Page 39 of Make Me Lie (Rich Demons of Darkwood 1)

I wondered if they would bring food over from one of the cafeterias or if anything I wanted was really made fresh here. I’d order something they’d have from the cafeteria just in case. “A bacon and cheese omelet, fruit salad, and orange juice, please?”

She nodded, then headed back out the door. A few minutes later, as I was searching for my name on the internet and squinting one-eyed at the search results, trying to find what I needed without reading too much I didn’t, she returned and set my plate and glass on the table. Everything was hot and fresh and better than in the cafeteria.

“Thank you,” I started to say, but she was already gone. Friendly. With a groan, I clicked on the internet forum that I thought was most likely responsible for my attackers at the football field.

Sighting reported – campus green. Wearing a black hoodie, jeans, black Converse. Platinum blond hair now. Think she’s looking for a new victim?

Mod here. You guys, stop reporting the same sightings! Scroll the thread! If you have details about the SAME sighting, add it as a nested comment under the original!

When I get my hands on that bitch, I’m gonna to do the same thing to her that she and her daddy did to Penny Gottman.

Can’t believe she’s walking free.

And dared show up to college with a new face like nothing ever happened! None of her victims get to go on with their lives. Why should she?

Where’s she living now?

I scrolled through the internet forum that was tracking my movements and making plans to rape and torture and murder me, trying to stay focused on the important details and not get distracted by how gruesome it all was. I was usually good at erecting walls in my mind, but right now those walls were crumbling under the weight of all my lost dreams.

I’d never be able to convince anyone of what had really happened with the Devil.

I looked up as I felt someone approaching, just in time for Remington to loom over me. His tall, lean frame was dressed in a tight-fitting t-shirt and dark jeans, his tousled hair looking as sexily imperfect as always. He pushed the lid of my laptop down with two fingers.

“What are you up to, Aurora?”

He asked as if he already knew.

“Nothing.”

“Oh?” Quicker than anyone should be, he spun my laptop around, pulling it off the table. I would’ve grabbed for it, but it was already too late.

His gaze roamed the screen, then darkened, his pupils reflecting the glowing blue light of the screen.

“Enjoying reading about what those men want to do to me?”

Maybe I’d just imagined the darkness in his eyes, because he was back to his usual lighthearted self as he closed the laptop and handed it back to me. Remington scared me just as much as the others, and the fact that he seemed to be a morning person didn’t endear him to me anymore.

“Come on,” Remington said. “I’ve got your class schedule, and you’ve got to get to American Lit.”

“Are you on babysitting duty?”

“Consider it more like corrections.”

I focused on putting my laptop and books back into my bag, throwing it over my shoulder. I could barely stand to look at him after what had happened with the dean’s office...then there was what happened at dinner the other night. I hated that he was standing so close to me, so confident that he had the right totake care ofme like Cain had said the other day. I hated that he looked so clean and untouchable and cheerful after what he’d done, and the debauchery of their evenings. Most of all, I hated that part of me still felt drawn to him. Heat seemed to crackle between us even when I despised him.

The two of us left the building through that weird side door again. “Why don’t you use your perfectly good front door?”

“Because I’m walking with you,” he said with a wink, “and I don’t want anyone to see me. I do havesomestandards, you know.”

I glanced over my shoulder at the door, at the camera angled over it. There were cameras everywhere in this house and outside it.

Was the danger to me inside the house greater than the danger outside?

If I ran, there were going to be dozens of self-appointed bounty hunters on my tail, all eager to hurt me.

Walking across campus with him was surreal. Even though people lobbed looks of hatred at me, they looked at him with respect and even adoration. I caught flashes of jealousy from a few girls who looked at me then tossed their hair, chins raised. Girlfriend, you don’t want any of this mess.

Remington seemed to know my schedule flawlessly. He led me into my classroom for Lit, then plopped down into one of the seats beside me.

---