She wasn’t his anything. She wasmine.
Mine to break until she ran screaming from Stonewall University.
But deep down, I didn’t want her to leave. I wanted to watch her fall apart, shatter into a million pieces, and then crawl on her hands and knees right to me.
That was the sick truth. And I’d never admit it out loud.
“Micah, don’t do it.” Her eyes narrowed into slits, the blue searing between her dark lashes. “He’s just pissed at me and taking it out on you.”
“Uh, you two know each other?” Micah’s hand stalled on the hem of his shirt. He searched for another frat brother who might offer help, but they all knew better than to go against me.
A cloud of pungent perfume hit my senses before a hand wrapped around my arm.
“Lexi, is it?” Lorelei had the nerve to try to draw me away, but my boots remained cemented to the floor. “You have no business interfering in the order of things here. Killian is a Sigma Delta, and I’m a Zeta. If we command one of our own to do something, no outsider can meddle.”
“I couldn’t care less who you are.” Lexi barely spared the blonde glued to my side a glance. “Why are you even involved in this conversation?”
Lorelei scoffed and rested her fingertips on her chest, offended. “Why don’t you go back to the poorhouse, charity case? We all know you’re only here because of a scholarship.”
A flush pooled in Lexi’s cheeks, but instead of running away with her tail between her legs like all the other girls around here, she lifted her chin. “I got into Stonewall on my own merit instead of mommy and daddy’s checkbook. Maybe try it sometime.”
“You knownothingabout me?—”
“I’m not ashamed of everything I’ve accomplished,” Lexi continued, ignoring Lorelei’s sputtering. “You, on the other hand, might want to consider cracking open a textbook, or you’ll just become a trophy wife who gets traded in for a newer model after ten years.”
While Lorelei’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, it took every ounce of control I possessed not to give Lexi a round of applause. My former best friend never had a problem standing up to bullies at school.
She was always the strong one.
Always.
Not like me.
“Now, if you don’t mind, I need to speak with Killian alone.” Lexi grabbed my other arm and towed me away, forcing Lorelei to relinquish her clawed hold.
“Where are we going?” I asked, watching her ass as she stormed across the crowded room.
“Somewhere more private,” she hissed.
Lexi dragged me–I let her–around the corner and into an empty alcove. She pushed me against a wall, shoving her finger into my chest as if that would scare me.
“Leave Micah alone, Kill. I mean it.”
The humor evaporated when she spoke his name, and my body grew as rigid as marble. “Or what, Red?” I snatched her shoulders, flipped our positions, and pressed her into the wall, towering over her tiny frame. “Are you going to spout lies aboutmethis time?”
The words tasted like acid the second they left my mouth.
Her lashes fluttered, and the color drained from her cheeks. “That’s not what happened, and you know it.” Her voice, barely above a whisper, hit the minute space between us. Daggers twisted my heart from her betrayal all those years ago.
I jammed my fingers through my hair as tremors raced through my muscles. Fuck. Why did I have to bring that up?
Her hand rested on my arm as she stared up at me with those baby blues that had once been capable of making me do anything. “You wouldn’t listen, and?—”
A low growl vibrated my throat, and I jerked her hand off. “Who the fuck said you could touch me?”
Most girls shrank when I cornered them; Lexi Vega just shoved her chin up like she wanted the fight. She had the audacity to look hurt for a second, but it quickly transformed into fury. “Don’t take your anger out on Micah. Leave him alone. You have a problem, take it up with me.”
“No can do, sweetheart.” I braced my hands on the wall beside her head, trapping her. “When a pledge breaks the rules, he has to pay the price. And that price is for him to strip and retrieve his shirt.”
