“So was I,” I mutter as I turn my attention back to Adrik. “Can we be done playing fucking games now?”
Adrik sighs. “Fine. I’m tired of this one anyway.”
“And I have to pee.” Bella hops down from the stone dais and stops to glare up at me. “Don’t be a dick…dick,” she mutters, poking me in the chest with her finger before she walks away.
“This is fun, Achilles.” Adrik smirks. “We should do it more often.” He pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, sticks one between his lips and lights it. “So, what’s the million-dollar question.”
“Two men were apprehended after breaking into the party at Kingsward Hall the other night.”
“That sounds like a campus safety issue, Achilles,” Adrik sighs, taking a drag of his smoke. Then his face crumples into a mock pout. “Andparty? I suppose my invitation must have been lost in the mail.”
“It wasn’t,” I say coldly.
Adrik chuckles and takes another puff.
“These guys we caught,” I continue. “They weren’t Knightsblood students. They were older, and they were found to be filming and photographing certain guests.”
Adrik cocks one brow. “Certain guests like your late-night jogging partner.”
I level a hard look at him.
Now we come to the crux of why I came here to talk to him tonight. When Ronan and some other Kildare guys were out disposing of the bodies from the cabin earlier, they noticed something I missed before.
“These guys had Volkov tattoos, Adrik,” I growl quietly.
He sits back in his throne again, kicking his long legs out and stroking an inked hand over his chin.
“The past tense suggests they either no longer have these tattoos or no longer have theirlives. Which is it?”
“You go to schoolhere, Adrik,” I hiss. “That makes you at least reasonably smart.” My mouth twists. “Missing anyone?”
His brow pinches. “Not that I’m aware of.”
He beckons me over, and I walk to the rubble dais and hand him my phone, opened to the pictures of the photos Ronan sent me earlier of the bodies.
After Adrik swipes through them, he shakes his head.
“I recognize them, but they didn't work for us. We absorbed a small crew, including them, about two years ago when we took over that small Bratva operation in New Jersey. But we cut most of those guys loose a year ago.” He shrugs as he hands the phone back to me. “So,no, Achilles. I wasn’t sending Volkov soldiers into your little frat party to take pictures of your girlfriend.”
Tension ripples in my jaw, but I quiet the roar inside.
Adrikfeedsoff your revealed emotions, like a poker player.
“Thanks for the help,” I mutter, turning to leave.
Adrik says nothing as I start to walk away. Suddenly he stops me.
“You really are one big happy, sharing family over at Para Bellum, aren’t you?”
The tension returns to my jaw. I try not to turn around, because he’s clearly baiting me again. But eventually I do, to see Adriksmiling that thin, cold, darkly predatory smile, pushing his fingers through his hair.
“Or is tradition for the new lord of Para Bellum to dip his pen into the same ink as his predecessor?”
Darkness flickers inside me.
“Excuse me?”
“Does that douchebag Kyle Santoroknowyou’re going on romantic evening strolls along the cliffs with his ex-girlfriend?”
