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And I very much doubt he came up with the idea himself.
I manage to convince Athena to go back to the house with Jaxon. She doesn’t need to be at the hospital when Cayde’s father gets there, and she knows it, but it’s as hard as expected to convince her to leave. She wants to come with me—she’s too smart not to know where I’m headed if it’s not back to the house as well—but I tell her firmly to go with Jaxon. I can see in her face that she wants to fight, and the only thing that stops it from turning into an argument in the hospital hallway is Jaxon reminding her that she has a fight tomorrow night, and that she needs to get some rest.
That works, finally. She’s not pleased about it, but she goes. Which is saying something, because convincing Athena to do anything that isn’t her idea these days is pretty fucking difficult.
I laugh to myself as I watch them leave, heading for Jaxon’s bike as I go to my car, shaking my head. I would never have guessed it, but I like that Athena found her fighting spirit. Somewhere around the time the Sons tried to take her from us, when we brought her back, I realized that she was a lot more than the pet we thought we were given. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and under different circumstances, I might even have wanted to bring her with me to back me up.
But I need to handle this alone.
Our fathers really didn’t know what the fuck they were doing when they picked Athena to be the sacrifice.
It doesn’t take me long to figure out where Winter is. I have her phone tracked, unbeknownst to her, because there’s no way in hell after everything she’s pulled that I don’t want to know where she is at all times. I’d figured she had something up her sleeve.
I just didn’t think she’d get her brother to do her dirty work for her.
It’s a bit of a drive away from the hospital, but by the time I get to the mansion where the little dot on my map says she is, she hasn’t budged. I know exactly where I am—Eleanor Blackwood’s house, one of the richest girls at the school who isn’t Winter. The Blackwoods are an offshoot of the Blackmoor family, and while they don’t have any of the ranking or claim that the Blackmoors have, just money, they do their best to pretend that isn’t the case. They put on a lot of airs, but in the end, they’re just distant cousins.
Eleanor was probably seething with jealousy when Winter was supposed to marry me. And now that the engagement is off—if Winter has even admitted it—she’s probably thrilled to pieces. I’m surprised their friendship survived it, to be honest.
I ring the doorbell, like a gentleman. I could bang on the door, like Cayde probably would, or try to find an open window to sneak through like Jaxon certainly would, but I’m nothing if not polite. Winter is going to get the best side of me, right up until she realizes I know, and then I’m going to show her the worst. She thinks she’s seen it already, but she definitely hasn’t.
I’m not sure anyone has. But I’m through with these fucking games, and I’m through with people I care about getting hurt.
Eleanor is the one who answers the door, and she looks utterly shocked and not entirely pleased to see me. That tells me immediately that Winterhasadmitted our engagement is off—which surprises the hell out of me.More likely, it got out without her meaning for it to.I can’t imagine that she would admit defeat that easily.
However it got out, Eleanor probably thinks I’m here to try to win her back, and is ready to go right back to being green-eyed and jealous as fuck of Winter.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
“I’m here to see Winter,” I tell her calmly, and I see her expression turn even more sullen. “Can you go and get her for me, please?”
“We’re having a girls’ night.” Eleanor purses her lips at me. “No boys allowed.”
“Good thing I’m a grown man then,” I tell her as pleasantly as I can manage. “Winter, please.”
Eleanor looks at me darkly. “I’m not some servant for you to order around—”
“You’re a Blackwood. Which means you are, in fact, below me in the pecking order of this town. And if I happened to mention to the wrong person that you kept me here on the porch, arguing with me when I asked you politely—”
“What the fuck is going on?”
Winter appears behind Eleanor, her flame-red hair knotted on top of her head in a bun, a look that isn’t particularly flattering even on someone as stunningly beautiful as she always has been. Still, beauty doesn’t make up for being rotten on the inside, and Winter, I’ve learned, is as spoiled and rotten as they come.
I’m so fucking glad I didn’t agree to marry her.
“He just showed up,” Eleanor starts to complain, turning towards her friend, and I take that opportunity to step into the open doorway, grabbing Winter hard by the elbow and dragging her out onto the porch.
“You can’t—” Eleanor starts to yelp, but I grab the door handle with my other hand, bodily knocking her back with the door itself as I yank it shut.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Winter snaps as I drag her down the porch, intending to pull her around to one side of the mansion where no one passing by will be able to get a good look or listen in on our conversation.
“Ah yes. I always did think you had a filthy mouth.” I haul her behind me, ignoring her yelps of pain as my fingers dig into her elbow. “I looked forward to showing you what it was really good for, at one point. But now I don’t think I’d let you near my cock with a ten foot pole.”
“I’d fucking bite it off,” Winter spits, looking at me with blue eyes glinting with rage.
“Oh, I believe it,” I agree. “Just one of the many reasons I called off our engagement.”
“You humiliated me—”
