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“AfterI graduate.”
I cocked my head at her. Did she just say what I thought she’d just said? That her dad was literally blackmailing the school with fancy new shit so his daughter could do what she liked? Fucking rich people. But even I had to admit, that was pretty ballsy. He could just as easily have gotten her kicked out pulling shit like that.
“Sounds like an upstanding citizen of Thorn Valley.”
She barked a laugh.
“As if. The formidable Mr. Hart doesn’t live here. He just shippedmyass here so he wouldn’t have to worry about me doing drugs or riding dick. Don’t think he realized there are drugs and dick in every nook and cranny of this country, and I have my way with both no matter where I’m at.”
She shrugged.
“I don’t mind him feeling guilty though. His guilt got me this room. Oh, and my Audi. So I can ‘drive home for the holidays.’ ”
I narrowed my eyes at her, still a little taken aback at her drug and dick comment. I expected goody-two-shoes. I expected brown-nosers and posers and assholes. I didn’t expect…
Whatever the hell Becca Hart was.
We might just get along after all.
“Fair enough,” I nodded. “I’m assuming that’s my room?”
I gestured to the door that was slightly ajar. Becca didn’t strike me as an open-door sort of chick.
“That’s the one,” she trilled, capping off the sentence with a yawn as she dragged herself to the kitchen and rifled in one of the cupboards for a bag of peanut M&M’s.
She stopped with a hand on her door handle. “Find me in the cafeteria at lunch,” she added before leaving me alone in the living room. “I’m bagged, and you won’t see me in the morning. I have somewhere I need to be.”
“All right,” I replied, hefting my suitcase over the hardwood, afraid to let the mangled wheels rub against the polished surface.
Huffing as I leaned my bag against the wall inside the room, I felt around on the cool bumpy surface for a light switch, cursing when I stubbed my toe on something.
I flipped it on, and the overhead light flashed to life, bright enough that I damn near turned it right back off. But in the end, curiosity won out.
The bed was the first thing to catch my eye. It was covered in a frilly purple monstrosity, with matching pillows. Who the fuck needed eight pillows anyway? I was lucky to have one at all half the time.
I cringed inwardly, making a mental note to get a new set the first chance I got. The rest of the space wasn’t really that bad, though. The wall with the light switch was covered in a textured pearl wallpaper, and the deep purple color of the other walls looked pretty good with it.
The thing I’d stubbed my toe on had been a long dark wood desk with one of those fancy brass lamps on top of it. There was what looked like a walk-in closet to the left of the bed, and to the right, another door led to what Iprayedwas a bathroom.
Nearly tripping in my haste, I rushed to check it out, finding the light switch more easily this time. Fuck yes.
The room had its own en suite. Complete with a glass encased shower and removable shower head. Double sinks because...rich people. And a bright band of light embedded in the mirror. Stepping closer, I noticed there was a blurry bit and reached out to touch it.
The light brightened.
I touched it again, and the light changed from an orange hue to a blue one, making the dark pink circles beneath my dull eyes pop.
Jabbing the mirror again to darken my reflection, I tried to remember where I’d stuffed those big t-shirts in my suitcase. I could feel the tackiness of my own sweat drying against my skin beneath my clothes. A shower was absolutely mandatory before I crawled into bed and stuffed my blade beneath the pillow.
I noted the panel of shower buttonsand my lips fell open.
It was official. Ava Jade wasnotin the Lennox ghetto anymore.
Sighing, I tore myself away from the awaiting spa experience and surveyed the room, checking the vents and every nook of the walk-in closet before I found what I was looking for. A loose board in the wood paneling beneath a shelf and hanging bar. I used a blade to carefully pry it free and peered into the dark hollow within.
It would have to do for now.
I upended the contents of my suitcase on the bed and pulled back the lining. The wrinkled Manila envelope filled with cash from my last job came free with a sharp tug, and I set it into my new hidey hole, notching the small panel back in place.
