Page 2 of Blurred Lines

“Don’t play dumb with me!” I snap, feeling empowered when his eyes widen in surprise. “Hadley hasn’t responded to any of my messages or calls. She’s not answering her door, and the last time I talked to her, she was here.” I step into him, standing on my tippy-toes to try and balance out our height difference. With our chests a hairsbreadth apart, I do either the bravest thing I’ve ever done, or the stupidest...I poke the beast in the chest. I jab my finger into his pec, ignoring the fact it feels like fucking granite beneath my fingertip. “I’m not stupid. I know something is wrong, and if you’ve done anything to her, I’ll…”

A smirk curls his lips. “You’ll what?”

My nostrils flare with rage. “I might not have the reach or resources that youPrinces”—I spit the word—“have, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be pretty damn annoying when I want to be.”

He fixes me with his unusual gray-blue eyes that are so similar to Hadley’s, yet so different. The shade is slightly off, more gray than blue, making them appear harder. Where Hadley’s eyes are like looking at the sky on an overcast day, when I look into Hawk’s, I feel like I’m being sucked up into the center of a tornado. The ground under my feet becomes unstable before it’s whisked out from under me.

I sway on my toes, just as Hawk takes a step back, and I drop down onto my feet. His face is still shaped into its infuriatingly impassive mask as he says, “She’s been sick. A stomach bug. She’ll be back in class in a few days.”

“I want to see her.”

He’s already shaking his head before I’ve finished speaking. “She’s not up to seeing anyone right now. But I’ll tell her you stopped by.”

He takes another step back, and without another word, closes the door in my face. I still don’t move, staring at the grains in the wood for a long moment. Sick? It just doesn’t make sense. How sick is she that she can’t message me just once to say she’s not well?

Frowning, I turn around and head down the stairs, making a mental promise to come back every day and demand answers until they finally cave. I want to trust them, I know that’s what Hadley has been trying to do, but something is definitely not right.

***

For the next three days, I turn up at the Princes’ door, and each day they brush me off with the same story. Well, fuck that! I’ve had enough. No stomach bug should last this long, and if that’s truly what Hadley has, then perhaps she needs to be in a hospital instead of sequestered away in their dorm.

“Wilder,” I plead on Friday. “I know you know something. I’m getting really concerned.”

His behavior has become more and more closed off all week. He’s made it a point to join me for every meal, and he insists on coming with me when I go to the library, even though he just sits there. He doesn’t even open his books and pretend to study. He just stares off into space, his thoughts clearly elsewhere.

He lifts his head, his gaze locking with mine. There are dark bags under his eyes, similar to the growing ones I’ve noticed under Hawk’s every time I bang on their door. He shakes his head while sighing. “It’s not my place to say.”

What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

“Wilder, if something has happened, Ineedto know. She’s my best friend. She’s had my back since the second she showed up here. I can’t just sit back and pretend everything is okay when I know for a fact that it isn’t.”

Once again he shakes his head, this time with a more determined set to it. “I can’t. If the guys won’t tell you, then I can’t say anything.”

You know what, screw this shit.

I whip my hand out and grab a hold of his wrist, dragging him behind me as I march toward the Princes’ apartment—they’re guaranteed to be there, they haven’t been spotted on campus all week.

“Emilia,” Wilder grouses, but he doesn’t put up any more of a fight. We both know he could easily pull out of my grip, but he doesn’t. Instead, he lets me haul him behind me all the way to the now-familiar dorm door of the Princes.

“Emilia,” Hawk grumbles when he answers the door, looking unimpressed but not surprised to see me. He seems to have become the designated spokesperson every time I show up here. I’d hazard a guess that no one other than me dares to knock on their door. His gaze flicks up to Wilder standing behind me, and the look on Hawk’s face turns murderous.What the hell is that about?

“Wilder told me everything,” I snap out, funneling a confidence I don’t feel.

“I—”

I stomp on Wilder’s foot—hard—and he quickly stops, cursing me under his breath.

Hawk snorts. “Sure he did.”

He moves to close the door, but I stick my foot out, and it bounces off it. I take advantage of Hawk not having expected that move, and slip through the gap in the door, firmly planting myself within the much speculated sanctuary of the infamous Princes. Regardless of my curiosity, I keep my gaze firmly on Hawk’s fuming face.

“Seriously?” He throws up his hands, and turns his scowl on Wilder. “You just let her drag you up here?”

Wilder crosses the threshold with a shrug. “Maybe she should know.”

“It’s none of her goddamn business!” Hawk roars. When he turns back to look at me, his mask of rage makes the breath in my chest stutter. “Get the fuck out!”

I’ve seen him use that expression on others before, on Hadley even, but it’s never been directed at me, andholy fuck is it terrifying.How the hell did Hadley not just fall apart under the intensity?

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