Page 7 of River of Deceit

I swipe at him with the knife, and he moves to block me, but I still get a slice on the inside of his arm. I back up a few steps. "Tell your frat brothers about me, Asch. They'll want to watch out for the vengeful bitch."

His eyes flick to Carly, then he looks back at me. “Watch yourself, Pandora,” he warns me. “You really don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

I stand my ground, but Asch shakes his head and jogs off, back to the party for him and Blaze to find some other hapless woman to fuck.

He's wrong.

I do know who I'm dealing with.

These are the people who murdered my best friend. Somewhere in that frat house is the clue to finding out what happened to Rachel. Why she ended up in a dumpster right outside of New Bristol.

I'm going to find out who did it.

And I'm going to destroy them.

They think they're untouchable.

They're not.

I reach for my lucky charm. "It's fine," I whisper. Maybe I shouldn't have pissed them offrightfrom the start. "We'll figure it out. This is just a teeny, tiny setback. And like Papa says, there's nothing you can't solve with a bit of violence."

If the charm could talk it would be encouraging me and telling me that I can handle anything.

I smile at Carly, who's staring at me in horror.

"Come on," I say, holding my hand out to her. "Let's go."

2

ASCH

I rub at the cut on my arm. A sharp, stinging pain is followed by blood welling up and smearing across my thumb. It had scabbed over overnight, but walking around campus today had opened it up again.

I hadn’t thought she’d cut me that deeply, but now I’m wondering if I should’ve gotten stitches with the way the cut refuses to stay closed. I grab a few napkins, pushing them against the wound.

“Hey, Asch,” a pretty red head says, startling me. “How was your summer?” She sits down across from me, where Blaze was supposed to sit as soon as he’s done grabbing our food.

I try to remember where I know her from, until I realize she was in my Intro to Economics class last semester. I’d mentioned to Blaze that I thought she was cute, and he’d somehow charmed her into bed with both of us.

“Laura,” I say, hoping I got the name right. “Hey.”

The redhead purses her lips. “Lara.”

Well, that was pretty close. I wince anyway and give her a sheepish smile. “Sorry. Hey, Lara. My summer was pretty good.” Of course I’m going to say as much, but it’s usually easy enough to getother people to talk about theirs instead of asking more questions. “Yours?”

She starts to speak, but it’s hard to pay attention.

Going home had been a shock, even though I’d tried my best to brace myself for the worst. I’d known it would be beyond messy, but her hoarding had escalated even more in my absence.

Even though we’d spent days going through trash, forgotten packages, clothes, and a whole number of other things cluttering the floors, it had still been bad when I’d left.

She needs more help than I can give her.

I need more help than Blaze can give me.

It had been enough to motivate me to try to clean my room when I got back, but that had faded quickly.

“I really enjoyed the art museum, but then my parents dragged me to the history museum, and that was a real yawn-fest,” Lara is saying when I zone back in.