Page 6 of Ruthless Mafia Heir

"When did it start?" she wonders aloud. "Maybe if we can figure it out, we can get to the bottom of why it’s been happening."

I screw my face up, trying to cast my mind back. The last time I turned in an essay and didn’t have to go chasing up on it, it was...

"The night I met Hanna Brown," I reply. Rachel taps her finger against her chin.

"Oh, okay," she murmurs. "Do you think it’s got something to do with her?"

"No, not her, we got on really well..."

"So, something else that happened that night, then?"

I keep thinking—and a cold shiver runs through my body when something pricks the back of my memories. There was something else that happened that evening. I ran into that guy, the guy who thought I was a waiter, who turned up at the coffee shop a couple of days later and left that ridiculous tip. I don’t know his name, but there’s something about him that has burned its way into my memory, like my brain is trying to warn me to keep an eye out for him.

Rachel leans forward with interest.

"There’s something, right?" she prompts me. "What happened, Soph?"

I shake my head.

"It’s nothing," I reply. There’s no way another student could have this much influence over everything that’s going on with me, there’s just not. I’m paranoid. Whatever’s going on, it’s just bad luck, a string of it, all appearing on top of each other. It doesn’t mean anything.

"Come on, I need to get some transcribing done for class," I tell her as I grab one of the old newspapers I’ve been studying from my backpack and lay it out on the table before us. "This text is so tiny, it’s going to take a lifetime..."

"Okay, well, I’m going to need another coffee if we’re going to do all that," she replies, flashing me a smile as she gets to her feet. I watch as she heads off and rest my chin in my hand, staring blankly at the pages in front of me.

Does all this have something to do with what happened that night? That guy? I don’t know. It can’t be, can it? I mean, no matter how irritated he might have been with the way I talked to him, it’s not like he would have been able to orchestrate all of this—not just with the school but with my work, as well.

I take a deep breath, yawn, and rub my face. I need to stay focused. All of this will ease up eventually, and when it does, I don’t want to have fallen behind on anything in the process. I need to keep going, and I will find my place here at the university.

Even if it feels like the whole world is working against me right now.

Chapter Four—Blake

I glance at the door as I wait for her to arrive. It’s only going to be a matter of time. And when she gets here, I’m going to give her all the help she needs.

Even if I’ve been the one to cause all her troubles in the first place.

This last month has been fun, the kind of fun I haven’t had in a long time. Toying with Sophia, it’s lower stakes than the work I’m normally involved in with my father’s business. I know nobody is going to end up dead or destitute here. But my skills of manipulation, the control I have over this place, are muscles I’m always willing to flex, and I intend to do everything I can to get her to come begging me for all the help she can get.

Today will be the day, of course, that she loses her job at the bodega. I check my watch. It’s nearly midday, so she should have had the news broken to her by now. I’m waiting in the student support offices, though I don’t work here, ready to intercept her when she comes in looking for the financial aid she’s going to need to continue studying at Gregora University.

I’ve done a little research into her family, her history, and it’s clear that she’s not going to last long here if her work falls through. She’s already got a scholarship, but that has just covered the cost of her studies. She still needs to pay to actually live on campus and keep up with the other students, and with the lifestyles we lead, she can’t do that on a part-time barista salary.

Not to mention the fact that her scholarship is certainly in question right now, given the strings I’ve been pulling. Just a few words in the ear of the TA, encouraging them to lose her essays when they come in—nobody has the nerve to say no to me, and sure enough, it didn’t take long till she got the announcement that she’s on academic probation. One wrong move, and she’d lose her scholarship and have to leave.

Which puts her in a very difficult position. The exact kind of position she might have to come to me for help with. At least, that’s what I’m counting on.

I’ve been keeping an eye on her around campus, too, much to the chagrin of Damon, who can’t seem to figure out what I’m so obsessed with.

"Why don’t you just give the girl a break?" he asked me the other day after I returned from the Blackened Bean. Though the coffee wasn’t as good as the kind I make at home, it gave me a chance to check in on her. The dark rings under her eyes told me that my plan was coming together exactly as I had intended it to, and soon, I would pull the trigger on the bodega, too.

"I can’t let people see her speak to me the way she did at the event and get away with it," I replied calmly. It’s something my father has always drilled into me, not allowing disrespect to go unpunished. No matter how mild it might seem, you have to put the fear of God into anyone who stands against you. She might not have meant it, when she was so dismissive to me, but she’s going to learn that she can’t speak to me like that.

"Is that all it’s about?” Damon demanded, narrowing his eyes at me. He knew me too well for my own good. He could see through the lies I was spinning.

It’s about more than just disrespect. That disrespect sparked something in me, an attraction to her I haven’t felt in a long time. And I can’t deny it.

"What else would it be about?" I’d shot back, and he grinned.

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