One of the men shoves Mara away when she grabs at his arm. She hits the pavement with a cry. Seeing that—seeing him toss her like nothing—snaps the last thread of my restraint.
A wild, wordless roar tears out of me. I surge forward, breaking the chokehold with sheer adrenaline. The guard who pushed Mara barely has time to turn before I tackle him onto the hood of the car. I rain a barrage of furious punches at his face.Bone crunches under my knuckles; blood spurts from his nose. I don’t even feel the pain in my hand.
“Get away from her!” I’m not even sure what I’m shouting. All I know is I have to hurt them, stop them, make sure Mara’s safe.
Blondie recovers and grabs me from behind in a bear hug, trying to haul me off his partner. I elbow back, hard, catching him in the cheek. He curses, but another figure appears—the driver. Now it’s three on one. They yank me off and slam me down onto my knees on the concrete. I taste blood and realize someone’s split my lip. Two of them restrain my arms in an iron grip.
I thrash madly, still burning with rage. “Mara!” I shout. I see her scrambling back to her feet, eyes wide in horror at the sight of me pinned.
“Dredyn!” she sobs, stepping toward us. The driver blocks her path and forces her toward the open back door of the sedan. “I’ll go, just don’t hurt him!”
The two guards finally let me go, and I rework my jaw until it cracks. Blondie grabs her by the arm and ushers her into the car.
Mara looks at me through the open door. “Go, Dre, I’m fine.”
And with that, the SUV door slams closed, the tint not even allowing me to see her silhouette.
I’m left standing in the street, chest heaving, blood dripping down my face, watching the red taillights of the car disappear into the night. She’s gone. They took her from me.
“Goddammit!” I roar. I slam my fist onto a nearby campus map sign, making it rattle on its hinges.
“Dredyn!”
I turn to see Talon walking down the sidewalk with Jasper alongside him.
“Holy hell, man. Are you all right? What happened?”
“They took her,” I say, wiping the back of my hand across my bleeding mouth. My knuckles come away smeared red. “Her father—Theyjust… took Mara.”
“Look, there’s more bad news, bro. Something’s going down at Cromwell Hall.”
“What is it?”
“It’s all over the chats. Someone was murdered in her building a little while ago.”
The words hit me like a bucket of ice. “Murdered?”
This day just keeps getting better. My pulse kicks up even higher, if that’s possible.
Mara was in danger?
“Who?” I snap.
“Asher Blackwood,”Jasper signs.
Asher. One of ours? I’m OCK president and I just lost one of my own under my watch, in our fucking dorm.
“Talon, round everyone up. Emergency meeting in the house. Now. Nobody does anything stupid. Nobody opens their mouths to cops or reporters.”
He nods and bolts along with Jasper.
I drag a hand down my face, fury eating me alive. Tonight, I lost Mara to her father’s leash, and now I’ve lost a brother to a blade.
Death at AGU is never random. If Asher Blackwood was taken out, someone orchestrated it. If it’s the Syndicate, fine, I’ll burn them for it. If it’s a wild card, that’s worse, because that means there’s a killer loose in our backyard.
TWENTY-SIX
JASPER
