Gray shook his head as he looked at the name and then at me, the humor gone. “Because you know her.”
“I don’t,” I corrected him. “Apart from Friday, I don’t know her. And even then, it doesn’t count until Iactuallyremember.”
“Yeah?” Gray saw Quinn approaching and gave her his usual dip of his head. “Ben bounced a ball off her head earlier this week at your request.”
I stared at him with my jaw slack. “No,” was my automatic reply.
“When she spilled her purse, I picked up her wallet, checked the ID out of habit. It’s her.”
“She’s been in my face since Monday, acting all pissed off and angry,” I told him in bemusement. “Who the fuck is she?”
“Send the name and the address of her dorm to Ash. He’s in class right now, he’ll find out everything you need to know.”
“Hey, what’s up with you two? You look like you just got told you can’t be assholes anymore,” Quinn greeted us.
“We found who the girl is,” Gray told her bluntly.
Quinn lost her teasing smile and met my glare. “Before me? Ugh, coffee and strategy,” Quinn ordered.
We’d just sat down when I looked up and she was standing there, staring at me. Looking so fucking innocent . . . I wanted to rip her head from her shoulders. When she saw all three of us, her eyes widened, and then she practically ran out of the coffee shop. I’d been chasing her before she could get far, with no idea what I was going to say when I caught her.
I couldn’t believe that the girl who drugged me in order for me to fail a drug test, and fucked me on top of that, washer. Sure, she was annoying from what I had met of her, and self-righteous, but shestilldidn’t seem to fit. I had recognized her derisive look on Monday when she caught the girl with my dick in her mouth. I thought she was merely uptight; I didn’t think it was because my dick had been inhera few days before.
Some people needed to get laid to loosen up, and she seemed to tick all the boxes. I thought she was one of those people. She was an uptight, judgmental woman who needed to take the stick out of her ass.
How well she’d played me.
Gray was silent beside me as I walked away from the classroom I had left her in. Wide green eyes flashed in my head, and I struggled between my need to go back andmakeher tell me what I needed to know or to keep walkingawayfrom her.
I saw Gray pull his phone out, but I couldn’t hear what he said to whoever he called over the roaring in my ears. I’d beenniceto her. Everywhere I turned since Friday, she was there. I had never seen her in my class before, and she justhappenedto need to sit beside me on Monday?
Suddenly, every encounter with the snake felt contrived. I hadhelpedher. No fucking wonder she looked scared to see me on Monday night, she must have thought I was coming for her. Fucking bitch.
“You need to rein it in, brother,” Gray murmured beside me as he placed his shades on. “Put your shades on.”
“I can see fine,” I snapped at him.
“Yeah, and everyone canseeyou. Hide the rage and remember you’re injured, even though Coach let you practice yesterday.”
“Fucking bullshit.”
“I know, but let’s play the game.” His tight smile held warning, and I looked in the direction he flicked his eyes. The three Elises were heading my way.
“I don’t have time for this,” I said as I turned my head from them and slipped my Ray-Bans on.
“Let’s hear what more they found,” he said to me quietly. “Where the hell is Ash when you need him?” he grumbled as I watched him brace for the impending arrival of Elise and her clones, as I thought about this morning.
“Hey, baby,” Elise greeted me with a wide smile. “We’ve been digging.” She gestured half-heartedly to Two and Three beside her. Elise looked over my white T-shirt. “What happened?”
Her fake smile was grating on my last nerve. “Nothing you need to be concerned about,” I snapped. “You got anything for me?” When I saw her eyes widen with excitement and her lips pout, I barely held my temper in check. “On thegirl,” I stressed, cutting off whatever goddamn innuendo she was going to spout.
“She’s no one,” Elise said. It was pissing me off that she kept repeating herself. “She does English or creative writing or something, has absolutelynosocial life, parties now and again. I think she dates some guy in a band.”
Gray had been watching Quinn walk toward us, but his eyes flicked to Elise and then me when Elise said Ava partiednow and again. Well, something told me that information was shit.
“What band?” I asked as Quinn met us and wordlessly handed me a black T-shirt. Ignoring three pairs of eyes basically eye fuck me in the middle of the campus, I tossed the ruined shirt in the trash before I put on the new one.
“It’s some country thing. She promotes them or something,” Wendy spoke up. She was Three, but she was actually the more tolerable one.
