Page 156 of Lessons in Cruelty

Also, she shouldn’t even be here.

I mean, fuck it, I almost strangled her to death on Tuesday. That should have sent her scampering back to Ashwood with her tail between her legs.

I’m close enough for her to look over my way and see me, so I flatten myself against the side of the GAZ house, trying to become one with the shadows.

Haven hops out of the Land Rover, her mousy brown hair bobbing on her shoulders. It’s wild, like she was rolling around on someone’s bed. And her dress is creased, which just kinda cements the whole fucking scenario in my mind.

Then Professor Rooke appears, and it’s goddamn crystal clear what the fuck happened.

She fucked him.

She fucking fucked him.

A jolt of adrenaline shoots through me, my heart feeling like it wants to seize up.

I hear the odd word as she speaks to Rooke.

“…driving…keep up…crashed into…”

I plow through a row of cute little flowers as I inch along the wall, trying to get closer without being spotted.

“…make me regret this,” he says.

There’s a fucking bougainvillea in my way, but I part just enough leaves so I can see the two of them through it. Haven is holding out something to Rooke, but he pushes her hand away, closing her fingers over whatever she was offering.

Car keys? Money?

Why the fuck wouldn’t he pay a whore for sex?

The fury that hits me is almost physical. I tear out a handful of leaves as my hand clenches.

She’s mine to destroy. Not his to fuck.

“Finally. I’ve been waiting forever.” Melissa flicks her hair back as she descends the porch steps of the GAZ house.

Rooke quickly takes his hand off of Haven’s. She lowers hers a little slower, frowning at him as he turns to Melissa.

I have to force air back into my lungs.

Nuh-uh. I’m way too high for this shit.

That touch was intimate.

Fuck this shit.

I step around the shrub and onto the curb, coming up behind Haven and Rooke. Haven’s the first to feel a disturbance in the force, glancing over her shoulder and then giving me a stunned double-take.

“Would have been here sooner, but we had to stop to change a flat,” Bastian’s saying, but Haven’s eyes are locked to mine. “Didn’t we, Miss Lee? Miss Lee?”

She blinks, shaking her head as if she’s coming out of a trance. “Y-Yes, Professor, Sir. Um…”

“Hey, Parker. Don’t we have that meeting now?” I ask as I step up beside them.

Rooke, the fucking psycho, barely flinches when he sees me. But he’s pretty fucking quick to take a step away from Haven.

Yeah, you’d better back up, you motherfucking cunt.

Melissa sends me a cool glance. I don’t know her that well, but she seems pissed about something. But like just about everyone in college, she doesn’t dare let Rooke see.