Page 78 of Cruel Legacy

“Don’t touch my shit.”

I look down at my hand and back up at her, processing what just happened. “You almost stabbed me.”

“Ididstab you and it’s barely a scratch.” She snorts and flicks her wrist as if I’m being melodramatic.

I look down again and see the tiny prick mark. I can’t look away from the little bubble of blood pooling on my skin.

Thea lets out a sigh and says, “Look, I don’t want any trouble, okay? I’m sorry about the knick. I don’t like people touching my stuff without permission, and I just reacted. If you wanna scratch me back to make us even, I'll let you.”

She holds out her hand like she’s really expecting me to do it. It’s reasonable to think I want payback, but she has no idea what this is really doing to me or the thoughts her offer has conjured up in my head.

Plus, I’ve already bled for her the night Mikey grabbed her on campus. This is nothing. But the idea of playing with my knife on her skin? How can I turn that down? She might as well have said she wants to blow me right here and now. It’s basically the same thing.

Just thinking about it, my blade juxtaposed against her flesh, makes my dick hard. But now is not the time or place for us to continue our foreplay.

“We definitely need to make this square, Pet, but I don’t wanna scratch you back.” I say, sliding from my chair.Lie. I totally wanna mark her up, but that’s jumping ahead too many steps.

She blinks up at me, a wary look on her face. “Then what?”

“I’ll think of something.” I lick my injury, then walk off, humming to myself. What an unexpected twist. I sat down to play with Thea, trying to find out what gameshe’splaying at.

Thereare a lot of unanswered questions surrounding her appearance in town. Plus, she’s a little too cozy with Austin Kincaid for my liking. Everyone knows he’d do anything to make us look bad. I can’t think of a better way to have someone spy on The Trium and Rho Beta Psi, then to have an asset living across the hall from us.

I can admit I have more than a passing interest in her. She makes me smile a lot more than I have in a while. But I’m not an idiot, blinded by a fat ass and luscious tits. I’m not about to lose my shit and disregard my suspicions. I’ll play this cool until we get answers.

Is she Kincaid’s spy, or a league plant? Someone sent to test us on our ability to recognize a Trojan horse? And if that’s the case, then why does Malcolm want us all up in her shit? Is that part of the test too?

Out of the three of us, I’m the best person to get those answers. One on one time with me usually reveals people’s motives. A little smiling, a lot of flirting, and then they’re confessing everything in exchange for me fucking them in the stacks.

I’ll flirt and tease the truth out of Thea, too, and if I find out she’s here to fuck with our ranks and chances of advancing with The League, I’ll make her wish she’d never left that little town in Nevada.

For her sake, I hope there’s nothing to find.

* * *

Pax

I give a courtesy knock on Holden’s door before letting myself in. We all have access to each other’s rooms and come and go as we please. This is the second time this week he hasn’t come to my room first.

Since Holden never gets more than a few hours of sleep, he usually wakes up Finn and waits in my room for me to come back from the gym. He pokes his head out of his bedroom door, then disappears from sight again. I walk over to his kitchen and note the empty counter. He hasn’t even brewed his coffee yet.

“Please tell me you haven’t been staring at your computer screens all night.” That would explain why he’s running behind schedule. If he’s in front of his computers, coding or researching, he loses track of time.

“I’ll just be a second.”

I walk over to his pantry to grab his coffee beans to make him a cup, and fix myself one too. It’s a bit of work, but if it’s between Holden’s blend and the one in the dining hall, I choose this one every time. He’s faster at grinding the beans than I am, but soon I have the machine percolating and spitting out dark liquid. I even remember to froth the milk like he taught us. It’s not a half bad job. I won’t tell anyone, but I like when he makes it. His always has little designs in it. I pour the liquid into a disposable travel cup and set it on the counter while I fix mine.

Just as I’m finishing up, my phone rings with a message. It’s Finn wanting to know how long before we’re ready to go down for the lingerie show. Holden answers that we’re ready now. I look up just as he’s coming out of his room, fully dressed, with his book bag slung over his shoulder. I point to his coffee, grab mine and head towards the door.

When we get to the elevator, I bring up the subject of him pulling an all nighter, again. “You know, if you need help getting to sleep, the doc should be able to get you something.”

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “I know. I have a prescription, I just don’t like how it makes me feel when I take it. I can’t be in a deep sleep. You know?”

I do know. Holden’s hyper vigilant. Always on edge. The only things that calm him are reading, school work and his computers. I know how vulnerable he’d feel if he was in a chemically induced sleep.

I also know how dangerous it is for him to go without sleep. It’s important he keeps his emotions on an even keel. When he’s going through these extreme bouts of insomnia, he loses control, and the last time he did that, he beat the shit out of some kid he caught slapping his girlfriend around.

Nobody said anything. The incident was written off as a non-investigative event, because it fell under the rules and secrecy surrounding Mayhem Night, but it was bad. We don’t need another incident like that happening. Especially not now when we’re prospects.

---