Page 69 of Five

“It’s not a threat.”

“Wasn’t taken as one. What. Do. You. Want?”

“What we both want,” he says, panning his hands wide. “Peace.”

I raise one annoyed eyebrow.

“I can help you,” he says.

“I doubt that.”

“Sit,” he says. Like this is his apartment and not mine.

I don’t sit.

Wen shrugs, walks over to me, pours himself a drink using the same decanter I just set down, and sips the Scotch. “It’s good.”

“It’s a rare Macallan. It should be.”

“Have one,” he says. Again, like this is his whiskey to offer.

“I’ll pass, thanks.”

Wen shrugs, takes another sip, and then returns to the window, his back to me. “Your princess is in trouble.”

I want to kill him. Right now.

“But it can be fixed,” he says, glancing over his shoulder.

“I’m not going to ask again—”

“I want,” he says, cutting me off, “your help. And a promise.”

“In exchange for what?”

“Plans, Mr. Aston. Their plans. For her. They’re very close. She’s at a party tonight, in fact. So far away from you. Five. But I have men watching closely.”

“And let me guess, she’ll be fine, but only if I give you what you came for.”

“That would be… sophomoric.” He laughs. “No. Tonight’s security is complimentary. But one week from tonight she has another event. Eat Meet?” He says it like a question. “Something particular to Princeton, I think? I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s important she not go.”

“I can take care of that.”

“No, Mr. Aston, you can’t. You’re the reason they want her.”

I stare at him. And everything I thought I could prevent from happening is suddenly happening.

“But I have a plan. Your grandfather was already on board. That’s why he asked you to bring him that code last summer. All you have to do is say yes to my offer—the same offer he said yes to before they killed him—and things will be right in the world again. So what do you say?” he asks. “Will we be able to make a deal tonight?”

I grab the bottle of Scotch, pour myself a healthy four fingers, and meet him at the window. “Lay it on me, then.”

So he does.

And nothing that comes out of that man’s mouth has anything to do with saving Rory.

Chapter Twenty - Rory

The main dining hall has been transformed. Tera and I tried to get a look at the dining hall last year for Pledge Night, but we were foiled by last year’s president and quickly admonished and whisked away. But I did get a glimpse of the light sparkling off the chandeliers, and tonight, as I walk through the doors, that’s the first thing I notice.