Page 70 of They Break Beauty

This salad had a lot of feta cheese all over it, one of my favorite cheeses. Well, at least that was what I’d asked for. I hadn’t actually seen the cafeteria server scoop it because I’d had my back turned as I’d answered a text from Colton about confirming a time to finish that duet. I’d also ordered a strawberry chocolate milkshake to take some of the edge off. Chocolate was good for a lot of things, including trying to bury very recent salacious memories of a certain maniacal stalker.

I checked my phone and my spirits rose when I saw a message from Chloe that must have come in while I’d been in the busy cafeteria.

Chloe: Coming back next week! Can’t wait to see you!

Oh my God!

Brianna: That’s amazing news! I can’t wait either!

Chloe: Thanks, sweetie. Your IG campaign really helped me out. Get ready to get your celebration on when I return.

Brianna: I absolutely will.

I smiled to myself and tucked my phone into my pink and silver jacket with lots of studs, buckles and embellishments. It was the only part of my outfit that was bubbly and colorful today. With the way I was feeling—on edge and stressed by what had been happening lately, and feeling the haunting of that nightmare six years ago, thanks to Levi fucking Knight—I was wearing just a pair of black jeans, block heels, and a lacy black tank to complete my look. I’d only bothered to put my hair up in a loose ponytail. I even had heavily tinted sunglasses on because I wanted to stay inside my own bubble as much as possible and block out the world when in between classes, like now.

I sighed heavily, then opened my salad container.

A scream ripped from my throat and I shot to my feet away from the salad as I stared at the worms, maggots, and whatever else crawling through it and slithering all over the place.

It took me several moments to reach out to the milkshake and open the top.

I gasped as saw it was very far from a milkshake—and smelled it too now the lid was off. It was a cup full of urine.

Urgh.

I jerked back, breathing heavily, adrenaline making my pulse thrum like crazy.

It really didn’t help when I looked out across the quad to see several students looking my way, my scream obviously having drawn their unwanted attention.

Dammit.

I forced myself to sit back down, but on the other side of the bench which was preferable both because it was away from the bugs and urine and because it had me sitting with my back turned to the rest of the quad.

As the shock of it wore off and I was able to think, I analyzed the situation.

My first suspect was obviously Levi.

Our last conversation, in particular came to mind.

Don’t come near me again.

You do this and you won’t like how I respond.

It should be a slam dunk deduction pointing to him being responsible.

But how could he have done it?

Although I had been distracted as the food had been made, it would’ve had to happen really quickly and within my immediate vicinity. It wasn’t like it was my usual order, so it would’ve needed to happen on the fly. And now I’d put my program in place and I was tracking his phone, an alert went off when he was within a few feet of me. That hadn’t happened earlier.

Sure, he could’ve had somebody do it for him.

But he’d definitely proven himself as the kind of person who preferred to do their own dirty work and not delegate tasks.

Also, it really didn’t seem to be his style.

On some level it was a comfort that it hadn’t been him. And that was something I was trying not to think about… that I actually cared about him not being responsible for this, that I didn’t want him to be. The bastard was definitely in my head and crawling under my skin too.

What had happened outside the bar had been a dangerous and really fucking foolish move on my part. I’d given in. Hell, I’d succumbed. And instead of dousing the fire on either of our parts, it had made it a whole lot worse. Now it was raging flames.

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