Page 70 of The Cruelty of Thorns

I set the glass down and glared up at him. “If I were you, I’d go back to whatever hole you crawled out of.”

“And if I don’t?” Christopher replied, his eyes glittering salaciously.

“The next time I see you, I will kill you.”

He leaned over, his face inches from mine, and laughed. “You can try, pretty boy, but you won’t find me as easy to dispatch as Anastacia.”

“We’ll see about that.”

CHAPTER 29

MYRA

The after effects

KRISTIN WAS WAITING for me when I got up to our room. “Where have you been?” she demanded. “I’ve been worried sick. I texted you like twenty times. I was ready to call the cops.”

I remembered I put my phone on silent when I’d left her in the cafeteria that afternoon so she wouldn’t bother me any more about Ron. I dropped my purse on the bed and pulled out my phone. As she’d claimed, there were twenty-two text messages and two missed calls from her. I guessed she really was worried.

“Sorry. I lost track of time.”

“That’s your excuse? In case you’ve forgotten, there’s a killer out there.”

“I was safe.”

“Safe? Where have you been?”

I sighed and laid back on my bed, absently twirling a lock of my hair. “I was having dinner with a friend.”

I smiled to myself; it was more than dinner, though that was good, too. Not that I’d let her know any of that. Just thinking about Julianus sent a warm rush through me. Who would’ve thought this day would end with me losing my virginity against a wall in a dark alley?

“A friend?” she asked suspiciously. “Who is this friend?”

“No one you know. He’s not a student here.”

“So it is a he? Where did you meet this friend?”

I glared over at her. “Who are you now, my mother?”

“I’m just trying to look out for you.”

“Well maybe I don’t need you to,” I snapped. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

She was ruining my good mood, making me wish I hadn’t even come home, though I didn’t know where I would have gone. Maybe Julianus could have taken me to his place. He said he lived in a house on the hill. I wondered what it was like. Probably someplace exotic, judging by his clothes and taste in food, not to mention his income status. He was from Europe; he’d probably traveled around the world. I suddenly wanted to see where he lived.

“Are you even listening to me?” Kristin asked, and I realized she had been talking.

“I’m sorry, what?”

She rolled her eyes. “I said I talked to Toby today and he told me when he went to see Ron at the hospital this weekend, he wouldn’t speak to him either. In fact, he called an Uber instead of Toby to bring him home today.”

Why was she telling me this? I thought I’d made my feelings about Ron perfectly clear this afternoon. I sighed. “So?”

“So it wasn’t just you he was rude to.”

“Great. He’s an all-around rude guy. Kind of fits with my first impression of him.”

I stood up and started undressing to go to bed. It was barely nine, but I was suddenly tired and didn’t want to talk about this subject anymore.

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