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Hawk had tried to play it off. He’d tried to move on with other topics of conversation, but regardless, I could tell he’d been more rattled by it than he’d admitted.
I was determined to find out why.
TWENTY-FIVE
hawk
I returnedto my office in bewilderment. My mind raced. Tonight had gone so much better than I’d hoped for. Dancing with Ella, kissing Ella…
She was enticing and sweet. She was a sugar rush to my bloodstream.
One thing plagued me the entire ride up the elevator, however: I couldn’t stop thinking about her stepsister.
I hadn’t wanted to admit anything to Ella, not until I knew for sure—but it sounded as though her stepsister’s warning to stay away from me had something to do with The Pact.
I was pretty sure I’d never heard of Priscilla Malus before. In fact, IknewI’d never met her. Heck, I’d only just spoken with her mother, Stina, in person in what was a handful of times since word of the stolen items had spread.
How could Pris know anything so personal aboutme?
As far as I knew, the only people who knew about The Pact were those of us who’d made it.
If only I’d known about her ulterior motive when she’d attacked Ella back in the ballroom. Before I’d had her escorted from the building, I would have taken a few minutes to corner her. To ask her how she even knew about The Pact in the first place.
Ignoring the sudden tiredness sweeping over my eyes, I stalked into my office and went straight to my desk drawer. Pulling it open, I swiped up the card I’d stashed in there after returning from Montana.
I hadn’t given this little greeting much thought since I’d found it under my plate at the rehearsal dinner, but I skimmed over the handwritten message again.
Bad things happen to those who go back on their promises.
I fanned the card a few times and stared at my Christmas tree, thoughts spinning. Pris couldn’t have had anything to do with these warnings the guys and I had gotten at the wedding, could she? As far as I knew, she didn’t know Adrian or Gabby either.
The Pact had been a fleeting college thing, something we’d all signed and agreed to because we’d wanted to stay in the fraternity.
Rolling my chair out from where it’d been tucked beneath my desk, I sank onto it. The tree’s lights created golden fireflies in my periphery.
I’d been so flippant during college, so lightminded. It wasn’t until Dad retired early and left me his business that I’d started to take life a little more seriously.
That was how The Pact had been for a lot of the guys. None of us had really stuck to it as much as we’d pledged to.
For Adrian, it’d been a refuge after a bad breakup. For River, Grey, even Maddox, it’d been the source of financial support.
For me? I’d signed it because I’d had no intentions of marrying whatsoever. Adrian had become my best friend. He’d signed it, so I did, too. I hadn’t put much stock into it.
And even among those who had, none of us had intended to allow The Pact to control our lives.
Except Will.
I tapped a corner of the card against my desk as memories washed over me.
Will had been my roommate when I’d first joined Sigma Phi Rho. I’d heard all about his bitterness and reasons for why he’d signed The Pact. He’d broken up with the girl he loved for the sake of The Pact. Then she’d died before either of them had graduated.
As the fraternity’s social chair, he’d taken it upon himself to ensure we all stuck to our word during the events and gatherings he’d arranged. Making the rest of us adhere to it had been his own form of vengeance for a broken heart.
Apparently, he got a little psycho against those who didn’t follow to a T.
I hadn’t been at the frat the day Grey had backed out of The Pact, but I’d heard about it.
Will had lost his mind.
