Fuck,but he looked good. Even in a t-shirt and jeans, he exuded power. Confidence.
"Aria," Camelia said abruptly, interrupting whatever her friend had been talking about. She nodded at Evan when Aria gave her a questioning look, and she swallowed hard againstanxiety before she casually said, "Can you tell me anything about that guy? I know his name is Evan, but that's about it."
Aria nodded, completely unperturbed that Camelia had completely derailed the trajectory of their conversation. "Evan Nichols. He's a senior, major in business administration, though he's on his fifth year. Nobody is really sure why. He's not a top student by any means, but he does well enough to have graduated within four years, easily."
Camelia nodded, internally crowing with the new information; she knew that she could trust the college gossip mill to give her some leverage against the man. "Any important connections, or anything like that? If his grades are just average, I mean, he must have some sort of influence to be going here..." Camelia gestured around with one hand, stabbing at a carrot and popping it into her mouth before she could say anything else that might incriminate her, or betray that her interest was much more than casual.
Aria arched an eyebrow at her, giving her a quizzical look. "EvanNichols, Camelia. As in Nichols Mining."
For a moment, Camelia's mind still blanked, even as Aria looked at her as if the connection should be more than obvious. Then the pieces slid into place, and her mouth opened a little, the unchewed carrot dropping back into her salad. "Nichols Mining. The jewelry conglomerate.ThatNichols?"
Aria nodded. "Trust fund baby. You wouldn't know it talking to him, though; he isn't the kind of person that throws his family's money around willy nilly." She lifted one shoulder in a shrug, taking a sip of her smoothie. "He's nice enough, but keeps mostly to himself. He's one of those people who everybody knows and he seems to know everyone, but he isn't close to anyone, you know?"
Camelia couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes a little at the assessment that Evan wasnice enough. Coming frommoney certainly explained the cocky overconfidence that Evan projected every time they interacted, but it didn't explain the mysterious, frustrating pull that she instinctually felt for him. No, that was an unanswered question that still needed to be solved.
"What about the blonde guy that's usually with him? They seem close." Camelia forced herself to take a small sip of her Coke to project casual disinterest, despite the way that her stomach churned with the need for answers. Evan sat down at a table across the room, still talking on the phone, and Camelia forced herself not to stare at him, or look around for James. If Evan was here, he couldn't be that far off, right?
Aria nodded, as if the question didn't surprise her. "James Devin. He and Evan are best friends."
Camelia swallowed, looking down at her plate as she forced her tone casual. "Just friends? They're always together. Is there something more going on there?"
Aria made a small sound that made Camelia's head snap up in mild alarm, but when she looked at her friend, Aria's expression was nothing but thoughtful. "James and Evan have been friends for years, from what I understand. Back to high school, or maybe longer than that." She tilted her head to the side as if lost in thought as she continued. "James' dad is some kind of big shot intelligence guy. Not for the government, for a private company."
"A spook?" Camelia mulled the information around in her head, and Aria nodded.
"Just rumors, of course. Nothing confirmed." She lowered her voice, leaning a little closer as if she were saying something confidential that she didn't want heard. "Ifyou believe the rumors, which I only do sometimes, James' dad wants him to follow in his footsteps once he graduates. Apparently has a job set up for him and everything."
Camelia furrowed her brow. "A little detailed for the casual rumor mill, isn't it?"
Aria giggled softly, nodding. "There's a few people on campus who have made it their business to know everything about everyone. Rich kids with nothing better to do that hire people to snoop out secrets, you know?"
Camelia openly rolled her eyes this time. She knew the type very well, and she couldn't stop herself from shivering a little at the thought of that particular attention being turned on her. She certainly had things to hide.
Aria drew her attention back to the conversation before she could spiral too deep into her anxiety pit, though. "I guess that James isn't interested in following in Daddy's footsteps, but his dad foots the bill for college, so." Aria shrugged, turning her attention back to her meal.
Camelia felt an unexpected stab of sympathy for James; the man walked around as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and while that might be a slight exaggeration, if what Aria was telling her was true...
"That really sucks," Camelia finally said, huffing out a breath. Aria nodded, mouth full of pasta, and Camelia couldn't stop her eyes from tracking back across the room to Evan's table. Only when her gaze fell on him this time, he was off the phone, and he was looking directly at her.
Camelia swallowed as she met his intense blue gaze, lifting one hand in an absurd, tiny wave before she forced her gaze back down to her salad. Still, she could feel the weight of his eyes on her, heavy as lead, and she forced herself to shovel spinach and lettuce into her mouth as she mulled over the new information that Aria had given her.
She was only interested in getting to know theenemy, of course. With how her body responded to both of them, that wasthe only way that she could think of them. It only made sense for her to know their histories, their weaknesses.
And if her heart twisted with mild sympathy for James' apparently shitty relationship with his dad, and her skin still prickled with the knowledge that Evan was watching her every move...well, she wasn't going to share that particular information with anyone. She would tuck it away in a tiny box in her mind, right alongside her Omega status, never to be mentioned or looked at again.
Chapter ten
Evan
"Mom! I'm home!" Evan's shoulders relaxed a little as he walked through the front door of his parents' house, calling out and hearing his voice bounce around the spacious foyer. The chandelier above the entryway glittered, as usual, and Evan shrugged off his jacket to throw it over the back of one of the comfortable-looking entrance couches as he meandered down the hallway, where he could hear voices bouncing around the kitchen.
"Evan!" His little sister, Christy, bounced down the hallway before Evan could make it five steps, and he smiled, wrapping his arms around her narrow frame and swinging her around in a tight hug before putting her down.
He ruffled her hair, returning her wide smile. "Hey, sweetie. You doing okay? School alright? Nobody is picking on you, are they?"
Christy rolled her blue eyes, linking her arm through Evan's and pulling him down the hallway towards the kitchen. "Nobodypicks on you when you're a freshman in high school, Ev. They're called bullies, and no, I don't have a problem with them."
Evan couldn't stop himself from laughing as she succeeded in pulling him down the hallway, where his mother was already at the stove, cooking and humming a jaunty tune alone with the music that was playing softly from her phone. At fifteen, Christy was already a firecracker, and though it would always be in his big brother's instinct to make sure that she was safe, there wasn't a part of him that didn't believe that she could take care of herself.
