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“Yeah,” I reply as we continue away from the cluster of apartment buildings and towards the section with free standing houses. “I suppose I didn’t really expect to find any concrete proof anyway.”
“If she’s as good as you say, I doubt she would just leave it lying around,” Kaden adds from my other side. As usual, he’s twirling a knife in his right hand.
I heave a sigh. “Yeah.”
“I could try to torture it out of her.” Kaden meets my gaze casually and lifts his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. Even with the motion, he doesn’t miss a single spin with the knife. “If you want.”
My mind drifts back to Isabella’s emotionless features as I tightened the belt around her neck. I shake my head. “No. I have a feeling that she has been trained to withstand extensive torture.”
A true psychopath smile spreads across Kaden’s mouth. “I can be very persuasive.”
On my left, Jace snorts. “I think you mean obsessive, overzealous—”
“I could always demonstrate my skills onyou, little brother, if you like.”
“Come try it. I would crush your skull with one swing of my bat before you could even get within three feet of me.”
“And where, exactly, is your bat now?”
“I don’t—”
Both of them abruptly stop bickering as we round the corner of a building and walk out onto the main street that runs through the entire residential area.
At the house in front of us, five people stop speaking as well and whip around to face us. The temperature seems to plummet several degrees as their gazes lock on ours.
The Petrovs.
They outnumber us at Blackwater this year. Since Eli has graduated, we’re down to three now. And Mikhail and Anton Petrov have been joined by two of their cousins, bolstering their numbers to four.
Surprise flickers through me as I scan the group of hostile Russians who have now stopped halfway to their car.
No, not four. There arefiveof them.
Standing next to the four guys is a girl. Both Mikhail, who is a senior like me and Kaden, and Anton, who is a second-year like Jace, are tall and athletic. This girl is not. She is slim and barely reaches their collarbones. But despite the difference in physique, there is no mistaking that they’re related. Her hair is the same shade of blond as Mikhail’s, and she has the same gray eyes as Anton.
She has to be their sister.
Even though it’s the only explanation that makes sense, the realization still shocks me. Not only because it has been weeks since the semester started, and we haven’t even noticed that there was a fifth Petrov on campus. But mostly because she has none of that menacing energy that all the other Petrovs have. I know from experience that both Mikhail and Anton are tough. And word is that the two brown-haired twins, Maksim and Konstantin, are a force to be reckoned with among the first-years as well.
But this girl… She just looks so fuckingbreakable.
Mikhail snaps something in Russian, and shoots a commanding stare at the girl. But she doesn’t move. She’s just staring at us with wide gray eyes, looking like a deer caught in a headlight.
Next to me, Kaden has gone preternaturally still. Like a predator who has just caught the scent of that deer. He has even stopped twirling his knife. A slow smile spreads across his lips.
Suddenly, I wish I had brought my gun. Technically, students at Blackwater are not allowed to have their own guns. But my grandfather forced them to make an exception for me. I normally just keep it in our house, so that I won’t draw unnecessary attention, but now I desperately wish that I had brought it with me. Because one look at Kaden’s face tells me that shit is about to go down.
“What’s this, Mikhail?” Kaden says with that sadistic smile still on his mouth. The question is clearly directed at the eldest Petrov, but his eyes are locked firmly on the girl. “You have a little sister? You’ve been holding out on me.”
Hatred crackles like ice across Mikhail’s face. He takes a step forward, angling his body so that he is shielding his sister. “If you come within six feet of her, I’ll kill you.”
Kaden’s smile only widens.
It sends a ripple through the other three Petrovs as well, and they subtly shift their positions.
Yeah, I really,really, should’ve brought my gun.
Jace and I exchange a quick glance. His gaze shoots towards the twins for a second. I dip my chin a fraction before flicking my gaze to Anton. Jace gives me a barely perceptible nod as well.
