Page 60 of Carved in Ice (Made of Steel 3)

Although, I was wanted for murder. I slid my key into the lock and it clicked open. Apparently campus safety wasn’t a top priority at Eastern University.

Chapter 25

Monday

When I turned on the lights, I froze. All my stuff was exactly as I had left it. My comforter was still on my bed. My books still stacked on my desk. One of them was even opened to the last page I had read. Nothing had moved at all.

I hadn’t been expecting that. Part of me thought Kins would have a new roommate. Or that maybe she would have switched dorms to move in with someone else. But all her stuff was still here too.

I walked over to her nightstand. There was a framed picture of her and Patrick. They were both smiling hard for the camera. I always wondered how the two of them were doing. I had watched them from a distance a few times and it seemed like they fought more than anything else.

I turned around and breathed in slowly. The room smelled like home. Which was odd. I hadn’t lived there for very long. But I was comfortable here. Happy even. For a while anyway. Before the bloody slippers had shown up. I peered under my bed just to check.

Nothing.

As I looked around the room, I felt sad. The room reminded me of everything I didn’t have growing up. Moving from foster home to foster home. There was no way those beds weren’t filled after I left. Another kid to ignore. Or another child to love instead of me. I was easily forgotten. But here? Kins didn’t want to forget. And something about that gave me hope. That maybe she hadn’t given up on me. That maybe Miles hadn’t either.

There were hushed voices outside the door. And then the sound of a key entering the lock.

Shit.

I glanced around before jumping into the opened closet. Ow. I grabbed my side after it collided with a vacuum cleaner. I was just able to scramble into the dark corner and crouch down out of sight when the dorm room door opened.

“You didn’t have to walk me back,” Kins said. “I can take care of myself.”

It was a dismissal if I’d ever heard one.

“Babe, I’m sorry I brought it up. I just think it’s important for us to talk about if it’s still an issue.”

I recognized Patrick’s voice. I slowly moved some of the hanging dresses to the side so I could peer out at them.

“It’s not an issue,” Kins said. “God, can’t we just have one normal night where you don’t try to psychoanalyze me?”

Patrick sighed. “All I want is a normal night. But look around you. Clearly it is still an issue.”

“Patrick, there’s no point in talking about this. You never listen to me. What’s the point in rehashing it right now?”

“The point is that I don’t want you sneaking around behind my back.”

“Seriously?” Kins opened up her dresser and pulled out a pair of pajamas. “I should have known. You’re jealous that I went to visit Eli? I only went because I was looking for Sadie. And for the record, he didn’t know where she was. Apparently they broke up months ago.”

Broke up? I shook the thought away. I knew Eli was just trying to protect me. I stared at Kins. Apparently everyone had been to visit him but me. I bit the inside of my lip.

“Isn’t that proof enough that she…”

“No. It’s not. Eli didn’t break up with her because she killed someone. He said he broke up with her because she always seemed distant. If you ask me, by the way he looked when we talked about her, I think she cheated on him. But that’s beside the point.”

I thought about V’s arms around me. When had Kins visited Eli? I shook away the thought. Eli was just covering for me. That was all. I wasn’t distant. I had been so present. Until he got injured. I hadn’t visited him. And now tha

t I was finally able to, I was here spying on Kins for no reason at all. What the hell was I doing?

“Distant?” Patrick asked. “Maybe she was distant because she was plotting how to murder her next victim.”

“She’s not a criminal!” Kins yelled.

“She killed that woman. She…”

“You didn’t know her like I did. She wanted to be a psychologist. She wanted to help people. She wasn’t going around making bombs and blowing people up. She’s a good person.”

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