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I tried to push aside the guilt I felt at lashing out at Eve. She must have known I’d never want her to be in contact with Colette, never mind meeting with her behind my back, taking her dirty hush money and hiding it from me. Fury replaced the bleak emptiness in my chest. There, that felt much better. Letting myself fall into disappointment and anger was like a homecoming. This was my natural state. This was where I belonged. Alone and angry at the world.
It had been a mistake to think I could ever be anything else.
I woke to the sound of knocking at the door. It was Marcus. His face was a closed mask as he jerked his head toward the front door. “Someone’s here for Eve.”
“She’s not here.”
“You can tell him that.” Marcus walked away.
He was pissed at me, clearly. I got it. I was pissed at myself.
One of the dorm RAs was standing in the doorway. He gave me a quick smile at my approach.
“I was looking for Eve Martino?”
“She’s not here. Leave your message with me and I’ll deliver it,” I told him, curt even though I wasn’t trying to be.
“Well, I’m just here to let her know that a space has opened up in her original dorm. Lisa from the Housing Office called meand filled me on the situation. I swear, they make a mess of someone’s housing every year around here. Anyway, Lisa was insistent that Eve be informed. Honestly, I didn’t even know a girl was staying here.”
“She doesn’t need the room. She already has one.” The words left me before I could stop them.
The RA blinked at me. “Excuse me?”
“There’s a Martino room right here, in apartment seven. She doesn’t need another room.”
“Yeah, but this is the Hellions’ dorm, you know, so…she’s not a Hellion.” The RA was starting to sweat.
I simply shrugged. “Not my problem. Send anyone that has a problem with it to me. I’ll speak to them myself, including Dean Eastwood. Otherwise, give the room to someone else, got it? Eve Martino lives here.”
I shut the door in his face and leaned against it, pinching the bridge of my nose tightly. My head ached from not sleeping.
Marcus was watching me from the kitchen. “Did you just insist that Eve stays here? You, the guy who packed all her stuff up yesterday and kicked her out of the room?”
“Yep.”
“So…you want her to move out or not?”
Not.
“I don’t know, Bailey. Leave me the fuck alone,” I muttered to him.
He rolled his eyes at me and slammed the fridge door shut, walking away.
“Gladly.”
My father called out of the blue just before lunch and insisted I meet with him. Since my phone was still off, he’d managed to call Cayden, who had knocked on my door and handed over the phone, silent judgment for the night before in his eyes. I could barely meet his gaze. Cayden and I were close, since he’d lived in the pool house at Cliff Point for a few months at the end of senior year, and also because the Ice Gods had helped him overcome his problematic former foster father. Well, we’d tried to help, at least. The results of that were a secret that would bind all of us for the rest of our lives. We were close, and because of that, I could feel his disapproval. It was just another tally to add against my name.
You’re broken, Beck. Beyond saving. No one will ever want you.
I wouldn’t go to Cliff Point, so instead, my father invited me to the club. The whole way there, I wondered if Eve would be working. I wanted her to be there and dreaded it at the same time. My anger had burned white-hot but was fading fast.
I missed her already.
I headed into The Dunes and didn’t see her, but then my father had requested a private dining room for our meeting, which wasn’t like him at all. He usually avoided being alone with me.
He was already waiting inside. A flicker of nerves ran through me. Did he somehow know I’d bought drugs last night? I hadn’teven taken them, but just that simple fact would be enough for Soren to get me kicked off the hockey team, I was sure of it. He’d want to prove a point.
He waved me in when I opened the door.
