Page 42 of Snitches and Serpents

“But it’s true! I swear.”

Ginny shifts my bag of sheets to her left hand and then takes my arm in a gentle grip with her other. “I’m afraid you will still need to come with us.”

Desperation washes over me, and I glance helplessly between the two of them. “But?—”

“No,” Davidson interrupts. His eyes are hard as he cuts me a look while he takes up position on my other side before they start leading me away. “No buts. I despise people like you. People who think that the rules don’t apply to you just because your parents are rich. People who have never had to work for anything in their life. People who?—”

Ginny clears her throat. Loudly.

Davidson blinks, startled, as if remembering himself. Raising his chin, he lets out a frustrated huff but doesn’t continue his arbitrary list of reasons why he hates me even though he knows nothing about me except for what he can read in my registration file.

I would’ve been furious at his presumptions and his strange vendetta against me if I hadn’t been so freaking nervous. What if I’m actually charged with carrying a weapon?

“Please,” I say, softening my voice as I glance between the two of them again. “I swear that the knife isn’t mine. I was set up.”

Ginny gives me a curious glance, but Davidson just keeps staring straight ahead.

“You received another anonymous tip, right?” I press on. “That’s why you came to search me. And how you knew where to find me right at this particular moment.”

Their silence is answer enough. Ginny flicks a quick look at Davidson, but he just keeps his chin raised and his eyes on the road ahead.

“It’s because I’m being set up,” I say.

“By who?” Ginny asks.

“Tristan Kane.”

He just planted a weapon in my pocket and called campus police on me, so I have no qualms about throwing him under the bus now. He deserves it. That damn snake.

“He wants revenge for something that happened when we were in high school,” I explain. “That’s why he’s doing this. He put the drugs in my room and tipped you off last week. And now he put the knife in my clothes just a few minutes ago and then tipped you off again.”

They say nothing.

“Please,” I beg. “You can test the knife for fingerprints. I’ve never touched it.”

“Do you really think we have a full-on CSI lab on campus?” Davidson retorts, sounding both frustrated and insulted at the same time.

“But—”

“Save it.”

Closing my mouth again, I swallow down the dread crawling up my throat. Panic clangs inside my skull. But somehow, both of those emotions are almost completely drowned out by the rising wave of burning rage that consumes my entire soul.

Tristan Kane.

Oh he’s a member of the White Serpents, alright. What an absolute snake he is. I can’t believe he had the audacity to kiss me like that only for it to turn out to be a ruse. And not just any ruse. A ruse to get me arrested for carrying a weapon in public.

I’m going to kill him for this.

16

TRISTAN

“Tristan!” Paul calls from downstairs right as I step out of the shower. “Elle’s here and she’s coming up.”

My gaze darts to the closed door of my bedroom. I can hear angry footsteps practically running up the stairs.

Tossing my towel aside, I snatch up a pair of sweatpants from the chair by my desk. I’ve barely managed to pull them on when Elle yanks the door open and storms inside. And she’s furious. Rage burns in her eyes like flames, and I can practically see smoke billowing behind her. Even before she has made it fully into the room, her mouth is already halfway open for what is no doubt a vicious accusation.

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