It’s not like I’ve never kissed a guy before, but Blaze belongs to Pandora. It would feel too weird to kiss him, especially without her there to watch.
“That’s too bad. It’d be hot.” Pandora grins. “Like that time you two took me in the woods. Oh man, you and Asch should have kissed at the club. But maybe the hotness overload would have attracted more attention.”
I start to think about whether kissing Asch is any more appealing than kissing Blaze, but then I narrow my eyes. “You’re changing the subject on purpose.”
Not that I don’t think she actually wants to see us kiss, but I see what she’s doing.
“What subject? You’re the one distracting me from studying.” Pandora turns back to her tablet and taps to the next slide.
She has a notebook and pen next to her where she’s taking notes, exactly like she and Rachel always used to do.
“Have you made any progress?” I ask quietly, reaching out to grab the pen.
“No, because biochemistry is a bunch of memorization and you’re distracting me from studying.” Pandora tries to snatch the pen back, but I hold it away from her.
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it,” I tell her. “Rachel. Your best friend, remember?Ourfriend?”
Pandora’s fake smile drops away. “What progress is there to be made? She’s dead.”
I freeze.
What the hell.
“The whole reason you came here was to find out who killed her and pay them back,” I reply, unable to keep heat from seeping into my voice. “The whole reason I joined Kappa Alpha was to help you. You have all of those files. I thought you’d be working on it.”
“Yeah, well, we know who’s responsible. She ended up in the same place as Samantha.” Pandora taps on her tablet screen again. “God, I don’t care about the cleavage of some enzyme. It’s not even sexy cleavage.”
My grip tightens around the pen. “She’s not dead.”
“You think she’s in a landfill already?” Pandora keeps tapping and tapping on her tablet.
I’ve always known that Pandora isn’t like other women, and not in the cheesy way. She’s got issues that I can’t put words to, and there’s something about her that both draws people in and pushes them away all at once. But to hear her talk this coldly about both Rachel and another woman isn’t like the Pandora I know.
Guilt stabs at my gut. I’m partially responsible for this, for seeing her broken and in tatters.
“So what, you’re just going to give up now?” I demand. “You didn’t even know for sure they were involved when you—” I glance over my shoulder. No one’s around, but I lower my voice more anyway. “When the house caught on fire.”
“Who said anything about giving up?” Pandora flips her tablet screen-side down. “I’m being realistic. Samantha is probably dead. Her flowers have bled all over my kitchen table already.”
“How long has she been missing again?” I ask. I don’t know why I’m bothering. I’m not even an amateur sleuth, to investigate the situation and make sense of any clues. I could have the answers to every question in the world and still be helpless to do anything about it.
“She was gone when I got back from the gym,” Pandora says, and now her grin turns darker, colder. “Zayden had his fun with me, then he had his fun with her. Or the other way round.”
I grimace. “He wasn’t at the gym,” I tell her slowly. “Are you sure he took Samantha? Maybe she just left?”
“MaybeZaydenjust left,” Pandora counters. “After he told me he handed her off tosome guy. Some guy whose name he didn’t know.”
She’s whispering now, as aware as I am of potential eavesdroppers.
“He had to have known more than that,” I reply. Of course, she’d probably killed him before thinking too much about it, more determined to punish him than find out more information.
It’s been almost a month since the night at the gym.
Pandora’s probably right that she’s already dead.
“Well, if he knew, he’s not telling me. Zayden hates me.” Pandora taps her foot against my ankle. “Do you hate me, River?”
I should.
