Page 13 of Lovely Deceit

“Yeah, him. And the other.”

She shrugs. “We don’t even know if Alaric was involved.”

An animalistic sound emanates from deep within my stomach. “He was the one who got me up so they could take me.”

Her head snaps toward me. “He was there?”

I confirm with a tight nod. A trickle of surprise colors her face. She probably thought he was better than Leo, but she was wrong. They’re both in the game. “He told me you were gone, so I jumped out of bed. Was that true? Were you gone? Or did they take you?”

She shifts her focus to the floor, and I already have my answer. I wait for her to say it, though, because I want her to feel the full force of her shame for leaving me out of whatever it is she was doing. “I went to talk to my dad. I wanted to know about the stalker.”

“You could’ve woken me up.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered, Ollie. They still would’ve grabbed both of us.”

I sigh, forcing my shaking fingers through my hair. Talking with Eden is like fighting in a war you know you’ve already lost. “What did your dad say?”

“He said he didn’t know who the stalker was. They just figured it was some dumb prank.”

“Delilah’s drowning didn’t change his mind?”

Eden flinches, and I move to the bed to be close to her. “We didn’t actually get that far in the conversation before a Knight showed up.”

Well, that’s interesting. “What did your dad do?”

“Not much,” Eden admits, staring down at her hands in her lap. “He said to be strong.”

That’s it. I’m adding Astor to the list of people I need to fuck up. Then again, he did arrange for Eden and I to be on the same team, and who knows what he had to give up for it.

“I still wish you’d asked me to come with you.”

She peers up, eyes locking onto mine. “I’m asking you to come with me now, Ollie. I need to go back to Carnegie, and I need you with me.”

I push up from the bed. “No, no, that’s not what I meant.”

She grabs my hand and holds it while I stand there panting. “Please. I won’t leave you out again, I promise. Come back with me. We’ll do some more talking, we’ll ask around, we’ll…figure this out. Together.”

My heart ricochets around my chest. “If I go back to that campus, I may just kill someone.”

She smirks. “I think I can help with that.”

I lift my brows.

“Okay, maybe kill is a little much,” she admits. “But if we go back to Carnegie, I say we make Leo and Alaric suffer.”

Her blue eyes spark, and I get excited, too. I owe them a little pain. I know what it feels like to have someone turn their back on you, and that’s exactly what those fuckers did to Eden. We were supposed to be a team, no matter if it was a group that was forced together, I was almost certain they had grown feelings for Eden, too.

I must’ve been wrong.

“I like the way you’re talking,” I state hesitantly. “But I’m not above tossing you over my shoulder and getting you out of there again, Eden. One hint of danger, one—”

She stands, throwing her arms around me, and I’m so pussy whipped I don’t even know what the real world is anymore. But it’s worth it to have Eden alive and hugging me right now.

“I hate you for making me do this,” I confess, running my hands up and down her back and delving my nose into her hair.

She squeezes me tighter. “I know. As long as you know I love you even more for doing this.”

My stomach twists. If she keeps using the L word, I’m going to be a goner. I’ll be jumping at her ankles like a lap dog. As soon as I think it, I still. Part of me knows I can’t go that far again. I refuse to be the guy who smiles and bows then gets kicked the next instant.

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