Yep, I was very glad I skipped back out the gate and drove here. Adonis was about to turn a terrible night into the best.
“Wait,” I said. “Bring the food. Bet it tastes even better when I’m the plate.”
“Fuck’s sake, I missed you.”
“This”—the lights flicked on, snapping our heads around—“explains so much.” Rafael stood in the entrance, smirk heavy on his lips. “You’re fucking your professor and fiancé’s brother. No wonder you couldn’t tell us.” His smile vanished. “Luna, what the hell? Who did that to you!”
Rafael’s shout and Adonis’s sudden horror shocked reality back into me. I forgot what I looked like.
“No one,” I blurted. “I mean— Not no one, but it wasn’t like that. Alistair invited me over for dinner at the Burkhardt mansion, but he forgot to lock Saylor in her cage. To be blunt, she kicked my ass.”
No point beating around the bush. I had scratches all up and down my arms and face, a sore head, a bald spot, and a limp I almost covered by letting Adonis carry me.
“Good news is I kicked her ass too.” I climbed out of his arms and kissed Rafael. “I didn’t mean to wake you up, then scare you with this face. Get some sleep, baby. We’ll talk about everything in the morning.”
“You didn’t wake me up, although you’re right about the scare.” He was gentle, tracing a particularly vicious scratch from my forehead to my top lip. Saylor took all the skin off on the way down. The bright-red spot on his finger said it was still bleeding. “Thiswoke me up.”
Rafael handed me his phone. Stark at the top of the screen was a number I didn’t recognize.
787-555-4978: If you help your shared slut come after me, I’ll bury you alive in the next hole I put you in. The Rogues are closed for business.
787-555-4978: Permanently.
Rafael and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Good,” I said, deleting Everleigh’s nonsense off the phone. “She’s scared.”
Chapter Four
Ithought my firstday walking onto this hated campus was uncomfortable. It was nothing compared to the dropped jaws, whispers, and half a dozen actual screams that accosted me as I headed for the dean’s office first thing the next morning.
Someone had to tell him I wasn’t dead.
“—can’t believe it—”
“It’s really her.”