Trey held up his hands. His cuff slid down, revealing his burned-off tattoo. “If we get caught, I can’t protect you anymore.”
“You’ve never protected me,” I shot back, the anger flaring inside me. “You hurt me. You tried to throw me off acliff.”
Trey’s jaw clenched. He stood up without a word and stormed off. A moment later, the wall shook as he slammed the door.
Quinn and Ayaz exchanged a look. I glared at them. “What?”
“Nothing.” Quinn shrugged. “Trey hates being called out.”
“Or, an alternative explanation is…” I hedged.
Quinn put his feet down and leaned forward, his amber eyes gleaming. “See, the thing is, Trey won’t admit it because… well, because he’s Trey. But he’s been protecting you from the start.”
I snorted. “That’s bullshit.”
“Nope. All those things he’s done, he did to stop something worse from happening.”
“That’s completely fucked up.”
Quinn shrugged. “This is Miskatonic Prep – it’s where you come to get a first-class education in fuckedupitude.”
“Why can’t he just find a less shit way of protecting people?”Why couldn’t he save any of those poor people downstairs?
“Because he’s Trey. He doesn’t think like that.” As Ayaz stood up to gather the maps, he glanced over his shoulder at the door. “Trey believes that the only way to prevent someone worse from taking over this school was to be the big bad wolf. And his greatest nightmare has just come true – the wolf has been dethroned, and a panther is in his place. Her fangs and claws are sharp and deadly. Honestly, he’s not taking this whole being kicked out of the presidency position with grace and decorum. But we can’t worry about him now. We’ve got a key to find.”
Wah wah wah. At least Trey still has atongue.
“Yes. Which means that Ayaz is going to get his booty spanked.” Quinn slapped Ayaz’s ass.
“Don’t be foul,” Ayaz growled. “It’s not like that.”
“Better lube up, Ataturk.”
Ayaz locked eyes with me, and I saw the pain lurking in those obsidian orbs. I knew now that he’d been coerced into sleeping with Ms. West, but Quinn didn’t know I knew that. He was deliberately trying to lower Ayaz in my eyes.
“Hazel, are you asking me to do this?” Ayaz asked, his voice tight.
I shrugged. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Maybe you can find a way to draw her away from the office without…”
…without bending her over a desk and fucking her roughly from behind.I didn’t need to finish.
Ayaz gave me a sad smile. “For you, I’ll do anything.”
“Good. Ataturk is in the game.” Quinn dragged me out of the dorm room before I could say anything else. He led me down to the library. Courtney and her friends were studying under the stained-glass window, lording it over Trey’s old table like feudal lords. They shot us filthy looks as Quinn led me into the stacks.
“You don’t think they’ll follow us?” I whispered.
“Of course they will.” Quinn slammed the stairwell door shut and jammed a chair under the handle. “Now, let’s get into that passage. Without his magical dick in play, I don’t know how long Ayaz will be able to tempt Ms. West from her office.”
“Do you have to be so mean to Ayaz?” I demanded as Quinn shoved a computer desk out of the way and slid open the secret panel.
“What’s wrong – your boyfriend can’t stick up for himself now?”
“He’s not my boyfriend, Quinn,” I snapped. “And not that this is the time, but it shouldn’t matter to you if he was. I know you don’t really want to be my boyfriend, so what’s the big—what the hell are those?”
Quinn passed me three brand new bars of soap.
“Have you ever read about the escape from Alcatraz?” Quinn asked. “They made a copy of a key by pressing it into a bar of soap. You can put the key back and we can use the soap mold to create a cast of the key. That way, West never has to notice the key missing and we can get into the lab as many times as we need to.”
