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“Marcus Bailey having taste? That’s a good one.” Winter’s arctic cool tone perfectly fit her aesthetic. Despite her aloofness, I liked her. She leaned against the counter and gave me a rare smile. “Eve, nice performance. The cheer team missed out.”
“Yeah, thanks to my cousin,” Isabelle muttered beside me.
I had told her the whole story about Warner and Beckett and that night at the frat party. It had felt wrong to let her wonder who’d beat up her cousin when I knew. To my surprise and relief, she had taken my side. She already had a tenuous relationship with Warner, and thanks to finding out about that night, she disliked him even more. Warner had come clean about all of it, except for putting a roofie in my drink.
“Thanks, it was fun.”
Winter reached out for a drink, and her silver bracelet caught the light.
Isabelle fawned over it. The girl loved her jewelry. “That’s pretty! Where did you get it?”
Winter looked down at her wrist like she’d never seen the bracelet before. “It’s a family heirloom.”
“Pretty,” Isabelle repeated and reached out a finger to trace over the surface. “What does it say on it?”
“I don’t know,” Winter said dismissively. “Something Latin.”
“Is your brother here? I heard he’ll be joining the Hellions soon?” Selena cut in, clearly getting tired of not being the center of the conversation for a minute. She looked around the party with interest.
“Hmm, yes, he is. Still doesn’t mean he’ll be interested in you,” I snipped at her. What could I say? She just brought out the worst in me.
Winter’s pale-pink lips quirked, which she hid behind her hand. I had no idea why she put up with Selena.
“Speaking of Asher, I’m going to go and find him, back in a minute,” I said to Isabelle and waved a small goodbye to Winter.
I wove through the crowd. It wasn’t a big room, so it didn’t take terribly long to find Ash.
He was standing out of the balcony with the other Ice Gods, separate from the crush. I was about to push through the doors and join them when I caught my name.
“Are you sure that’s who roofied Eve?”
“Man, I’m sure. I poked into it, I checked…it was Selena.” Marcus swirled his bottle of beer, looking out at the view of New York.
“Why would Selena drug Eve? Just hoping something bad happened to her? That girl…” Ash said. Beck was staring broodily at the view, just listening.
“I don’t know. A favor to Jefferies? She seems mixed up in something and I have no idea what.” Marcus was tense, I couldtell by the stiff line of his shoulders. “Anyway, no need to worry about it now, Beckett won’t let anything happen to Eve.”
I was about to push the doors open the rest of the way and head out there when arms closed on me from behind.
“There you are!” Lily hugged me.
She still hadn’t gotten over the close call that had happened with Professor Jefferies. I’d told her the entire truth, and she’d stuck to my side ever since.
“Wanna get a drink?” she asked.
“Sure.”
That night, Beckett surprised me with a room upgrade to the penthouse suite. The view was incredible. I’d only been to New York City once before in my life, and now I was standing in front of floor-length windows, lights dazzling all around.
“This is amazing,” I muttered and pressed my nose to the glass.
“You’re amazing,” Beckett murmured, wrapping his arms around my middle and kissing my ear.
“What were you talking about earlier at the party? About Selena and Jefferies.”
“Don’t say that man’s name to me. It makes me want to go back and kill him instead of handing him over to the police.”
It was a sore subject, since Jefferies was proclaiming innocence of the attacks on the other girls. He was only taking responsibility for holding me at his house, and even then, sincehe’d been the most injured of all of us, his lawyer was playing it off as a fight gone bad. He’d had the audacity to claim that he didn’t know why I’d come over, like I was some student with a crush on her professor. Just the mention of the man’s name made Beckett angry.
