Page 106 of River of Deceit

Even though others murmur their acknowledgement, it takes me a moment to realize that Zayden is specifically waiting for me to offer mine. I nod.

“Why’d she stab him?” one of the other new pledges asks.

I have to commend him for the set of balls he must have, because no one else has dared ask that particular question.

Zayden grimaces. “That’s the second order of business.” He glares at all of us. “She claims to have found a stash of roofies.”

The entire room explodes intochatter again.

Well, that explains it.

No matter how much Pandora wants to investigate Kappa Alpha, she’d never stand around and do nothing when something like that is involved. I don’t blame her. If I’d found a stash of roofies on someone, frat brother or not, there would’ve been blows involved — fuck the consequences.

It’s no wonder frats get such a shitty reputation. So far, they haven’t done much to prove that they’re really about brotherhood.

Zayden again starts yelling at everybody to shut up, but the rest of the frat brothers are more concerned with saying they knew Declan was shady, or worse, how they wished he’d shared.

I spot Blaze rolling his eyes. He whispers something to Asch, then goes to the front of the room to stand next to Zayden.

The crowd quiets marginally.

“What part of shut the fuck up did you old biddies not understand?” Blaze shouts.

That draws everyone’s attention, and they all quiet down again.

Out of curiosity, my gaze tracks back to Zayden. He looks murderous, like he did the last time Blaze had gotten everyone to quiet down when the leader of the frat hadn’t managed it. He catches me looking at him and scowls again, but I only regard him steadily until Blaze speaks again.

“Fucking finally.” Blaze shakes his head, and I return my attention to him. “For the record, none of us saw the drugs. But whether Declan did whatever Pandora accused him of doesn’t matter. She stabbed him, so she’s banned. And my advice to the rest of you is to not leave any incriminating shit anywhere in your room. How fucking stupid would you have to be to keep roofies in your bedroom? What if the police get called in for underage drinking? They’d find that shit while searching.”

The police would never be called for the underage drinking, though, and everyone here knows it. That’s something the frat would never allow to happen. It’s not exactly a secret that it happens, but everyone knows not to mention it.

But what really pisses me off is that he’s more concerned about the optics of it all, the idea that someone might be putting the frat at risk when really, he should be more worried about whether hisbrothersare roofieing women at all.

My lip curls in disgust.

I notice Asch watching me, and I glare at him too for good measure. The two of them might as well share a brain cell, after all, and if Blaze thinks it’s fine for his frat brothers to roofie women as long as they’re not leaving evidence around, Asch probably agrees.

Some frat I’ve joined.

Blaze pauses before he continues, scowling, “And for fuck’s sake, how pathetic do you have to be to roofiecollegegirls? Just smile at them and say a few nice words and you’ll get a willing partner who isn’t laying there like a dead fish.”

Slightly better than saying nothing at all, but not by much.

I remain silent, not wanting to draw more attention to myself. I need to text Pandora, but seeing her will be out of the question for a little while.

She’ll have to understand that and let me do what I can on my end.

That thought almost makes me snort. Right. Like that’s going to happen.

I tune out the subsequent questions, most of them about Declan and how he’s doing.

I startle when somebody taps my shoulder. I glare, but it’s only Franklin. He gives me a wide-eyed stare.

“Isn’t Pandora your girlfriend?” Franklin asks.

The question surprises a laugh out of me. “My girlfriend?” I repeat. “That would involve her actually belonging to someone. No.”

That would involve mewantingher to be my girlfriend, when that implies something pleasant and nice.