Fists slammed into flesh, Ryker pummelling his opponent with a force that took even me by surprise, and I’d seen him in countless fights. I’d sparred against him myself plenty of times. But tonight, in the packed yard, he was on a mission. He’d been gone all day, skipping all his lectures. Probably Thorpe business.
I paced around the edge of the chain-link fence, looking for trouble. Although Whelford Uni students liked to sneer, saying we were their inferior rivals, that Cranham Uni was a prison full of criminals, they were more than happy to make use of our facilities. The yard was neutral territory, where disputes could be worked out diplomatically or, in Ry’s preferred way, with violence.
And sometimes, we just fought for fun. For money. That was what tonight’s fights were all about. There was a huge number of bets riding on this one. Ryker against Campbell, a huge, hulking brute from the Whelford Flames hockey team. We could only get away with so much on the ice. Out here, where the faculty turned a blind eye, thanks to theThorpes’ all-powerful reach, we could properly settle our disputes. Or in this case, to win bragging rights.
My phone buzzed, and I unlocked the screen to find a message from my sister.
Priya:
V’s been sniffing around the clinic again
The fucking Volkovs. Their syndicate had bankrolled my family’s business back when my dad was starting out, way before I was born. Although my dad had long since paid off the loans, both monetarily and via his services to the criminal underworld, the Volkovs remained involved, albeit on a superficial level. Every now and then, one of them would show up, hinting that we owed them and trying to guilt-trip my dad into doing something shady. It made my fucking blood boil.
I tapped out a quick message.
Me:
I’ll speak to King and Arson. See if they can put pressure on to get the Vs to back off
Priya:
Thanks
While I remember, can you check the accounts next time you’re in the clinic? I think Dad messed up the records again because some of the numbers don’t make sense
As good as my dad was with a surgical knife—he didn’t have the nickname “Scalpel” for nothing—his paperwork skills left something to be desired. It wouldn’t be the first or last time I’d had to go back through the records and correct discrepancies to reflect the actual numbers.
Me:
Will do
Pocketing my phone, I continued my circuit of the yard, nodding to acknowledge several of my teammates and classmates. My gaze was constantly scanning the crowd, looking for trouble.
A flash of blonde caught my eye.
Trouble.
Trouble that came with a fucking beautiful body and a feisty personality wrapped in an almost impenetrable ice princess exterior. As I watched, Nova ducked out of the yard, slipping away from the crowd and disappearing into the shadows. My feet were moving before I’d even made a conscious decision, following her silently, hugging the side of the building. The stone walls were cold and rough against my arm as I pressed deeper into the shadows.
Thanks to the intermittent security lighting, I was easily able to follow her progress, despite the fact that she’d pulled up her hood to hide her distinctive hair. She squeezed around the back of the building that housed the lecture halls, and—fuck. There was no way she’d managed to get throughthere. Was there?
The gap between the lecture building and the wall was small. Someone bulkier than me would never have managed to fit. Breathing in as much as I could, I shuffled sideways, angling my head to the side, my chest scraping against the building and my back dragging along the exterior wall. I could barely breathe, crushed between two solid surfaces. Where the fuck had Nova gone, and why would she even come down here?
I had my answer a few moments later, when my heel encountered air where there had been only solid wall.Contorting my body—thank fuck Coach Lazovsky had us doing all those hip flexor stretches—I worked my way into the gap, and then suddenly, I was on the other side of the wall.
Nova was nowhere to be seen. All I could see, in fact, was rolling hills, ancient stone walls, and distant trees, lit by the moonlight. Except…
I turned on my phone torch, pointing it at the ground.
Found you.
There was a steep drop in front of me, descending at least thirty feet. Following the faint depressions in the grass, I carefully made my way down until I reached a flatter part. Scanning the ground with my torch, I turned to my right, crested a small mound, and then it became clear. There was a dip that hadn’t been visible from above, and a subdued, yellow light was shining below me.
Making my way down and around the mound, I found myself in front of an ancient stone structure. The light was coming from the space between two huge, weathered upright stones. Another stone lay across the top, forming a semblance of a roof, and earth and grass were packed tightly around the stones.
Ducking my head and dropping into a crouch, I entered the tiny, scooped-out interior, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the dim light.
“Jay?” Nova’s eyes were huge and scared. Fucking hell, she had to know I would never?—
