I want to apologize as soon as the words are out.
I don’t think of Asch as asubordinate.
But I know that’ll hurt him. I know it’ll make him finally give up and leave me and Pandora alone.
Asch lets out a harsh laugh, but I can see from his expression that I’ve wounded him. “Not your subordinate anymore, Bouchard.” He glances at Pandora, and while I think he’s about to say something, he turns and walks away instead.
My fists itch with the need to lash out.
Pandora lets out a short whistle. “Wow. Trouble in paradise, huh?” She grins at me. “Looks like my job will be easier than expected.”
There’s a fork on a table, and I imagine taking it and stabbing Pandora’s thigh or neck or eye.
But Asch was right that people are staring. Several of them have their phones out. I can get away with a lot at this university, but assaulting a woman in public isn’t one of them.
I storm away from her.
The entire way back to the house, I have this awful sensation of my heart getting ripped to shreds.
8
PANDORA
“So this is my dorm,” I tell Anastasia Voronkov as I lead her inside. “You can have my roommate’s bed.”
Anastasia sets her guitar case down near the kitchen table. Her gaze lands on the dried up dahlias on the table, before she goes to peer into Samantha’s room. “Your roommate isn’t here?”
“Nope!” I answer cheerfully. “She probably got murdered or something.”
“Just as long as she didn’t get murdered in her bed. I’m not a fan of ghosts,” Anastasia says. She eyes me. “Seriously, though, Pandora. What the hell is going on?”
I sit down at the kitchen table and give Anastasia a thorough once-over. Long red hair, about my height, and she only wears light makeup when she bothers at all. Her black peasant-style shirt is off the shoulder, and her jeans are tight enough to be interesting without being excessively so.
She might be the Voronkovs’ oldest, but that doesn’t mean she really understands the reality of what her parents—myparents—do. Kratos has a massive crush on her, but again, that doesn’t mean anything.
Anastasia is the only person I know who does all this computer hacking stuff, though, and I know I can trust her not to rat me out to anyone. She wouldn’t even tell my brothers.
She quirks a brow at me when I don’t immediately answer. “Or you could leave me in the dark and give me no hints whatsoever,” she says, deadpan. “That’s always good, too.”
“I’m thinking!” I say. “I don’t really know what’s going on with my roommate. That’s why I agreed to let you stay here.”
Anastasia raises a brow. “Let me? You practically begged me.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I sit up properly. “Samantha’s tablet is still here. I want to see what she’s got on it. Maybe there’s clues about where she disappeared to. And then I’ve got another, probably way harder to crack device. I hope you brought your whole hacking kit.”
“It won’t be as easy as on my computer at home,” she says, “but I’ll see what I can do.” She pulls out her laptop and sets it on the kitchen table. “Let’s do this.”
I grab the tablet and the hard drive and hand both of them to her. Anastasia connects the hard drive to the laptop, and I purse my lips.
“Isn’t that dangerous? Just connecting it like that,” I ask. I’d done it, of course, but it’s not like I cared about anything that was on my tablet.
“I have it isolated on its own virtual machine so that…” She glances up at me. “Never mind. I’m using protection. Don’t worry,Mom.”
I grin and ruffle her hair. “Oooh, you do have a few jokes in you.”
It’s easy to forget she’s two years younger than I am, especially when she’s all business, but the way she wrinkles her nose at me reminds me of Mel.
I’d never ask Mel to do anything like this.
