on.
Like we didn’t rail her senseless just a couple of days ago.
“It’s all right,” the dean says. “I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay at school. How are your classes?”
She blinks and throws us both a look before answering, and fuck me, my heart just skipped a beat at the possibility of her spilling all the beans to her father.
She wouldn’t dare … would she?
“I’m … adjusting,” she replies. “The first months were quite boring, but now that I’ve found out where I fit in.” Her eyes narrow at me, and the weight her glare carries could make any man fall to their knees and beg for mercy. But I’m not merely any man. Not to her.
“It’s become quite the game to get ahead.”
“Hmm, don’t get yourself too worked up with grades,” he says, totally oblivious to the double meaning in her words. “Above average is good enough for the business.”
Her face contorts at that last word, and she focuses on him. “Dad, I can be a great asset to the company on my own, unlike Felix.”
I glance at Nathan, who seethes from the mere mention of his name.
The dean grips her shoulders. “Felix is doing great, as are you. Now are you still available for tonight’s dinner?”
She smiles at him, but I can’t tell if it’s an actual genuine smile or if she secretly wants to end everyone in this room.
“Sorry, I can’t tonight. I have a test tomorrow, and I forgot to study for it, so it’s gonna be an all-nighter.”
“Aw … well, I’ll move it to tomorrow then.”
Her teeth glint in the light. “Perfect. Wouldn’t want to miss a second.”
But her eyes … her eyes are all over me, as though each glare is a tiny knife cutting away at my skin. And fuck me, it almost makes me moan right there and then.
“And bring your boy … What’s his name? Jason.”
Her boy?
The mere mention of his name makes me want to cut out his heart and hand it to them on a silver platter. But if I did that, her father would definitely know I’m involved with her.
And then the Phantom Society would cease to exist.
She kisses him on the cheek again. “Of course. Love you.”
But her eyes remain on mine, almost as if she wants to say “you will never hear these words.”
But I can wait. I’ll wait as long as I have to for a girl like her.
And one day … she’ll say those words to my face while she’s on her knees, sucking me dry.
A wicked grin spreads on my lips as she walks away, leaving an air of death and destruction in her wake. “See you tonight.”
I don’t know if she said that to him … or us.
Was that a threat?
Fuck.
“Boys,” the dean says, turning to look at us. “You’re dismissed.”
We hop off our chairs like predators ready for a chase, but the second I open the door, the dean adds, “Don’t forget … no more fighting. Or I will resort to heavier punishments.”
“Yes, sir,” Nathan replies before he shuts the door behind us.
Down below, the last flicker of her black hair disappears behind the stairs, and I rush after her.
Too late.
She’s already disappeared into the crowd of people, leaving me with a roaring heart, desperate for a chase.
