Page 60 of River of Deceit

My hand throbs just thinking about it.

“Hey, River.” Pandora reaches out for my hand, the same one that’s throbbing, and steps closer to me. “Thank you for doing this. Rachel deserves a friend like you.” She leans up and presses a soft kiss to my lips.

Even though I know I’m being manipulated, I let her kiss me. I even kiss her back, albeit briefly, lightly, and I run a hand down her back. “Yeah,” I say, feeling awkward. “Anyway, wish me luck.”

I have a feeling I’ll need it.

I go over to the frat house, tensing when Zayden pats my shoulder.

“Rafael!” Zayden says, all smiles. “Glad to have you. I’ve got a good feeling about you.”

I smile back at him. “Please, call me River,” I tell him. “The only person who calls me Rafael is my father.”

And the last thing I want to think about ishim.

“Sure, sure. Well, all the pledges are bunking in the basement tonight. There’s twenty-five of you. Let’s see how many of you survive hell week.” Zayden laughs. “That’s a joke. It’ll be tame.”

I don’t believe him, but I don’t think he expects me to. It’s alloptics. “But fun, I’m sure,” I say, still grinning. “All in the name of brotherhood, right?”

“Yep. This is where we weed out those who can’t handle what it takes to be a Kappa Alpha Omega Sigma brother.” Zayden waves me in. “You can mingle with your fellow pledges. I know Asch will be your big brother if you survive, but it wouldn’t hurt to get to know your other future brothers either.”

If you survivedoesn’t exactly bode well, not given what I know of the fraternity. I know that in theory, they’re not supposed to engage in any sort of hazing that could have permanent damage, but I also know that guys at Dyschord think they’re too important to be touched.

Scratch that.

Theyaretoo important to be touched.

“Sure thing,” I say, heading toward the basement so I can meet the other pledges.

When I get downstairs, they size me up every bit as much as I’m sizing them up. They’re all rich assholes, trust fund babies, heirs to organizations that don’t see the light of day.

I’m the anomaly here, but they’re never going to know that. As far as they’re all concerned, my father is higher up in Giulio Pavone’s organization — and so am I.

It doesn’t matter that I’ve all but been blacklisted from ever advancing because of Pandora.

“Hey,” I say to the closest of them.

“Hi.” He’s obviously trying to sound casual, but there’s an edge to his voice — nerves, maybe?

“River,” I introduce myself. I may as well make as many friends as possible, even though I doubt more than half of these guys are going to make it through pledging.

“Franklin,” he replies.

The others introduce themselves as well, and I carefully file away their names. They might be useful later on.

After another few minutes, Zayden and the other frat members join us in the basement. Blaze and Asch are there too. Blaze gives me a smug grin, and I have no idea what that’s about.

I keep my expression blank. They don’t need to seemynerves, only my determination. They know it’s because of Pandora, but they don’t know how deep it goes. They don’t need to.

The other pledges and I fall silent, understanding that paying attention is the very first part of all of this.

“All right, future Kappa Alpha Omega Sigma brothers!” Zayden says. “You all should’ve received printouts of the fraternity’s history, as well as the lyrics to our song. Yes, we have a song. If you think that’s funny, you can leave right now.”

Nobody so much as snickers.

“Great,” Zayden continues. “You get to sleep here tonight. We’ve set up mattresses and sleeping bags. You can duke it out amongst yourselves who sleeps where. Of course, the more people drop out, the more comfortablyyouget to sleep.”

I did notice there were only five of the nicely made mattresses, to the twenty sleeping bags laid out almost on top of each other. Between the close proximity to each other and the basement’s concrete floor, sleeping here won’t be comfortable.