Page 107 of Deceit

“He’s a Legacy,” I remind him. “Same with Lewis. You can’t kill them.”

“I know. Accidental castration happens though, and with that double femur break that Lewis is suffering from, he’s going to be wheelchair bound for a long time,” he says hollowly.

I blink at him, letting out a choked laugh.

“You crazy son of a bitch. Where the fuck is Dane?”

“At the hospital. He took a nasty fall down the stairs this morning.”

A wicked smile curves my face.

“You’ve been a busy bee this morning, haven’t you?”

He doesn’t respond, instead, moving to the driver’s seat.

“Need any loose ends tied up?” I ask.

Griggs shakes his head.

“Just go keep her safe.”

“Looks like you’ve got it covered, what do you need me for?” I scoff.

To my utter shock, he smirks, like a smile kind of smirk. I don’t think I’ve seen this guy smile in his twenty-one years of life. Don’t get me wrong, it is the evil unhinged kind of smirk, but still. Fucking wild.

Griggs takes off and is blending into morning traffic in the next minute. I turn to head back to campus, irritation still gnawing at me inside. Why the fuck is everyone intent on stalking or hurting my fiancée? I have enough shit on my plate, and if she got hurt on my watch, my father would likely shootmydick off.

Looking down at my phone, I realize that my lecture is already more than half over, so I decide to just post up outside of Skyla’s class until she gets out. I choose to inform my father of my little delay this morning, one to excuse my tardiness from my class and two, proving that I can be the protective fiancé he expects me to be. To no one's surprise, he responds back quickly with a ‘well done’ and nothing more. Yes, I took credit for Grigg’s handywork. No, I don’t feel bad about it.

I answer a few texts while I wait for Skyla, mainly mass deleting the unhinged ones coming from Bridgette. The sex is good, but when she doesn’t get all of my attention she goes full psycho. Since the dinner at my father’s I haven’t so much as looked at her, and it’s sending her into a full neurotic meltdown.

Crazy bitch.

When the class door opens, people begin pouring out of the room. I don’t make eye contact with any of them, a sense of anxiety hitting me for a moment when I don’t immediately spotSkyla. Fucking hell, if I’ve lost her on day one of Princess Patrol. I am so fucked.

Thankfully, she’s one of the last people to emerge from the room. She is sandwiched between Bartlett and Liam as he says something that makes both girls laugh. Something about seeing her laugh irks me, and I’m all too happy to interrupt their little giggle sesh.

“C’mon, you’re gonna be late,” I say as I reach down, cupping her elbow and pulling her away.

Liam reaches out, grabbing my bicep and squeezing.

“Hey, don’t be manhandling my woman like that, bro. She can walk beside you, like an equal. You don’t need to drag her around like a doll.”

I’m still not used to this version of Liam. The one that talks back, the one that thinks he has any right to tell me what I can or can’t do. I don’t like it one fucking bit, honestly.

“My fiancée, my call,” I say simply.

“My girlfriend, my rules. Show her respect or I’ll knock your front teeth in,” Liam says, intentionally keeping his voice low from all the eavesdroppers. Like Bartlett.

I cast her a sideways glance that has her practically shriveling up on the spot. When my eyes come back to Liam, he hasn’t budged an inch, his jaw clenched like he’s gearing up for a fight.

I dramatically drop her arm, holding out my hands in a placating way. His eyes track the movement, before I see his shoulders loosen softly. Resting his hand on Skyla’s lower back, he ushers her past me as they continue on their way. I follow after silently, just close enough to hear her whisper to him.

“That whole caveman, ‘don’t touch my woman like that’ thing? Hot,” she says with a giggle at the end.

Liam gives her a crooked smile, and leans in to kiss her when I shove his back roughly. He stumbles a step or two before shooting a narrowed gaze at me. I give him a deadpanned lookthat hopefully he reads as, ‘don’t be stupid and kiss my fiancée in the middle of campus’. Thankfully, he doesn’t argue with me. Instead he turns around and pretends like I’m not here. Meanwhile every step they take, his fingers intentionally brush against the back of her hand. It’s a small move the untrained eye would never spot. It’s so obviously intentional to me, though.

This pattern repeats itself after each class, until Liam has to stay behind during lunch and explain why he wasn’t in class the other day to his econ professor. He better come up with something good, because Professor Reynolds plays golf with his dad and Liam is no doubt a constant topic on that front. Mainly, how much of a disappointment he is, I’m sure.

---