Tatiana…
Waking with a jolt, I look at my phone, already knowing the time will be 3:36 a.m.
Lucca’s lying next to me, his blankets kicked off, as usual. His body gleams in the moonlight, outlining his amazing musculature and those wicked tattoos. How does he sleep so soundly after having killed a man tonight?
His casual lethality was shocking at first, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Lucca is the most lethal man on campus, and there’s been a barely controlled savagery roiling under his harsh expression since the day I met him. He’s used that strength to protect me, time and time again. He asked if I was afraid of him tonight. How could I possibly be, after everything he’s done for me?
Slipping out of bed, I stretched, smiling at the ache between my thighs. Thinking about the day ahead, I realize that my meager stash of clothes here at Lucca’s are all filthy. Pulling on my jeans and one of his sweaters, I quietly leave his suite. I’ll just head over to my place and grab some clean clothes; I’ll be back before he wakes up.
I’m just descending the stairs to the main entrance when Camilla races across the floor. “Oh,dieu merci,thank god, there you are! There’s something wrong with Mariya, I think she is very ill, help me!”
“Where is she?” I gasped, following her outside.
“At the doctor’s, hurry!” Her grip on my hand is surprisingly strong.
A man’s arm wraps around my waist from behind and his hand over my mouth. Instinctively, I throw my head back, trying to break his nose. It might have worked on that interrogator, but this guy is prepared, moving his head out of the way. I see the cloth, sickly-smelling, slam down over my mouth. I fight against it, bucking and kicking violently, but the lethargy spreads through me, feeling too heavy to fight. Before my eyes droop shut, I realize Camilla’s the one holding it.
Lucca…
“Kon, wake up! Tatiana’s gone.”
He bolts upright in bed, instantly awake. “What do you mean? She’s been with you.” He’s already yanking on his clothes and I feel a surge of gratitude. “How long has she been missing?”
“I woke up three minutes ago, she wasn’t here,” I said. “I’m going to check her room, wake up Aleks and Mariya, and start looking outside.”
Racing out the door, I take the stairs down two at a time, calling her number. When it picks up, my heart leaps, but it’s Konstantin’s voice. “Her phone is still here in your room.”
“Fuck!” I shove my phone in my pocket and race up the stairs to the women’s side of the building. Athena answers as I’m pounding on the door.
“What the hell?” she snaps, “Do you know what time it is?”
I push past her, “Is Tatiana here?”
“No…” she watches me search Tatiana’s bedroom. “She hasn’t been here since you brought her back from the clinic.”
“She was in bed with me, I just woke up and she’s gone,” I said.
“I’ll help you look,” she said, pulling on her trainers. “What direction?”
“I’m going to head for the front gate,” I said, running my hands through my hair and heading for the door. “Will you check the medical clinic?”
“On it,” Athena says, racing down the stairs behind me.
There are lights blazing in the main building as I run past it, and one of the guards steps out to block me as I near the gate. “Dean Christie would like to speak with you.”
“Not now,” I said, “I’m looking-”
“She knows that Miss Aslanova is missing,” he interrupts me. “Come with me.”
Grinding my teeth, I follow him.
Dean Christie is unapologetically wearing cow-print pajamas with a matching robe, sitting behind her massive desk. “Mr. Toscano, do come in. We’re just rounding up Mr. Turgenev and Mr. Rostov now. I have sent Miss Dukakis back to her room.”
There’s a cold pit forming in my gut and I’m beginning to realize the Dean knows so much more than she should.
“Come, Mr. Toscano, don’t look so surprised. I run a school for the offspring of crime families, producing geniuses, sociopaths, and the occasional madman. You don’t think I would take notice of what is happening at my school?”
“Where’s Tatiana?” I said.
