Page 148 of Out of Bounds

I snorted and turned back to the bathroom mirror. The steam eased up on the mirror and I could finally see myself.

My breath caught in my throat.

"Holy fucking shit," I blurted out.

"Kass?"

"Uh—don’t worry about it!" I’d have to tell Zariah eventually but we were on a time crunch. There weren’t minutes to tell her about the dull red and purple blotches up my neck, obviously hickeys. The most obvious hickeys in the world.

I sucked in a breath. Thoseteethmarks.

Ryan.

Hebitme. Heat flooded between my legs, remembering how he’d had me, willing and ready on the couch. He’d bit me and I’d begged for more.

That jolted me awake more than coffee.

And still, nothing from Ryan himself.

As fast as I could, I worked on my neck. Layers of foundation, powder, my roommate's setting spray, all of that was mixed together until all the evidence disappeared. Add that with one of Ryan’s jerseys and jeans and I actually looked decent for the event.

Now to go get the missing man of the hour.

"You’re never going to believe this," Zariah told me as we walked across campus. "One of our guests got assaulted."

I looked up from my phone, calling Ryan again. "What?"

"I’m so serious. I saw him in the morning, right? Venti iced americano and he lookednormal. And then, cut to the end of my shift, I’m closing up the coffeeshop and he limps into the lobby—whooped. Bleeding all over the place, he had a cut on his facethisbig. The shift leader lost it when she saw him."

"What happened?"

"He said he fell. The shift leader’s freaking out—they need to report injuries—but he said he tripped outside of the parking garage."

I stared at her, dumbfounded, as we walked into Roman Villa. "Tripped…into a backhoe?"

"Trippedoffthe parking garage maybe. I don’t know. We have a bet going for what happened."

"What the hell did he do to piss off someone that badly?" I said incredulously.

"No idea." Zariah waved at the desk assistant and slipped behind him to get to the lockbox with the keys. "Hey, Dave. Here for official RA business. Don’t mind me." Shifting back, she threw over her shoulder, "I think his wife caught him cheating and she sent a half-decent hitman after him."

I caught the keys when she tossed them. "Maybe he owes somebody some money."

"Either way, he still looks like roadkill."

"You’re a lifesaver, Z!" I told her and hurried to the elevator.

"Just bring them back to the desk!"

I pressed the button. "I got it!"

If Ryan wasn’t in his room, all I had to do was call Adam and King. They’d been in his car when he’d dropped me off. The elevator inched along to the other floors while I drummed my fingers against my hip, waiting, waiting, waiting for the elevator to stop.

The doors finally opened to Ryan’s floor and I bolted out.

I’d never been in the position to wake Ryan up. That washisjob. He was the one waking me up with a breakfast burrito and a promise that I could use the aux cord in his car. Everything was weird about this. Especially his dorm - whathappened?

Ryan’s apartment was always clean and tidy. It’s how he kept everything else. But a black shirt was bunched on the ground and his wallet and keys were on the floor. It was only three items but they might as well have an actual landslide.

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