Page 71 of The Pretty Savage

"I promise. I'll keep an eye out on things and I'll keep Dante in check." He chuckled. "He's been a bit difficult since Gabriela left."

"Did they start fighting again?" He nodded. "What was it this time?"

"You know she likes riling him up." Jax shrugged. "I have no idea if there's something else happening, but you know he keeps pushing her to let go of some things, but she's stubborn."

"They both are," I added. "But I'm glad she isn't here anymore. That girl is trouble and I don't know if I like her fucking around with Dante's mind. He already has enough shit on his plate even without her adding her mess."

Jax huffed, softly murmuring, "Don't I know it."

Silence descended on us, only broken from time to time with Vega's ringing laughter, and I wanted to bottle that sound, cage it in my hands, and never let it go. But getting attached to a girl like her had disaster written all over it, and I wasn't even sure if she would want to be tied up with someone like me.

That very thought had me sobering up, shaking my head as if it would help me to remove the notion of her belonging to me from my mind. But it was there already, burrowing deeper and deeper, and I knew the decision to get out of here for a while was the best one I had.

I smothered the parts of me that didn't like it, silencing them, when Vega suddenly stopped, just as we exited the cemetery heading toward my cabin, her entire body going rigid.

"What the fuck is that?" she asked, her voice vibrating with something I hadn’t heard before—fear. "Holy shit!" she yelled out, just as Dante thundered, "Vega! Stop!"

My mind played catch-up, trying to connect the dots and understand what was happening, but when Vega started running toward the massive oak tree that had been on these grounds for as long as I could remember, I saw it.

The snow that started falling this morning, and continued periodically throughout the day, wasn't white around the tree. A crimson trail led all the way to the trunk, and I could see why.

A body swayed in the air, the long black hair of a girl going this and that way touched by the wind. And Vega was heading straight for her.

My instincts went into overdrive, and before I could stop myself, I rushed after her, lifting her off of the ground and turning us around, obstructing her view of the girl.

"Adrian, let me go!" she screeched. "We need to help her. We need to?—"

"She's already dead, Bambi," I murmured, hating the panic in her voice and the evident fear in her eyes. "There's too much blood on the ground for her to still be alive."

"No, no, no." She shook her head, fighting against me. "This is the second girl. She can't be dead." But she was. Vega knew it as much as I did, yet she refused to accept it. "I know who she is," my girl whispered, and the mere thought of her being my girl warmed something around my cold, hard heart, and I didn't want to take it back.

She was my girl right now, even if I needed to fight against that.

"We fought in The Pit. She was good. Really, really good," Vega murmured, her body going lax against me. "Who's doing this shit?"

"Adrian!" Jax called out before I could answer her, and I turned us around, looking over her head at my friends. Jax lifted what looked like an envelope in his hand, his face pale, eyes wide, and I already knew what was written there.

"Vega," I started, needing to know. "I need you to be honest with me, baby girl." She looked up at me, frowning. "Is there anyone that would want to harm you?"

She looked confused for a second before answering, "I'm pretty sure there's a long line of people that would want to hurt me." Which did nothing to appease my worries. "Why?" Her eyebrow arched, her eyes shining with emotion, and I knew we would need to tell her about the previous note. "Adrian?"

"There's something you should know about Rebecca's murder." Her gaze turned stony, her eyes firmly plastered on me. "There was a note, addressed to you."

She pushed away from me as if my touch burned her. "What did it say?"

"Vega—"

"What did it say, Adrian?" she gritted out, her face paling more and more with each passing second. "I want to know."

I thought Jax was exaggerating when he mentioned the note after we found Rebecca, but the moment my eyes landed on those words, written in bright red ink, I wanted to forget I had ever seen it. But my protective instincts didn't flare up back then. I didn't have her back then. I didn't sleep next to her, hearing her sounds and seeing underneath that cold, hard exterior, there was a girl who had demons of her own.

"Adrian," she huffed. "Either you're going to tell me or I'm going to ask Jax."

"It said…" I swallowed heavily. "It basically said he is coming for you. That he's going to protect you." She blanched at my words. "He said he was coming for his girl." And if I for a second thought she had anything to do with Rebecca's murder, I could see from the expression on her face that I was wrong.

Whoever did that was a sick bastard, but I thought it was a fucked-up joke. I thought someone was messing around, until my eyes once again landed on the girl hanging from the rope, her throat sliced open, while dry blood covered the rest of her body.

"I think there might be someone at the Academy who is out to hurt you," I added.

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