Page 47 of Beautiful Liar

He glared at me. Dasher did the glaring thing now more and more. He lifted his long sleeve to show a burn mark at his wrist. “Fox. I burned it off the day after he hazed us.”

Ouch.

Dasher shoved the sleeve back down. “Now, can we talk about how stupid it is for Kieran to collar me? It should be you.I’m not a fucking invalid.”

“I never said you were.” I shook my head. “What does that even mean?”

“A weak person due to a disability,” River said without looking up.

Dasher opened his mouth closed it, then pointed at River. “That.”

“I never said you were weak. Even if you had use of your legs, I would still be the better runner. If you want to give the collar to Charity, fine, give it to her, but you’ll hinder me from running. Which is the plan, right? Run and hide? Which isn’t really a plan at all. But whatever.”

“And if you’re caught, be prepared to lose a few teeth, fingers, and maybe an eyeball,” Charity added. “And for the record, I’m pretty good at hiding.”

“Then why the brand?” I asked.

Her cheeks flushed pink. “Constance and I have history.”

River lifted a brow. “She won’t touch you.”

I didn’t miss Charity’s relieved breath. “Thank you.”

“But if you betray us, know that I will pull your insides to your outsides while you watch.”

She smiled. “Got it,” she said and winked at him.

He shook his head, probably regretting it.

“And what happened between you and Kieran this time?” Dasher asked. “He looked constipated when River called you both out as a couple.”

River lifted his eyes to Dasher but didn’t say anything.

I shrugged. “Think we probably broke up again. Though I’m not even sure we ever got back together the first time, But … it’s complicated. We’ll work it out.”

“Tomás,” Dasher started. “You know Kieran is leaving after these games are over, right?”

No. I didn’t.

“Maybe you should let Kieran tell Tomás that,” River said, inking Charity’s arm.

“Maybe if you’d been honest with Wren from the start, he wouldn’t have been blindsided by your betrothal and I wouldn’t have had to haul his drunk ass out of Linden’s the other night,” Dasher snapped at River.

“Ouch,” Charity said. “Maybe don’t piss off the guy with a needle in my arm.”

“You’re getting married?” I asked River. “How did this happen?”

“It’s a long story.”

“So,” Dasher went on. “Going back to you and Kieran. You do know Arcadia is for bastards. Heirs don’t attend this place because the rules don’t apply to them. Can you imagine if the legits start coming here? We’d all be dead.”

I dragged my eyes to Charity who was looking at me as if I were a kicked puppy. I hadn’t known. I had thought that he had come back for me and we’d work things out. That after the games, the investigation, we’dtry.

“He didn’t tell you, did he?”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. Whatever.” I hated the tightness in my throat. It did matter. It fucking mattered and that was the problem. “Besides,” I added. “I have a plan.” I thought about the collar Luca gave me. Fuck it. I didn’t owe Keiran anything. And if I could use the collar to survive, I’d do it.

Nobody asked about my plan which I found offensive.

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