Page 36

The image of the masked figure flashed through my mind, along with the note, the crow, and the text I had just deleted.

Tell him , my voice of reason urged. The other part of me warned against dumping everything on him right before class.

The problem was that I didn’t know how Ryder would react.

If I told him now, within seconds, he’d have Xander, Rook, Cade, and Nick all looped in.

Then it’d be a domino effect of upheaval.

Wait a minute… was he not Marked too? I didn’t know how to ask that without digging myself into a deeper hole. Ryder knew me too well. He was already watching me like he could see the secrets twisting up my tongue, too perceptive for my own good.

“I slept like crap the second night in a row,” I offered, which wasn’t a lie.

“You should’ve called me then.”

I shook my head. “It was late. You need sleep too, Rye.”

“All the more reason you should’ve called. We could’ve just slept together.”

“Yeah, that’s ideal,” I quipped dryly.

“We FaceTime all the time, Sass.”

“Oh… right.” I tried to play it off, realizing I had misunderstood. Of course, he caught it.

His grin was slow and amused. “Did you think I meant I wanted you in my bed?”

I shot him a mock glare. “Shut up. It could’ve been my bed.”

“Either works for me.”

“So, you did mean that?”

He leaned in so close I could smell the Listerine on his breath. “What if I did?”

My brain betrayed me, flashing images I had no business entertaining at eight-thirty in the morning. Us tangled in sheets, skin on skin, his mouth on mine, and then lower—I shoved him lightly, flustered. “It’s way too early for your face to be this close to mine.”

He laughed, deep and unrestrained. The sound hit me square in the chest. That’s all it ever took to unravel the defenses I kept working so hard to rebuild every day, because they kept crumbling down.

I grabbed my bag and used my hip to shut my car door, hitting the lock button as we fell into step side by side, heading across the lot toward the main building.

“All jokes aside, you know you can tell me anything, Sass.”

I nodded, hitching my bag higher on my shoulder. “Yeah, I know, but you’re not some magician I expect to fix every problem I have, Rye.”

“Expectations let people down,” he replied, tone even. “So you can rest easy knowing I don’t think you see me that way. Doesn’t change what I’m willing to do.”

“Ryder.”

“Don’t start. You’re the most precious thing in my life. Your problems are mine. If I can solve them, I will. If I can’t…” He shrugged, “I still will.”

God.

He made it so hard to even fathom diving back into the dating pool. He was always going to be the standard in the back of my mind, the one every guy would quietly be measured against and fail to compare.

I smiled at him. “You’re so good to me.”

“Stop saying that like I’m doing anything more than the bare minimum. You deserve all of it.”

“Shut up and learn to accept my gratitude.”

He chuckled, and I studied him the way I always did, because I couldn’t help myself.

Every time I looked at Ryder, it struck me all over again how stupidly, unfairly gorgeous my best friend was.

His dark hair was the kind that looked effortlessly tousled but probably took just enough effort to piss someone off.

It curled slightly at the ends, long enough to fall across his forehead in soft waves that begged for fingers to tangle in them.

His face was all sharp lines and clean angles.

His jaw, his cheekbones, even the steady pull of his mouth with those dangerously carved cupid-bow lips when he wasn’t smiling.

He had ink all over him, even his thigh, and more curling around the base of his neck.

He wore his varsity jacket that morning.

Our university’s emblem stitched across the front, and VOSS stamped boldly and unapologetic across the back.

It fit him like it had been tailored by the gods of obsession and heartbreak just to make my life harder.

It amplified the way he walked. The quiet dominance in every move he made.

He didn’t just belong in any space; he ruled it.

That had been the case for as long as I could remember.

There was always this sense about Ryder, like he wasn’t built for ordinary things, but meant to conquer.

And our friends—Cade, Rook, Xander, Nick—they were the same.

Together, they were a force. The kind that always made people look twice.

Untouchable. Unshakable. A wall of secrets, violence, and power dressed up as collegiate charm.

I was always right there with them, but to me, they were simply mine.

For better or worse. I sucked in a breath, unintentionally breathing in the warm cedarwood-and-spice scent that clung to him.

He glanced over and caught me staring. “Like what you see, Sass?” he teased, that smug edge in his voice bleeding into a smile that was soft on the outside, lethal underneath.

Ugh. Brooke was a lucky girl.

She got to taste what I dreamed about, and touch what I broke myself trying not to need. I shook my head, the cold nipping at my cheeks. “You know you’re stunning.”

He laughed. “That’s not exactly a word most men use to describe themselves.”

I shrugged, eyes dropping to the pavement, suddenly too aware of how close he was. “You’re not most men.”

The wind swept past us, slicing through my clothes. I couldn’t help the shiver that ran through me. He sighed, the sound edged with something that almost felt like frustration, but then his jacket opened, and an arm slid around my shoulders, tugging me against his side.

“There,” he murmured near my temple. “Better?”

“Yeah,” I admitted, melting a little more than I should’ve. “I regret not letting you install that remote starter.”

“Or,” he said easily, “you could’ve let me buy you the car with one already in it.”

“Ryder.”

“Sanjana,” he shot back.

I gave him a look. “You do remember I can buy my own car, right? I don’t need you blowing money on me.”

“It’s just a car, Sassy. I haven’t touched my trust fund since senior year. Soon I’ll be working with my dad full-time, and that money is going to sit collecting dust. Might as well use some of it on someone important.”

“Save it for your kids or something, then.”

His gaze dropped to mine, slower this time. “Our kids, you mean?”

I grinned. “Yeah. All seven of them.”

This started as a dumb joke when we were younger. Ridiculous names, a whole imaginary life we made up to pass time on long summer nights. Somewhere between then and now, the joke had stuck.

“And don’t forget your pet pigs. Billy and Mandy,” he added.

I laughed, remembering his horrified reaction the first time I told him he’d be walking them in little harnesses.

He’d acted like it was the worst idea ever.

Secretly? I think he loved it. When I looked back up, he was still watching me.

His expression was no longer teasing. It was soft and quiet.

Unarmed in a way that made my stomach twist and butterflies riot in my chest. He looked away first, his eyes scanning the lot, tracking students as they passed like none of this was anything more than an ordinary morning.

I wished that it were, but that wasn’t possible with what happened last night between us, and now with my Huntsman lingering around somewhere, likely maskless, blending in with the rest of campus. They wouldn’t dare try anything with Ryder beside me. Would they?

“Have you decided what you want to do about making it to the big leagues?” I asked, needing something, anything, to pull my mind away from the anxiety starting to creep in.

“Nope.”

“You’re gonna break your coaches’ hearts if you don’t take an offer. You know that, right?”

He ruffled my hair, casual and affectionate. “We’ve talked about this. Football’s fun. I like it, but I’m not sure if it fits into my future plans. Besides,” he paused, eyes meeting mine, “I need to be wherever you are.”

“Ryder…” I breathed, his name coming out soft, caught between a warning and a plea. I didn’t even know what I was asking for. He cut me off before I could figure it out.

“And I’m serious about that car, by the way,” he deflected, his grin slipping back into place like armor. “Trust-fund baby, remember?”

“Give some to charity.”

“Why do you think I’m trying to buy you a car?”

It took a second for that to land. “You dick,” I muttered, laughing as I shoved him. He didn’t budge, of course, since he was as solid as a brick wall.

Students passed us, backpacks slung over their shoulders, hoodies pulled up to fight the cold. A few called out greetings to Ryder or gave him that subtle chin-lift guys do. He answered each one with an air of familiarity. He knew so many more people than I did.

“Why are you all alone by the way? Did Roxxi tell you to wait for me?”

“Sort of. D-W showed up without you,” he smirked as he used that nickname for Ashton that I still didn’t fully understand. “Then the girls rolled in, and I knew something was off. I saw you weren’t moving yet and was about to come to you, but Cici said to wait here.”

Because Cloe knew exactly what kind of absolute shitstorm would go down if Ryder came face-to-face with a Huntsman, especially since I hadn’t told him what happened yet. If that was how he found out, Hemlock would end up as a case study on a crime docuseries.

“You check my location that much?” I asked.

“Watch it more than I do anything else. It’s my favorite show.”

I laughed, then bit the inside of my cheek, hesitating to ask, “So… if I were to do the same, check your location, where would I have seen you last night?”

For half a second, something flickered across his face. I couldn’t tell what it was.

“I went out.”

“Out?” I repeated. “Like, clubbing?”

“Something like that.”

“You went out on a Tuesday night?”

“I wasn’t alone.”

My mouth went quiet, but my thoughts didn’t, and neither did the sting in my chest.

“I wasn’t with her either.”