Page 25 of Blood Money

The other girls are caught between deciding to chase me or helping their friend. I climb the stairs as quickly as I can, then book it down the hallway until I get to the next set of stairs. I run all the way back to my dorm room, skirting the other groups of girls I encounter—none of them are as aggressive as the girls on the ground floor.

I expect that to change once they’ve heard what I did.

My heart is thundering by the time I make it to my room, but beneath the rush of adrenaline is a little bit of satisfaction. I’ve fantasized about standing up for myself like that so many times. I endured their bullying dutifully because I thought I had to.

But now that I have nothing else to lose, there’s nothing keeping me from making them feel the hell they put me through. If they want to be mean, I can be even meaner.

When I get into the room, I shut the door quickly.

With my back against it, I double over to catch a breath. My sandy curls fall forward, framing my face—the sight of the tangled locks reminds me how badly I need a shower.

The door to Tara’s bathroom flies open, and she rushes out with a towel wrapped around her hair. Her eyes are wide.

“Well?” she asks, crossing the room toward me with a worried look on her face. “What the hell happened? You’reengagednow?”

I open my mouth but the words don’t come immediately. Where do I even start?

“Alexander told them that so they wouldn’t kill me,” I say. “It was the only way the Chancellor would let me walk out of there alive.” As much as I hate Alexander for what he did, I can admit that his plan was an ingenious one. I underestimated how far he would go.

I didn’t even realize what he was doing until I was already too deep in it.

Tara folds her arms, the towel on her head sagging. Her tall, curvy frame is sheathed in a Radiohead t-shirt too big to be hers. “I guess that's good? That you’re safe now, I mean.”

“I was never safe,” I hiss, moving over to my bed. She follows. “It’s all too fucking convenient, Tara. I break up with Alexander, then my whole life goes to shit. And now I find myself engaged to him? He’s trying to ruin my life.” I flop back on the mattress, covering my eyes with my arm. “And he’s succeeding at it.”

Tara scowls. “I knew he was a jerk, but this…it’s beyond what I thought even he was capable of.” She mutters something under her breath. “What are you going to do?”

I pull the knife she gave me from the holster on my thigh and examine it in the light. The blade gleams wickedly, the bejeweled handle stealing my breath like the first time I saw it.

“I’m going to fight,” I mutter. “I don’t know exactly how yet, but I’m going to.”

Tara stares at me for a long moment, before walking over to me and putting a hand on my shoulder. She smiles. “I’m here for you. Whatever you need.”

“Thanks, T,” I grin.

That evening, I spend hours in the shower—scrubbing the memories of Alexander’s lips, and fingers from my skin and detangling my hair. Tara brings me dinner from one of the restaurants on campus, and we eat it while watching one of her telenovelas. I call Uncle Laurent twice more, and it goes to voicemail each time.

It finally settles in that he won’t be coming to save me.

Did the people who are after me get to him first? Whatever the reason, it’s clear that I only have myself to depend on—and Tara, to an extent, but I wouldn’t want to burden her with my problems.

I have to find a way out of this, somehow.

NINE

ALEXANDER

It’slike every fucking person on campus is standing somewhere outside, staring at me.

They are bundled together in groups, standing on the lawns, sitting on the benches, even perched on the balconies of the buildings overlooking the road.

I’m used to the attention.

But it’s thereasonfor it that makes my blood boil.

They’re not staring at me because they know who I am, or because they’re afraid of the power I wield. No, they are staring because someone decided they wanted to put a target on my girl’s back.

Someone wants her dead.

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