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It seemed so obvious to me in that moment. A guy like Clint was no match for someone like Cassian. He was too good. Too nice. Too reasonable. He wasn’t going to be willing to go to the lengths Cassian would to get what he wanted, and the only thing he’d accomplish was getting chewed up in the process.
I was about to pull Clint back when Cassian gripped his hand.
“Yeah,” Cassian’s voice was cool and calm, but those eyes of his still burned. “We can come to some kind of agreement.”
Clint nodded, making no effort to hide the relief washing over him. “I get it. Coming to your house was a dick move, but I hadn’t—”
Cassian moved toward me, silencing Clint, who watched in confusion. Cassian put his hand somewhere between my shoulder and neck. I went rigid. His hand was massive against me, and the gesture made no secret that he was in complete control. Of me. Of the situation. Even of Clint.
I had no choice but to be backed against one of the poster corners of the bed as he drove me backward with his iron grip on my shoulder. He stopped, bringing himself in close to me until our bodies were nearly touching—so close I could feel the heat pouring off his skin. So close I could smell him.
Involuntarily, I sucked in through my nose, hating how the scent of him made my heart race and my skin tingle. I looked past Cassian as well as I could, toward Clint.
Clint’s fists were balled, and he was clearly trying to decide what to do. I couldn’t even fault him for not immediately attacking Cassian or trying to rip him off me. Their encounter at Dead Ringers made it clear he was no match. And we were completely alone. There’d be no one to stop Cassian this time.
Cassian’s eyes danced across my features, almost lazily. When he spoke, it was so low I didn’t think Clint could hear. “If you care about it, you should try to hide it, Scarface.”
“Why is that?” I grated, mustering up as much defiance as I could, given the circumstances.
Every second ticked by like minutes, like we were all locked in his spell and frozen into inaction. Cassian was the king here, and we’d been the fools who wandered into his domain. God. Letting Clint convince me to bring him inside had been so stupid.
“You’re smarter than that. Figure it out for yourself.” He took a half step back, making me feel like I could finally breathe again. Without so much as glancing Clint’s way, he left the room. I heard his door close down the hall a few moments later.
Clint was shaking where he stood, fists clenched so tight his knuckles had gone white. He lowered his eyes when he saw me looking, then shook his head. “I’m sorry, I—”
I went to him and hugged him. “It’s okay.”
He was still trembling when he put his arms around me and hugged me back.
I closed my eyes and let my thoughts turn over what Cassian had said. Outside his suffocating aura, it wasn’t hard to piece it together.
I realized it would’ve been a mercy if he’d just told Clint to leave me alone or pay the price. Instead, he wanted me to do it. He wanted me to know anyone and everything I cared about was a target.We got to sit in the courtyard during biology class to “observe nature.” Judging by the way our teacher had dark sunglasses on and was sitting in the shade while staring at her phone, I took that to mean she was hungover or sick and wanted to take the day off.
I sat with Zoe and Marne on a stone bench in the sun. It was chilly, so the sunlight felt good on my skin. It made my scar tingle, but my hair had grown back a little more, which meant I was able to swoop my hair over it.
I caught Zoe and Marne staring at me. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“I just can’t believe you’re living in his house.” Zoe spoke with muted awe. “Like you got ready at Cassian Stone’s house this morning. What was it like?”
I rolled my eyes but did my best to explain. “There are like a million bathrooms, so I didn’t have to wait for anyone to get out of the shower. And I guess he’s got this sort of aura. It’s like you can almost feel when he’s near. When he walked by me in the hallway outside his room this morning, he didn’t even glance my way. It was like I was invisible.”
Zoe looked thoughtful. “That’s good, right?”
“I guess?”
Marne shook her head. “Not good. If you’re being hunted, you want to at least have eyes on the predator. You want to know where he’s planning to come from and how he’s going to attack. If he disappears into the shadows, you’re exposed. You’ve given up your neck to him.”
