Bass called an emergency meeting at four o’clock, and I assumed it involved the incident last night, but the Sigma Delts in my Econ class received the same text. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
I didn’t feel like sitting at the house alone, stewing in my anger over Lexi’s sudden appearance, so I loitered around campus to wait for my friends.
“With Satan in charge this year, it could be anything.” Gage plucked a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, the huge skull ring on his finger catching the sun. “But since the entire frat got a text, we can rule out it being any Lord business.”
“Give me one of those,” I demanded, jerking my chin toward his cigarette.
“You don’t smoke.” The cherry burned brighter and crackled as he took a drag. “I’m not contributing to your ruin.”
Stan would hate it if I started smoking. So would my mother. So would Lexi.
When we were kids, I stole a pack from the store and tried a few, thinking I was cool. Lexi flipped out and made me promise never to do it again.
I wanted to break that and every single other promise I’d ever made to her. “Give me a fucking cigarette before I take one.” The tips of my boots smacked into his as I glared.
Gage scrutinized me with a blank expression, his exterior too calm. “You don’t want to go there, Kill. Not with me.”
A dark grin twisted my lips. “Maybe I do.”
“Are you two about to fight?” Axel strolled up, his football bag thrown over his shoulder. “Do I need to separate you?”
Gage blew smoke over my head and took a measured step back. “All good, right, Kill?” He flicked the cherry off his cigarette and tossed the butt into a trash can. “Killian is just having a moment.”
“Does this have anything to do with that hot chick you were arguing with in Geology?”
My head jerked in Axel’s direction, catching his smirk. “What are you talking about?” Even though I knew. Lexi had always been gorgeous, but now she was smoking hot with curves and a mouth that had me thinking wicked, corrupt things.
“What hot chick?” Gage asked.
“She’s no one. I don’t even know her.” Heat crawled up my neck as the lie dropped from my mouth.
Axel scoffed as he dug in his bag and pulled out a protein bar. “Didn’t look that way to me. I was there, bro, on the other side of the room.”
Lexi had thrown me off so badly that I’d forgotten Axel was in that class.
I rubbed the center of my forehead as I tried to remain calm, but a rush of anxiety and anger battered my walls. “She’s just someone I used to know. A lifetime ago.”
Axel tore into the protein bar like a savage. “Is she the chick your tattoo is about?” He motioned to my chest.
Son of a bitch.
Axel was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for. He might pretend to be a dumb jock, but he was more observant than most.
“That tattoo isn’t about anyone,” I snapped as fiery rage pumped through my veins. If I weren’t careful, I’d end up in a fight with both my friends.
Gage silently studied me, probably connecting a hundred dots within seconds to form a picture I wanted to conceal.
“We'd better get to the house before we’re late,” he said, tossing his arm around my shoulders and forcing my stiff legs to move away from my roommate and best friend. “Come on, Vanderhart. I’ll let you eat my leftover pizza from Giovanna’s.”
The football player easily caught up to us, inhaling the rest of his protein bar. “Meat lovers?”
“Of course.” Gage tilted his head at the football player. “But only if you’re quiet.”
Axel cracked after only five minutes, so he didn’t get Gage’s pizza. Once we made it inside, we headed for the gathering room on the first floor where we held informal frat meetings. Brothers lounged on leather couches and chairs spanning the dark hardwoods. A painting of the monstrous gothic house hung above the marble fireplace while pictures of each year’s graduating class decorated the walls.
Small hints of the secret organization were hidden everywhere, like the snakes and knives carved into the mantel. A ram’s head sat between leather-bound tomes on a bookshelf, and a goat skull grinned ominously from a table in the corner.Fratres Super Omnia, brother’s above all, was painted on a wall. The same words were scrawled above the altar downstairs.
Not everyone in the frat knew what was hiding in the catacombs below the house. Rumors were whispered around Stonewall and Copper Cove, but only a select few Sigma Delta members were given the honor of joining the Serpents &Daggers. You didn’t get access to the underground until you finished initiation and pledged your life.
