Shit.
I didn’t expect Pandora to go back to the frat house.
Between moving to the off-campus house, dealing with the aftermath of the fire, getting rid of Zayden’s head, and suddenly being in charge of the fraternity—oh, and also having my own classes to think about—I haven’t had time to do a thorough clean up.
I didn’t think anyone would find the secret room, not before reconstruction began.
I glance down at my bare chest, bandaged up to cover the cut Pandora had given me. It itches, but I know better than to touch the bandaging.
“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” River asks as he crosses the living room. He stops short of the kitchen to stare at me.
I flip him off and settle myself more firmly on the couch. “Because it’s itching. Shouldn’t you know all about that?”
His expression darkens. “Don’t be a dick,” he mutters before heading on to the kitchen.
“Same to you.” I flip through more streaming shows, still unable to decide what to watch.
I keep thinking about Pandora.
How much had she seen down there? I hadn’t noticed anything out of place, but that doesn’t mean anything. And with River and Asch there, I couldn’t go through the drawers to check the contents, either. Not that I’d had my key with me.
I don’t have the key at all anymore. It had been in my room during the fire.
Fucking hell.
I hear River and Asch talking in the kitchen, whispering in low voices. About me? About Pandora?
Maybe it’s about something stupid, like how we need to stock up the fridge. If they want more groceries, they can go out and buy stuff themselves instead of waiting for me to put in a delivery order.
Asch is first back in the living room, carrying some cheese and crackers that he must’ve fished out of the fridge and pantry. “Here,” he says, crossing the room to me. “Something to eat. You haven’t had anything all day.”
River follows on his heels, and his expression is more guarded.
“I had breakfast,” I point out, but I take the snacks Asch brought.
River looks at my plate, down at his own, then holds it out. “You want some salami, too?”
I shake my head. “No. I’m vegetarian.”
I see the surprise in his expression, but he only shrugs. “Suit yourself.” River heads for the armchair, sitting down in it. “So are you going to tell us what that room was for?”
My eyes flicker over to Asch.
He’s not supposed to know about any of it. Asch has darkness inside him, but he isn’t like me.
He isn’t even like River.
Asch wants to live in a nice, kind world.
“Just frat stuff,” I answer. “It’s where we held the accounting meetings and all that.” I groan. “Shit. If I’m taking over for Zayden, I need to find a new treasurer.”
“You never told me about secret accounting meetings in a hidden room in the basement,” Asch says flatly. He sits down, too, but on the edge of the couch like he’s about to get back up if I say the wrong thing. “Which sounds ridiculous, by the way.”
I shrug. “We had other stuff in there. All the background checks we did on pledges. Years of accounting data. We were protecting everyone’s privacy.”
Like all the blackmail material we’d collected on everyone over the years. Decades worth of shameful family secrets, skeletons in closets, secret fetishes that nobody could ever find out about.
And it was where we’d interviewed the girls who would make enticing presents for Kappa Alpha alumni. If we needed to open doors, and we knew of somebody’s interests…
