Page 25 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

F or the next two weeks, the Heirs kept to their word, and I kept to mine. I threw myself back into my routine, determined to fade into the background as the semester wore on and the class workload intensified.

I woke up early every day to get my workout in as I prepared for next month’s Holywell Chase—our big fall competition before crew season began in earnest in the spring.

I kept my nose down and focused on my studies, determined to have my final papers and projects completed before Thanksgiving break.

I spoke to only Mari or my family, and I managed to refrain from punching anyone else in the face over the continued comments and jeers from the Tier One bitch brigade and the sexual harassment that Chad had decided was his default whenever I was within earshot.

I still saw Zach, Noah, and Bennett everywhere—in our shared classes, in the dining hall, around campus—but they didn’t engage with me, and I kept my distance from them.

Bennett had figured out how to stop watching me obsessively every time we were in a room together.

Zach didn’t needle or tease me. Noah paid no attention whatsoever to me in Tech Skills class.

None of them came anywhere close to touching me again.

The three of them had, however, taken to showing up in the weight room early on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when I would usually be there alone.

They’d walk past me without acknowledgement, take up a rack on the opposite side of the room, and proceed to get hot and sweaty together.

Zach would usually end up shirtless. Noah wore the tightest gray sweatpants known to man. Bennett always had his tiny shorts on.

It was torture, but I kept my dad’s playlist blasting in my ears every time to remind me to keep my focus on what was important.

And I might have also forgotten to wear a shirt a time or two because fuck them—I could also play that game. They never let me catch them looking, but I could feel their eyes on my back the entire hour, every time.

There had also been some excitement on campus around mid-November when Robert Silverman had been hauled out of B Dorm in handcuffs just as most of the student body was walking to breakfast. Rumors flew, the gist being that he’d been found in possession of a large amount of cocaine with the intent to distribute.

Campus security had packed him up and shipped him back to Florida before lunch.

Dom informed me later that Raquel Silverman’s Boca Raton mansion had been raided by the feds, all her assets seized, and her company was in the process of being stripped for parts and auctioned to the highest bidder.

It was impressive, and I wondered if Peter Hargraves had been the mastermind of that little hit job or if the Heirs had done this one on their own.

I couldn’t say I was mad about it either. The Silvermans had come after Noah, and he could’ve died .

I didn’t like that at all.

Finally, I was, as always, quietly observing the Heirs from afar because I still had one more mark. I’d somehow known even before I arrived at school that he would prove to be the most difficult, and I’d been right.

Bennett .

I needed a way into Spencer Tower, and he was going to get me in there.

Unlike Zach, however, Bennett kept his key ring—containing the key to his ridiculous McLaren Artura and one of only three key fobs in existence that allowed access to all floors of Spencer Tower, including the penthouse—in his pocket.

I’d never seen him put it in his bag, and that made things difficult for me .

But I was determined to work it out.

That was how I ended up surprising the shit out of Mari on the Friday before the Thanksgiving holiday began when I approached her about going to the pre-break party being thrown in A Dorm.

“I… what?” She stared at me, a quizzical look on her face as I stood in the doorway to her dorm room. “You want to go to an A Dorm party? I mean, I will not look a gift horse in the mouth here, but… I want it on the record that I think this is suspicious.”

“So noted,” I replied with my most innocent smile. “What should I wear?”

She gave an excited little squeal before dragging me into her closet.

I emerged some time later, dressed in tight, high-waisted leather pants, a deep-purple crop top, and very expensive black pumps that were a half size too small for my feet. “Mari, first of all, I will break an ankle in these.”

“Excuse me, where did the tough bitch that is my best friend run off to?”

I huffed. “Second of all, I am now officially a giant. It’s unnecessary.”

She hummed, standing in front of her mirror as she put in her diamond chandelier earrings. “Good, now you can look that tall asshole Bennett Spencer right in his face.”

I froze. Did she suspect…?

“Well, you could if he wasn’t very clearly avoiding you,” she added, and I relaxed—marginally. “I approve of that, by the way, even though I really did love watching Harper’s head explode over how he used to look at you. But the peace and quiet has been nice, don’t you think?”

It had been, but unfortunately, I knew it wouldn’t last forever. “Definitely,” I replied. “I know we are rocking the boat here by going to this thing, but I’m just… curious, is all. I’ve never been to one of the Dorm parties.”

I was curious if Bennett would be drinking. Maybe letting loose a little bit in the crowd. Maybe letting his guard down just enough….

“They are kind of a shit show,” Mari said, turning to face me and smoothing the skirt of her very sexy magenta dress. “But it can be entertaining. We’ll give it an hour and see how we feel.”

It was a solid plan. I followed her down the stairs and out into the chilly evening air, noting a few other brave souls from C Dorm that were also trekking toward A Dorm to see how the other half lived.

When we arrived at the front doors of the modern condo building that was A Dorm, we found the front door propped open by what looked like a ceramic garden gnome.

We entered the lobby and slipped right into the raging party going on inside the large atrium that encompassed the first floor of the dorm.

The atrium had been furnished with clusters of expensive couches and armchairs artfully arranged around low coffee tables.

The back of the room appeared to be the designated rec area where there were pool tables and several additional round tables set up for poker games.

Double French doors set into the far wall, their arches inlaid with golden filigree, had been thrown open, allowing easy access to the A Dorm’s giant patio.

I saw several firepits blazing among the many seating areas outside.

C Dorm was basically a hostel, while this was a luxury hotel.

The lighting was low, limited to the few Tiffany lamps that dotted the end tables throughout the room. A large space had been cleared in the middle for the dance floor, and it was already packed with people dancing to the loud music that blared from the room’s state-of-the-art sound system.

At the very back of the atrium was a long bar top that opened into a kitchen. It had been piled high with every type of expensive liquor and mixer imaginable. The necks of champagne bottles poked out of the top of several ice buckets perched on the edge.

“I assume there is no keg hidden back there in the kitchen?” I asked Mari as we made our way toward the drinks.

She scoffed at me. “Gross, no.”

I let her pour me a glass of expensive champagne before we found an open couch near a group of some of the scholarship students.

Mari immediately struck up a conversation in rapid Spanish with one of the guys, and I gave a polite nod to a couple of the girls from my crew team before I settled in to find my mark.

It wasn’t hard. While I wouldn’t have been surprised to find the three of them on actual thrones like the princes they were, they were still easy to spot sprawled around a couple of the bigger couches near the center of the room with their fan club surrounding them and hanging on every word .

Zach was dressed down, wearing ripped black jeans that still probably cost a thousand dollars, a tight white T-shirt, and dark boots.

He swirled a glass of brown liquor in his hand, and his lip ring glinted in the low, colorful light of the lamp nearby as he laughed at something Dane was saying to him, but his dark eyes were cold.

I felt my lip curl as Lisa, wearing a tiny skirt and a silky, low-cut top, pranced over and made herself comfortable next to Zach, pawing at his tattooed bicep. He didn’t exactly acknowledge her, but he didn’t throw her off of him either.

Noah was seated opposite Zach on another couch, and maybe because he always seemed the most approachable of the three, he was surrounded by girls panting for his attention.

Annie had taken up a post sitting on the coffee table right in front of Noah, her legs crossed and her dress riding up high enough to flash him her panties.

A couple of her Tier Two hangers-on sat on either side of him, one of them bold enough—or drunk enough—to repeatedly run a hand along Noah’s thigh as she spoke to him.

Noah wore his tailored slacks and a light-blue dress shirt with the buttons undone just enough to glimpse the tanned skin of his chest. He wore his usual agreeable smile as he spoke to the girls, but like Zach, his smile did not reach his eyes.

Behind those sexy glasses, his deep blue eyes were hard, but the girls didn’t seem to realize it—or they didn’t care.