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"The fourth floor?" I ask, playing stupid.
"Oh, come on. I'm sure the Bedford twins have mentioned it to Gia, and that Gia has spilled the beans," she says, pronouncing the S like a Z.
"I have never been to the fourth floor. I don't think the faculty allows students to go up there. I have noticed the building’s architecture is high so that it appears to have room for multiple levels, but I never imagined what is on the fourth floor."
"There is…do you want to go?"
"Like, right now?"
"Yes, before your best friend sends the search party with her men and your little boy toy. It must be fun to watch you two fuck. The way you two set fire to a room. You would think you two just came from fucking every time you look at each other."
"I wouldn't know. He is getting married to Tara."
Veronica tilts her head back and laughs. "I would love to see that. No…I wouldpayto see that. She wants money, power, and a good dick to ride at night when she isn't fucking his cousin. She loooves breath play, and that animal loves to push the limit. Reid is a better catch, though. More money, more power, and more danger."
So that is why he went apeshit when I was talking to Alaric that night. His references in the car of him punishing me.
"Does he know?"
"Of course, he does. You don't think Reid is a pushover and will allow his wife to fuck his cousin behind his back, do you?"
"Why are you telling me all this?"
I see her eyes go glassy for the first time, and she looks away. "Reid had an older sister, and she died. Alicia Riordan was my best friend. She was older, and she knew secrets. Secrets that I told her about me. About the Order. Things I heard my father say and the things my father made me do. Things I can't tell you."
"Why?"
A single tear slides down her cheek, and I realize she hides who she really is.
"I can't watch my best friend's little brother spiral out of control if he loses another person he cares about. If I tell you certain things, they will kill you. I'm taking a risk by taking you where I need to take you, but I know if I don't, they will take you from him."
"Who will take me from whom?"
"Do you think everyone didn't see? The pictures. The way he looks at you. The way you look at him. No one exists in a room when he looks at you."
I shake my head. "You have it all wrong. Reid doesn't feel that way about me."
"I'm not going to argue with you, but whatever the fuck happened with that pig that left here. There is something bigger at play, and you're the prize."
CHAPTER27
Jess
Veronica snuck us out the back door to the right of the east wing. There was a dark corridor that led to the exit opposite from the ball. I hated not telling Gia that I had left with Veronica, but I knew they wouldn’t let me go with her, and I had a feeling that what Veronica wanted to show me, I would never get another opportunity to see. She could easily spread rumors about Michael leaving the restroom and me being the only one inside.
She could tell by what she saw that he wasn’t my secret lover. I shiver as the warmth of the luxury car hits my skin from the brief exposure to the cold air. It wasn’t smart leaving my phone and not telling anyone, but I’m at my breaking point. I’m past the point of no return. I’m way past caring.
I need a way out of this mess.
“I want to graduate and leave here.”
She looks at me but presses the button raising the divider so the driver doesn’t eavesdrop on our conversation.
“I like Thomas but don’t trust him enough for his tongue to slip and tell my father what he shouldn’t. I’m afraid that you hold too much interest. Especially if I’m talking to you and you are mentioning leaving Kenyan. You have caught the attention of the most important members of the Order and are the best friend of a girl who did the unthinkable and is now chosen by the Bedford twins.
“But I didn’t. They are marrying other women. I’m not a threat.”
“Keep lying to yourself and think you are not part of their games. I used to think that way, and my best friend and her boyfriend were murdered. They left. They ran away thinking that laying low and out of sight, the Order would just let them go and not make them pay for defying them.”
