“You know any more about them?” Gray asked as I straightened the T-shirt.
“Main band guy is Wade . . . something. Think he’s her boyfriend.”
“Wade?” Gray asked as I let out a low chuckle. The Wade in my phone from Friday? There really were no coincidences.
“Anything else?” Quinn asked the three of them with no effort to hide her dislike. They had all slept with Ash on the same night after all.
“No,” Elise answered with a saccharine sweet smile.
“Then fuck off,” Quinn told her, mirroring her fake smile before she turned her back on them.
Elise’s glare at Quinn’s back was full of hate, but when she saw I had seen her, she paled. “So, baby . . . later?”
“No.”
The three of us walked away from them as Quinn muttered inaudibly beside me.
“What did she say?” Quinn asked when we were far enough away.
“Nothing,” Gray answered. “But . . . Ash pulled her records; he’ll meet us at the house. Seems she’s a scholarship student,” he added with a sly look.
I looked at him in surprise. “Is that right? What kind?” I asked as we headed toward the house. “I just love how fragile those things are, don’t you, Queeny?”
Gray smirked as Quinn laughed while we walked along the tree-canopied paths. Scholarships were few and far between for this college. They had strict rules, firm guidelines, and a stern no fuck-ups policy.
She’d talk. She’d tell me everything I needed to know, or she was gone. She was a conniving bitch, but when it came down to it, what was more important to her? Her loyalty to whoever gave her the drug or the scholarship that she worked hard for?
I would bet money it was the latter, and that . . . that I could use.
* * *
Ash came into my room with a spring in his step until he saw Quinn, his good mood vanishing as their eyes clashed. “We just letting anyone in now?” he muttered as he took a place on my bed, our previous conversation obviously forgotten.
Gray was sitting on the couch with Quinn. Their heads had been bent over her phone as they researched the infamous Wade. I looked between the three of them and suppressed my sigh. I had more important things to worry about than his hurt feelings and his ex.
“What’d you get?” I asked him instead.
“More than I ever need to know about her,” Ash replied dryly. Pulling out his laptop, he flipped it open and turned it toward me. Her high school records were in front of me, as well as her information and academic record from freshman year, too.
“Nice,” I complimented him as I looked through it all. “Ava Bryant, nineteen, from Knoxville, only child, parents divorced, lives with mom . . .” I trailed off as I read more about her boring life. “Fuck, she’s dull. Good grades,” I mused.
“She’s in Professor Leitch’s class, and he doesnotlike her,” Ash told me as he kicked off his shoes. “I sat beside her on Monday, and he was ripping into her when I arrived and held her back when class was over.”
“Which is why she was late for the class I have with her.” I looked back at her record thoughtfully.
“Yeah, the speed she was trying to leave Leitch, she probably gets to the next class before you would from macroeconomics.” Ash gestured to the laptop. “She’s been in all of our classes either this year or last, we just haven’t noticed her. He was on her again this morning. Seriously, I actually felt sorry for her; the guy’s brutal, more so to her.”
Quinn snorted as she sat listening. When three pairs of eyes looked at her, she shrugged with casual indifference.
“I still don’t know how she ended up being fucked in my bed.”
“Charming,” Quinn deadpanned as she leaned back on the couch. “Is she in any of my classes?”
Scanning the records quickly, I shook my head in answer. “No.” I flicked through her admin record. Her roommate was Mia Davis, same town, same school, same dorm here. “Roommate’s her best friend?”
Ash nodded as he reached forward. “Yeah, to be fair, that struck me as curious, but they don’t seem to have pulled anystrings. Friend is a music major, and she’s in two of my computer science classes.”
“She’s a music major with a side helping of geek?” Gray asked curiously. “How does that work?”
