Page 54 of Speak

“Where are you going, what happened?”

“Nothing, I have to go. It’s a long walk home.”

“I can take you.” He offers.

“No thanks.”

When I get to the Sigma Delta Chi house, or SDC, the Syndicate fraternity house, I bypass all of my brothers and head straight up to my room, only to find an annoying tiny blonde that never shuts the fuck up naked and in my bed. Fuck, I love Jonas for rejecting her. True to my word, as soon as I slip on the condom, her thighs fall open. Except she doesn’t smell right and her hair is all wrong and as soon as she opens her mouth and starts moaning, my hand flies up to her throat, “Shut the fuck up, Cecilia.”

It’s not her fault. I close my eyes and fuck her to thoughts of Raven bending over in those sweet little white cotton panties that aren’t even sexy until I cum deep inside the condom, groaning so loud it echoes. I get off of Cecilia. “Get the fuck out.”

_______

I can’t sleep. I have class in five hours and I can’t fucking sleep. My door opens and Riordan slips into bed with me and turns to face me on his side. “What’s wrong little bother?”

“I can’t sleep. But it’s worse when you can’t either,” he replies.

Blame it on the twin telepathy, but he always knows. “She has to die.”

“I thought we were just taking her back to Uncle?”

“I, Ri.Iwas going to take her back to Uncle. Notwe.Idon’t want you doing any of this.”

He stays quiet for a few moments and I can feel his thoughts before he says them out loud. “I like her. She’s good for Jonas.”

Of course he likes her. He likes all things that are quiet. Riordan is on the spectrum. Fortunately for our parents, he’s high functioning so he comes off as particular and quiet. But his ethics and morals get in the way of a lot of things, which is why I had to take care of his initiation. It was fine, ‘two birds, one stone’ type shit. Plus, nobody else, other than Jonas, and our parents knows he’s neurodivergent. I’ve taken care of all the things pertaining to Riordan since childhood. I even get him laid – never with Cecilia, for sure.

“What’s your plan?” he asks.

“To seduce her.”

“I think she hates you.” He says with a yawn.

I laugh and mirror the yawn, my eyes finally growing heavy with my brother, my safety net, the calm in my storm beside me. “I hate her too, Ri.”

But then he says something that makes me lose sleep all over again. “I don’t think you get it, though. You have to kill her with kindness, big brother. Draw her out that way. If you keep being an asshole to her… she’ll never trust you… she’ll kill you before you kill her…” he mumbles. “Ravens are opportunistic predators and they’ll strike when provoked or feel threatened.”

________

Friday morning, I bust into her room again with Jonas’ key to check on her like I promised Jonas I would, because I’m a good fucking friend, but find her gone. She’s not at the library. Not on the quad. Not in the dining hall. I even go to Prof. Harrington’s class and peek through the window but she’s not there.

Fuck this, we have our first home game tonight and I am not going to be distracted. I pull up my phone and check the tracker I tagged her Range Rover with for the first time in a week.

She’s twenty-five minutes away by the lake that separates our town from Salem. What the fuck is she doing there? Against my better judgement, I go back to the Sigma house, grab my own Range Rover keys, and put her location in on my GPS.

I park outside of the gated gothic lake house that saysCasa de Cuervosabove the Iron gate. I scoff and roll my eyes heavily.House of Ravens.Really inconspicuous, Raven. My phone chimes as I sit outside.

Twin: Did you find her?

Me: Yeah, just outside of Salem. You still friends with that one hacker guy?

Twin: He’s an “overrider.”

I roll my eyes again.

Me: Fine. Are you still friends with that “overrider” guy?

Twin: He’ll contact you.

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