Page 55 of Demon Found

He sighs, shaking his head. “So distrustful, chica, I like it.” With a sly grin he swigs half the liquid before passing it to me.

“I, Chano Maverik, did not kill Linx.”

Taking the tube, I give it a cautious sniff. A vague scent of pears, nothing worse. Throwing my head back, I down the remainder.Please don’t let me spill Seth’s secret.

An unpleasant tingle rushes over my tongue and down my throat. Opening my mouth, I hesitate, framing my words exactly as Chano did.

“I, Lorelei Smith, did not kill Linx.” The liquid bubbles in my mouth, encouraging me to keep talking, pushing at my self-restraint. I bite down on my tongue and hold my hand out to Chano.

“Alright,” he says, “we got ourselves an adventure.”

A thrill of excitement rushes through me. Dammit, this is serious. I should be shit-scared not bordering on giddy.

“The CCTV footage is all kept in the room behind the dean’s office. That’s where we need to be.”

The Maveriks must have the whole damn academy scoped out.

“We’ve got an hour before the campus goes into lockdown. We enter the building in the middle of the crush of students, wait until the dean leaves, wipe the recording, and then get out of there.

I was a thief before, this is no different. But then it was just me. Now I have to factor in someone else. Someone who could make a stupid mistake. I eye Chano quietly. He’s massive, it’s not like he’s easily missed. But heisa gang leader. If I’m going to start doing jobs with anyone, he’s probably the safest bet.

“Like what you see?” He bumps my shoulder, a smile pulling at one corner of his mouth.

“Just working out if I can trust you not to fuck up.”

He snorts and clutches at his chest in mock offense. Then, glancing at his watch, he raises an eyebrow and strolls casually forward into the crowd of students, allowing himself to be caught up in the rush and bustled in through the door of the building.

Shit, I’ve no choice but to roll with it now.

Chapter Twenty-eight: Lorelei

Great.I’msquashedina damn broom closet with a Mafia boss about to delete camera footage of potential murder suspects.What am I doing?

Cocking my head to the side, I listen to the last of the rushing feet pitter-patter out. Nearly time. My breaths are too shallow, too fast. It’s difficult to ignore the way my shoulder presses into Chano’s hulking chest. His heat seeps into me, and my heart rate quickens. The dean’s door slams, and I gasp, cringing in the next moment. Fuck. And I was worriedChanowould screw up. He’s going to think I’m a complete amateur.

Holding my breath, I listen carefully to the sound of footfalls heading off down the corridor, then the lights flick off. Shoulders slumping, I lean my head on Chano’s arm.

Shit. Jerking away, I catch his grin in the dim light. There’s just so much of him, and so little room. My head’s in a tailspin. And he’s enjoying my discomfort way too much.

Five more minutes of awkward silence and he nudges me forward. Time.

Tiptoeing up to the dean’s office, I whip a couple of pins out my hair and get to work. A few moments of concentration on the old-fashioned lock and we’re in. Redemption. I grin at Chano and he nods. Quickly he runs his hands over the doorframe, checking for wards before shaking his head. The dean is lax with his security. Interesting. Although, I don’t suppose he’s got much to hide.

Moving quietly toward the room housing the video surveillance, I pass the dean’s desk. Instinct kicks in and I swipe his paperweight, slipping it into my pocket. Serves the asshole right. Chano quirks an eyebrow at me, shaking his head, but a twitch of his lips tells me he’s not pissed.

Chano makes quick work of the video surveillance, using a little gizmo to loop footage of the hour before Linx died over the hours during and after. Neat. I would just have wiped the whole bank. But then it would have been obvious someone had tampered with it. Quietly he wipes down the keyboard and pulls his gloves back on. Sneaky fuck.

Stealing back out through the office, Chano pauses to rifle through the dean’s drawer. Something in the way his shoulders stiffen makes me pause. He pulls out a file and jerks a chin at me. We really need to go, dammit.

Reluctantly, I creep back toward the desk. By the moonlight filtering in the window, I catch sight of the name on the file and snatch it from his grasp.Lorelei Smith.

Does he have a file on all his students? Laying it down on the desk, I lick my finger and flip open the first page. Photo, bio . . . so far so normal. Next page. My juvenile criminal record. Chano, reading over my shoulder, gives a low whistle, clapping me on the back. Rolling my eyes, I turn to the next page. There are my academy entrance results—holy shit, look at that grade point average. I didn’t just pass Ismashedthose exams. Like, so good the little note on the bottom says I got into Starlight Academy, the most prestigious academy in all of Eltanin, all of the supernatural world.

So, why am I here? I look back at Chano, who doesn’t say a word, just stares at me.

Flipping to the next sheet, my heart sinks. There, in Seth’s elegant hand is a personalized letter pleading for my admittance to Fates Academy so we could be together “as a family, finally.”

My finger pauses halfway down the page. There’s my name and a signature stating I agreed to this. A forged signature. The asshole! He got medowngradedto come here. How the hairy hell did he know I got into Starlight in the first place?

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