Page 516 of Lessons in Cruelty

Kai destroyed everything.

“There’s my sweet girl.”

I whirl around, jerking in shock as Bastian steps out of the shadows behind the door. Sharp panic spears through me when we lock eyes.

He smirks and tilts his head as he gives me a slow once-over.

Despite my hangover, despite my exhaustion, every hair on my body stands on end like they’re applauding the jump scare he just gave me.

Well, fuck.

Either this is one big coincidence, or he’s been waiting for me.

Which means…my professor is stalking me.

I immediately doubt myself because…really?

But then he slides his hand over the wood and silently closes the door.

“You can try to run from me,” he murmurs, his eyes sliding down to my bare legs and working their way slowly back up. “You can even try to hide.”

I retreat when he advances on me, taking barely three steps before I crash into the nightstand.

“But this is always how it will end, girl. You, with me.”

Chapter 64

Bastian

I flick my finger against the bright yellow police tape barring Haven’s room. The dean sent an update to all faculty members early this morning, informing them of last night’s break-in at the Gamma Alpha Zeta house.

Whilst I was glad my curiosity was finally sated, the explanation didn’t sit well with me. I kept wondering why Haven was booking it from the scene of a crime last night.

Not exactly the actions of an innocent person.

That she disappeared inside Kai’s frat house made me even more suspicious.

I spent most of the evening trying to convince myself not to come down here again. Curiosity clawed at me the whole night, forcing me to toss and turn when all I wanted was a decent night’s sleep.

Instead, I snorted coke at thirty-minute intervals and wrote a scathing letter to my mother I know I’ll never send.

I’ve written her stacks over the years.

It’s supposed to be cathartic, but it only ever feels like digging up a corpse and taking a good hard whiff.

Fuck knows why I still do it.

When the sun rose, and I was still awake, still wired, still desperate to know what the hell the cops were doing outside this sorority house last night…I forced myself not to drive over here.

Instead, I took a shower, got dressed in chinos and a black cashmere shirt, and prepared next week’s lecture. I already have notes from the previous year’s classes, but there’s always room for improvement.

Things were going so well for me.

Then I got that message from the dean about the break-in.

Next thing I know, I’m in my Tesla, flying down Earl Avenue at sixty miles an hour, nauseated by the gasoline backdrip of a fresh line of coke.

I thought I’d be walking into a sorority house filled with anxious girls and annoyed security, but when I let myself in the back door after no one answered my knock, I found the place empty.