Page 58 of Vile Boys

“Right, thank you,” he responds with a smile.

“Um, Mom, you’re gonna have to replace the shower curtain,” I mutter.

Her brows furrow. “What? Why?”

“I accidentally leaned into it, and it broke off. Sorry.” I rub my lips together. “I put it in the bin. I’ll buy you a new one.”

“It’s okay. Thank you for telling me. Do you know why Caleb left?”

“No.” I lie, shrugging. “Did he say something?”

“No, he just ran off,” she replies.

“He does that sometimes,” his dad adds. “Things have been difficult on him ever since his mom …” His dad swallows away the lump in his throat. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll talk to him later. Promise.”

My mom reaches for his hands. “Thank you. I’d love that. I really want this to work.”

So quickly falling in love already. I’m impressed.

“Me too,” his dad says. “And for what it’s worth, I think you cooked a lovely dinner.”

They smile at each other, and my mom blushes. “Thank you.” Then she looks at me. “Let’s eat, Crystal.”

I nod and sit back down again like everything’s normal.

She’ll never know what I did for her and never find out what I plan to do. Because I’ll take my secrets with me to the grave.

Ares

The next day

I’mglad we finally managed to get rid of those damn bodies in the freezer, but it was far too much trouble for my liking, with Blaine’s connections being iffy at best. Too many men asked questions they shouldn’t be asking, but there is no way in hell I would ever ask my dad’s men to take care of it, so I guess I’m content.

“Hey, don’t be so pouty,” Blaine muses as he sits beside me just as class starts.

“I’m not. I’m just contemplating the best course of action now that those men are dead,” I say.

His brows furrow. “You think they’ll come after us?”

“I don’t think it. Iknowit.” I lean on the table on my elbows and tap my fingers together. “It’s only a matter of time.”

“But they were just peons,” Blaine says. “They shouldn’t have stepped onto our territory if they wanted to live.”

“They’re lures,” I respond.

He frowns. “What … like …?”

“Bait,” Caleb adds as he flops down onto the bench. “To get us to react. And we did.”

“You’re late,” Blaine mutters, casually filing his black-painted nails.

Caleb shrugs and ignores him. “Anyway, there’s no trace of those bodies or the kills. If anyone asks, we’ll just deny we’re involved. Easy.”

“You’re a fool if you think that will stop those fuckers,” I tell him, leaning back in my seat and fishing my vape out of my bag.

The teacher narrows his eyes at me as I take a drag right in front of him, but I don’t care. He won’t kick me out. He knows the power our family name holds at this fucking university.

That’s the only positive thing about it.

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