Page 79 of They Break Beauty

I hadn’t seen Mason for two days even though we lived in the same house. He’d been strategically avoiding me. And ignoring my texts and attempted calls.

And I knew why.

With his eyes everywhere now, he was aware that I’d found out about him marking Brianna as a Hex target.

He was fucking lucky that Lev hadn’t.

The only reason for that was because he wasn’t here right now.

I’d thought it really strange when Brianna had reported to me that Lev had been giving her the silent treatment and staying away. He was an extremely proactive guy. He didn’t fold and he didn’t do things quietly or carefully. So when I’d approached him about it, I’d found out the reason for him withdrawing was because he’d been called back home by his father, Roman Knight, the business tycoon and owner of the multinational conglomerate, Knightsridge Engineering. When Daddy Knight called, there was no choice, Lev absolutely had to go.

Knowing their usual get-togethers, Lev would be back within a few days.

Long enough for me to stop Mason in his tracks before Lev found out about it and all hell broke loose.

As it was, I’d already intervened in more of Hex’s attempted strikes against Brianna.

After she’d told me she’d been marked, I’d been keeping a closer eye on things. I’d stopped two of Mason’s frat boy soldiers from slashing her tires, and I’d also stopped three of the football players also in his employ from trying to corner her one night when she’d been leaving campus late. I’d recognized the Hex formation they’d been taking, wherein they would’ve then crowded her and threatened her. I hadn’t told Brianna about it because it just would’ve scared her, so I’d interrupted their attempt by wrapping my arm around her and staying right beside her, making it clear their attack couldn’t happen.

Ever since then Mason had been avoiding me, knowing I was aware of what he was doing.

Or what he was ordering his soldiers to do, because he liked to keep his hands clean.

As I climbed out of my car, I took in the mayhem all around.

The members of all three houses were gathered around the front yards of their mansions, looking freaked out, displaced, and up in arms all at the same time.

Through the chaos, I caught sight of Mason standing rigidly by the front gate of the middle house—the one we’d been a member of not too long ago—as he spoke with Rosemary Reitner, the head of the one of the sororities. She was dressed in her favored sundress look, this one a demure pale blue. Her blond hair was big and wild in its permed style.

I’d found out that she was also one of Mason’s captains of several of the sorority members also operating as Hex soldiers now. The girl’s mother was a partner in a rival law firm to his father’s. And Mason was obviously intending to use that connection in his upcoming war against Peter Hall. Shit, it was brazen of him. All of it was. With him restarting Hex and Levi only participating a little, it wasn’t evened out like it had been before and the power of it had clearly gone to Mason’s head. He was getting involved in dirty dealings that Lev would normally nix. Lev didn’t like us going that route, he usually handled that sort of thing on his own and he was much more accustomed to it than Mason. Because once Mason got a taste of power after it being so long denied him and him being so subservient and restricted by his father, he couldn’t hold back, it became addictive to him.

As it clearly was doing now.

I jogged up to them and Rosemary eyed me. “What you doing here, rockstar?”

Her displeasure at my presence was obvious. And it wasn’t just because they were in the middle of something. It was because she wanted Mason all to herself. After I’d rejected her because she was one of the most manipulative people I’d ever met—something she had in common with Mason when he got into this kind of phase, she’d turned her attentions to Mason for the last couple of years to spite me. She’d somehow discovered that he and I had a casual thing going on and she kept doing whatever she could to remind me that he’d never acknowledge that outside the bedroom, yet he would with her if she got close enough.

“Fuck off. I need to talk to Mason. Alone.”

Mason turned to face me, agitation and surprise warring. “Busy, Colt.”

“You’ll make time,” I bit back. “Scourge.”

When I folded my arms across my chest and made it clear I was settling in and not going anywhere until he finally had the decency to hear me out, he blew out a breath and told Rosemary, “Give us a moment.”

“Sure thing,” Rosemary said. Her gaze swept over me. I was wearing my special pair of custom-made gold leather pants with studs all over them, along with a black metallic tank and a black shimmering cropped jacket over the top. “Maybe you should save those sorts of outfits for the stage. Bit too flashy for everyday wear, don’t you think?”

“Like I said, fuck off, snake.”

She sneered. “Sure thing, pretty little rocker.”

Urgh.

When she walked away into the crowds of the sorority members who’d also gathered around at the calamity taking place, I stepped up to Mason. “What’s happening here?”

“Infestation.”

“What?”

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