Page 41 of Pin-up Girl

“If you didn’t see…” No way he didn’t. “Your father called you. Then he called me to track you down.”

Derek sauntered into the kitchen with his arm around some rando sorority girl. She looked a little familiar, but not enough that I could place her. It was highly likely she was one of my rejects from a few years ago, before I started to keep track.

“Morning, boys. No wild orgy for you all this morning?” Derek snickered, his fingers playing absently at the collar of his guest.

“Nah, that was last night.” Tossing my banana peel in the trash, I walked toward the doorway. No reason to hang around talking with this douche canoe.

Milo must have felt like playing the part of pres this morning, because he didn’t immediately follow me.

I could imagine the fake, shiny smile plastered across his face as he said, “You know us, we take academics very seriously. So no orgies in the mornings.”

I had just turned the corner at Derek’s next words. “I don’t think you’ve had the chance to meet Carter Kensington. She’s the sole daughter of Edward Kensington, founder of Kensington Enterprises.”

Fuck.

My feet skidded to a halt all on their own, making it impossible for me to go any farther. Instead, my mind was racing with possibilities and schemes. Now I knew why she was so familiar—she was the daughter of Infinity’s biggest rival. Her dad had been insanely successful, without any help or assistance from a skeevy organization like Infinity, as far as I could tell. Everything I’d ever heard about him toted his brilliance.

And his daughter didn’t even go to school here. What was she doing with a fuckwad like Derek? Surely she had better standards than that.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Milo murmured, and I jumpstarted my movements.

“Fuck!” I yelled once I was a block away.

Carter Kensington was the perfect piece in the game. And now, when I had access to her, I’d already made a fucking promise not to touch anyone else as long as Pin-up was in the picture.

Damn, this was going to complicate things. Not Derek, fuck him. No, there had to be a way to get what I wanted without pissing off the guys or Pin-up too bad. They’d understand, they had to.

Chapter Twelve

Jules

Everything seemed normal on campus as I waited for Elise to come out of Blackwood House. It was a random Tuesday in September, nothing special about today. I leaned against the brick wall fencing in the courtyard entrance to the building, watching everyone with a suspicious eye.

A handful of students congregated on the benches, shooting covert glances my way. None of them were familiar to me, so they couldn’t have been part of any frat or sorority. They were definitely important in their own right. The clothes they wore and the way they carried themselves said it all.

The time hit the top of the hour, and more people filtered into the courtyard. Even a few of my frat brothers strolled in. They stopped by the water fountain, nodding their heads in greeting to let me know I was welcome to join them if I felt up to it.

I liked being the loner. The outsider. Where they would have invaded Milo’s and maybe even Emmett’s space for giggles, no one did that to me. It was always my decision if I wanted to socialize, and what was the point?

They didn’t sign, and I didn’t give enough of a shit about them to type messages out, so I stayed on the periphery. The door close to me opened, banging against the brick as streams of students poured out. Several minutes passed before Elise appeared, her gaze darting around looking for me. I could have walked up behind her, but instead, I stayed by the wall and waited to see what she did.

I could never fully disappear, since I was too well known for that. People knew who I was because of my family, because of the frat, and because of my…disability. Not that I viewed it like that. Still, one of my favorite pastimes was studying those around me. And I was curious what Elise would do.

Would she take her chance and run, or wait patiently for me to collect her? After last night, I didn’t believe she would try to escape us. She was too engrained now. Too caught up in our shit. Even if she wanted to get as far away as fast as she could, she seemed clever enough to know we were her best bet of protection until we either succeeded or failed miserably.

She stopped about five feet from the door, the crowd parting around her as she searched for me. Her small, dainty hand shielded her eyes from the sun as she turned a full one-eighty. When she found me, warmth bled into her gaze, turning my stomach into knots. Her genuine emotion threw off my game, making me unsure how to react. She was reallyhappyto see me.

Me, the Mute. Someone who essentially held her hostage. Either she had just as fucked up of a childhood as we did, that she didn’t properly know how to react and process traumatic events, or she was a bit dense in the head.

Her words came back to me from the night before.I know something about having your decisions taken away and wishing like fuck you could punish every bastard that ever crossed you path.

No, she had a fucked up childhood, I was sure of it. Elise was just like us, without the ability to process emotions like a normal person. I shouldn’t take advantage of that, I should back off, give her the opportunity to walk away for good when all of this was over.

I wasn’t going to do that. I was going to tie her to us so tight, even if she left us, she’d never wash us away from her soul.

She grinned, readjusting the straps of her bag as she walked up to me, tipping her head back when the tips of her boots reached mine. I snagged her around the neck, tugging her until she fell on my chest. A deep sigh escaped me, I couldn’t stop the contentment from having her close.

This was insane. I didn’t even really know her. We didn’t chat on the walk over this morning, and our conversations had mostly revolved around the shit show in our lives right now.

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