Page 34 of Perfect Sin

“I’m not scared of Jackson Whitmore,” he scoffs.

This time I’m the one that narrows my eyes. “Sinclair. Where did you hear the name Whitmore?”

“Please, you were both all over the news. Some pampered rich prick doesn’t scare me. You should give me a chance, I can be a really good friend to have.”

“It’s clear you don’t know much about my husband, or me for that matter. I don’t need anymore friends, nor do I need my husband to fight my battles for me.”

“You’d be surprised what I know about you. I’ve been trying to find a way to talk to you for days, but you’re always surrounded by muscle.”

“That’s because my boys don’t like it when I get angry. I have anexplosivetemper.” I chuckle to myself. I still didn’t feel guilty for burning down two warehouses while my father’s men tried to ambush us a few weeks ago.

He gives me the once over. “You? What are you, a hundred pounds? You don’t scare me.”

“You don’t seem to have much self-preservation.”

Jesse smirks. “There’s a partner assignment on the syllabus. I thought you should know I spoke to the professor and suggested you shouldn’t get to work with your husband on it. It’s a good idea to get better acquainted with your fellow classmates and all.”

“I’m not working with you.” If he tries to push the idea, I might let him get acquainted with my knives, but not with me. I eye him suspiciously. Up until now I was sure I knew the person who sent me the text messages, but now I’m starting to wonder if I have it wrong. Maybe it isn’t a nightmare from my past.

“We’ll see,” he gloats, interrupting my train of thought.

Sin returns to his seat, and the professor addresses the class. It seems Sin already knows what he’s going to say.

“We’re going to move into our partner project. You’ll be paired with another classmate you don’t know well and be tasked with comparing and contrasting social themes from classic novels to the time they were written and today. In doing so you’ll seek to understand and explain why the classics endure, and what they can still teach us. You’ll have a week to prepare a presentation for the class.”

Sure enough, as he moves through the class list, he pairs me with Jesse. Sin gets lucky and gets paired with Teddy. Since he isn’t back to school until Monday, the professor isn’t aware they’re friends.

A couple of other students already try arguing with their pairings, but the professor shuts them down. Unlike them, I’ve got an ace up my sleeve to play. I take out my phone and shoot Holbrook a text.

Jesse managed to talk our English professor into pairing us up for a project. I have been getting disturbing text messages I haven’t mentioned. I’m starting to think he’s fixated on me.

I’m afraid I’ll have to wait for his response when I see three dots appear on my screen.

I’ll fix it. You and I are going to talk later.

I can’t say I’m looking forward to that chat. My only hope is that he can keep what I tell him as quiet as possible. I still don’t want anyone treating me differently than they do now. Especially since they already treat me like a fragile doll, unable to spend a moment alone.

A few minutes later there’s a knock on the door, and the professor is asked to step into the hallway. I catch a glimpse of the person who is speaking to him enough to see the department store suit. Clearly it’s one of the feds hanging around campus making sure neither of our parents abducts us.

The professor returns, a bit flustered. “There’s going to be a slight change to the groupings. Jesse, you’ll be joining Mark and James, and Raven I’ll just have you work with Jackson and Theodore when he returns.”

I smile at the professor. “Of course, Dr. Nichols. Whatever you think is best.”

Jesse turns and glares at me, not caring Sin is present this time. “What did you do?”

My smile falls off my face. “I told you, whatever you think is going to happen, isn’t.” I try to telegraph my message.Quit sending me messages.Unfortunately, I fear he’s too dense and narcissistic to catch on.

At lunch time we don’t go to the student union. Now I know it’s not the crowd we’re avoiding, but Jesse and his friends. Instead, we enjoy the sunny California weather and sit out on the lawn.

I lean back against Sin as he plays with my hair. Ford flips through his textbook, while Lucien busies himself with his phone. Reluctantly, I start to fill them in on my conversation, or rather confrontation, with Jesse.

“He’s going to be a problem,” Sin says when I finish recounting what was said.

“He’s fixated on Raven. This isn’t good. The guy is a total sociopath,” Ford agrees.

Guilt bubbles up inside of me. Sure, they are making the correct assumptions, but without all the facts.

“There was one detail I forgot.” Okay, more than one, but this I could give them. “When he asked if you were going to beat him up,” I say to Sin, looking at him over my shoulder, “he said he wasn’t afraid of ‘Jackson Whitmore’. He said he knew that name from the news, but I don’t know—I got the sense he was lying.”

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