Page 88 of Theirs to Ruin

“A mere minute before you and Bianca and the rest of the crowd showed up.

His jaw clenched. “Or he set it up to look that way. Do you know who his family is?”

“Should I?”

“His cousins were the ones that kidnapped Ava.”

Chapter 38

Camille

The weight of Kage’s revelation hit me hard, making my body weak, knocking the air out of my lungs. Dante, the guy who’d held me, who’d helped me, who’d kissed me that day at the outlook, had family ties to the very men responsible for Ava’s kidnapping?

I felt a cold twist of dread in my stomach. He’d told me himself he’d killed before. That he wasn’t a good man. Being related to criminals, or even being a criminal himself, made sense considering who attended CU.

I felt the weight of my phone in my pocket like an anchor threatening to drag me under water. Had he really tracked my phone to protect me or for some other reason?

It felt like I was in a dangerous chess game, where the pieces kept changing on the board and I was constantly put into check. All these connections, all these shadows and secrets. Was there anyone at the school without a criminal background or connection?

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to face Kage and voice the burning question in my mind. “And you killed the men who kidnapped Ava. But not him. Why?”

“Dante was estranged from his family since he was sixteen. I couldn’t find any connection between him and Ava’s kidnapping.”

Relief burst through me along with annoyance. Why the hell had Kage told me that about Dante if he didn’t hold Dante responsible for Ava’s kidnapping? “There you go then.”

“It doesn’t mean he didn’t kill her.”

“No, but I’ve talked to him. Spent time with him. I honestly don’t think he’d murder in cold blood.”

Not like you.

He looked at me as if he heard the unspoken words, but he couldn’t deny them. My stomach churned. Crimsonvale wasn’t just a school; it was a cauldron of secrets, lies, and hidden agendas, all bubbling under the surface of its polished façade. Dante came from a line of murderers. So did Kage. And so did Ty.

And I was about to move in with two of them.

We drove the rest of the ride in silence. Soon, Kage eased the Range Rover to a halt in the gravel courtyard of a chateau and killed the engine.

“Welcome home,” he said. He swung his door open and stepped out of the car.

I followed suit, my boots hitting the gravel with a crunch that reverberated in the air like a marker of some invisible boundary I had just crossed. And perhaps I had. My life was changing so quickly, each day spiraling into the next with new information, new threats, and new complicated feelings.

The front door of the chateau swung open and out sauntered Ty. Gray eyes met mine, and a spark of something I couldn’t read flickered between us. His scars cut their way down his leftbrow, traveled through the eyelid, and stretched down his cheek. One scar seemed fresher than the rest, which I took to mean the wound had been so deep, it was taking longer to heal. He was dressed in gray sweatpants and a tight long-sleeved shirt, and was holding a bottle of water in one hand.

“You here to help?” Kage asked.

“No,” Ty said. “I’m going for a run.”

Kage glared at him. “Too bad you can’t run the ass out of an asshole, which is exactly what you are.”

“That’s right. Get used to it. I don’t want either of you here. I was perfectly fine living by myself before the dean pulled this shit.”

Kage clenched his fists. The last thing I wanted was the two of them coming to blows.

“I guess this year isn’t going to go the way you wanted then,” I said. I popped open the Range Rover’s back hatch and hoisted out one of the heavier boxes, ignoring the way my muscles screamed in protest.

“I’ll get those. Stop it,” Kage demanded. He moved toward me, but I dodged him.

“I’m perfectly capable of carrying boxes,” I said.

---