Page 5 of Her Devil

“No thanks, we’ve got this,” the tall one clips out, pulling them both away without so much as a second glance.

“Thanks, anyway,” the smiley one adds as she’s dragged along, clearly as interested in getting to spend some time with us as the guys at my side are, if the looks they’re giving are anything to go by.

“Well, it was worth a shot,” Jacob agrees with a shrug of his shoulders. “And never say never, we might see them at the welcome mixer tomorrow night.”

“Good point,” the surfer guy says. “I’m Wyatt, by the way. You’re Nicholas and Jacob, right?”

“Yep,” I agree. “But just call me Nick, and he’s Jake.”

“Jasper,” the other guy adds, leading us to the directed doorway, the girls disappearing around a corner and out of sight.

The administrator behind the desk looks us over twice. “Nicholas and Jacob Barrett, I assume.” It could be a question, but it’s not. I nod as he pulls two small envelopes from the depths of his desk, my interest piqued.I wonder what other things he’s got in there, and what he might know about what’s to come.“The garage is programmed to your licence plate, the keys are individual, please only use your own.” He hands the named envelopes to each of us before dismissing us with nothing more than a wave of his hand.

“This place gets weirder by the minute,” I grumble, following the guys out of the office and back to the elevators. Those girls we saw are nowhere to be seen as we leave the building and cross the car park. “This is mine,” Jasper says, gesturing to a sleek silver BMW. “Are you guys okay following me around?”

“Sure thing,” I agree, heading to my M4 and flashing it open, Jacob and I throw our envelopes into the back seat, everything else already loaded as the engine roars to life, Jasper and Wyatt idling in front.

I follow them around the building, away from the residential units, past the library and the administration buildings, the lecture halls and the academic spaces, and down a single lane that tracks through the woods, no signage to be seen, as we follow the 8 Series down the winding lane, the tree coverage thick.

It doesn’t thin out, not a gentle parting of the trees. No, they just stop. One second you’re in the dark, hidden by trees, and the next, the mid-day sun is beating down on the car. And, granted, in September it doesn’t carry that much heat, but it’s like stepping into another world. The fountain in front of the main entrance spits water twelve feet in the air before cascading back down over a series of shelves.

We pass it, heading around the building to an oversized garage that opens automatically as we approach. Parking behind Wyatt, the doors close slowly behind us, encasing my baby and plenty of others in security. The lineup of cars is impressive as I skim over them, our two making eight of the ten spaces filled.

The garage must have been for display purposes rather than actual use at some point; the glass display cabinets along one wall feel out of place with so many vehicles stuffed in here, but it fits us all in, so I can’t complain. There’s no chance some cheap-ass hatchback is going to be banging its door against mine in the car park now either. Bargain.

“We’ll grab your stuff in a bit, let’s give you the grand tour first, eh?” Jasper says, holding an internal door open.

Following him through, we make our way into a boot room, jackets lined up along one wall before we head through into the main entrance. This must be the front doors, if the heavy-set wood is anything to go by, the stained-glass window above sending coloured patterns across the wooden floor.

“So, kitchen, dining and movie room to the left, den and games room to the right, bedrooms are upstairs. There’s a washroom and changing space tucked under the stairway for guests.”

“Changing room?” I ask, looking around the opulent space and taking in the food laid out in the kitchen.Nice.

“For the pool and steam room, and there’s a sauna out there too, but I’m not here for that dry heat,” Wyatt adds. “It makes me cough.”

Jacob and I both nod.Impressive.

“So, we’re having a party here soon, right?” Jacob asks excitedly. “It’d be a waste of the mild autumn weather not to.”

“How about we get you guys moved in first, huh?” Jasper laughs, grabbing a petit-four as we pass the food-laden island in the kitchen. “Let’s go get those bags and find your rooms.”

“We’re not together?” I ask with a tilt of my head.

“It’s in your envelope, the room allocation is all pre-arranged. There’s a note on each door with our names on,” Wyatt says with a roll of his eyes as we head back through the entrance. “Nick, you’re with me.”

My gaze collides with Jacob’s, my irritation reflected in his eyes.

Is this how it starts? Separate our rooms, break the bond between brothers, pitch one against another in a competition for something more important than money, than women. Power.

That might have worked on other people, but it won’t work with us.

THREE

IVY

“This is where we’re staying?” I ask, looking at the not-so-small self-contained unit. The house we passed was impressive enough, dark stone with vines growing up the side and a fountain out front, but to come around that and find this cute glass-sided pool house at the back is more than a little surprising.

I park the Range Rover alongside the other cars in a neat row opposite the main door, the huge stone house looming ominously to the right of the building on the other side of the lagoon-style cascading pools.So extra.

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