Page 80 of They Break Beauty

“One house was swarmed by red ants a couple of hours ago. Another was crawling with cockroaches. And the third has a rat epidemic.”

“Wow, that’s one hell of a coincidence. All at once, different creatures.”

“It’s far from a coincidence.”

It hit me all too quickly.

“It’s fine. I’ll handle it. I’m working on it.”

Shit. Had she actually done this? Had this been her way of fighting back against Hex’s bullying?

“It is?” I asked, feigning cluelessness.

“Of course. This was a coordinated strike.”

“Huh… that’s some crazy shit.”

He gave me a withering look. “This was your little girlfriend, Colt.”

“My girlfriend? Last I checked, I was relationship and strings free.”

“I saw you. I saw you in the recording studio with her.”

I shrugged. “I was comforting her.”

“Looked like she was comforting you too about you not being happy that I’ve had her marked.”

“I’m not happy about it. In fact, what you’re doing is both unfair to her and dangerous in the grand scheme of things. You need to stop before Lev comes back. You’re living up to your Scourge name way too well right now.”

“No can do. I want her gone before he gets back.”

“What? No. You can’t do that to him.”

“To him? Or to you?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve clearly taken a real liking to her. I saw you with her, remember? You’re enamored. As for us living up to our nicknames, you’re doing the opposite, not holding true to your Maverick persona at all, in fact. Putting your attention all on one person, cutting back on the partying.”

Before I could get a word out about that, he went on, “Well, I’m not going to jeopardize all of us based off some new feelings you have for a girl you’ve only known for a few weeks. The fact is she’s trouble where Levi is concerned, so she needs to go.”

“Mason, this is the wrong way to go about it and you know it. Just fucking well talk to Lev, all right? Solve it from that angle. Don’t punish Brianna when she’s not at fault.”

He gestured angrily at the frat houses behind him. “I just told you she did this. Not at fault? Bullshit.”

“Even if it was her and you’re not just being ridiculously paranoid, it would only be retaliation for what you’ve already done to her.” I laid my hand on his shoulder and dug in so he couldn’t instantly pull away, not while I needed to drive my point home. “Come on, brother. Do the right thing and back off, yeah?”

He stared at me for several moments and I really thought he was seeing reason and the error of his ways.

But then his phone rang, shattering the hold I had on him, and he pulled away and fished it out from the pocket of his snug navy jeans.

He swiped it open and answered, “Chase?”

Chase Arlington? The football captain?

He was on his payroll too? A member of Hex? Shit, Mason was really going for it. Chase’s father was a rival of Mason’s father.

“What situation?” I heard Mason asking down the line. “Paramedics in the locker rooms? What? What about the showers? Fine. I’ll be right there.”

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