Page 76 of Brutal Kingdom

“Would you like to come in?”

“No.” She pushes past me, anyway. “This is our third critique session. You’ve slept through the first two, now you wanna take the inputs I applied based on everyone else’s suggestions and trash it. You’re a Grade A dick.”

“You mean, Ihavea Grade A dick. Jordy, you know I’m an honest reviewer and editor. I’ve never minced words about your work, and I never will.”

“Why do you just keep insinuating yourself into my life?”

“It’s what the class session called for and we’re graded on participation. Yeah, I snoozed the first three weeks but I wanna pass.”

“You’re everywhere Logan. In class, at the paper and now where I live.”

“I hear you haven’t been staying here, so the whole being where you live part doesn’t really track.”

“I can’t stay here. There’s been a mistake.”

“No, there hasn’t. Room 731 is yours. Nobody’s moving you again.”

“Bella. This is Bella. Just like she moved me from Carter Hall to The Dungeon. She moved me here and is probably gonna put me back in the dungeon on a floor with no doors to my room.”

I step forward, titling her chin up. “Baby, I promise you, Bella has nothing to do with your new living arrangements. And she can’t move you.”

“How do you know?”

I can’t tell her what I did. Not yet. She’ll flip out and think I’m plotting against her, too. “Because the rooms on this floor cost extra. If the school put you up here, that means somebody paid good money to house you here. If they move you, they’ll have to give it back. Does Van der Borne University strike you as the type of school that likes to give refunds?”

“No. They’re all about image and the bottom line.”

She relaxes a little. Good. Because she’s gonna hate what I say next. “Even though Bella can’t move you, that doesn’t mean she won’t find other ways to mess with you while you’re living here.”

“Kassidy said she can’t get to this floor without being on an access list.”

“She’s on mine.” I couldn’t come up with a reason not to put her on the list without drawing suspicion.

“As long as you keep her away from me, we’ll be fine.”

“If I’m not here, I can’t control what she does, or where she goes.”

“So what’re you saying?”

“You need to change your locks.”

“What?”

“Bella has the master key to the dorms. They’re a group of security locks with different keys, but the master key to each building opens all the locks in that dorm.”

“Bella has a key to your place and mine?”

“Just yours. I changed my lock out as soon as I moved in. You’re gonna need to do the same.”

“How? How do I even make that happen? Put in a request to housing?”

Shaking my head, I say, “That won’t fix the problem. The new lock will still be the same security series. I have a guy that can do it, if you’re okay with me making the call.”

She hesitates. Torn between letting me help and risking Bella having access to her room. “Fine, you can get your guy to change my locks. How soon can he come out?”

“I don’t have class in the morning. If you leave me your key, I can have him do it first thing tomorrow.”

Business finally out of the way, I move back to the kitchen. “I’ve got food plenty of food, if you wanna stay for dinner.”

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