Page 4 of Look What You Made Me Do

Lucas West. King of the Sacred Sons since Roman Rush stepped down a couple of months ago. Lucas was Gabriel’scousin and best friend, and he’s made it abundantly clear that he hates my guts.

The feeling is one hundred percent mutual.

“Why?” I ask. “The police said Gabriel’s case was pretty cut and dry.”

She shrugs. “They said something about a witness coming forward, but that was it. Class started and they dropped the subject.”

Alexis is so sweet, but she can also be so clueless sometimes. If I’d overheard something like that, I’d be up those people’s asses, asking questions the second class ended. “You didn't ask them who the witness was, or what they said?”

“It just sounded like gossip, Wyn. I’d take it with a grain of salt.”

Yeah, maybe she’s right. How many crazy things have been said about me in the last couple of months? Everything from me having a secret baby that pushed Gabriel over the edge, to me goading him into doing it. None of it was true, obviously, but that didn’t stop people from speculating.

Finally, after waiting around for a half hour, the Sacred Sons—Lucas, Christian, Jackson, and Ash—saunter down the main staircase like kings of their domain. Christian is first. He’s tall, muscular, and male model-level hot, just like his twin, Lucas—the only difference between them is that Lucas has wavy blond hair, and Christian’s hair is straight.

You’d think Christian would be just as upset by Gabriel’s passing as Lucas was. They were both Gabriel’s cousins. And he was upset from what I’ve heard, but Lucas’ pain went beyond grief. He was completely shattered by Gabriel’s death. Some people say it changed him.

Jackson is next down the stairs, his large, muscular body nearly taking up the entire width of the ornate staircase. His dark features give him a tough, weight-lifter vibe, eventhough he mostly just surfs. But beneath that tough exterior, he’s actually really nice. He helped me when Gabriel and I were struggling—offering me advice and giving me a guy’s perspective…

But he was also one of the “friends” who ghosted me after Gabriel’s death. We weren’t besties, but we were close-ish. And after everything went down, he never reached out, never checked on me. Nothing. And that really stung.

Alexis and Lux were the only ones that stuck by me.

Ash comes down next. He’s the newest Sacred Son and the classic image of a surfer—messy sun-bleached hair and vibrant blue eyes that lookintoa person and seem to perceive more than what’s on the surface. Initially, he had mixed feelings about becoming a Sacred Son—something about not wanting to contribute to a corrupt patriarchy—and because of that, there’s been a fuck-ton of tension between him and the other guys.

Lucas is the last one to come down. Of course, he is. He walks slowly down the staircase while he rolls his shirt sleeves up and adjusts his mess of boho bracelets like he’s in no rush to get where he’s going. He enters every room with the kind of confidence that only comes with knowing he’s rich, powerful, and insanely hot.

It’s a fact, though. So I can’t even say he’s wrong. He’s over six feet tall, tanned, and muscular with wavy blond hair and a pair of striking blue eyes that made me gasp the first time I saw them. No lie. It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Right after it happened, there was a second of silence, and then he just laughed, but mockingly. I wanted to launch myself off the nearest cliff. It’s been a year, and Istillthink about that horrifying moment weekly.

He probably gets that all the time though. That’s what I tell myself, anyway. Of all the Sacred Sons, Lucas is the most popular with the Debs—short fordebutants,what we call thefemale members of the Burning Crown. He’s on every Deb’s fuck list, and he knows it. Everyone knows it.

When I first arrived on campus, I did try to get his attention, but he never seemed interested in me. Then a week after my initiation, I started dating Gabriel. So my attraction to him was a moot point after that.

But Gabriel and Lucas were close and hung out all the time, so I got a front-row seat to Lucas’manyhookups, which was a special kind of torture. I compared myself to every girl he brought around. I watched how they interacted, wondering what it was aboutthisgirl that caught his attention. Was she quiet, or outspoken? Was she funny, or more serious? There was never really a pattern. He just seemed to fuck whichever chick he was in the mood for that week.

At the time, I felt like I hid my attraction to Lucas well, but looking back, maybe I wasn’t as slick as I thought I was. Gabriel wasalwaysjealous of Lucas, and every time we fought, he accused me of wanting to fuck his cousin. So, it was either me giving him that vibe, or Gabriel was just going off the fact thateveryonewants to fuck Lucas. Either way, he wouldn’t let it go.

Mason thumps his stick and everyone lets out a “Hoo-ah,” which snaps me back to the present. With the Sacred Sons now here, we all shuffle into the dressing room, which is just off the study, so we can change into our robes.

Alexis turns to me as she’s pulling her cloak off the hook. “We’re getting you some dick tonight,” she whispers.

I shrug into my robe. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“It’s only beentwo monthssince Gabriel…” My gaze darts around the small dressing room, but thankfully, no one is paying attention to us. “People would talk.”

“Wyn, we both know you’d emotionally checked out of that relationship long before Gabriel died.” She rushes to add, “Notthat his death wasn’t painful for you, and I get that. But a good fuck would improve your mental health. No one needs to even know about it.”

It’s a problem when Alexis starts making sense, because it’s true, things with me and Gabriel had been bad for a while. He was always so angry. No matter what I said, he would twist my words and use them as evidence that I was betraying him in some way. It was exhausting.

But, I don’t know, maybe if I’d been a better girlfriend, he wouldn’t have stepped in front of that train.Ugh.It’s an endless cycle of guilt.

Pulling the hood over my head, I flash Alexis a smile. “We should vote to get rid of these stupid hoods. Fucks up my hair every single time.”

“Oh, fuck you.” She flashes me a bright smile. “You always look hot, and you know it.”

I sigh and my gaze darts around the room. I’m always searching for thatoneface, thatonepair of electric blue eyes. But I don’t see any of the Sacred Sons, which means the guys must have already gone through to the ballroom.

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