I shuddered. "When I overheard him and Claudette, she said something about Siberia and... forced IVF?"
His eyes sparked like a tropical storm, and his fists clenched into tight balls at his sides. "Leave it to me," he said, his voice like rolling thunder. "I'll get more information. But I find Alex's reaction interesting."
I snorted. "Oh? How so?"
Rafe gave a small shrug. "It almost sounds like he's trying to protect you from someone else. Which makes me wonder just how deep this shit goes."
I blanched, but nodded. He was absolutely right.
His palm reader lit up and buzzed, and he glanced down at it with a frown. "I have to go."
That was it. Just...I have to go.
"Wait!" I blurted out as he started to stride away from me. "What am I supposed to do now?"
He barely paused a second as he responded. "Exactly what you've been doing all along, Violence. Keep your enemies close."
I flipped off his retreating back. I couldn't help myself.
My own palm reader buzzed, and I clicked open the message that I knew would be from my best girl friend.
Mattie:you okay? just saw Alex at breakfast and he looked shockingly alive.
I sighed, dreading her reaction to this change of plans. Not that I really had a "plan" to start with, but I would bet money on Mattie having some loud, shouty things to say about me continuing to date Alex. Even if it was all a farce.
Me:Yeah, all good. I'll explain later.
My palm reader buzzed back almost instantly.
Mattie:lunchtime?
My stomach flipped. It was almost lunchtime, and Alex was going to expect me to play the part of his besotted girlfriend in front of the whole academy.
I stood there, chewing my lip and debating what to reply. I needed to tell her now, not later. Before she heard from someone else that Alex and I had been making out in the hallway like we were... ugh... inlove.
"Vi," someone said, and I startled. My gaze shifted up from my palm reader and collided with Jordan's tawny brown eyes. "Is it true?" His face was tortured. "You're back with Alex? After everything you told us... everythingwetoldyou..."
He wasn't just referring to Alex's betrayal. He was talking about how he’d confessed to liking me, kissed me, saw me naked,knewI'd fucked Rafe... and then I'd run away without having the decency to discuss it all further.
So much for being the badass, fearlessViolence. I was nothing but a coward.
I shook my head, closing the gap between us by a few steps and reaching out to touch his arm. He held them tightly folded across his chest, and the muscles contracted beneath my fingers in a way that sapped my mouth of all moisture.
How the fuck had I ended up in this situation? I'd hardly spent any time with Jordan at all, but the interactions wehadhad... Yeah, I guess I liked him too. A hell of a lot more than I liked any of the other guys in this fucking academy, anyway.
My brain conjured up a flash memory of Rafe's head buried between my legs, my blood smeared on his strong hands as they held my thighs apart... almost like it was accusing me of lying to myself. Weird.
"It's not like that," I insisted, my voice pitched low and urgent. I couldn't let my friends think that of me. If I was going to make it through four years of schooling at Arbon Academy, I couldn't go it alone. I needed support. I needed my friends. All of them. "Can you..." I sucked in a breath, thinking as fast as my brain would go, then heaved a sigh. "Do you think you could cut classes this morning with me? I want to fill you in on shit. And I think maybe we need to talk about, you know,things."
“I can cut class; they don’t give a fuck what the royals do.”
Right. I’d forgotten that small detail. I was the only one here who had something to lose in this insanity of a situation.
Jordan relaxed minutely, reaching out and gripping my hand. He pulled me along the hall, and once again, I was going in the opposite direction to Alex and the school, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Unlike Rafe, Jordan didn’t take me to a hidden piece of paradise. Nope. Dude deposited me in his room, on his bed, slamming and locking the door behind us.
A small laugh escaped and Jordan zeroed in on that, his eyes narrowing. “What’s so funny, Cinderella?”
