“Well, considering only one of us is getting fucked by him—”
“And I’m going to stop you there before the person I end up murdering is you. The pool isn’t too far if you recall.”
“You and your obsession with drowning people.” His brother slid his hands into his front pockets, dropping the scary vibe all at once. “Almost do it accidentally the one time and suddenly it’s all you can think about. Surely you can be more creative?”
In high school, Rin had lost his cool once and almost killed a kid in their grade. The kid had made inappropriate comments about a female friend and he’d lost it. Their father had been able to get them off the hook with the guy’s parents, and Rin had pretended it’d been an accident. He’d been convincing enough that everyone had bought it.
He was used to people only seeing what he wanted them to see.
Damn Kelevra and his fucking eye.
“Any progress on the case?” He asked before he forgot. The only problem with switching places was they needed to keep each other updated. Since this was pretty par for the course, they mostly had that down pat.
“Nothing groundbreaking,” his brother said. “The blood results showed there were two different samples found at the scene with Arlet, one hers and the other belonging to who we assume is the killer. Since no other samples were found at past sites, Calder and I are guessing the Actives plan to divulge more clues with fresh crime scenes. We haven’t had one all week though.”
“And the multi-slate?” That still hadn’t been cracked when Rin and agreed to this.
“Messages and calls were all wiped, as well as search history, but there were photos of each of the victims so far.”
“Any that haven’t been murdered yet?”
His brother shook his head.
“And here I was hoping you were going tell me you solved it so I could just coast the rest of the semester.”
“You mean so you could keep avoiding Kelevra,” his brother corrected with a knowing smirk. “Admit it, you’re about to cave. If I hadn’t asked for us to swap, you would have by now.”
Being in Sila Varun’s shoes had certainly helped. He couldn’t very well have rushed over there and demanded answers from the guy dressed in Vail University’s uniform.
“I know what he’s trying to pull,” Rin stated dryly.
“Of course you do,” his brother agreed. “That’s what he’s counting on.”
“You think?”
“It’s how I would play things. Wear you down mentally until resistance feels like too much of a chore to bother with. He gets you to give in now, and it’s game over. He can avoid numerous battles and simply end the war in one move. Clever.”
“You find him so appealing, you marry him.”
His brother shook his head. “I would never try to steal what’s rightfully yours. It’s one of the rules.”
Rin opened his mouth but then snapped it shut again.
“You like him,” his brother said.
“I’m partial to his dick.”
“You’re deflecting by being crass. You only do that when you’re uncomfortable.”
“And you’re goading me on purpose,” Rin countered. “You only do that when you’re trying to distract me.”
They stared at each other silently for a moment.
“All right,” his brother held up both hands, “let’s agree not to root around in each other’s proverbial closets. You want to pretend like you aren’t falling for the Imperial Prince? So be it.”
“And if you want to pretend like I don’t know exactly what you’ve been up to, go ahead.” Rin wasn’t as blind as his brother believed. “Or are you going to tell me that was something you wanted me to know, the same way Kel wants me to know he’s tugging on my strings?”
His jaw clenched, almost imperceptibly, but Rin caught it.
