Page 18 of Kings & Corruption

He turned to stare at me. “I don’t take orders from you, from anyone.”

He’d always been a giant, but he’d bulked up over the summer, and I started to rethink my desire to see Enzo push Neo too far.

It’d be a fucking bloodbath.

I sighed and shook my head. “Not an order, brother. Just a suggestion.”

“Don’t need it,” he said, heading for the back stairs.

I didn’t say what I was thinking, that Neo wouldn’t know what he needed if it snuck up behind him and held a knife to his throat. No point.

“I know you have a lot of baggage with her,” I said to his retreating back. “Just don’t punish her for the things that aren’t her fault.”

He flipped me off and kept walking.

“Fucking perfect,” I said to the empty room. “Good talk.”

It was going to be one fucker of a year.

Chapter9

Willa

Sun was streaming into the room when I woke up the next morning. It took my sleep-addled brain a minute to figure it out — the wall of glass faced west, and there were no windows on the east side of the room, which faced the hall — but then I looked up and saw the blue September sky through the ceiling.

Skylights.

I stretched happily, then froze.

I was in the Kings’ house at Aventine U, less than half a mile from the last place Emma had been seen, and today was the start of Welcome Week, which might as well have been called Hell Week for all the fun it was going to be.

Ugh.

My phone dinged from the bedside table. I reached for it and smiled when I saw Mara’s name.

How many times have you banged Neo since yesterday?

I grimaced and typed back.Thanks for making me sick before breakfast.

The words came easily. They were a reflex. But the memory of Neo looming over me the day before? Of his cologne and male pheromones or whatever it was that made me want to tear off his clothes even though he was a total dickhead?

Those things were something more primal I didn’t want to think about.

Rock? Drago?

None of the above,I typed.

What a waste. Want to trade? You can hang out with a bunch of ambitious Ivy frat boys and I’ll take your place in a sexy Neo/Rock/Drago cocktail.

I wish.

I didn’t really. Columbia didn’t sound any better than Aventine. College just hadn’t been on my radar, probably because Emma went missing my senior year of high school, when I was supposed to be figuring out my future.

How’s the dorm?I typed while getting out of bed.

I went to the bathroom and started brushing my teeth.

My roommate’s from Georgia. I can’t decide if the accent is cute or annoying af.

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