“I know right,” Corden scrunches his nose up.
“Anyway,” He sighs. “My brother accepted it as a reason to run away from her family and have no contact. But he has never stopped looking for her. In fact, she’s the reason he started his whole business,”
“If this story wasn’t so tragic, that would actually be a little romantic,” I shrug.
“Yeah,” he chuckles. “He never did figure out his feelings for her until it was too late,”
“That’s really fucking sad,”
He nods as he fidgets with his phone. “Well, he never really speaks about her anymore, I hadn’t even remembered her name until recently…until I opened that drawer, and it was on a file,”
“What do you think it means?” I push.
“I have no fucking clue Rue,” He lowers his voice. “But after spending the past week going through every name from that file, I am starting to think the Academy is covering up things,”
“Like what?” I pry again.
“Every girl on the folders in those drawers have dropped out. Which I could accept knowing about my brother’s friend, things like that happen a lot more than you think,”
“But”
“But that doesn’t explain why Piper’s name is in that draw when she is still here,”
“Do you think they didn’t leave of their own accord? Do you think something is going to happen to Piper?”
“Like I said, I don’t know,” He looks at me determined. “I am thinking about taking it to my brother, see if he can dig up something else with this new information. I’m hooked now and I need to find out what this all means,”
I nod. “I can help,”
He grins. “More late-night madness?”
“More late-night madness,” I smile back.
Maybe this is what I need. A partner to help with the search, one that is tech savvy and came into the investigation on his own.
I thought that person could have been Asher. He has information I need and for some reason I trust him. The same can’t be said for his friend Daylan who I still suspect is the person who attacked me on my run. I haven’t found a slip up yet in all my observations from the shadows, if it was him, he is really good at playing the part of a respectable Duke.
“Oh shit, I have to go drop off a paper. See you in class,” Corden stands and grabs his tray.
“See you soon,” I start to pack up my things to head to the library. I have an hour before my next class so I can squeeze in some homework.
As I pull my bag over my shoulder, I feel his eyes on me.
When I turn, the two magnetic irises draw me in immediately and I am back in that billiard room once more.
I remember his hands on my body, his lips claiming mine and the rush of emotion that came with it. I feel the flush on my cheeks as my heart starts to race, along with the throbbing between my legs. He is so devastatingly beautiful it hurts to look at.
My brain decided to have mercy on me and reminds me of why I have been avoiding him all week.
You are lying to him.
I am. I am lying to everyone. It is turning out to be a lot harder than I first thought. I wish I could turn it all off, but he is something I never saw coming. A want I didn’t know I had. A reason to stay. When I know I can’t.
Then comes the guilt. The guilt of still not telling him about his sister’s name in that drawer. Or the fact that I plan on using her to find out what happened last term. The truth I cannot give without telling him why I was searching in that drawer in the first place.
His brow furrows at whatever he sees, and, in that break, I make my escape. I turn and practically run from the hall, and get halfway down the corridor before I realise, I left with the damn tray of food.
I groan.
