Page 171 of Heartless Legacy

“Nem.”

I dodge his hand when he reaches for me as I yank leggings back on, grab my phone, and push through the glass doors. Avoiding the elevator, I use the stairs to exit the building, berating myself on the jog to my dorm, for losing my head the way I did.

Chapter 97

Finn

I’ve done some thinking, and I’m fully onboard with Thea’s plan to claim the fourth bloodline. I suffered through working with other people during the team building challenge and walked away empty-handed. There’s no way I’d survive being saddled with any of those candidates for the rest of my life.

According to Holden, his team wasn’t much better. Everyone knows Holden’s the smartest person on campus, and no one asked the resident genius if he had another theory about what their clue meant.

Thea stealing the fourth bloodline out from under everyone’s nose is absolutely the right move. Isn’t that what these challenges are all about? Taking what we want and proving we’re the best? What better way for her to do that than to steal a position that she’s not supposed to be eligible for?

That will prove she’s as ruthless and resourceful as a top level legacy family needs to be to survive in our world. It won’t be easy. She’ll need our help, whether she wants it or not, and I plan to do whatever I can to support her.

We’ll have to watch out for the other families. They want to win just as much as I do. I believe the stories we heard aboutfamilies killing heirs are true, and I’m not willing to risk Thea becoming another cautionary tale. I’ll cut through anyone who gets in my way.

I take a deep breath as I lean my elbows against the railing on my balcony. I feel freer. Lighter. With just one simple decision, the last of the chains are off. The expectations of our society will no longer hold me back.

I don’t care what The League thinks. I’m done moderating my behavior to fit into their mold. Complying with what they want just gets me further away from my goal, which is building a life with Thea. There’s no way they’ll be able to deny my contract when she waltzes into chambers with whatever this ultimate challenge item is.

Heading back inside, I work out the beginning of a plan. No one’s going to volunteer information about their challenge clues with me, so I’ll have to do what I do best and uncover their most precious secrets, just like I did with Thea.

She hasn’t gone into detail about her guards, but it’s obvious to me that they’re not just run-of-the-mill security. These men are professionally trained and dangerous. It’s like she’s running around with her own little militia, and the upscale building she doesn’t think I know about is swarming with other tenants just like them.

They’re ghosts. I wonder where they hide, when she’s off causing trouble- like the other day when I found her in the gym- using Pax’s face as her saddle. Sadly, she didn’t get to finish what she was doing. I had to run off a group of people who had the worst fucking timing ever. Thea took off after she heard the commotion.

I step into the hallway, thinking about what a missed opportunity it was. I was all set to join them, too. Oh well, there will be other times. I’ll make sure of it. Pax is stepping off the elevator as I approach it. “Hey.”

“Hey.” I say with a head nod.Shit.This is still awkward and painful. One of us needs to grow a pair. I guess it’ll be me. “Look, man, I know everything is fucked between us, but I want to make it right.”

“So do I.”

“I understand why you did what you did, but that doesn’t mean I like it. I wish you would’ve come to me about your…” I pause, struggling with the right words. “Situation with Eloise. I’m finally ready to move past what happened. We haven’t been as effective in our challenges as we can be because of the tension, and I don’t want things to get any worse.”

“I agree, Finn.”

Things have been better between us since the bunker. I’m sixty percent certain we’re all finally back on the same page. Forty-five percent. Okay, it’s mid-thirty percent, but Holden and I can always drug Pax and lock him up in my warehouse if we think he’s making another move against us.

This would be a good time to bridge the gap with him, by letting him know what Thea’s planned, but his situation with Eloise is a problem. I nod. “Good.”

After a few more seconds of awkwardly staring at each other, I step around him and push the elevator call button. The doors open right away. I want to trust that the words we just spoke about fixing our friendship are sincere, but Pax is good at words. At saying the diplomatic thing. I know his attraction to Thea is real. It’s always been there even when he pretended he wasn’t, but wanting Thea physically is not the same thing aswantingher.

He’ll have to earn her trust, before I divulge her confidence, and her trust is on backorder these days.

Thea

Hanging out with LJ

I reread the text Thea sent me when I asked if she was up for another movie night.

She isnotat LJ’s dorm. I watch from the shadows as she picks the lock to Dean Gibson’s house and quickly silences the alarm.

I was heading to LJ’s to convince her to reconsider or to crash their girls’ night. I hadn’t decided which way I was leaning. But before I had to choose a tactic, Thea walked out the front door and wound her way through campus. I invited myself along for this little excursion, because I’m curious about what she’s up to, and because I really want my date night.

Quietly, I inch around to the side of the house, and slip through the window I usually use to enter the dean’s residence. I watch as she rearranges the pillows on the sofa and switches out the batteries on the remote before hiding it under the couch.

I wait until I hear her muffled steps above me before using the back stairs to the second floor to see what she’s doing. I hide in the bedroom's closet closest to the back stairs, until I hear the fifth step on the main staircase creak, alerting me she’s headingback downstairs. A quick peek into Dean Gibson’s bathroom shows his toothbrush holder is on the opposite end of the counter, from where it usually stands. It takes me a little longer to figure out what she’s changed in his bedroom. His reading glasses are stuffed between his pillows, and his slippers are on his wife’s side of the bed.

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