Page 169 of Ruthless Chaos

“Aren’t you guys sharing a room?” Tara’s eyes are wide, a disbelieving grin on her face. This is her kind of salacious story, and she is drinking up every bit of it. “What are you guys going to do tonight?”

Nya leans her head back, raising her hands to the heavens. “That’s what’s stressing me out, Tara!” She covers her eyes with her hands. “It’s so confusing!”

"You have to talk about it,” Tara says. Then she adds with a knowing look, “Beforeyou get into that bed with him tonight.”

Nya nods slowly.

“Why was having sex a mistake, though?” I ask Nya.

That part of her story doesn’t make much sense to me.

If they liked each other enough to have sex, how could it be a mistake? She kneads her temple for a few heartbeats before responding.

“Because he is my older brother’s best friend,” she says. “Nafi would lose his mind if he found out that we had sex, so a relationship is out of the question. Not to mention my father would never allow it. He doesn’t like Vance.”

“But how doyoufeel?” I prod, and Nya stares at me for a long second. Everything she’s mentioned is about everyone else in her life but her.

She opens her mouth to say something, then closes it. “I kind of like him,” she mutters. “Well, I like him when he’s not annoying the shit out of me.”

Tara giggles. “I say go for it if you feel like it. Vance seems nice enough. At least, as nice as a Kingmaker can be. Hopefully, he’s not a psychopath like the rest of them.”

My eyes meet Tara’s, and I raise an eyebrow.

Was that a jab at Alexander? She looks away from me, and I’m about to ask her what she means when footsteps nearby attract my attention.

Someone’s approaching.

I turn towards the lantern-lit dirt path just as they turn the corner.

Cassidy appears, dressed in a skimpy bathing suit with two towels in tow. Her hair is in a bun, and she’s got that unnerving smile on her face. Her eyes light up when she sees us.

Instantly, tension gathers in my chest.

Everyone falls silent. We all stare at her.

She doesn’t seem to care that we’re uncomfortable. I try to ignore her and the thickness in my throat. She climbs into the hot spring, finding a spot next to me.

I don’t make eye contact with her.

Why would she choose to come here?

She wasn’t at dinner when we made plans to come to the spring, so I assumed she would just find something else to occupy her time, like the other girls must be doing. There’s no way being around us is the best she can manage when the resort has so many amenities.

I thumb the pendant on my necklace, reminding myself that she can’t hurt me.

Tara’s wearing a scowl, but I know that both she and I are bound by Hemlock House duty not to disrespect her. If we ask her to leave, we risk her retribution, which I’ve come to discover is always barbaric.

The only person who can say anything to her is Nya.

“Why are you here?” Nya says, and I breathe a sigh of relief. “I’m certain you realize you’re not welcome here.”

Cassidy mocks surprise with wide eyes. “What?” She makes a show of looking at me, then Tara. “My Hemlock sisters don’t want me around? That can’t be true.”

There it is. Her thinly veiled threat.

“We just wanted some time to ourselves,” Tara says through gritted teeth. “We figured that you would have more important things to deal with.”

Cassidy giggles as if she’s enjoying the conversation. I look at the starry night sky.Gosh, she’s ruined this for me.