Page 38 of River of Deceit

Blaze shrugs. “If she doesn’t show up, we hunt her down and teach her what it means to disobey us.”

From the sound of it, he’d actually prefer that scenario.

I don’t get it. Blaze doesn’tchasewomen. He smiles at them, they drop their panties for him, and after that, he’s done with them. Even in high school, if one of the girls turned him down—I think that happenedtwice, max—he didn’t bother to continue flirting.

Since I know how he gets when he really wants something, it told me enough about how he felt about those girls.

They weren’t worth the effort for him.

I pick up a pile of laundry, trying to figure out if the clothes are dirty or clean, and decide to throw them in the basket instead of putting them away. Not that I’d put them away even if they were clean, but at least this way, I can pretend to put my room in some semblance of order.

It would take more than a five-minute sweep to make it truly presentable, though, and I grimace as I survey the whole thing.

“We should take her to your room,” I say, discomfort gnawing at me as I imagine the sort of snarky shit she’d probably have to say about the mess in here. “Ifshe shows.”

I don’t know why I care about making the place presentable for Pandora. It doesn’t matter what she thinks.

I’m supposed to want to destroy her as badly as Blaze does. Why would I care about her opinion in the meantime?

Idowant to hurt her. Having to disarm her every time we fuck her will get old, and no matter what Blaze thinks, I know she’d hurt him.

I still have the healing cut on my arm as proof of that.

There’s also that strange sensation of being followed whenever she’s around. It happened twice now, and it has me more on edge than I want to admit.

I wish Blaze would take my warnings more seriously.

Blaze sits up and looks around the room. “Yeah, we probably should.” His eyes linger on a stack of papers on the nightstand. He takes the first page off and reads it. “This is the info for rush week. Why do you have this? Where’s the recycling bin? I’ll toss it for you.”

I glance at the papers, and I want to protest that I might need it later on. I bite my tongue. I can’t think of a single reason I would. I don’t plan on being anyone’s sponsor or Big Brother. It would only work against them, given my standing in the frat — which isn’t terrible, but everyone’s aware that I’m the scholarship student, and I don’t get to forget that fact often.

“Yeah, okay,” I say self-consciously. I pick up the entire stack of papers, not bothering to go through them, and hand it to Blaze. “Here, this is all probably fine to go.”

Blaze takes the papers and looks around until he finally finds the recycling bin, which is on the other end of the room, far away from the desk. It’s full though, and Blaze shakes his head. “Grab the bin. Let’s go empty it now. And I guess the trash can too.”

Ordinarily, I’d tease him about doing menial tasks, but my embarrassment makes my cheeks flush hot. I appreciate him helping, but at the same time, it’s drawing attention to the fact that the mess in my room is out of control. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to change it.

I guess I really am my mother’s child.

“Thanks,” I mumble.

I pick up the bins while Blaze puts the papers into one of the cardboard boxes, and I bite my lip because I’m pretty sure the box wasn’t empty. Something important might have been inside. Blaze picks it up anyway and heads out, expecting me to follow.

The recycling and dumpster are around the side of the front porch, out of view. Blaze dumps the entire box into the large recycling bin, and I empty the ones I’m holding before I can think too hard about it.

“Let’s grab some drinks before…” Blaze trails off, looking at something near the front of the house.

I follow his gaze, surprised to see Pandora approaching.

She actually showed up.

There’s another student with her though, a tall Latino guy with tan skin and thick black hair. He’d be more handsome without the scowl. Somebody doesn’t want to be here.

“Who the fuck is that?” Blaze asks in an unexpectedly vehement tone.

I shake my head. “No idea.” I narrow my eyes. “Maybe she thinks he can protect her? Between the two of us, we can scare him off, though.”

Pandora walks right up to the front door and starts knocking. “Hey! Frat douches! Open up!”