Page 50 of Property of Azrael

“A frat boy, huh?” Arching my brow, I smile over at Az. “That’s unexpected. I figured with your company, you would’ve been more of the quiet nerdy type, with your head always in a book.”

Fox throws his head back and laughs. “Oh, fuck no. This guy right here was the wildest of us all. There was this one night where he—”

“Shut the fuck up, Fox,” Az growls, pointing his fork with a piece of sausage stuck at the end in his direction. “It was a different time in my life. I’d like to think I’ve grown up since then.”

“Dude, what the fuck?” Van nearly chokes on his food. “You haven’t changed a goddamn bit.”

The guys erupt in a fit of laughter, though Az is clearly unamused by it all.

“Don’t listen to anything they tell you, Hallie. They’re all lies.”

“No, I want to hear Fox’s story. My interest is piqued.”

“So there we were, at the top of Slater Hill. It’d snowed like a son of a bitch the day before, so everyone was out sledding. This guy—” Fox points over at Orion, “—had stolen some old couch out of the dumpster by one of the resident halls. We strapped on a pair of skis to the son of a bitch and took her right down that hill.”

“Sledding is your crazy story?” I question. “Everyone who lives in Indiana has a sledding story.”

“Hold on, Hallie, it’s just the beginning.” He claps his hands together in excitement, smiling ear to ear. “So we’re going down that hill like a bat out of hell. Most of the time, you can get stopped at the bottom before you cross the road but not with Az’s little invention. We hit the bottom, sped up on the ice on the sidewalks, crossed Stadium Ave, missed like five or six different cars, and hit the Neil Armstrong statue before we came to a stop inches away from a campus police car.”

“Well, that escalated quickly. Did you get arrested?”

O beams at me. “Nope. Az talked him out of it. Told the officer that the couch was a physics project for class so they couldn’t impound it.”

“They were going to impound a couch?”

“Yup.”

“I stand corrected,” I chuckle. “My previous comment about it not being crazy was wrong.”

“Honey, we’re only scratching the surface of the shit we did together in college. In fact, there was this one party with some strippers that would really knock your socks off.” Fox winks, and Az backhands him in the gut. “Fine, fine. No need to get testy.”

The two of them bicker while the rest of us watch, laughing at their antics. But I can’t help but notice Asher sitting there quietly, moving his food around with his fork, not taking a single bite. Out of all the guys, he’s kept his distance, not speaking to me unless absolutely necessary. For being Az’s twin, they couldn’t be more opposite of each other.

Leaning over to Van, I whisper, “Is Asher okay?”

Apparently, my whisper comes out a little louder than I’d intended, because all arguments stop. Asher scowls at me, muttering something under his breath. While I can’t hear it, Az can. His eyes shift immediately to his brother, a deep scowl on his face. The room goes so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. Hell, the neighbors could probably hear it, the silence is so deafening.

“Enough, Asher,” Az snaps.

Asher glares at him, and then at me, his nostrils flaring. “She shouldn’t be here.”

I flinch at his sharp tone.

“I said enough!”

Asher throws his fork onto his full plate and shoves his chair away from the table, saying nothing when he trudges away from the table, heading straight toward the beach.

AZRAEL

I findmy brother sitting on the beach. “What the fuck is your problem with Hallie?”

Asher doesn’t bother acknowledging me. Instead, he focuses on the waves crashing against the sandy beach.

After a moment, he finally says, “I don’t have a problem with her.”

“Cut the shit, Ash. From the moment we pulled off to help her, you’ve been nothing but a fucking asshole to her. I thought that maybe with time, you’d warm up to her, but if breakfast is any indication, you’ve only grown colder.”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

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