Page 22 of Heartless Legacy

I’ll ask her why, but I’m prepared to hear a bunch of lies. Or maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll head right back down to the lobby and walk out the door, pretending not to have seen or heard anything.

What could she be looking for? Her cell buzzes and I free it from her pocket, reading the text from the number labeled dad.

Daddy

Did you find any clues yet?

Clues to what? Thea’s room is empty, so there’s nothing of importance in there. Finn knives are on display in his room. Most of them are rare or custom made blades. No one would be stupid enough to steal one. Not even the menace, that is Thea, tried walking off with one the day she broke in and dipped a pair of daggers in bronze.

You’ll need to find a way into the other two rooms.

We don’t keep our challenge items in the dorm. So if that’s what Eloise is after, why would she be looking in an empty room? Whatever she’s looking for, she and her father, must think the risk of getting caught and endangering our arrangement is worth it.

Eloise pretending to look for something could be a red herring. It’s possible she’s leaving something behind. Her phone buzzes again. She stirs with a pained groan. Staring down at her I ask, “What are you doing up here Eloise?”

Her eyes fly open, a calculating glint in them. When she sees me, her expression morphs into horror. Tears spring to her eyes. “Oh my god, Pax.”

I roll my eyes as she grabs onto me, pulling herself to a sitting position, and sobbing against my thighs. As if the hysterics will change the fact that she disregarded the rules. “Finn, he-” Her voice cracks.

“Finn what?”

“He attacked me!”

“Did he?” I ask, helping her to her feet.

She clutches her shirt, holding it closed with one hand, and massaging her throat with the other. Her lower lip wobbles as she eyes the blood on her shirt and the wound on her chest. The cut is superficial. “Yes!” She nods, looking up at me with innocent eyes. “I came up here to see you and he just snapped.”

“It’s not like Finn to attack you for no reason.” Finn is quick to attack, but healwayshas a reason. Some might not call them good reasons. But they exist. I consider it a master class in deduction, the way he justifies his actions.

“It was Ho-Holden. He provoked Finn into attacking me and then stood there and watched.”

“Tell me exactly what Holden did.”

“He…”

“Yes?”

“He told Finn I broke into his room.”

See. That’d be a reason Finn would feel justified in carving into her like a turkey. It might seem minor to some, but Finn’s never invited Eloise into his space before. He wouldn’t want her in there now.

“Did you?” I ask, just to see how far she’s going to push this innocent routine.

“Of course not. I came to see you.”

“Came to see me? Here? At the dorms?”

She nods. Her dumb ass didn’t even pause long enough to think about how this sounds. “You came to see mehere. At the dorms. While I was still at the party, you left?”

She scrambles for another lie. “I thought you took off. I looked around the party and when I couldn’t find you, I decided to see if you were here.”

She couldn’t find me because I was hiding out upstairs. My efforts to get fucked went sideways. As soon as I walked into the upstairs lounge area, I was assaulted by memories of Thea sitting in the dark as she watched me struggle to get my dick sucked. I remembered how I couldn’t get into the blow job I’d gone in there for. Not with the bane of my existence sitting there judging me. That memory bled into the one of us hate fucking on the floor. I’d give anything to have that night back again.

I walk over to the elevator and stab the call button. “You need to get off of this floor before they come back out.”

“Are you, um, going back to the party?”

Why the fuck would I do that when I just got here? Looking down the hall towards our rooms, I say, “I need to deal with my friends, and remind them of the penalty for harming my companion.”

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