Page 32 of Pretty Secrets

“What’s this?” an authoritative voice calls out.

I don’t look, hoping it’s Barclay come back to smoothly put this to rest in front of everyone. I don’t have the finesse he has, and Jarvis clearly isn’t going to stand down. Nor will I. I’ll fight him all the way back to my locked room if I have to. Weakness in this world is like chum in the water.

“Miss Astor, come with me.”

Blinking, I finally look over at the newcomer. It’s not Barclay. It’s the head administrator, and somehow, he’s calling on me instead of Leo making a public exhibition on his campus. Unless this guy is short-sighted and missing the growing bulge protruding from Jarvis. Fuck, is that a…piercing? A piece of metal glints in the light, and I nearly forget where I am with the need to inspect what he has going on down there.

“Miss Astor. Now.”

His sharp voice brings me back to my senses, and I peer at the crowd who’s obviously looking for a show. I’m no match for Leo’s caveman personality, so I do what I must to save grace and follow the old fart.

No one parts for him as we make our way through the crowd. “Move!” he bellows.

That shocks some into giving us space, and I keep my head held high as I walk with him through campus toward the administration building. After a while, the two of us just become other bodies moving amongst the flow of students and professors, leaving behind everyone who witnessed what happened near the café.

When we enter through the doors of the building, my heart rate has self-regulated. I have a hate hard-on for Leo Jarvis the size of a fucking elephant, but that’s normal amongst people like this. They worm under your skin like parasites until they devour you from the inside out. I have to find a way to keep myself from being eaten alive.

We walk straight through the building, passing other administrators working happily in their offices, their secretaries typing away. Somewhere, classical music is being played, and I almost roll my eyes. Everything is too picture perfect. Passing off refinement like some of these guys aren’t getting down to the new Cardi B track after work.

Just when I think this guy’s office must be at the end of the hall, he opens a metal door with a redExitsign overhead. I stop in my tracks, suddenly wary. I barely get out my next breath before I’m grabbed again. This time, fingernails dig into the skin at my wrists, and a bag is tugged over my head, plunging me into darkness while a scream gets stuck in my throat.

I’m thrown forward. Instead of landing on the hard ground, my knees hit something semi-soft. Two hands lift my legs and shove me forward seconds before a car door slams.

“Silence, Miss Astor,” a calm voice sounds from what must be the front seat. “Knights Trial number one, and you’re failing.”

15

Oliver

When Eden doesn’t return within a half hour, worry clenches my gut. I’ve stared down at the homework I’m supposed to be focusing on, seated by a window in the café so I can keep an eye out for her, ready and waiting to bitch about the whole fucked-up scenario that wasn’t her fault. But she doesn’t show.

Another fifteen minutes go by. Then another half hour. I eventually go search the admin building, but no sign of her anywhere.

Dread makes me shiver to the core. Maybe it’s Eden’s voice in my head too much, but I’m suddenly worried she’ll get the same fate as her sister. I never actually thought…

I type out a text to the group thread Barclay started as I jog toward Jarvis Hall.Anyone seen Eden?

I get a response a few moments later.Been in class. What do you mean has anyone seen her?

I don’t get a chance to respond because Barclay and I make it to Jarvis Hall at the same time. “What’s going on?” he asks.

Worry-spawned fury envelops me. This never would’ve happened if Jarvis wasn’t such a fucking arsehole. “Jarvis,” I grind out.

“What about him?”

I burst through the doors and straight for Leo’s room. The door swings furiously on its hinges and slams against the opposite wall. Leo is lying casually on a bed, any remnants of the girl who lived here before completely gone. He probably threw her things out into the parking lot like the dick he is. “Where is she?”

“Leave,” he deadpans, not even sparing me a glance.

“Where is she?”

“How the fuck would I know?” he growls.

“Oliver, what is it?” Barclay asks, annoyance threading through his words as if I’m making a big deal out of nothing.

I point at Jarvis. “This fucker decided he was going to piss on someone. Fucking literally. Eden stopped him and wound up being escorted away by an administrator.”

Barclay’s eyes round. “Escorted away? Neither of you went with her?”

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