Maxx would have told me if had he started working for Compulsion again. Right?
I didn’t want to believe what my eyes so clearly saw.
Proof of his deceit and betrayal.
I slammed my hand into the wall in frustration, barely registering the pain that shot up my arm.
“Whoa, what’s wrong?” Renee asked, frowning.
I pointed at the artwork that everyone was talking about. “That’s the fucking problem!” I seethed, tears stinging my eyes.
“I don’t get it...” Renee began.
I pushed myself off the wall and pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. “Because if this is X, then that means he’s working for the club again. And if he’s working for the club again, then he lied to me. He told me he was never going back there.”
“Oh,” Renee said softly. I dropped my hands to my sides, feeling completely despondent.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed his number.
It went straight to voice mail.
“I can’t do this again!” I agonized.
Doubt shredded my heart.
“You don’t know that’s him. I mean, look at that drawing. It doesn’t even look like his other stuff,” Renee said thoughtfully. But who else would have done it? That was Maxx’s job.
It would explain his strange mood.
And his cryptic “job” that would earn him so much money.
I tried dialing Maxx’s number again and growled in frustration when it went to voice mail again. I tapped out a quick text.
Where are you?
And then I waited.
And waited.
Nothing.
How could he do this?
I covered my mouth with my hand to stop the wail that threatened to claw its way out of my throat. I turned around blindly and started walking away, bumping into someone in my desperate efforts to flee.
“Sorry,” I muttered, tearing my eyes away from the painting.
“Aubrey!” I found myself face-to-face with April.
I hadn’t seen her since my run-in with Evan. She had dropped out of the Boundaries and Ethics class, and honestly, I had been too wrapped up in my own life to think about where she had disappeared to.
“April, hi,” I said, casting a look around for her psycho boyfriend.
I turned back to April and was met with a shock. She smiled at me. A full-out grin. Because she looked...different.
Gone was the pink hair and facial piercings. Her hair was a nice, normal shade of brown, and her face was scrubbed clean of her usual heavy makeup. She had a nice face when it wasn’t obstructed by all of the metal.
“I’ve wanted to talk to you,” she said, casting a nervous glance in Renee’s direction. My roommate got the hint and moved a few feet away.
