Page 82 of Unwritten Rules

He smiled. “You’re so fucking cute when you’re mad.”

I crossed my arms to put a barrier between us. “You’re clearly with Sloane, and–”

“No,” he said firmly. He came close to me, and I could hear his breathing again. “I have no desire to be with her. She’s clung to me for a long time because she likes my last name.” His eyes flickered and darkened, looming over me. “Blondie, are you jealous?”

He almost entranced me, but I took a large step back from him. From that magnetic pull. “I’m not answering your questions.”

“I have my answer.”

The back door opened, and Kelly stepped out. “What’s with the creepy ‘come alone’ message and what has you sending it?”

Brent leaned onto the paneling on the back of the house, flicking his cigarette ash again. “Want to let us in on the secret about your boy toy?”

She looked between us, caught red handed. So, she knew about Shane and his extracurricular activities. And she was okay with that? I thought I knew everything about her, but it turns out that I didn’t. Was her meet cute with him even real, or was she seeking him out for what he could provide?

The constant conspiracy revelation was getting to me.

“What do you mean?”

He chuckled. “The fact that he’s allegedly a drug peddler for the kids on campus. Know anything about that or why he’s doing it?”

Brent seemed to have an interrogation tactic because I would have come swinging out of the gate with all the information I had. He tried to draw it out of her, so she had to come clean instead of letting us sit in false knowledge. It was about finding out what they knew first, and I saved that information in my mental notebook for later.

Look, Evans, I’m learning, you prick.

She looked guilty. “What’s wrong with being a little...entrepreneurial?”

“This isn’t funny, Kel. Everything is a mess with the news of all the little stories popping up.”

“Okay, yes. He does deal, but it’s not for some weird reason like you’d think.”

Brent’s eyes met mine. The look told me that things were becoming serious. “I think we three should get to the afterparty and find somewhere more private to chat. We need to get our stories straight on what we’ve heard and what we know.”

Kelly let out a resigned sigh. “Did something happen?”

Thud!

Just as Kelly spoke, a body hit–well, splat–on the concrete just before the pool.

I thought I was going to be sick, on the porch.Oh, God, he’s just...dead!Brent quickly grabbed the both of us by our arms and led us around the side of the house with a swiftness that felt like he may have dealt with a fewtoomany death emergencies before. There was no way I was going to recover from this.

“Keep moving. Walk faster.” He kept his voice whisper quiet as he shoved us forward.

My life was turning into something horrifying. The image of the guy lying there, broken and dead. Should I have assumed he was dead? There was no real way to know. Cops would be all over it and investigating, letting people know if he was dead or alive.

Just another PR nightmare to add to the list.

His arms were draped over both of us like he was flirting, walking us away from the crowd for some alone time with us. It was a smart move. It made me suspicious of what Brent knew or experienced in the life of the insane nepo baby club. We slowed down to a stroll, appearing unaware that there was a–potentially–dead guy in the backyard.

“I shouldn’t have opened my mouth.”

I kept silent, flicking Brent’s arm off me. What was I supposed to say? She made a terribly morbid joke after looking at that guy firsthand. He was so...contorted.

Just breathe. All you can do is breathe right now.

Noticing my hand was pulled into someone’s hand, I tried to focus on the feeling. Everything started to feel far away, blurry. Like I was slipping away from reality. There was no way that happened, right?

“Do you two know what really goes on with the wealthiest families?”

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