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Alize.
I answer the phone quickly, shooting up from my seat and walking toward the window, away from Vance and Ezra. “Hello?”
My heart is pounding in my chest. Why is she calling me? Not that I’m upset, I’m fucking overjoyed—has she had a change of heart?—but it might not be good news. Is she hurt? Is she more upset at me? Did Tara tell her about what I said last night?
Alize doesn’t return my greeting. She cuts straight to the chase.
“I got kicked out of Hemlock.”
“What, why?” I ask. Then, “Where are you?”
“At the Kingmaker House gate.”
FOURTEEN
ALIZE
Just when youthink something can't get any worse, life has a way of surprising you.
As I lug my suitcase behind me toward the menacing wrought iron gates of Kingmaker House, I can almost hear the powers that be snickering at me.If my life were a movie, it would be raining right now to amp up the pathetic fallacy.
Shame settles on my shoulders.
I'm disgusted withmyself, frankly, to have fallen so low that I need help from the very person who put me in this situation.It’s like Stockholm Syndrome but worse, because I actually know that it’s wrong and I can’t fucking help it.
The kind of help I need makes it that much more horrible, too.
If he doesn’t help me, I’ll be effectively homeless—because there’s no way I’m going to end up in Hell House. Living off campus isn’t an option at this school. I need a roof over my head, and to some extent, protection.
And as luck would have it, Alexander is the only person who can provide me with it. He’s my only hope right now, and even I know I can’t let my hatred for him stop me from having a safe—well, almost safe—place to sleep.
Images of sharing an apartment with Alexander flood my mind. I’ll have to be around him in moreintimatespaces. We might even share a bathroom.
It will be torture.
Glimpsing him half-naked, stepping out of the shower with rivulets of water trailing down his muscled body, his damp hair sticking to his temples and neck.
Knowing Alexander, he would leave the door open too, just for me to see the way the muscles in his arms and back ripple beneath the shadowy tattoos that adorn his skin while he fixes his hair.
Shit.
My heart gallops in my chest, and there’s a traitorous heat building between my legs.Thatisn’t part of the plan. Whatever happens, I need to keep my distance from him. It’s the only way I’ll be able to stay sane and not fall down the rabbit hole of lust.
Alexander knows how to weaken my resolve.
I can’t let him win.
Every time I’ve been to Kingmaker House, the grounds are always filled with guys, doing all sorts of idiotic things. It’s the nature of frat boys, I think. This time, however, nearly all of them stop what they’re doing to look at me.
Not just look, they glare.
It’s creepy.
I clutch my backpack closer to me. I’m wearing a plaid skater skirt, so my knife is just within reach. I don’t focus on the fear squeezing my throat, instead I think of plunging the blade into one of their necks—ifthey try to hurt me, of course.
It helps a little, even though I don’t think I could stomach doing that.
It’s been a few minutes since I called Alexander. To distract myself from the contemptuous looks I’m getting, I pull out my phone to text Tara. She didn’t take the news of me leaving lightly, and I’ve been trying to reassure her ever since.
