Page 77 of Riot Rules
The smile that spread across her face was blinding. “Yes! Oh my god, yes! That would be more than okay with me.
She cried, and I held her in my arms, gripped by a ridiculous fear. She was happy. So fucking happy that the burden of my responsibility became very apparent, very quickly.
I can’t fuck this up. I’ll never forgive myself if I do. And Carrie deserves better than being ignored in the hallways. Ioweher more than that. She deserves someone who’ll put their arm around her in public and be proud of the fact that she’ll even let them. She deserves everyone to know that she’s loved and protected, and I want to be the one to give that to her. So I make the decision. I’m going to tell Wren. Pax already knows. He isn’t going to be happy that I’m choosing to forge ahead with this thing, but I’ll handle the consequences. It’s time to end the subterfuge and the deceit.
She’s sleeping now.
As I get dressed and leave her room, I replay her words and the feverish look in her eyes as she’d spoken to me before she fell asleep. “I love you, too, Dash. God, I tried not to fall for you, but I couldn’t stop. I can’t live without you now.”
I love you, too.
Last year, I thought the four most important words in the English language were ‘just one more hit.’ I haven’t smoked weed in months, though. I’ve barely had anything to drink. Carrie’s been all I’ve needed. Now, she’s all I’lleverneed.
I pull her bedroom door closed behind me as quietly as possible, turning, still lost in the replay of her telling me that she returned my feelings, only to walk into a solid brick wall of muscle. I’m so startled that my brain short circuits at first. I think:Hugh, the security guard, followed by, Fuck!But then I look up—There are very few people at Wolf Hall that I ever have to lookupat—and realize my mistake. The lethal looking man I’ve just collided with is a complete stranger and has no business being on Wolf Hall Grounds.
His skin is a light, tawny brown. His eyes are so blue, they’re the color of icebergs, cold and assessing. His charcoal grey suit is extraordinarily well made and must have cost a small fortune. Maybe in his mid-thirties, he looks like a high-powered investment banker, but there’s a worrying edge to him. Something off, that doesn’t feel right. When he closes a hand around my throat and yanks me away from the door, I realize that it’s because he has death in his eyes.
“Lord Lovett, I presume?” He shoves me away, letting me go. I keep my feet underneath me, though I do stagger back a couple of steps. He took me by surprise. I’m not a brawler like Pax, but I know how to put a guy on his ass when I need to. I’m ready for him when he prowls forward and goes to grab me by the scruff of my collar.
I don’t fucking think so, asshole.
I’m not some dog, to be jerked around on a leash.
I slap his hand aside and square up to him, angling my shoulders, hands made into fists as I wait to see what he’s going to do next. He smirks, fiddling with a cufflink for a moment before he feints forward, trying to trick me into retreating some more. I don’t, though. I step into him, ducking, launching a right hook that takes the fucker by surprise. The blow lands right on his jaw; I didn’t hit him hard enough to put him on the ground. The punch was designed to serve as a deterrent, to make him back the fuck up. Ring his bell a little. I think it served its purpose when the guy quits stalking forward and straightens up, holding his fingers to his mouth. When he lowers his hand, his fingers stained with blood, he grins, his teeth coated red. “Well, well, well. I heard you were a bit of a pretty boy. Spoiled as fuck. I wasn’t prepared for you actually being able to fight.”
Quicker than a flash of light, his hand whips out, a fist of his own, and he clocks me on my temple. My vision sways, darkening around the edges, but I don’t go down. I jump back, shaking my head, ready to go toe-to-toe with this motherfucker.
Then, I see the gun in his hand.
Then, I see his finger on the trigger.
His ice-cold eyes narrow into furious slits. “With me, asshole.Now.”
* * *
The Vanquish is a sleek black bullet, idling in the academy’s driveway. The guy prods me in the back with the muzzle of the gun, wordlessly ordering me to get into the passenger seat. “You’re kidding, right? If I get into that car, what’s to stop you from killing me?”
“Who said anything about killing you?” the stranger in the slick suit says.
I hold my ground, literally digging my heels into the gravel when he shoves me toward the car again. “I assumed that’s what the gun was for.”
His laughter is acidic. “Guns aren’t just good for killing. They’re good for causing an infinite amount of pain, too. I figured I’d start on your kneecaps and go from there.”
“You should know, if this is about money, my father isn’t the type of man who’d pay out ransom to a kidnapper. He really doesn’t like me all that much.”
He laughs louder, the sound full of genuine amusement. “Kid. That is a three-hundred-thousand-dollar car you’re refusing to get into. I have more money than I’ll ever need. Now move, before I lose my temper.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Try me.”
I’m stubborn. I’vealwaysbeen stubborn. I contemplate turning around and calling his bluff just to see what he’ll do…but then I remember Carina upstairs, and the selfish part of me, the part that definitely wants to see her again, forces me to back down. I open up the passenger side door and climb inside the car. The motherfucker in the suit gets in.
“Are you gonna tell me what this is about?”
He throws the car into gear and guns the engine, tearing away from the academy. “Shut your mouth.”
I clamp my mouth shut. Not to give him what he wants,fuck this guy, but because I need to use the next few minutes to think. I have my cellphone in my pocket. I could try to covertly call Pax or Wren, but it’s the middle of the night. Wren’s probably passed out cold. Pax could be awake, but he’ll be high, or drunk, or listening to raging metal. He’s notoriously bad at answering his phone at the best of times. No way he’s picking up to me now. So, I’ll throat punch this piece of shit when he drags me out of the car, then. I’ll break his fucking nose. I’ll hit him so hard that he’ll simultaneously shit and piss himse—
