Page 26 of Kings of the Campus

“Maybe that’s part of her plan,” Devin says, his gaze far away as he speaks. “She’s been hanging around me, Jace, and Alec a lot lately,” he explains. “Flirting, messing around, trying to get us to let our guards down.”

I refrain from pointing out that we were doing the exact same thing recently, and let Devin speak. “If she gets close enough to us, she can dig up dirt and bring us down. She wants us to retaliate publicly. She wants us to try to take her down. When we do, she has her next story—‘Sigma Theta Banned from Campus,’” he says, a bitter edge to his tone.

Matteo frowns. “That’s pretty underhanded if that’s true. I don’t want to lash out at her but I do want her to stop trying to take us down.”

“Then it’s settled,” Alec says. “We need to stop letting Tessa Collins manipulate us and keep her far, far away from Sigma Theta from now on.”

Julian leans back. “Is there something we can do that won’t be obvious it’s coming from us?” he asks, resting his chin against his fist. “You’re right that if we don’t do this carefully, we’re going to immediately get caught.”

I consider this for a moment. “We need to keep her distracted,” I decide. “Keep her busy thinking that she’s being followed around but make it hard to trace back to us.”

“Yeah,” Devin says, agreeing with a nod. “We have to make her think she’s crazy to suspect us. Pretend nothing is wrong, that we don’t even know about the reprimand.”

“As long as no one gets hurt,” Matteo adds. “We’re not trying to ruin her life, we’re just trying to make her stay away from us. I’m frankly surprised that she went to the dean’s office. Didn’t I see the three of you guys go upstairs with her at the party the other day? I thought things were better.”

“We did too,” I mutter, clenching and unclenching my fist under the table. “I genuinely thought we had made a fresh start.”

“Shows how little we know about her,” Alec adds in a low voice. “We need to stop letting ourselves get swept up in her schemes.”

“Her pussy couldn’t have been that good,” Julian says, a snigger escaping him. Matteo, Devin, Alec, and I all flash him a dark look.

“Shut the fuck up,” I snap. “Leave that shit out of this.”

“We’re only focused on getting back at her for reporting us,” Alec says, a calm look on his face but danger in his eyes as he regards Julian. “Now, are we all in agreement?”

“Aye,” we all echo in chorus.

Alec nods. “That’s settled then. We have to be careful, but we’re going to do whatever it takes to get Tessa Collins off our backs once and for all.”

His words seem to linger in the air, and I glance around seeing the other officers nodding their assent.

Tessa Collins is going to regret the day she picked Sigma Theta to go after.

16

DEVIN

Islam the door behind me harder than I mean to, the sound echoing through the empty hallway. My room feels smaller than usual, suffocating almost, as I toss my backpack onto the bed. I should be studying, getting ahead on the assignments, and prepping for the last of my midterms, but all I can think about is the news that Alec and Jace dropped in our laps. All I can think about isher.

I rub a hand over my face, trying to push away the heat building up inside me, but it’s no use. I feel like an idiot for letting her get under my skin, for thinking—hoping, really—that maybe, just maybe, she was different. But the meeting was a cold reminder that she’s not on our side. She’s never been on our side.

Tessa’s whole thing is finding the best story. If she tears us down piece by piece until there’s nothing left, who cares, right? She’ll step on anyone in her way. She’s already done enough damage. Dean Harrison’s warning keeps ringing in my head, and the whole thing makes me sick.

I sink into my desk chair, staring blankly at the textbook in front of me, but I can’t focus. My chest feels tight, my pulsepounding in my ears. I thought I was starting to like her. I don’t know when it happened exactly, but somewhere between the jokes, the teasing, and the stupid way she always managed to make me laugh, I let my guard down. Now, it’s all crashing back down on me, on us.

She was using us this whole time, and I bought into it like a fool.

I shove the textbook away, leaning back in the chair, trying to take a deep breath. The more I think about her, the angrier I get. Not just at her, but at myself. I let her get too close and now we’re stuck, caught in some messed-up game that could cost us everything.

She wouldn’t care if Sigma Theta got shut down for good. She’d probably relish in it—see it as her victory. But I can’t let that happen. None of us can. We agreed in the meeting—whatever it takes, we’ll get back at her. Drive her away for good. We’ll be careful, sure, but we can’t let her get away with this.

And yet, there’s this tiny, stupid part of me that keeps nagging at the back of my mind. The part that wants to believe there’s more to her than just this. That maybe, somewhere in there, she wasn’t lying about everything. But I force myself to shut that train of thought down. To remain as cold as Tessa has been toward us.

I trusted her, and that was my first mistake.

There won’t be a second.

I grab my phone and start texting Jace. If anyone is going to be willing to help me get revenge, it’s him. I want to leave Alec out of it for now. He’s got enough on his plate trying to keep everything going for our frat, the last thing he needs is to be pulled into our schemes.

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