“The dean will never agree to this without a teacher chaperone. No matter what you threaten him with. It wouldn’t look good to the school committee and parent’s union.”
Connor fumed for a few minutes, pacing up and down,before he released a cursed snarl. “Fucking fine. I have so much shit over the dean, I’ll have the request approved by the end of the day. Start packing your shit, Drew. We’re about to be roomies.”
He left as silently as he arrived, and I smoothed my shirt down, making sure everything was in place. Stepping from the grove, I glanced around to make sure there was no one else around to catch me out here. No doubt most of the students would be in their dorms while the aftermath of the explosion was dealt with.
I was about to do the same. First thing was figuring out if that was a deliberate attack and, if so, what I needed to do to end whoever tried to hurt her. Second was locking Eve to my side until I completed my end of the deal with her father.
Then I’d finally be free.
6
EVELYN
The campus medical staff concluded that Iprobablyjust had some nasty bruising, but as a precaution they’d sent me to the local hospital to check for internal bleeding and concussion monitoring. Ethan had tried to accompany me, but the college nurse had waved his concerns off as unnecessary.
It was a relief, but at the same time I spent the whole eight hours of observation at the hospital thinking about how easily he’d carried me like some kind of medieval knight protecting his damsel.
Damn it. I had amassivecrush on my Economics of Crime professor.
It was way past dinner by the time college security picked me up and dropped me back to campus, and my stomach growled angrily. The hospital staff had offered me food while I’d been there, but it was unappealing at best, and I’d only picked at a cheese sandwich to appease them.
Checking the time on my phone, I groaned. The dining hall hadjustclosed for the night, and I had no snacks at all in my room. There were a couple of vending machines over nearthe administration building, though, so I headed in that direction with plans to at least grab a protein bar and some soda.
“…fucking idiot!” a gruff man’s voice echoed through the night as I passed a building on route to the vending machines. “…do that one more time, I will slit your throat. Dickhead.”
I stopped in my tracks, shocked.
“As if you could,” someone familiar replied with a scoff. Was that Andrew? “My guys would fill you with so much lead, you’d be a human pencil before you could get close enough.”
“Try me,” the other guy snarled. Then the voices dipped low enough that I couldn’t make out the rest.
Holy crap.Did someone seriously just threaten to slit Andrew Knightsbridge’s throat? That was treason or something, wasn’t it?
Before I could fully process the thought, a door burst open a dozen or so feet ahead of where I stood, staring at the back of a tall guy with broad shoulders as he stalked out into the night, muttering something under his breath aboutneat-freak mommy’s boy prick.
As tempted as I was to spy through the window and check if it was, indeed, Andrew who he’d been arguing with, I shook off the curiosity and hurried past the building. I had enough drama and excitement for one day—I was staying firmly out of Andrew’s shit.
My leg was aching—I had anenormousbruise on the side on my knee—so I limped a little as I reached the vending machines. To my surprise, I wasn’t the only one with the late-night snackies.
“Oh,” I said when I realized the man at the machines wasn’t grabbing snacks at all. “Is that one broken?”
The guy looked over his shoulder from the open control panel he was tinkering with, dark eyes peering at me in the dim light. His dark hair was buzzed so close to the scalp, it wasbarely more than a shadow against his deeply tanned complexion.
“Not broken,” he replied with a hint of an accent. He spoke softly, with a voice deeper than the ocean. “Did you want something?”
I blinked a couple of times, confused, then took a few steps closer to see what the options were. Maybe he was doing maintenance? He seemed too young, though. More like a student than staff. Then again, I’d have said the same for Ethan and look how that turned out.
“Um, yeah. I can wait, though. If you’re fixing something?” The control panel seemed totally dead, and he had a couple of screwdrivers on the ground along with a bunch of wires hanging out the side of the machine.
He just stared at me a moment, then gave a little frown. “What did you want?”
British. He was British.
“Just the giant cookie, and the Doritos,” I replied, pointing out the two snacks I wanted from that machine. “But I really don’t mind waiting.”
He didn’t reply, instead turning his attention back to the inside of the control panel. A moment later the machine whirred to life and dispensed the two items I’d requested without requiring payment.
“Thanks,” I murmured when he indicated for me to take the snacks. “Are you like…maintenance or something?”
