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Making plans to see each other again? Him begging her not to go, to not leave him?
Fuck, I’m so jealous. We’re all so fucking jealous.
Rosalind shakes her head and steps back away from Cohen. The four of us let out a collective breath as his hands finally stop touching her, pushing into the front pockets of his navy pants.
My phone buzzes again.
I ignore it again, in favor of drinking in the last few moments of Rosalind Sweeney at Septem Stellae, in favor of letting myself feel the pain of being separated from her. The dull ache in my chest that I’ve felt since I called in our favor, since I told her to withdraw from SSU, grows and grows until it’s nearly unbearable.
My phone stops ringing as Rosalind moves away from Cohen, climbs the steps on the bus without looking over her shoulder, back straight, chin high. Yeah, I’ll be lucky if that girl ever gives me the time of day again.
We all stand there, watching until the bus pulls away. I feel like she’s taking part of me with her. Like something necessary for me to live is sitting on the seat next to her.Ridiculous. I push that feeling away, along with my self-disgust and anger. It won’t help.
I glance at Hardin farthest away from me, like he needs the space, or he’ll try to beat the shit out of me again. My jaw still aches where he hit me. I deserved it, and I’m lucky he didn’t do a hell of a lot worse. He could have. He could have torn me limb from limb, and I would have let him, but he knows me well enough to know I wouldn’t have done this if there was another option.
Even if we all hate it.
“She’ll be safe now,” I murmur, trying to reassure myself and them. “I spoke with the dean of admissions at Yale. He’s going to open a spot for her there. She’ll be on the other side of the country from us, which will be a good thing, closer to her sister in London. She’s going to be fine.”
Hardin’s jaw clenches, but he doesn’t answer me. Doesn’t give any indication that he heard me beyond that subtle tightening of muscle. I can tell he’s already plotting, already trying to figure out a way to connect with her. Ezra and Gideon are likely doing the same fucking thing, and I hate that I’m going to have to remind them of what kind of danger that would put her in.
My phone vibrates again.
I ignore it again.
“Ez,” I wait until my best friend’s eyes turn to me. “The security on her house is still in place?”
He gives a jerky nod. “Yeah. She’ll be safe while she’s there.”
“Good. Once the dean gives me the go ahead, I’ll head to Yale and do the same on her dorm room there.”
“No,” Gideon growls. “I’ll go.”
I open my mouth to argue, but know it won’t do any good. They need to punish someone right now, and it’s going to be me. It’s happened more times than I can count over the years, maybe because I’m the oldest of the four of us, or maybe because my father is the devil incarnate, but I make the hard decisions, the ones that no one else wants to make. Nine times out of ten, I’m the bad guy in our group. They get mad at me, we fight and then eventually they come around, accept that I did what was right at the time.
I can only hope that this situation with Rosalind is going to be the same.
I hope so. I can’t bear the thought of losing Sweeney and my best friends all at the same time. If I don’t have the three of them, who knows what sort of fucked up shit my father will talk me into?
My phone vibrates again.
“Bloody hell, mate, just answer it.”
Sighing, I pull out my cell and find a series of missed calls from my father, followed by one angry text message.
Uber Ass
Did you get that little slut out?
Call me.
My mouth tightens at him calling Rosalind a slut. She’s anything but. Despite our best efforts to convince everyone otherwise, even as we took steps to keep all males away from her.
Movement out of the corner of my eyes catches my attention and I turn my head to see Merritt, Ezra’s cousin and Ro’s best friend, watching the back of the bus as it drives down the long road that leads to campus.
“I tried to tell her,” she murmurs, arms curled around her stomach.
My head whips in her direction. “You did what?”
