Page 119 of Fight or Flight
I shoot him a thumbs up, even as my mind spins with thoughts of Jace’s mouth and all the magical things he can do with it.
Why did I have to think about himnow? I’ve been actively trying tonotthink about him since I got out of the shower earlier, where I definitely didn’t jerk off thinking about him. Nope. I made sure I didn’t think about anything, but that didn’t stop my stupid brain from flashing images of him on his knees and staring up at me with those icy eyes when I finally came.
Shaking my head, I push those thoughts, and mental images, out of my head and glance around to orient myself.
We’re only a few minutes away. I just need to keep my mind blank until we get there, then I can drink my face off until I can’t think thoughts or feel feelings.
The Crypt comes into view as we cut through the field, and I follow the crowd as we make our way over to it.
The Crypt is just an old three-story Queen Anne-style house that was built when the school first opened and was abandoned back in the nineties. The lore surrounding the house is a bit of a mystery. No one really knows why it was built or what it was originally used for, but the rumors are that something bad went down there, and some students either died or were killed, and the building was subsequently abandoned.
I have no idea if the rumors are true, and it seems a bit weird that they’d abandon the house but not tear it down or make it off-limits to students if something terrible did happen in there, but the mystery around it is one of the reasons it’s so popular. Especially during Halloween and as a hazing ritual where first-year hopefuls are tasked with spending the night locked in the house while the frat members play pranks and do their best to scare the piss out of the pledges.
And it’s the only building on campus with no visible security, cameras, or key logs, so it’s one of the few places where peoplefeel comfortable enough to truly let go and not give a fuck about anything other than having a good time.
The house itself has been well maintained by both the school staff and the various houses and frats, and there’s an unspoken rule about cleaning up after using it that people have been good about following. But years of parties have taken their toll on what’s left of the furniture and fixtures, and the house looks like something out of a horror movie with its chipped paint and scarred wood exterior to match its run-down insides.
It doesn’t have electricity or water, but it does have a generator, and right now, the many front-facing windows are lit up with a mix of bright lights and twinkling string lights, and the thump of music can be heard through the open door as we file inside.
It’s not nearly as busy inside as I thought it would be, and we pass little groups of people dotting the many rooms of the main floor as I follow Paxton to the back of the house to where the drinks are usually kept.
20
JACE
“I’m not seeingany smoking guns in here,” Jax says, looking up from the printouts he’s reading.
We’ve spent the last day and a half going over all the information we could find on the fire.
Jordan and the boys haven’t been all that forthcoming with info and just passed on the report from the Fire Department, so I started digging through their files to see if there was anything we needed to know that they might be hiding from us.
So far, everything we’ve found backs up what was in the report.
“Yeah,” I let out a sigh and swing my chair back and forth in a slow arc with my feet. “I didn’t think you would,” I tell him honestly.
He tosses the packet of papers onto the coffee table in front of him. “The only cover-up I’m seeing is the fact that Carter fucked up the last update to the fire system, and that’s sus as hell because Carter never fucks up. But other than some bad code and human error, there’s nothing nefarious going on.”
“That’s my conclusion too.”
He pushes his hair back from where it’s fallen over his forehead. “Where’s Xave? Didn’t he say he’d stop by and go over what we found?”
“He did, but I got a text that he had something he needed to take care of and would swing by later if he had time.” Absently, I tap out a random pattern on the arm of my chair. “I’m gonna start calling him foreskin, because he always seems to disappear when things get hard.”
Jax snickers. “Please do. And make sure I’m there when you do it.”
“Done.”
Jax tips his wrist and subtly checks the time on his watch.
“Let me guess, you’re trying to find a polite way to excuse yourself so you can go to Myles’s room?” I ask when he looks back up at me.
He shoots me a smirk. “A polite excuse? Have you met me?”
“Let’s just say I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt and choosing to believe that you’d never be so callous as to abandon your big bro in his hour of need.”
“Is this hour of need in the room with us?” He gathers the pages he tossed onto the coffee table and stands.
“Every hour is my hour of need when my family abandons me.” I give him some puppy-dog eyes just to lay it on extra thick.
