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“No, but I’ve seen him drink it black. I don’t think he’s picky.”
“Perfect. Thank you,” I text back, then I tuck my phone away since I’m next in line.
I order two coffees and take a seat at the picnic table. I check my iPad again to see where my phone is, but unsurprisingly, it has gone offline.
I probably pushed it with the second ping, but the idea that I was tormenting one of my tormentors right back made it a feel-good button. It’s only because I have any self-control at all that I was able to keep from pressing it every two minutes during class.
I take the burner out and shoot a quick text to Killian updating him about my phone.
“That’s fine,” he texts back. “I’ve already put out feelers. We’ll find someone who was in that 10:30 class with him, and as soon as we do, we’ll know which one of them has your phone.”
“What does Ryan look like, by the way? I should probably see a picture so I’ll know it’s him.”
Killian must be walking to class—or maybe finding a picture of his friend—because he doesn’t respond right away. I close the message and instinctively take a look around, but I don’t see any glaringly menacing men in the vicinity. Since we’re between classes, there’s a lot of movement in the courtyard. Lots of students making their way to their 12 o’clock class, some probably hustling since they have to come from the other side of campus.
That will be me tomorrow rushing from my humanities class in one building to physics in another.
“This for me? How thoughtful.”
My gaze snaps to the hand of the man grabbing the extra coffee I bought off the picnic table, but without having met Ryan, I know it isn’t him.
It can’t be, because I’ve heard that voice before.
My brain already knows, but I turn my head to look up at him for verification anyway.
And sure enough, the man taking a sip of the hot coffee isn’t Ryan.
It’s Aiden.
Chapter Seventeen
Brynn
My brain registers danger and my body knows how to respond to it—by throwing my hot coffee in his face and running—but for some inexplicable reason, I’m frozen and I can’t move at all.
Aiden steps up on the bench of the picnic table, then turns and takes a seat on the tabletop so he can look down at me while also keeping an eye on the foot traffic coming up behind me.
“Miss me?”
“No.”
He cocks a dark eyebrow as if in surprise. “Really? You paged me three times. I thought for sure that meant you missed me.”
My stomach bottoms out when he takes a phone out of his pocket and I recognize my case. Gasping, I grab it right out of his hands. “My phone.”
“Mm-hmm. I charged it for you, too.”
I stop short of hugging the thing, but just barely. Instead, I look back at Aiden. He’s slippery and can’t be trusted; I need to keep my eye on him.
“Am I supposed to thank you?” I ask with acerbic sweetness.
He smiles, and I see the memory of that night dancing in his dark eyes. “Sure. I can think of a few ways I’d let you thank me, but I think your Blue Blood boyfriend might take issue with all of them.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I state, since Killian’s advice about this was basically to play dumb. “I don’t know any Blue Bloods.”
“Oh, sure you do. I’ve clocked you hanging out with at least two of them. Actually, I’m guessing three and Shane’s one too, since he beat Hex to your apartment last night.”
Only his friends call him Hex is right on the tip of my tongue, but it’s not worth taunting Aiden to express any kind of familiarity.
