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Nevertheless, it was the Careful that still haunted my memory.

Something inside me was eagerly waiting for the guy to turn his head and look around campus. Something idiotic inside me wanted our eyes to meet, like they had that evening. And something wanted exactly that not to happen. For him not to notice me. For his eyes not to have that gleam. For them to be empty and hateful. Something inside me wanted him not to be that man from the first second in that dimly lit corridor.

Nothing came close to the actual moment when his head froze, his gaze locked on me, and he stared at me with a fixed expression on his face.

No gleam in his eyes. But no emptiness either. Instead, it was tension that settled between us. A tension that grew heavier with every second, while the goose bumps on my back threatened to eat into my body and throw me off balance.

It was as if I could... feel him.

It wasn't just an exchange of glances. It was a battle. But I couldn't tell if he wanted to destroy me or penetrate me, and if the latter was a bad thing.

Nash and the others turned to Miles, Mady, and me, and while Nash's expression seemed to slip away completely, the others' darkened, and they began to talk.

Kieran's jaw began to move almost imperceptibly as he listened to Noah, but he continued to stare at me, even though the tension seemed to be taking a new direction.

It was now clear what he wanted.

For me to get out of here.

“Ooh, oh, Mady,” Miles tweeted playfully beside me. “Your ex doesn’t seem to like you standing with us.”

My brother seemed to have missed the exchange of glances between me and this Senseque.

“I was just about to…” Mady began, already turning away from us, but I pulled her back without breaking eye contact with the Copeland pack.

“Stay here,” I murmured seriously, without taking my eyes off the Senseque. “What your ex thinks is his problem.” I met Nash’s tense expression and mirrored it. “Not yours.”

Nash was about to break out of his stupor with clenched fists, but Emely grabbed his forearm.

All the Senseque – except for Emely, who seemed a little spaced out – looked like they wanted to see us six feet under, and this Kieran Wheeler guy gave the impression that he wanted to make sure we went through hell first.

And suddenly I knew that I had to stay away from him. Definitely.

“What do you think someone like that studies?” Miles laughed, as if we weren't being destroyed by their glares.

Even the others on campus looked between the Copelands and us, and I had the feeling that Mady was uncomfortable, even though she didn't show it.

“He's a computer science master's student,” she said beside me, and I let go of her arm, hoping she wouldn't leave. “And part of the Vanderwood IT security team.”

Of course he was also one of the smart ones.

What was next?

“He also developed his own security system and sold it to Microsoft less than a year ago, on his twenty-fourth birthday.”

This time it was my jaw that clenched, but unfortunately, the passive-aggressive gangster guy didn't notice because Hunter turned Nash around before Harry Jones, Hunter's older brother – if I remembered correctly – patted Kieran on the shoulder and turned him away from us as well.

“How do you know so much about this guy?” Miles asked in astonishment beside me, turning to Mady.

“He's in my brother's year.”

That was when I turned remorsefully to Mady.

The breaking in her voice managed to distract me from recent events, reminding me that there was a killer on the loose in this town, taking people's lives at random.

“Fuck, Mady,” I whispered, eying the girl in front of me.

She was no longer the Mady with the cute floral dresses, thick black hair, and emerald-green eyes sparkling with the joy of life.