“We’re absolutely going to fight about what happened here tonight, Evelyn,” he growled roughly, and our faces were so close that his breath washed over me with the slightest minty scent. “You’re a nosy, annoying brat, and I will figure out how to punish you for this. But that won’t work if you pass out and die right now. So I need you to calm the fuck down. Now.”
My eyes were locked on where his face would be, but I couldn’t see him in the darkness, and that had been the only thing before that kept me from panicking. Those green eyes, so like Ethan’s, and the face of a Greek god, all wrapped up in one asshole bundle.
Heavy hands gripped my face, and the pressure against my skin actually helped regulate my breathing. Especially when he started to breathe in sync with me. “That’s it, brat,” he murmured, lips so close, I swore I touched them as I inhaled deeply. “Breathe in and out.”
“I saved your life,” I choked out, my limbs trembling againsthim, our bodies touching everywhere in the confined space. “That’s not brat behavior.”
His lips curved, I could feel them against my cheek. “You followed me from the house, snuck around in the bushes, and got us kidnapped because you drew attention to the one weakness in my vicinity. Even if they’d shot me in the side, I’d have killed all four before I bled out. It wouldn’t be my first bullet or my last, so this is your fault,brat.”
What the fuck did I even say to that?There were no words.
“Oh,” I squeaked, at a loss for anything more profound or snappy. I was too frazzled to be cool.
Connor scoffed something that sounded a little like a laugh. “Oh, indeed.” He was silent for a moment before muttering, “Ethan’s going to kill us both when we get back to the house.”
“When?” I repeated, clinging on to the hope that one word offered. “Not if?”
He shifted his position again. Considering his size, there was no way he’d be able to get comfortable, but he seemed determined not to squish me for some reason. “When. They’re not going to kill us, brat. The Crusades can’t afford to start a war like that, they’re just messing with us to pretend they’re stronger than they are.”
“Oh,” I said again, feeling somewhat silly for interfering. Then again, the bullets they’d fired had been real, and if I hadn’t warned Connor… “Has Ethan killed people?”
Connor didn’t reply for what felt like forever, then he sighed, and his warm breath fanned across my neck. “Ask him, maybe he’ll tell you.”
I stifled a gasp. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” Connor grumbled, his eye roll evident in his voice, “that although we’re related by blood, we aren’t brothers. Not like—” He cut himself off, swallowing the words he’d been about to say.
I frowned, rubbing my sore elbow in the darkness. “Likeyou and Andrew?” Silence. It was confirmation enough, though. “Brodie and Haze, too? You guys are all…weirdly tight, considering.”
Connor just grunted, and I suspected that was all I’d get out of him on this topic. It made me crazy curious, though. How did they all meet? What did they even have in common? And why the fuck go to such lengths to hide their friendship from the rest of the school?
“Are you thinking or panicking?” he asked after several moments of silence.
“Thinking.”
“Good. Because I’m not kissing you just to snap you out of a panic attack. Even I can recognize an abuse of power when I see it.”
Outraged, I gave him a little shove. “Excuseyou. For one thing, it wasn’t an abuse of power.Ikissedhimthe first time because I had no idea that he was a teacher.”
“Uh-huh,” Connor replied in a drawl. “But the second timehekissedyouwhen you were in a vulnerable stateandhe knew you were his student. So many red flags you may as well be a bull.” He paused, then clearly decided I had no comeback to that statement. “What was the other thing?”
I frowned, despite the fact he couldn’t see my expressions. “Other thing?”
“You said ‘for one thing’ so what was the other?”
“Oh, foranotherthing, I wouldn’t let you kiss me even if I were about to pass out from hyperventilation.” I said it confidently and with a generous helping of indignation that he’d even suggest such a thing. What I didn’t anticipate was his response.
He fuckinglaughed.
“What’s so funny?” I muttered, not seeing the humor in our situation.
“You,” he chuckled, but didn’t elaborate any further.
Sulking, I pursed my lips and decided I didn’t want to chat after all. Instead, I turned my thoughts inward, to where the hell they might be taking us and how the fuck we’d get back to Meadowridge.
After what felt like hours, I must have drifted to sleep because the next thing I knew, I was waking up to Connor’s hand on my waist, squeezing me gently.
“Brat, wake up,” he whispered. “We’re here.”
